Customer Reviews

Start and Run a Profitable Coffee Bar (Self-Counsel Business Series)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

We are opening a coffee house in 4 months and, needless to say, I have been reading and researching tons of books. Not just on the coffee world, but on insuring a small business as well as other legal insights. This book has been a HUGE resource for our venture. It is an easy read, meaning, it doesn't numb your mind for countless pages discussing, say, insurance. Let me add that it does talk about insurance, and I thank the authors for that. They explain complicated business talk with clear and consise examples. They also tend to weigh situations against other situations. For example, when drawing up the plans, they give you three ways of doing it (yourself, a draftsman, and an architect) and explain the pros and cons of each. This is consistent throughout the book and they go on to explain why or why not certain things work. They discuss marketing, staffing and the interview process, equipment tips, design layout, decor, etc. This is obviously written from the stand point of people who have been there. They cover all the bases about getting your shop up and running while touching on some potential pitfalls and how to avoid them. And if you get in a bind, they discuss how to get out of it. My highlighter has gotten a workout and I am passing this on to my co-owners to read. I am grateful to have found this book and only wish I had found it sooner to save money on the previous "coffee house" books I have purchased. This book exceeded my expectations as it went beyond the basics and truly is the only book you'll ever need. I was impressed to see that they covered LLC's, C corporations, and, S corporations...where people can't sue and go after your homes, bank accounts, personal assets, etc. Our attorney recomended an LLC for our type of operation and I was relieved to see that this book brought the topic up. Thanks to the authors for being the most complete work out there (in my opinion) on starting your business THE RIGHT WAY from the start.

Start & Run a Coffee Bar is a good starting point. The devil is always in the details. This book does a great job of helping you to think about the details. All those little things that you usually discover as you are in the process of setting things up. Starting with the business plan and working through to expanding and franchising. The book offers sample lists, charts and worksheets that provide ballpark figures to work with. The book talks about the basics of the product itself, coffee and espresso. In short, the book is very thorough in covering the things you will need to think about in starting and running a coffee bar.

If you do exactly as the book says, you'll end up with a coffee bar that is like a thousand other coffee bars. The overall approach is very formula focused. You will need to bring your own personality and ideas to the table to make your place unique.

While I appreciated the information the book provides, I found the manner and tone annoying. I found the commitment boxes at the end of each chapter sophmoric and condescending. The book's description of how employees should greet and deal with customers is delivered in a tone that indicates little room for variance. This is the only way to do it. And most of the book is that way. The book addresses a coffee shop with a roaster on site. A lot of the marketing discussion centers around the roaster and custom roast coffee. Great if you're planning to have that.

At $17, I don't regret the purchase. The book contains a lot of very useful nuts and bolts information. But I think you will want to read several other books to really understand the coffee business and the coffee customer.

I found the accompanying CD of little value.

I found "Start and Run a Profitable Coffee Bar" an excellent book for restaurant novice such as myself. I have operated a business but not a restaurant or coffee shop. This book is excellent. It provided many different forms which would be useful in running a coffee bar. The book also included in an appendix coffee organizations and suppliers, helping the novice tremendously. I would definitely recommend purchasing this book if you are interested in starting a coffee bar or shop.

I am not a rich man so I try to be careful about buying new books. After I received this book in the mail I nearly read the whole thing in one sitting. I'll tell you...my worry was that this might be a standard "starting a small business" book with the occasional coffee reference thrown in, but it turned out to be quite the contrary. This is an incredibly detailed description of so many things that I never considered. This is one of the best and well-thought out books I've ever purchased.

Easy to understand, this book broke it all down for me. Having just started my coffee house without a clue as to how to proceed, I grabbed every book I could find about the topic, and this one was the most accessible and best written one. I wish it could have provided even MORE details, but this provided a lot of help.

This is almost all you need to have to run a great coffee shop. OK, maybe coffee would help, but this is a book that you will not let people borrow because you will always be reaching for it for ideas and using it as a guide line. From start to finish this book offers insight and helps you set goals to start your business and it also offers great ideas on promotionals, training personel, doing inventory, ideas to grow your business, grand openings, zoning restrictions, customer base, you need it, this book delivers!!!!

When I ordered this book I was hoping that there would be some information in it that I could pick from it to point me in the right direction on starting a coffee shop. I got SO MUCH MORE INFORMATION than I could imagine! Everything you need to know, I mean everything...from learning about coffee, designing your coffee shop, the equipment & supplies you will need, how to give GREAT customer service, how to have the BEST product line, dealing with staff, customers and everything you should consider in your day to day operations. The ideas on marketing were great and gave me other ideas. I am keeping this book next to my business plan as I plan on refering to each constantly as a guide. Thank you Tom and Marybeth for taking the time to write such an informative book!

This book is extremely helpful for anyone interested in starting their own coffee house. I actually [spent spent a lot of money] on another book (by Bellisimo) and I think Tom Matzen's book is better! So, I definitely recommend this book.

This book offered different ideas and suggestions that I had not thought of while planning for my new business. It was well written and easy to understand for a beginner. I really enjoyed learning about different coffees and roasting techniques without getting so much information that I thought that I was in school or something. It gave just enough information and helped provide a good starting point for my business plan.

I have bought several books about getting into the coffee business, but this one far and away is more informative than the others. I find myself going back to the book regularly for ideas and insights. It is straightforward in its' approach and gives you some things to think about. I think the start-up equipment lists could be a bit more extensive, but that is my only complaint. Use this book as a guide to get into the business.