Strategies for the Coffee Shop - Essay Example

A good coffee shop should have well-presented and outlined strategies that will enable it to compete in the market. The strategies are focused on capturing a high customer base for its product and enable it to expand. Gaining of these customers should also lead to retention of the customers who are already in place. Successful business strategies will succeed because it will enable certain aspects of the business to be accomplished thus increasing the business performance (Finch, 2010). A good strategy will be successful if it results in a strong competitive position for the business to grow and attain big margins. Good business strategy for the coffee shop should be able to create a demand for a product to the customers and be affordable. Although a Coffee shop is a small business, it should be able to adopt strategies that will enable it to attract customers and lead the business to attain its goals. Strategies are a broad term that defines what a business should do to make money and obtain profit.

One of the strategies for the Coffee shop is to capture the fledgling market. A small business should be able to gain a stronghold in the market through aggressive means of acquiring customers to the shop. The shop should have enough resources to acquire customers through creating a customer base. This strategy should ensure that it accomplishes meeting of customers and taking care of them in a way that will appeal to them. The shop can capture customers by understanding the needs of the customers like what type of brand is most liked, who are the main customers, what another service can be offered on top of selling the coffee (Finch, 2010). Consumer needs will lead to designing of a coffee brand that will appeal to more customers. The shop will increase its market base through strengthening customer relationship, which will make more customers buy coffee from the ship. The positive relationship between the customer and the Shop is the first step towards acquiring more customers. The smart hiring of waiters and servers is a push towards having an effective workforce that will yield to more customers. The strategy should enable retention of customers too.

The second strategy is product differentiation. The coffee shop products i.e. coffee drink should be outstanding from the rest of the competitors to enable success in competition with small businesses. Customers should be able to spot the coffee product by highlighting its features in a superior technology or by having a lower price. The product should be different in taste, price, served and even its package (Joseph, Nekoranec, & Steffens, 2003).

Another strategy to gain stability in the competitive market is by adapting technology to play a role in productivity, market domination, advertising, and improving on sales. In the current world, every shop even the small business have adopted technology to aid in improving its services. Through technology, the coffee shop will be able to improve their productivity; making of coffee requires effective balancing to enable sweet taste. This can be accomplished through the adoption of technology. Technology is important for a business to dominate the market. Through social sites like Facebook and Instagram, this coffee shop will be able to dominate a certain market and customers. Technology enables easy advertising of the coffee shop to the world. Through sites like Facebook, twitter, tumbler, and others the shop can be advertised a means of acquiring a large customer base. Technology improves in keeping record and help in the selling of the coffee. The cashier may use a computer to calculate accurately balance and amount of coffee sold (Finch, 2010).

Pricing of the coffee products will help in accomplishing the business goals. Having low prices will attract customers and help in selling a large amount of product thus making a profit. Adopting this strategy will help the business have a significant number of customers, which will result in profits. Implementing of these strategies will help the business compete with the rest of the small business.

It will be beneficial to purchase an existing business i.e. a coffee shop that has already developed. Most people would wish to start a business from scratch and come up with their idea of building the company. Starting a business from scratch comes in hand with distinct disadvantages as if it will be difficult to build and establish a customer base. It is quite tricky to have appeal to customers to purchase your coffee. Marketing the new business is also a problem, unlike an already established business. Establishing of cash flow and hiring of the workforce is another disadvantage that comes along with starting a new business because there is no track or record that will give a clue of what amount of cash is to be directed to the business (Joseph, Nekoranec, & Steffens, 2003).

These worries and disadvantages are a push to buy an already existing business of coffee shop. Buying of a coffee shop means that all operations of the business are transferred to you. All operations that generate cash flow and profits, the already established customer base and reputation are transferred to the new owner (Finch, 2010). This will be easy and will lead to a stable and smooth running of the business.

Although buying of business is costly than starting from scratch, it is usually easy to obtain finance which will help in buying an existing one rather than starting a new one. This is because investors and bankers feel comfortable in lending money to buy an already established business that has a proved record of accomplishment. To add to this, buying of a business may come with other benefits that are valuable as if legal rights i.e. copyrights or patent or license. Therefore, an investor will fund the owner easily if he/she wishes to purchase a coffee shop.

One needs to consider certain factors when purchasing an already established coffee shop. The size of the business should be an important factor to consider when establishing a coffee shop. It should be a small coffee shop with a certain number of employees and customers. The shop to be purchased should be located in a strategic geographical area where it will be easy to work from and with some customers. The wages and cost of doing the business in that area should be acceptable to you. Running of the coffee shop should be acceptable to the standard of the owner. Assessing of the company’s reputation is important because it presents the kind of relationship it has to the society. This can be done by talking with the existing customers, employees, suppliers about their relationship to the coffee shop. There should be no any complaints against the business from the Business Bureau Licensing or Credit agencies. Another advantage of purchasing an already established business is that the business has a clear path and goal mapped out thus giving a sense of direction to the whole organization (Finch, 2010). This is a stepping-stone for the owner to build on his idea.

