What I know about starting a cafe (so far).
My wife and I had just finished a 12 week holiday through both Europe and Asia before returning to our home in Melbourne, Australia. It had been the longest time we had been away from home, ever, and one of the best holidays we have done so far. As is always the case with any holiday, and even more so with long holidays packed with adventure treks, culture learning, and mind opening experiences, the journey home had been a tiring one in need of some jet lagged sleep.
Our flight landed during the middle of the night with a heads up from the friend minding our small 60sqm city apartment that our TV had stopped working (oh no!!). Still sluggish but weirdly full of adventure and enthusiasm from the holiday we just came from, we had the brightest idea ever — let’s buy a 50inch TV, that isn’t too big for our tiny city apartment, surely! (Ignore the fact that we had just gone 12 weeks without one)
What does this have to do with opening a cafe?
Two years later we made a similarly fueled but slightly more dramatic life changing decision in the midst of the sleepless nights of tackling our 3 month old first born child — let’s open our dream cafe, that isn’t a huge decisions to make given we have zero hospitality experience between us, surely!
And whilst in hind sight it may have been a sleep deprived, fear of getting old reaction with the underlying concern of “if we don’t do it now, when will we ever do it?”…
This article is some detail on the 5 things we have learnt from this experience so far! We hope that you read it and are encouraged or inspired to take that ultimate leap into whatever it is you want to do, whether it is a cafe or [insert side hustle here] — we think the risk is more than worth it as you’ll learn more about yourself and the pure goodness of those who surround you than if you sit still and keep doing whatever it is you already do day to day!
Of course, if you enjoy what you’re doing, stop reading here, this article isn’t for you! But I hope you keep reading ;-)
1. Surround yourself with parachutes.
My wife and I were brought up workers for the rat race — study hard, get a good job, work hard, buy a house and save up for retirement.
My parents always talked about business as if it were something we could do, quickly followed up by how “risky" a movement in that direction would be and a reminder to study hard, get good grades, get a good job and work for someone else who’s taking that “risk”.
So needless to say, we didn’t tell them until the decision was done and dusted.
On the flip side we had a lot of support from the people we had chosen to surround ourselves with. We had spent the previous 2 years allowing backpackers to live with us for periods of time, simply because we enjoyed the conversations and different perspectives they brought to the table. It was the friendships we made during this time that were supportive. With this support came ideas, collaborations, access to networks to help with design, and elbow grease that got the job done.
Not everyone is going to be supportive… surround yourself with the supportive ones and leave everyone else behind. You don’t need negative energy in your life whilst you jump off the plane and hope that your parachute works, you need people who are there ready to try anything to open that parachute up.
2. Things WILL go wrong, resilience is everything.
Two major things went wrong before we even began.
Firstly, the landlord rejected our redesign of the cafe interior… after we signed the 6 year lease.
What this redesign rejection meant was that the flow of customers in and out of the cafe was going to be compromised causing congestion. This is why the cafe before us had failed in this same location.
Secondly, it turned out that the 1 tonne under bench fridge which the landlord had sold us was held together with sticky tape and PVA glue (not really, but in hind site if it were it might have been easier). This meant that it was almost impossible for us to move it to support the flow of customers in and out of the cafe.
Both of these issues combined made for a very stressful evening as thoughts of failure and a potentially decade crushing debt weighed in on us. However, it was in this panic that the solution was hatched, we used the negotiation of a new layout to sell the fridge back to the landlord and request its removal.
Things won’t go to plan, that’s just part of the game, things won’t go to plan if you were simply working for someone else either. If something doesn’t work just look for a way out of the panic by looking at the issue in front of you as an opportunity — ask yourself, what do you need out of this and then spin it until it works for you. There will always be a way out.
3. Do things your way.
If you’ve ever watched a new business get ready for launch there will be 2 things you will usually see. 1) The owners will spend months renovating and getting the space ready. And 2) they will often spend $100k upwards to design and build the space before even earning $1 on income.
Financially we did not see how either of these made sense, so we did it differently.
The day we took possession of our cafe space, we ripped out only the key things that prevented flow in and out of the cafe, we left everything else. We then rebuilt these elements within 11 days. We believed that every day was a day we were paying rent and receiving no income. Every day we were spending money but not making money was a day further into debt that we were not willing to go. So we did it differently. Even if the landlord gives you a free period for renovation (ours gave us 3 months), why not take advantage of that free period to start bringing money in and mitigate the renovation costs — give your business a head start.
We also opened when the fitting was not perfectly completed — it was basically a coffee machine (making the most perfect specialty coffee in the area, we didn't skimp on product quality) and a few tables and chairs — it was the bare minimum that allowed us to open. The reason for this was to start bringing money in at the earliest point in time and minimize the risk caused by spending money before it was making money. People came for the quality of coffee, the conversation and the delicious food. The continually evolving fit-out became a talking point allowing us to adjust our plans to suit our customer base. We ultimately designed the cafe in the eyes of our customers as we built relationships with the local community.
I still hear stories of people spending anywhere between 100k to millions on their set-ups and simply cringe at the thought. What we learnt is that just because other people do it that way, doesn’t mean it’s the only way.
4. The world has your back
If you can call the decision to open the cafe in the first place as a rational one, we recently made a flawed one. With a 3 day weekend in sight, we made the decision to replace our ceiling, by ourselves, with no experience… needless to say we failed. But with that experience we met two incredible tradespeople that went over and above to get us back on track.
The first was an electrician who popped in for a quick job on his day off, saw the trouble we were in and stayed for hours to assist.
The second was a builder who worked 12 hours through the night to get us opened on time again the next day — he understood that each day which the cafe was closed meant more lost money. He literally did everything he could to prevent that from happening. Once he got us open the next day, he came back and did another 2 night shifts to finish painting without affecting cafe service.
These are the most recent examples of strangers who saw our humanity and roll up their sleeve to help. Because of this, we owe everything to the team of people who have been behind us every step of the way. Thank you for making this little dream of ours tick along.
If you choose to open your own cafe or start your side hustle, I guarantee that you’ll meet so many people that will simply want you to succeed. Just be open to the possibility and they will come in spades. You’re not alone.
5. People will say “yes”, and so too should you.
With a 3 month baby in arms as we hand painted the new cafe in the lead up to its open, people then and still do ask how (on earth) we decided to open our own cafe? The truth is simple, the landlord said “yes”.
Since then we have met so many suppliers, employees, tradespeople and fellow business people who have all been so open to working with and supporting us and our cafe, well beyond what we expected, and in return we have support them.
So in an almost cliche way, all you have to do is say “yes”. Decide you want to do it and just do it. Things will go your way.
Whether its a cafe you want to open, a new skill you want to learn, or a perspective you want to experience, just say “yes”, I think you’ll be surprised how much luck is on your side if you choose to take the leap of faith, and you won’t look back.
