How to Create a Coffee Shop Marketing Strategy

Small businesses play a major part in the day to day activities. They could be coffee shops, bookstore, fast food restaurants, bookstores or toy stores. I am fond of visiting a coffee near my school, and it gave me an idea of how easy it would be to start up a small business similar to that and compete with it. Having the right concept and strategy is what that is needed to start a business. The current coffee shop in place has not ventured into most of the modern ways of doing business and, hence, that would be a perfect model of competing with it. The shop operates on a customer self-service basis only, selling different types of coffee in a stationary building.

To ensure firm and healthy competition, I will put in place strategies that have not been explored before. Firstly, the coffee shop will be situated in a strategic position, accessible to everyone. It will be in town, where students, civil servants, and employees in different companies in the city will find it easy to visit. Secondly, it will have its own online shop where people could place orders online via the internet. Additionally, an application will also be created where one will be required to sign in, view the menu as well as offers on each day and place their orders there instead of having to go the main website or make calls.

Moreover, the coffee shop will not only deal with one product line of selling different types of coffee only but will also have additional beverages such as tea as well as snacks. Another strategy that the shop will introduce in its operations is after sales services for people who need deliveries where free deliveries will be offered. Another key strategy is giving promotional offers and discounts which will be offered on certain days such as Fridays, where if one buys a certain type of coffee will be given an additional cup, and on any day, when one buys a certain type of coffee above a certain amount, will be given a snack free. Another promotional offer that will be employed is through online referrals where when one places an order online, they will be given a referral code which they will use to refer their friends who if they also place an order online, the latter will get an extra cup of coffee in his or her next order. Coupons and vouchers will also be used for loyal customers.

The rationale for putting in place these strategies is clear. For example, by placing the shop in town, the market pool there is wide since it attracts all kinds of people as compared to the current coffee shop that only attracts students due to its outskirt location near the school. By going online, congestion at the shop itself is reduced, operations are done quite fast since customers come to pick already served beverages and snacks, and finally people who cannot access the coffee shop at their current situations can also place orders and have them delivered.

The application will make it easy for customers to navigate the shop online since everything is well elaborated starting from the menu, the offers available, the referral code and the method of payment. By venturing in selling other beverages and snacks, it gives them an added advantage over the other coffee shop by acting as a one-stop shop where one can find everything. Furthermore, offers and discounts always attract masses, and by making them available, more people are enticed to visit the shop and experience the services. Referrals, for example, will ensure more people get to hear about the shop and try it out since they have been referred to by their friends. Coupons and vouchers will ensure the business can retain its customers through loyalty.

Business plan 

To build or buy 

Buying a new business means bringing a whole new concept to the market. It, however, requires all the necessary resources to be readily available for a smooth start. Buying an existing business, on the other hand, involves taking up all assets and operations that the previous business had and either continuing with them as they are or changing some of their concepts. Buying an existing business has proven to be a better option than starting a new one. Starting a new business requires assurance of a constant flow of customers which is difficult to achieve and requires patience. It also requires an understanding of the market and its operations; hence, good management would be most suitable which in most cases fail to act as expected. This only means that there is a high percentage that the business will most likely be a failure which might lead to the entrepreneur losing a lot of financial resources that he had invested.

Financing a new business is also a hard task since not most of the banks and financial institutions are willing to lend money or invest in businesses whose success is not guaranteed. Entrepreneurs consequently find themselves in a financial crisis where they get stuck in their operations due to lack of enough capital to manage their transactions. A new business lacks a formal structure to guide its operations. Employees and managers involved are introduced to a whole new concept hence everything is new to them, and they will need to adjust before they come up with a formal breakdown. Freedom and relaxation time of employees is also limited as they are expected to be active most of the time to make sure the business is able to catch up with the present market. Another disadvantage associated with starting a business is the fact that it has to be creative enough for people to get attracted to it (Findlaw, 2018) .

Buying an existing business, on the other hand, is entitled to fewer risks. This is because most of the resources are readily available as customers and assets are already in existence. Its financial pool is also quite large as most of the banking institutions would be willing to fund it. Moreover, as much as it may not appeal the buyer, after the purchase, he can make changes and transform it the way he likes it. With the above reasoning, buying the current coffee shop and incorporating the new strategies prove to be a better plan.

