Culture Questions for Coffee Shop Clarity

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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 three out of ten questions to help you gain that clarity. These first three questions have to do with the culture of your coffee shop. The other seven questions will flow from these three, so be sure to take your time with these and answer them first. Culture is about who you are so it requires more discovery and distilling than it does deciding.

Remember: the more clear you are on each of these questions, the more powerful it will be for you.

Question 1: Why am I really doing this?

Start with why. You and your team need to understand why you are in the coffee industry. The answer to this question is seldom to make money. You’ll know you’ve answered this question correctly if you and your team are inspired.

This is also something that isn’t decided; the answer is within you but you need to discover it, clarify it, and communicate it to your team. This is the most difficult but the most powerful work you will do. The answer should be one to two ideas.

Question 2: What do we want to accomplish in the next 10 years?

If all of your dreams came true, what would your business look like? Try to make it a visual picture. There’s nothing more motivating than to look back every six months and feel that you’re getting closer to that vision. This could be in terms of the number of cafes you want to open, annual sales, social impact, etc.

Do you know where you’re going and are you making steps toward that?

Question 3: How will we work together and treat each other? How is it different from other café’s?

These are your values. You can discover these values by observing what is important to you beyond its effect on the bottom line. What pleases you when it’s done and what offends you when it’s violated?

Make sure your values are not the bare minimum you would require such as: honesty, hard work or punctuality. When your values are being executed well and you’re holding people accountable to them, the people you want to stay will stay and the people who don’t share these values will leave. Choose up to three.