100 .Wake up and smell the profit
Subsequently off they go to remortgage the house and open a nice
little coffee shop. With no real concept of running it like a business
and no idea how to create systems for controlling cashflow, finance,
staff, and product quality, they fling the doors open to their fictional
paradise which quickly turns into their biggest nightmare.
Another scenario is the chef
who has cooked all his life
in a professional kitchen but
is now desperate to do it
“himself ”. Of course he is no
more qualified than the
previous example and is
basically just the same as
the plumber who decides
he should open a large
plumbing business, just
because he’s good at fixing
toilets. Running a coffee
shop is about running a
business. It is not some
idealistic dream of having
people pop round for
coffee with you and paying for the privilege. You need to get solid
systems in place to deal with your staff. You need to develop training
programs and, more importantly, stick with them. You need a
marketing plan and a decent grasp of accountancy so that you don’t
end up sitting on the street after 18 months of huge slog with debts
so large that it will take you the rest of your life to pay them off.
So get out of the kitchen and away from the till, and run it like a
business! And if you need help then give us all calland we can
maybe make it a little easier for you.
Wake up to what you don’t
know ...
“The problem with most failing
businesses is not that their owners
don’t know enough about finance,
marketing, management, and
operations - they don’t, but those
things are easy enough to learn - but
that they spend their time and energy
defending what they think they know.
My experience has shown me that the
people who are exceptionally good in
business aren’t so because of what
they know but because of their
insatiable need to know more.”
Michael Gerber