What does cafe mean?

Having your own cafe (or also known as café) is a truly fantastic feelin’. As you may know, cafe can refer to a coffee shop (as of New York Cafe) or a coffee brand (as of Atam Cafe or Wscafe). In this article of how to make coffee, we would like to talk about cafe in its first meaning – a coffee shop.

… And think of openning your own cafe shop in Vietnam or elsewhere?

Like people in other countries across the world, Vietnamese people love drinking coffee. Even though the method of making traditional coffee in Vietnam is different, coffee is still a dark bitter drink that people drink every day. In addition, opening a cafe in Vietnam can be a profitable business if you can make your own cafe distinguishable and unique.

We will not talk about finance or capital. We presume that you have already managed them. We just consider the main factor to have a successful and attractive cafe.

#1. Start with your idea and plan.

You must have a detailed plan of everything related to your cafe. The most important thing is determining your target customers. It is the very first and key element for other factors, including the recipe, the design and decoration. If you want to open a coffee shop for students or young people, you need to build a shop with modern design and stylish to attract them. Moreover, the menu need to diverse with different types of coffee, including Italian espresso based coffees, blended coffees, and other cool beverages. If you tend to open a cafe for white collars and other workers those who stand by at the morning before getting to work, your cafe need to be simple, flexible and can be located nearby a breakfast restaurant.

Having a unique idea for your cafe is a great way to compete with numerous cafe and coffee shops today. One of the best ideas is designing your cafe on specific theme. For example, if you are a football lover and you are specially a fan of certain football club, let’s decorate and do everything that relate to that football club and it will draw the attention of other fans of that club.

#2. Finding good location

When you know what kinds of customer you will serve coffee, you will start to find the best location to fit your target drinkers. You can open your cafe in or near an office to serve coffee for office workers. Alternatively, you can hire a place near schools, colleges to sell coffee for students. Just remember the location must be convenient for both drinking coffee at your shop and buying takeaway coffee then leaving (consider the parking spot, the location that can be easy to be found, etc.)

The cafe with good view is one of the most trends among Vietnamese people. They love to sit in a coffee where they can view many beautiful things out of the window. That is why it is a better idea when opening your cafe at a high floor of high building, so that customer can have a nice view of the whole city above.

Garden cafe is also a good idea. However, this kind of cafe requires a big investment with large location and many creations. It is quite challenge when opening a garden cafe at big and crowded city like Hanoi and Saigon. Nevertheless, if you can do it, it can become a big hit because people love enjoying coffee in natural scenes where having cool and fresh atmosphere, stunning and poetic surroundings of trees, grass, lake, etc. and green environment.

#3. Make a good menu

Nothing important than serving the tasteful coffee. No matter what, the main purpose of your cafe is selling coffee drink, which is why you must have the best coffee.

Make sure you have a diverse but focusing menu with reasonable prices. Your coffee beverages must be good in taste and have their own distinctive flavor to be different from ones at other shops. On the other hand, if it cannot be unique in flavor, you can make it different by other ways such as containing them in extraordinary mugs.

You can be peace of mind with Barista’s guide to coffee. All coffee recipes and other guides included.

Focusing on a specific drink is also an effective way. It is not just you only sell that drink. If possible, you should concentrate on one or two beverages that can create reputation for your cafe. It will make customers remember about your cafe and want to come back.

#4. Do the best in marketing and customer services

Doing business today need to take the marketing activities seriously. In the very competitive market, besides the quality, good advertising is an excellent way to draw the attention. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to do marketing jobs for your cafe with very inexpensive cost. For example, you can open some social network account for your cafe (such as Facebook, X (Twitter), etc.) and regularly update its activities, drinks and motivations.

You need to consider the method to treat your customers. Let’s start by serving the best coffee with fastest and precise way (both normal coffee and takeaway coffee), along with friendly and polite attitude. Other services can be providing free Wi-Fi, indoor entertainments (such as games, cards, books, magazines, etc.), comfortable seats and tables, frequently sale programs, offering customer card with interesting policies.

To sum up, opening your own cafe is very fantastic. Just imagine, you brew perfect coffee cups and invite your friends to enjoy – very cozy. Thus, the coffee shop is not only your business to earn money but also a house for friends, families and coffee lovers. However, to set up and run a cafe successfully needs much of effort with detailed plan. You have to draw out a good plan first, then the location, well-designed menus and comprehensive marketing and customer services. Business is always business. And this is correct in openning a cafe in Vietnam and other places.