Food Franchise

Posts Tagged ‘Coffee Shops’

With new coffee houses opening up every ten minutes – and, it seems, every ten feet – the coffee craze has reached fever pitch. Ironically, these establishments, which used to be thought of as quiet places where one could escape the crowd, are the most crowded places on the planet today. Consequently, many people are trying to recreate the quiet, comfortable atmosphere of the old-fashioned coffee shops at home. The only problem is that most of us don’t have the space to spare; that’s why many people are turning their backyard sunrooms into coffee nooks, where they can entertain friends, read books and magazines, or just daydream.It’s easy to do, once you decide on the mood that you want to establish. To achieve the feel of a traditional café, furnish your sunroom with an aluminum bistro set, and accessorize it with checkered or floral print placemats, matching or complementary napkins with napkin rings, and sugar bowls and creamers. Brighten things up during the day, by putting fresh flowers on the table, and add a charming glow with candles at night. To give it an authentic look, use your computer to create colorful menus that can be folded and stood upright on the table; and always have a container with individually-wrapped biscotti handy.To make your sunroom more of a coffee lounge, select some furniture with big, comfortable cushions. Wicker chairs and sofas with fluffy cushions in colorful patterns are perfect, especially when you get the new, synthetic wicker furniture, which looks just like the genuine article, but never breaks or falls apart. Complete the look with wicker coffee and end tables with glass tops – and don’t forget the magazines.If you want to have it both ways, add a partition, and put a bistro or dining set on one side, and lounge furniture on the other. For a rustic décor, choose cedar or pine furniture. To create a more elegant tone, consider teak or cherry dining sets, lounge chairs, and accent tables. If you want to make a bold statement, try polywood furniture, which comes in dozens of spectacular colors, and get the table and each chair in a different color, for an eye-popping effect.Put up some shelves and stock them with an assortment of mugs and cups of different sizes and colors. As for the coffee itself, with espresso and cappuccino makers, as well as hundreds of varieties of specialty coffees available, you can whip up concoctions that are every bit as good as (or even better than) anything you’ll find at even the most popular coffee franchise (not mentioning any names, of course!).At GazeboCreations.com, you can design your own beautiful sunroom in a few, easy steps. With all of the options available, including insulation, partitions, ceiling fans, cupolas, skylights, decorative sliding glass doors, and several colors of vinyl siding, shingles, and trim, you can create a warm, welcoming haven to enjoy all year long. A GazeboCreations.com sunroom can also be used as a spare room, an entertainment room, a home office, a guesthouse, and anything else you want it to be. You can even install a hot tub, and have your own backyard spa.To see the entire gallery of sunrooms, backyard structures, and patio furniture, go to GazeboCreations.com. To contact one of their design consultants or customer service professionals, call 1-888-293-2339, or e-mail cs@gazebocreations.com.

When you want to go to exchange news, share ideas and get advice, you go to a coffee shop. It has been that way for quite some time. Coffee shops had been places of learning; of making business deals; scientific, literary, political, philosophical, and economic discussions; and even the typical gossip.

In the earliest point of its history, coffee houses were already so popular that ideas born from there have been a source of political forums and discussions ever since. The inspiration of brilliant thinking is to the point that, at times, kings and nobility used it as a method of determining public opinion.

During the 17th century when coffee was introduced to Europe, the popularity of cafes followed the same pattern as most coffee houses around the world. It quickly became a venue for people to congregate, exchange views, write poems, plays, and political testaments, conduct business transactions, participate in cultural exchange and often relax with a good book. In those earlier days when were the were no postal addresses, the popularity of coffee shop had also served as a mailing address, because many people were regulars.

A typical coffeehouse shares a common characteristic with a bar or a restaurant. They differ in that a coffeehouse focuses on serving coffee, teas and snacks. In some countries, however, a coffeehouse does serve hot meals, deserts, sandwiches, soups, and alcohol, aside from bakery products.

Today, coffeehouses continue the tradition set by coffeehouses of the past. They still remain to be a very popular venue for people who would want relaxed and calm atmospheres where they can talk, read, catch up on the day’s event, meet with people and have excellent quality coffee. This desire is evidenced by popular coffeehouses with franchises around the globe such as Starbucks, Seattle’s Best Coffee, Peet’s, Cup O’ Joe, The Second Cup and the Coffee Bean.

Depending on the country and region, coffeehouses have adopted variations. In the United States, coffeehouses or cafes may offer a variety of coffee styles, hot chocolate and teas served as well as light snacks while others serve full menus. Alcoholic beverages may also be offered.

Cafes in France almost always serve alcoholic drinks. Like most cafes anywhere in the world, they serve light snacks. Other coffeehouses may have a restaurant area where the guests could be served from the full menus. The popularity of cafes in France, especially Paris, gave way to subtle coffeehouse variations like the brasserie where single dish meals are typically served, and the bistro.

The cafe experience in Europe spawned other variations of coffeehouses around the world. These coffeehouses offer curb-side seating and other outdoor seating like the sidewalk, pavement or terraces. The seating is usually clustered along busy streets and operated by private local establishments that could very closely resemble parties, especially during weekends.

These patio coffeehouses provide more open public spaces commonly preferred by customers wanting an airy and very casual atmosphere for relaxation and conversation.

Recently, a new type of coffeehouse entered the industry: the Internet cafe. Internet cafes may not appear to be your typical coffeehouse like the bistro, brasserie, cafeteria and the coffee chain establishments but they certainly share the same basic characteristics. Coffee, tea and chocolate are served together with light snacks and chatter. The chatting, though, is done online.

It may or may not replace the traditional coffee shops, but nevertheless, Internet cafes are a hub for political exchange, learning, journalistic, literary and commercial enterprise. Only the styles of coffee shops have changed over the centuries, but in respect to why people frequent them, nothing has really changed.

