Last Saturday I visited a cousin's newly opened cafe. It was one week old. He told me that he is not getting the crowd or the desired revenue. Curious, so I decided to pay him a visit.
I asked for the shop's actual address. He said he is not sure and asked me to check out the Facebook page. Instead of registering as a local business, the cafe was registered as an individual. The address was not even there, good news was there is a location map. Maybe a map would be clearer? Wrong! The map contains two marks, one mark for his house, the other for his shop. I have to guess which was which. The page only has a picture of the cafe and did not show what was offered on the menu.
It is obvious that him and the partners did a poor job in planning. In any business, the first impression matters a lot. Even though the cafe is only one week old, I wonder how many customers had turned away.
At the cafe, I wanted to know the cafe's maximum capacity. He was not sure either. In any food retail outlet, the owner has to know how much each customer must spent and how many turnarounds per table in order to make a profit. On average, there should be at least three turnarounds in one business session.
As I spend more time with him, the more issues I noticed. Besides just poor planning, he has thrown himself into the deep end by dealing with customers and adjusting the operation issues. It would have been better to if he had a dry run with family and friends instead of enraging the wrath of the customers. In my opinion, he has 7 more weeks to get his act right. All the issues and mistakes are costing the business money. The business would have run out of money if the mistakes still remains.
I am a strong believer in making mistakes and taking risk. However, going into anything without proper planning is pure suicide. Thus far, he has adjusted his Facebook page. Hopefully he can sort out his operation kinks soon.
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