Successful Coffee Shop Owners: 12 Things That Set Them Apart

Being successful comes down to more than just serving a great cup of joe. Coffee shop owners ought to practice the right skills and traits to help keep their dream alive and thriving.

12 Tips for Coffee Shop Owners

Whether you’re just starting out, or are a seasoned entrepreneur, there is something for everyone to learn in the list we’ve compiled here (hint: always learning is trait number 4).

1. Having a Clear Vision

There are many different processes involved in operating a coffee business. Success comes down to having a clear vision of how you’ll tackle them, and bringing it to life with an in-depth roadmap. Not sure how to go about creating one? Our team is happy to guide you through our five step process focusing on planning, people, place, products, and promotions.

2. Setting the Right Goals

You teach your employees to follow recipes, but do you have your own recipe for success? Clear, actionable goals are a must for running a great business. Of course, you want to keep your doors open and customers flowing through them, but there are a lot of different metrics that play a part. Successful owners often set goals around customer experience, community engagement, sustainability, and staff morale.

3. Strong Intuition

Your gut isn’t just for filling with coffee, it has a lot to say! While dedicating time to risk-aversion research is super valuable, sometimes you are going to have to make decisions on the fly, or the data you need might just not be there. Even those still learning business acumen know coffee and know coffee drinkers. To be a successful coffee shop owner, you must learn to trust yourself when anticipating customer preferences and market trends and taking on new growth opportunities.

4. Always learning

One of the biggest mistakes made by even the most tenured business owners is that they don’t keep learning. Just because you haven’t been in a classroom for years, or even decades, doesn’t mean you aren’t still a student of the craft. Successful owners stay informed through industry publications, conferences, and workshops. They are always seeking mentorship and community and looking to stay a step ahead of trends.

5. Decisiveness

When you combine risk aversion, clear goals, strong intuition, and knowledge, you have everything it takes to be quick in decision making. While there are big choices like choosing a location for your business, or selecting the right coffee, there are also smaller decisions that you are making constantly throughout your operations that you might not even notice. However, no matter the scale, successful owners don't dawdle on decisions.

6. Humility & Empathy

Fostering genuine connections with your customers and staff is going to help set you apart from the other coffee shop owners who hide themselves away. While they might also have great baristas and business plans, connection is key in coffee. Great relationships are often founded and grown over a fresh cup. We find that shop owners who are humble in their successes and truly understand their customers at a personal level get the most long-term value from their operations.

7. Adapt, Flex, and Bend

You’ve set up the ultimate business plan with SMART goals backed by extensive research, yet something has fallen into your mug that you hadn’t planned for... what do you do? As much as we can prepare, at the end of the day, we aren’t fortune tellers, and being successful means being adaptable to anything you may face. The ability to pivot swiftly ensures you have a better chance at staying relevant and in the green.

8. Communication

Loose lips sink ships and help coffee shops rise to the top! At least, in terms of keeping lines of communication open between staff, stakeholders, and customers. When shop owners can clearly articulate their vision, and create an environment where employees are honest and innovative, there’s no telling the success you can see. Not to mention how communication helps foster strong customer relationships along with being humble and empathetic.

9. Delegation

You may have been able to run the show all on your own when you were just a cart on the street corner, but when you’re serving hundreds or even thousands of customers a day, you must delegate. Empowering team members to take ownership can not only help you expand operations and run more efficiently, but it will help them get more job satisfaction, and free up more of your time to focus on the big picture.

10. Willingness to Sacrifice

This can be a tough one! Being a successful coffee shop owner might mean making some personal sacrifices. The most important thing here, as with any path you choose in life, is finding balance. At Dilworth Coffee, we have worked with professionals in every area of the coffee industry and would love to help if you’re still navigating some of the tougher parts of ownership. Give us a shout!

11. Leading and Listening

Being a good leader is synonymous with a lot of the topics we have covered here today, but one of the most important parts of being a good leader is being a good listener. Let’s say you’re that cart owner that just moved into a shop and is learning to delegate and train. You might find yourself doing a lot of the talking, and that certainly makes sense throughout the training and onboarding process, but true success comes to those who know when to open their ears. You’ll be surprised how great ideas can come from folks at all levels of coffee and business experience.

12. It Takes a Village

It’s dangerous to go alone, take this advice! While you can become the pinnacle of a business owner, to get the most joy and longevity out of your coffee shop, you must let others into the process. Don’t be afraid to make friends with other owners in the area and connect with people in the industry that have been doing it a while, like our humble team over here at Dilworth.

We’re Here to Help

So much goes into being a great coffee shop owner and truly enjoying the process. To learn more about the traits we see in the happiest owners, reach out to us at Dilworth Coffee Provision Co.

As USDA Organic and Rainforest Alliance certified roasters sourcing through direct and Fair Trade suppliers, we’ve had the pleasure of working with over 1000 different shops and coffee-oriented businesses. We’re keen on providing the best advice we can, so for more information on our consulting services, check out our page here, or give us a call.