Business ownership 

Funding is the largest and most important part of starting any business. Without enough capital, a business cannot fulfill its operations leading to total failure. To start up the coffee shop, I had two options on how to own it where first, I would do it as a sole proprietor and secondly, as a partnership. I chose to do it as partnership given my current financial situation as I could not raise the required amount to buy the current coffee shop and invest in the new strategies put in place. A partnership proved to have more advantages than a sole proprietorship.

A partnership would mean funding would be done equally by all partners hence the capital base is quite large. The ability to raise the amount required to start the business is more than it would be for a sole proprietor. It also has a greater borrowing capacity as financial institutions would be willing to fund it as compared to a sole proprietorship. Decision making is more accurate too. Two heads are better than one hence when all partners come together to make crucial decisions; the outcome is likely to be successful as much effort was put in ideas to be executed as compared to a single person doing all the reasoning (Accounting Tools, 2017).

The business will also have the advantage of a wide pool of skills, experience, and knowledge since the partners are of different specializations and share in the responsibilities. This will have a positive effect on the business as its performance will likely improve, and its management will have a smooth and improved flow. A partnership also has the advantage of being exempted from double taxation. This is because each partner is taxed as an individual and not as a business. When the business faces losses, it will be shared among the partners hence the damage will spread to more than one person as compared to a sole proprietor who suffers all losses alone (Accounting Tools, 2017).

Nature of entrepreneurship, business ethics, and social responsibility 

The nature of coffee shop business is a small venture, owned by a partnership, oriented towards innovation and creativity and aiming at making more profits. Moreover, for any business to be successful, it has to practice ethical operations where it has to make the right moral choices and engage in social responsibility which means it has to care about the community surrounding it. The coffee shop will ensure transparency in all its undertakings where it will uphold honesty in the way it markets its products and the offers it gives to its customers. It will also ensure the quality of the products it sells is high, avoid controversial issues such as bribery to avoid unethical practices.

To engage in social responsibility, the business will make a broad contribution to taking care of the environment by avoiding emitting waste materials and dumping its waste in the wrong places. Additionally, the business will also be involved in community development projects where it could offer either human or financial resources to gear the operations. Treatment of employees will also be done fairly and humanely to avoid absenteeism and turnovers. Helping the non-profit making organizations will also be among the many operations the business will engage in. Ethical practices and social responsibility improve the business image to the public and gives it a good reputation.

Activities and key decisions to start a small business 

Before starting any small business, one should conduct market research to analyze if the business is worth launching at that moment. This involves researching about the capital required, the assets required, the risks associated with it, the competitors in the field, the market targeted and the skills required. After the research, it is then advisable to formulate a business plan which outlines an analysis of the operations, the financial plan, the marketing strategy and a management plan. Another major factor would be to create a business structure where one decides the type of business they tend to engage in and the form of ownership to run it. By following these key aspects, a starting business has a high rate of becoming successful (Beesley, 2016) .

Issues in small business management 

The major problem facing small businesses is the issue of inadequate financial resources. Most the small businesses tend to have a lower capital margin and a narrow borrowing capital base. This way, their operations get stuck along the way. Another problem is reaching out to customers and retaining them. Customer loyalty for small businesses tends to be lower as most of them are always moving from one business to another since they enjoy the same satisfaction. Information overload and overlapping of operations is also another factor since most of the work is done by the owners of the business making it hard for them to deal with upcoming issues altogether. Inadequate skills and knowledge to run the different operations entailed in the business serves as adverse effect too since the owners are mostly specialized in a few fields leaving the other areas with no skills to run them. Finally, improper marketing of small businesses hinders them from getting more opportunities, more customers, and more sales. This is because of their limited exposure.

References

Accounting Tools. (2017). Partnership advanatages and disadvantages | Accounting tools . Retrieved from https://www.accountingtools.com/articles/partnership-advantages-and-disadvantages.html

Beesley, C. (2016). Starting a business? 10 steps every entrepreneur needs to know. Retrieved from https://www.sba.gov/blogs/starting-business-10-steps-every-entrepreneur-needs-know

Findlaw. (2018). Pros and cons of starting a sew business, buying an existing business | Findlaw . Retrieved from https://careers.findlaw.com/legal-career-options/pros-and-cons-of-starting-a-new-business-buying-an-existing-business.html