Babystep 3: Tactical Questions For Coffee Shop Clarity
We are firm believers that clarity is the missing ingredient in the lives of many coffee shop owners. If a coffee shop owner can gain clarity on the core of their business they will be more successful, their quality of life will increase and they will have happier and healthier employees. Once you are clear about your core (culture, strategy, and tactics) everything after that will flow more cohesively and almost effortlessly.
Here are questions eight to ten to help you gain that clarity. These last three questions have to do with the tactics of your coffee shop.
If you haven’t already answered questions one to seven about the culture and strategy of your coffee shop, be sure to go back and do those first.
Remember: the more clear you are on each of these questions, the more powerful it will be for you.
What is the most important problem that must be solved within the next three to six months?
In a busy business, with hundreds of tasks to be taken care of everyday, it’s usually the short-term, most urgent problems that receive the most attention. That’s why it’s important to pick one long-term problem that must be taken care of if the cafe is going to continue to exist.
You should think of this problem as, “If this problem is not solved then nothing else matters.” This should be a rally cry for your staff, and if it is done well, it will align all of your employees.
Who will do what to make sure the most important problem (from question 8) is taken care of?
You should have at least three to five specific objectives delegated to people on your staff to make sure the goal is being carried out in a timely fashion.
How and when will we follow up on the progress of questions 7,8, and 9?
This is about setting up a weekly meeting time to review if you and your team are doing the things you said you’d do to make the coffee shop successful. If there isn’t accountability then people will naturally forget once they become busy.
Conclusion:
Congratulations, you’ve done the work that most coffee shop owners don’t do. We’ve seen in our classes that the power of clarity has been severely underestimated and that many coffee shop owners are hurting because of it.
Embrace the strength that comes from knowing exactly what you’re about and how you’re going to achieve it.
Now that you’ve answered these questions well, you can move into the next layer of coffee shops which is: systems, processes and management. Stay tuned.
You can purchase SCI’s, “From Your Coffee Shop Dream, To Your Dream Coffee Shop” book here.
With SCI’s book, you’ll walk out these steps through the fictional, but all too relatable, story of Claire Wallace as she journeys toward her dream coffee shop.