The days of walking into a local diner, or restaurant and asking for a cup of coffee are rapidly retreating. While there is still something to be said about the old fashioned “cup of Joe” that you can get no questions asked with free refills, the presence of a high powered, multi-flavored, option filled coffee is rapidly becoming the staple in the fast paced lifestyle American’s now lead. Many entrepreneurs in fact have found that the business of the “half-café, non-fat, triple tall, cinnamon white mocha” to be an extremely profitable and attractive business opportunity. The more American’s that are familiar with their latte’s mochas, and cappuccinos to get them through the day, the more small business owners are opening the local coffee franchise stand to offer alternatives in the coffee business world.

Owning a coffee franchise, however, is not the same thing as having a license to print money. There are some definite benefits to choosing a coffee franchise as opposed to a food franchise or other business opportunities within the franchise market. There are also some serious concerns about the coffee franchise that, if not addressed, could keep it from being successful.

One of the benefits to a coffee franchise is that people are searching for your product every day. Whether it’s the morning caffeine fix, or the relaxing latte on a Saturday afternoon during an outing, there is a definite drive in the American lifestyle to seek daily in most cases that cup of coffee. The advent of non-coffee drinks made in coffee shops also helps drive the continuous flow of customers, even those who are trying to limit their coffee intake. From Italian sodas, milkshakes, green teas, smoothies, and decaf drink options there is enough variety in the coffee shop market to continue to keep a regular flow of repeat customers satisfied.

The small business world is eagerly watching and waiting to see what sort of boost or hindrance the political changes will bring them in the coming 2008 election as well. For many small business owners their personal passions that might lead them in a democratic direction have been halted by the republican sympathies to businesses and corporations. In a questions and answer session Barack Obama told the San Francisco Chronicle the day before Super Tuesday “Many small businesses are struggling with the cost of health insurance, and I have introduced a plan that will save businesses $140 billion annually in premiums. My health care plan will help small businesses that want to cover their employees by letting small firms buy into a new low-cost, high-quality national health plan similar to the one offered to members of Congress.” While the skepticism of anything said by a candidate in the weeks and months prior to an election is at a natural high, the potential benefit to many small businesses exists in a large-scale solution to health insurance. The coffee franchise is often a small business that has a difficult time providing health benefits for its employees especially when compared to the benefits that a large company like Starbucks can provide for a similar job. The question for the coffee franchise owner is becomes “how involved is the parent company?” truly that is the balance that every franchise owner needs to figure out when deciding to run a small business. What will the level of involvement be by the larger parent company, and what will be the responsibility and privilege of the franchise owner to oversee and determine. In a sense it is very similar to the political question that all American’s continually ask themselves as they look at Republicans and Democrats alike, what level of involvement will the government have over a business and a state and to what extent is the business free to determine it’s own course of action?

While those questions will never be answered fully to the satisfaction of everyone (or probably anyone) there are more than 2000 American’s per day who go into business for themselves and have to decide whether or not to be totally independent or take part in the many franchise business opportunities that are available to them. Biggby Coffee for example is a coffee franchise in the mid-west and south that provides it’s franchise partners a complete range of marketing and advertising services that help the franchises grow as a whole, while leaving the individual owners free to run their local coffee shop within the parameters that are reasonable to each specific location.

The coffee franchise is more than just a location to purchase coffee. It’s important when thinking about a location and a store what the customer is looking for in a coffee franchise. For many people who are only interested in acquiring their coffee on the go the familiarity and consistency of a recognizable name is very important, along with prompt service and accuracy. The small business of coffee shops though is not always about the product. Many coffee shops find themselves impromptu meeting rooms, and business areas. Many business such as OneCoach, which is a franchise, that provides training, coaching, and assistance to small business owners are based from the franchise owner’s home. In the case of OneCoach, and many other home based businesses there is a need to find a place to meet to discuss terms of contracts, locations, etc with their clients. Coffee shops provide the perfect meeting environment to work through all sorts of business issues without needing to have an operating space. Many home franchises use the local coffee shops as their primary place to meet clients and business service providers.

It becomes important for the business owner of a coffee franchise to think about what amenities he or she is going to make available to the customer who wants to conduct business in the coffee shop. It is generally assumed and preferred that a coffee shop provide some sort of internet connection. Whether it’s a subscription based service, or a more traditional free wireless internet router the presence of internet will make a coffee shop very attractive to businesses. Small businesses contract out various services as well and those meetings also take place in the coffee shop. For example the owner of a small business of DVDNow kiosks that provides people with the ability to rent DVD’s in grocery stores, malls, and other public areas probably only has one or two members of the franchise team. This business is run from a home by one or two individuals and most likely will not have a business accountant as a part of the franchise. When calculating and figuring out taxes, therefore, they will need to outsource that service to a business like Liberty Tax Service. Liberty, which is another small business franchise opportunity then assists DVDNow with their tax management and information, and where does all of this networking and business service practice take place? Oftentimes meetings, and even the services provided take place in a convenient local coffee shop that is nearby the operating areas of both of the franchises. While this is just an example it become evident the benefit and repeat business that surrounds the coffee shop.

When considering a coffee franchise all of these things need to be considered. What will the impact of the environment, employees, networking capabilities, etc be of the coffee franchise? What makes a good coffee franchisee is the ability to understand the overall purpose and benefit of the local shop. The environment and amenities while looked at a costs initially unrelated to the sale and purchase of coffee products can become the most significant factors in fostering a good environment for business and personal networking to take place, which will lead to high amounts of repeat business. So when considering the coffee franchise, know that while the coffee is the product, it’s the coffee shop that is really going to sell a customer on making a particular store “their” local coffee shop.