Turn your cafe into a well-oiled machine
This edition of Coffee Shop Keys is all about systematization.
A process near and dear to my heart.
Years ago I read a book that had a significant impact on my thoughts on business: The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber.
Cheesy? Yeah, a bit. But relevant? You bet.
The whole book can be summarized like this:
"The E-Myth Revisited" by Michael E. Gerber explores why most small businesses fail and provides a roadmap for success. It emphasizes the importance of systems, processes, and working on your business, not just in it, by adopting an entrepreneurial mindset over a purely technical one.
Your Brain is Your Biggest Asset
Owning and operating a small business of any kind is taxing – physical, emotionally, and mentally (and often financially).
The big "W" Work happens when you can think hard about your business and make important decisions.
If you're too tired to innovate or think through key decisions, your business suffers.
The way to mitigate this is by turning as much of your rote thinking work into a process as you can.
Yes, rote thinking – these are things that need to be thought about regularly. Such as:
Scheduling
Customer service
Responding to reviews
Taking inventory
These require some brain power, but they aren't key growth drivers in your business.
Stop Thinking and Start Systematizing
And guess what? All these can be systematized.
For scheduling, use an app that automates scheduling based on the business and employee needs.
For customer service, make black-and-white rules and train your staff on them. Then, when a customer service situation occurs, your staff knows how to handle it without your input.
Create some canned responses to reviews that you can pull out without having to craft something new each time.
And, hey, don't get upset with negative reviews. You can't make everyone happy all the time. Make a rule about apologizing for a bad experience and offering to make it up to them, but don't give it a second thought.
Then, of course, for inventory, have your staff or a manager keep track and monitor it.
No one cares about your business as much as you, and that's okay
Business owners and leaders have long lamented "no one wants to work anymore!" and "my staff is just in it for the money!"
Well, hate to break it to you, but, yeah.
No one will care about your business as much as you, so don't expect them to.
Instead, pay them well, train them well, and put systems in place so that wonderful customer experiences and products are produced without the need for every staff member to be innately driven.
Staff will come and go. Processes are forever ❤️
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