Business ownership is a key factor that determines how a business will be run. Sole ownership or proprietorship is the simplest and easiest form a business can operate. Although this business is not a legal entity, the owner of the business has all responsibility for the business profit and debts. A single person who dictates the name of the business, which can also be a fictitious name, owns the business. The trade name should be appealing and easy to remember to the customers (Joseph, Nekoranec, & Steffens, 2003).

This method of business ownership is common and popular because of its simplicity, nominal cost, and ease of setup. Since the business is to be bought, the parties should the business permit; license and all documents required for the company to be run are submitted to him. To run the business, the buyer of the company only needs to register and have a secure local license for the business. One of the major risks that come with this form of business ownership is the sole responsibility for debts and losses from the sales. In case the coffee shop runs into financial problems, the creditors can find a lawsuit against the owner of the business (Joseph, Nekoranec, & Steffens, 2003). In case the lawsuit is successful, the owner will be required to pay the debt with his or her cash.

The owner of the business will typically sign every contract in his name because there is no law that separates the owner of a sole proprietorship with his business. The customers too will sign a cheque in the name of the owner even if it is a fictitious name. The sole proprietorship can mingle the coffee shop business with his or her personal activities something that other business form lacks (Finch, 2010). The bank accounts for the business owner are the same, they do not observe formalities like meetings, and voting is which is associated with other forms.

Taxation of this kind of ownership is simple because the profit earned by the owner of the business is the income owned by the proprietor. The sole proprietorship losses and income are recorded and determine the business tax. A sole proprietorship has numerous numbers of advantages to demerits. One of the advantages is the owner of the business can establish his business to a sole proprietorship in an easy and cheap way because there are no legal regulations that need to be met. This type of business ownership carries very few formalities. The owner of the business can freely mix his personal assets and activities with the business activities. The sole owner may need not to pay any unemployment tax for her or himself. This kind of ownership suits the coffee shop business because it is a small business, which requires less formal filing or events(Joseph, Nekoranec, & Steffens, 2003). Another advantage that makes this kind of ownership better is the ability to change the legal structure of the business if the need arises not forgetting easy closure of the business during winding up of the firm.

A business plan is a key factor to ensure the success of Coffee shop business. A business plan is important in serving as a source of direction to ensure the company’s activities are on track for attainability of goals. A business plan is a requirement when an investor wishes to seek the business finance. The plan gives out details of certain activities. A business plan should cover certain aspects of the business, which include the title page, which offers a description of what the business plan is for and contains the general information of the business (Finch, 2010). In the title page of the plan the name of the company i.e. Sweet Coffee Shop, the kind of business structure which is a sole proprietorship, the location of the business which is Chicago, the License number of the company, and whether the business was established or bought.

The next aspect of the plan is the summary of the business. In the case of the Sweet Coffee Shop, the shop mainly offers customers to its customer and runs in a 24/7 mode i.e. it functions both day and night. The shop has six employees who ensure all the activities of the company go according to the plan. The page also covers the target market of the product being offered. The target market is the whole population without isolation.

The plan should contain market strategies, which is from market analysis. Market analysis, which will help the business, become familiar with every aspect of the company and be positioned in a better place to gain more sales from the coffee (Joseph, Nekoranec, & Steffens, 2003).

The plan contains the business strategies of competitive analysis, which is aimed at determining the weaknesses and strengths of the competitors with the set market (Finch, 2010). The strategies will help provide you with the particular advantage to help be outstanding in the market. It also contains the barriers that can ensure its competitors do not enter into the same market with them.

Design and development of the company based on the product offered in the business plan serves as a description to the customers and investors. The technique right from production to marketing and the company is itself to come up with budget, which will enable the business to attain its goals.

The company’s operation and management plan should be featured in the business plan to describe means and how the business functions in the day-to-day life. The aim of the operation plan is to highlight the business logistic such as the various responsibilities of the employees, the task assigned to every employee within the company, the capital, and the expenses that is related to the operation of the business (Finch, 2010).

The financial factors of the business are covered in the business plan. This is usually at the back of every business plan. The company’s financial projections and the costing of resources of the business are contained in the business plan. The plan also contains the future i.e. the business vision. Coffee shop will wish to advance from being a small business to a big business having a huge base of customers from different places and states. The company’s milestone and its milestone are clear in the plan, which starts right from the budget and amount of profit to help the business grow.