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Recently I’ve been working with a lot of very successful operators…

Recently I’ve been talking to a lot of operators who are really struggling…

Today I realised that, WITHOUT EXCEPTION, these two groups thought entirely differently about one key factor…

They way they think about the customers in relation to the success or failure of their business.

• The successful guys ALWAYS think about what they can be doing to change their business so that it works better for their customers.
• The unsuccessful folk ALWAYS blame the customers for the problems they are having in their business.

I honestly can’t emphasise this enough. That is the big difference. In our most recent book this is something that we discuss at great length. The success or failure of your business is entirely dependent upon your ability to take total responsibility for that success.

If you find yourself complaining in any way about your customers you need to STOP and start thinking “Okay what can we do better to make people want to visit us?”

And then you need to think that thought every single day. Trust me - that is exactly what the very successful guys are doing, whether they consciously think it or not.

June 22nd, 2010 | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

At Caffe Culture this year much of what Hugh and I will be doing is talking about marketing.

In our coffeeshopquestion survey (which if you haven’t filled it out yet - please DO!) the biggest issue so far is an inability to attract new customers. Therefore this will be a major part of our talk.

One of the key things that I found when managing and marketing my own F&B businesses was that it was very useful to steal ideas from other industries and to keep watching what other people are doing to creatively market to THEIR customers.

This very short video is a great example of some ideas that with just a little bit of tweaking you could apply very quickly into your coffee shop business AND possibly gain some PR as a result. They would certainly create talking points for your customers.

Hope to see you next week.

Johnnie Richardson

June 16th, 2010 | Tags: Coffee Marketing, Johnnie Richardson, Marketing | Category: Coffee Business, Coffee Marketing, Johnnie Richardson, The CoffeeBoys | Leave a comment

The use of social media (and an online strategy in general) is one of the key ways to cleverly increase your ability to interact with and retain customers. At Caffe Culture this year I will be doing a session on How to Create a Profitable Online Strategy . We’ve been working on a variety of online strategies for a number of clients this year and in certain cases this has been a huge success.

Like ‘em or loathe ‘em it’s impossible to ignore how effect Starbucks have been with their recent online strategy. Check out this video from last weeks online Mashable conference. If you can remove your “Starbucks-scepticism” there are some gems in here.

June 14th, 2010 | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Take a wee look at this video.

In essence it’s a relatively basic band playing a bit of a tired old ZZ Top song.

But the actions of one guy turns it into something that has now had 2.5 million views on Youtube!

Sometimes that’s all it takes. A decent underlying business and a HUGE chunk of passion about one area.

What can you do in YOUR business to stand out and gain the equivalent of 2.5 million Youtube viewers coming through your doors?

And don’t forget - if you own or operate a coffee shop we need your help.  We have a two minute (honestly!) survey that we need your help with.

http://www.thecoffeeshopquestion.com/

We look forward to seeing you at Caffe Culture

Johnnie Richardson

June 9th, 2010 | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Today’s Guardian has yet another story about the closure of pubs and clubs.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jun/06/bars-pubs-bust

We’ve talked about this many times and in many formats but it continues to be a great opportunity for coffee shops.  The reality is that the big three historical centres of a community are all disappearing:

1.  Churches - as a nation we really don’t go any more

2.  Local Pubs - closing at a rate of FOUR per day

3.  Post offices - again closing at a ferocious rate

These closures, coupled with an increasing geographical dispersion of family and friends, means that there are a heck of a lot of lonely people out there without any clear focal point in the community.

That, of course, is where you come in.  It is vital to work yourself into the local community and seize this opportunity before your competitors do so.

And don’t forget - if you own or operate a coffee shop we need your help.  We have a two minute (honestly!) survey that we need your help with.

http://www.thecoffeeshopquestion.com/

We look forward to seeing you at Caffe Culture

Johnnie Richardson

June 8th, 2010 | Tags: coffee shop profits, Guardian, Johnnie Richardson, pub closures, The Coffee Boys | Category: Coffee Business, Johnnie Richardson | Leave a comment

First of all congratulations to all of you who made the list. Clearly these things are important and sometimes a pat-on-the-back by the media is as important as a few extra pounds in the till. Much as Hugh and I often rant that “it’s all about the money” it is clearly equally all about a strong sense of personal pride that you’ve done a great job!

For those of you who didn’t make the list and perhaps think you should… I may well agree. These lists, while often very well put together, are clearly flawed. Very often the judges have commercial relationships with some of the winners and it’s almost impossible to cover all the great coffee shops out there with just a handful of judges. I know that if I was judging such a list I would struggle not to put many of my own clients on the list. So don’t lose heart if you’re not on the list and see what you can do to learn from them.

With that said there are a couple of ideas that I think may be of benefit to you from looking at these lists:

The Independent List

http://www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest/food-drink/the-50-best-coffee-shops-1903388.html

Time Out

http://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/features/6361.html

The Guardian List

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2009/sep/25/ten-best-coffee-shops-uk

As ever let me know your thoughts below.

February 28th, 2010 | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The following is a short video about a guy in the US who is giving away a free AK-47 with every “truck” he sells. The interesting thing is that he is clearly a intelligent guy and actually argues his point relatively well.

For those of us in the UK (and clearly parts of the US too) this is truly shocking. But just look at how much coverage this has got him and how much of an immediate impact it has had on his sales.

Clearly I’m not proposing you try to give away guns with every coffee but there is a huge amount to learn from this. Just imagine how much of a talking point this must be in his local neighbourhood.

What can you do that is outrageous and will grab local headlines?

This is classic “Hustle” at its best as we talk about in the latest module in your “Free Recession Report”

And this is exactly the sort of thing that you need to do to make sure you thrive and survive during these tough times.

July 26th, 2009 | Category: Uncategorized | Comments (1)

The collapse of O’Briens (and Coffee Republic) is to a large extent not very surprising but it comes into acute focus since I go past an O’Briens and an Eat nearly every week in life at a majot UK airport.

The difference and the “DESIRABILITY” between the two of them couldn’t be more marked.  For that reason I wanted to discuss these two businesses within the context of the “Desire and Trust” video that we have in our Recession Report.  If you haven’t seen this yet make sure you sign up at:

The Coffee Boys Recession Report Sign Up Page

July 14th, 2009 | Category: Uncategorized | Comments (2)

A clip from our Exhibition rantings in Glasgow last month kindly sent to me by our Coleraine friend.

Caffe Culture coming soon with new concepts from our new book … currently with the publishing editors (very fussy folk) and due for release hopefully next month.

Hugo.

May 27th, 2009 | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment