Starting a Small Coffee Shop in Brisbane: Advantages, Disadvantages, and Challenges

This research study explores the advantages, disadvantages, and challenges of starting a small coffee shop in Brisbane, Australia. It includes a literature review on the history of coffee, the industry and production of coffee, and a business plan for the startup. The proposed coffee shop, 'Sip & Gossip', aims to provide high-quality services and hospitality to customers in the evolving coffee culture of Brisbane.

Integrated Business Management Project

Executive Summary
In the contemporary lifestyle, the evolution of coffee as an edible beverage has gained
enormous popularity. Initially, the rise of coffee was traced from Ethiopia and gradually the
cultivation was flourished all around the world. The passage of time facilitated various
transformation in the ways of consuming coffee. Now people invented diverse variants of
consuming coffee as per their preferences and choice. This implication further leads to the
augmentation of the concept of coffee shops. People started investing in their passion for serving
people with best quality coffee along with great ambiance and hospitality. Moreover, the
population of the present time has readily accepted the concept and also encouraged the
integration of the following the business.
Therefore, "Sip & Gossip", a startup of a small coffee shop in Brisbane, Australia is
proposed in the following research study. The potential alignment of this study explored the
advantages, disadvantages, budgeting challenges and other issues associated with it.
Undoubtedly, the business idea is competent as per the conditions of the contemporary business
market. Risk factors are equally associated with the following business but this could be an
opportunity for the owner to serve the passion and create a business of long-term sustainability.
Overall, the proposed study is an informative piece of research work to start a coffee shop as it
has explored all the aspects of this business by considering all the positive as well as negative
scenarios.

Table of Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Overview/Background of the Business...........................................................................................6
Literature Review............................................................................................................................7
History of Coffee.........................................................................................................................7
Industry and Production of Coffee...............................................................................................9
Advantages of Creating a New Startup about Small Coffee Shop............................................11
Disadvantages of Creating a New Startup about Small Coffee Shop........................................13
The problem of Budget to Start a New Project of Small Coffee House....................................14
Other Challenges Associated with the New Startup of a Small Coffee Shop............................16
Business Plan for the Startup.....................................................................................................19
Vital of Location........................................................................................................................21
Communication with Consumers...............................................................................................22
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................24
References......................................................................................................................................26

Introduction
In the modern era of development and advancement, people have started investing and
implementing new practices to facilitate the self-purpose as well as population around them.
Unlike traditional business operations, the modern world is more oriented to develop innovative
and practical business models for the market. Such implications led to the evolution of startups,
in which, certain services or products are presented, which are explored as a potential loophole
of the existing market. For instance, the startup of Uber cabs is a considerable example of
loophole and need of the market (Colombo and Grilli, 2010). It assisted the customers in finding
their rides at their doorstep.
In the simple context, the considerations of a startup can be further explained as an
entrepreneurial business venture, which aims to validate the requirements of the contemporary
market conditions by formulating a business process considering a particular product, service,
culture or platform. Moreover, the relations of the startup company can be relatively described as
the operations of developing and validating the scalable business model. There is no denying the
fact that the initiation of the startups possesses a high probability of failure rates. However, the
minority success ratio flourishes the companies, which are aligned to grow large and influential
(Gage, 2012).
In addition to this, the business relations of startup describe it as a young company in the
competitive market that just started developing. Usually, startups and other similar businesses are
backed and operated by a single or a group of individual. The orientation of the startups is
aligned to produce a service or product that is not currently available on the market. If available,

then it is either being offered in higher prices or inferior manner (Hechavarria and Reynolds,
2009). The initiation of a startup is a relative process for the development of business practices.
Furthermore, numerous factors are involved in the establishment and creation of a new business
venture.
Considering the following relations, the anticipated study is undertaken to discuss the
attributes of new business startups. The formulation of the research study is potentially aligned in
a manner to discuss the relative information of starting up a new coffee house in the city of
Brisbane, Australia. Consideration of a startup proposal will further assist the assignment in
validating the proposed objective of the integrated business management. This study will also
involve the sections of business overview, literature review, origin, production, advantages,
disadvantages, business plans and vitalization of location.
Overall, the following research study is proposed to make enlightening and informative
discussions over the relations of integrated business management. Integration of a potential
example of the new coffee shop in Brisbane will facilitate the study in making factual and
descriptive arguments over the research topic. The influence of the sub-segments will assist the
study in rationalizing the informative outcomes of starting up a new business venture (Creswell,
2008). Therefore, this study can be measured as a crucial and descriptive piece of research work
to present potential insights into the implications of integrated business management. Along with
this, advantages, disadvantages, budding challenges, business plan and vitality of location are a
supplementary advantage to rationalize the following study.

Overview/Background of the Business
Every morning, wakening from bed with bleary eyes is more certain to die. Though it's a
recurring process of everyday life, the morning sensation of wakening eyes prised by sunlight
makes it challenging to initiate a single undertaking. This brings the urge of caffeine shots to
boost the metabolism and satisfy the pine for coffee. The desperate plea for coffee or caffeine
also facilitates the delivering from tiredness. Considering this need and evenness of the product,
business ventures started investing in the following business of serving coffee to the customers
(Mineharu, et al., 2010). With the passage of time, the following business advanced by
introducing specialized blended coffees and other variants.
In the context of the aforementioned research study, a startup of a new coffee shop is
proposed in Brisbane, Australia. The culture of coffee shops is quite evolving and certain in the
city of Brisbane. Despite acquired market by the established businesses, no sense of
competitiveness can be detected in the following business. Even more, the establishments of
coffee-peddling bars and cafes are considerably lot more than just a coffee shop because many
places have relatively started the business of dinner trading, boutiques and serving local beers
(Oba, et al., 2010). The taste of coffee is trending and it is even flourishing the business ventures
aligned to it.
As per the market relations, there is no denying the fact that Brisbane is growing as a
major market player in the Australian coffee culture. From fancy outlets to old building
courtyards, coffee shop brew bars and hand-roasted blends can be seen all around the city of
Brisbane. All the ventures are functioning with diverse considerations to facilitate the customer
relationship by satisfying the blend of coffee (Asadi, Zhou and Yang, 2009). Competitive factors

are condensed to nominal as all the coffee shops located there are dedicated to a diverse range of
blended coffees and other delicacies.
The following research study is undertaken to propose the startup of a new coffee house
named as “Sip & Gossip” in the city of Brisbane, Australia. The urge requirement and
contemporary market conditions prompted the investment in the sector of coffee and food culture
(Monshouwer, Van Laar, and Vollebergh, 2011). The orientation of the research is to bring some
innovative concepts and services to the market for food and beverages in Brisbane by providing
good quality food, beverages, ambiance, services, and hospitality. Even, the name itself justifies
the visionary outcome of the researcher as “Sip & Gossip” is a collective upshot of sipping
coffee, relaxing, refreshment, chatting and gossiping.
The proposed business idea is a startup for sure but it will present a comprehensive
example of high-quality services and hospitality in the business of food and beverages to the
customers. In addition to this, the location of the coffee shop in Brisbane will also act as a
facilitating factor in the successful business startup. Rising involvement of Brisbane coffee
market and evenness of the product will majorly act as a contributing factor for "Sip & Gossip".
Literature Review
History of Coffee
In the contemporary lifestyle as well as business market, coffee is considered as the most
valuable commodity, which is legally traded. After oil, it is the second most dealing entity that is
used for both businesses as well as consumption. The stats further justify the utilization by
presenting that every single day approximately 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed all

around the world. With the existence of numerous fruits around us since the ages, coffee’s
origination is considered as an enveloped mystery. It is believed by the people that a goat herder
named Kaldi discovered the fruit of coffee when he observed that his goats are highly vigorous
after eating the red fruits plucked from the shrubs of coffee tree (Luttinger and Dicum, 2011).
Some academicians even believe that the origination of the coffee is traced from the
regions of Ethiopia since the date back to 10th century. It could be originated earlier as well
because of traits of coffee consumption are marked according to earlier legends and reports. The
Sufi monasteries of Yemen have presented the most primitive evidence of drinking coffee and
presence of coffee tree since the 15th-century world. With the passage of time, during the 16th
century, the consumption of coffee reached the domain of Middle East, South India (Coorg),
Persia, Northern Africa, Turkey and Horn of Africa (Ellis, 2011). Furthermore, it even stretched
its consumption to Balkans, South East Asia, America, Italy and remaining countries of Europe.
In addition to this, academic researchers also certify that the term "Coffee" is rooted in
many different languages all around the world. In the language of Yemen, it is named as Qawah,
which is a romantic term used for wine. Further transformation led its name to Turkish kahveh
and then to Dutch koffie and lastly to Coffee in English. This justifies the origination, evolution,
and development of coffee from the earlier times to the modern world (Davis, et al., 2011).
In addition to this, the latest version of roasted coffee and beans is projected to be
originated from Arabia. In the 13th century, coffee gained enormous popularity in various
Muslim countries due to stimulant power contribution, which helped the parishioners during long
prayer sessions. Till the era of the 16th century, coffee crops and farming was restricted to the
regions of Arabia and Africa only. Afterward, an Indian pilgrim named as Baba Budan bought

fertile coffee beans from Mecca, which further lead to the revolution of competitive coffee trade
in European countries. The first European-owned coffee state was founded in the year 1616 In
Sri Lanka. Thereafter, Ceylon and Java were also discovered as coffee estates in 1696. The
comprehensive progression further facilitated the growth of coffee by French in the Caribbean,
Spanish in Central America and the Portuguese in Brazil (Wolf, Bray and Popkin, 2008).
Furthermore, the business development leads to the establishment of European coffee shops in
Italy and France and also justified the business relations by flourishing enormous popularity.
Industry and Production of Coffee
Coffee is one of the most popular and universally consumed food beverage or
commodity. A major section of coffee is produced in developing countries such as South
America; however, it is mostly consumed in the regions of industrialized economies. In various
developing countries, around 25 million people are solely dependent on the business of coffee
production or trading in order to earn their livings. Brazil, who was the largest exporter of coffee
in September 2017, has an estimated population of approximately 5 million small producers
relying upon the business of coffee production by harvesting and cultivating the 3 billion coffee
plants there (Murthy and Naidu, 2012).
Coffee cultivation is unlike sugarcane cultivation or cattle breeding as it comprises more
labor-intensive culture than alternatives culture. Furthermore, the progressions are less aligned to
automation practices and hence, require constant attention and heed. The export considerations
of the coffee production indicate toward a remarkable business of the industry as it falls under
the category of major export commodity. In 2004, it was recorded as the top agricultural export
for 12 countries in the world. However, in 2005, coffee was documented as the seventh largest

legal export commodity by value. And most importantly, from the year 1970 to 2000, the
production and trading of coffee are evident as the second most valuable entity exported by the
developing countries. The consistency and uniformity of the business for 30 long years justify
the market conditions are business potential of the industry (Mussatto, et al., 2012).
Moreover, green (unroasted) coffee beans are also a market leading commodity in terms
of export relations. The trading of following entities falls under the attributes of future contract
on exchanges such as the New York Board of Trade, the London International Financial Futures
and Options Exchange, New York Intercontinental Exchange and New York Mercantile
Exchange. Globally, Brazil is the leading producer of green coffee followed by Vietnam,
Indonesia, Colombia, and Ethiopia. In addition to this, the port of Hamburg, Germany is also a
renowned name in the business of coffee production and trading as it the world’s largest transfer
point for coffee (Clifford, 2012).
Now, the production of coffee is defined as the industrial process of converting raw
coffee berries of the coffee plant to the form of edible coffee. The pulp from the coffee fruit is
removed to extract the seeds, which are then dried. As the dependency on coffee production is
highly rated in developing countries, local processing of coffee also assists the local population
as well the government in generating hefty revenue (Mussatto, et al., 2011).
Production of coffee from the scratch is a long and throughout the process of approximately 5-6
years. Coffee plants do not even flower for three to four years since plantation. Afterward,
flowering, ripening and drying process also takes time. The initial phase of coffee production is
picking up of coffee fruits either by strip picking method or selective picking method.
Afterward, processing of the berries/fruits is done to remove the pulp and fruit layers over the

seeds through a wet process, dry process or semi-dry process. Furthermore, the extracted beans
are brought to the final process of milling undertakes to clean and sort the coffee beans. Hulling,
polishing, grading, cleaning, and sorting are the potential methods involved in the procedure of
milling. Overall, the process of coffee production is an elongated as well expensive industrial
method (Gouvea, et al., 2009).
Advantages of Creating a New Startup about Small Coffee Shop
According to Kilmer (2014), distant from the following considerations of history, market
conditions, production and industry of coffee, there are also some potential advantages
associated to the start-up of small coffee shops (Kilmer, 2014). The following advantages are
discussed below:
 The sense of Freedom: Owning a personal coffee shop seems quite fascinating as it could
help the owner in getting the sense of freedom, which is usually dreamt by many people.
It can also facilitate the lifestyle and work culture alike many successful business owners
(Higdon, 2016).
 Be Your Own Boss: Startup of a new small coffee shop could also deal with the
considerations of employment practices of an individual. This could be an opportunity for
the person to utilize business skills, passion, compassion and work experience for
steering own ship of entrepreneurship. Also, being your own boss is a determined vision
of each and every working employee (Papachristos, et al., 2011).
 Profitability: Gaining profitability in the business of coffee shop ventures is a great task
to achieve, but if achieved once, then it could facilitate the owner with all the
developments and temptations of life. Success is also highly addictive like coffee and

business of coffee shops could boost the profitability, expansions and customer service
relations (Pulido, 2017).
 Uplift the Community: The further benefit or satisfaction associated with starting of a
coffee shop is un-quantifiable as it provides a magnificent lifestyle to the owner as well
to the owner's community. Some businessmen consider it as a primary concern for the
startup; however, others believe it as additional benefits of having a personal business
(Higdon, 2016).
 Permit of Expressing Creativity: Creating a startup of the coffee shop also assists the
owner in shedding the opinions and perspectives of other people in order to develop and
execute personal ideas. The attributes of expression of creativity could lead to the sense
of satisfaction and business development (Papachristos, et al., 2011).
 More Socialized with Neighborhoods: This employment is favorable in numerous ways
because the owner of the coffee house if getting paid for the work he\she is happy to do.
Meeting new people, making friends, gossiping and serving people with happiness is the
working profile and people are readily paying for this. Thus, a nice coffee shop not only
gives profitable business, it also eases the engagement of owner with new people and
neighbors (Pulido, 2017).
 Comprehensive Consideration of Sharing Great Coffee with Passion: Owning a good
coffee shop is a potential segment of occupation to align the passion for coffee along with
spending quality time with friends as well as family. Overall, it hastens the passion for
coffee and sociality to a new level (Higdon, 2016).
 Builds a Lasting Business: Starting up a small coffee house is a long-lasting planning of
the sustainable and unremitting business. Neither the coffee goes out of style not the

people stop hanging out with their loved ones. Hence, it is a trending business for
hundreds of year to come unlike other market dependent businesses such as fashion,
clothing, commodity, and services (Papachristos, et al., 2011).
Disadvantages of Creating a New Startup about Small Coffee Shop
Contrary to this, Johnson (2016) firmly believed that every business or startup is equally
surrounded by pros and cons (Johnson, 2016)). Similarly, creating a new coffee house as a
startup also has numerous disadvantages associated with it, which are discussed below:
 Boss is everything: Being a boss of any business venture is not an easy task. The
authority of leadership and command comes along with responsibility and liability.
Therefore, owning a coffee house simply means that everything starts with the owner and
ends back to the owner (Tran, 2013).
 Always Looking for Money: Bringing up the dream project of a coffee house to ground
considerably requires financial help and monetary flow to keep the business afloat.
Consistent inflow and outflow of money to validate the sustainable development of
coffee house sometimes become a matter of worry for the coffee shop owners (Johnston,
2017).
 Hiring and Firing: Dealing with regular up and downs of the hiring and firing process of
the employee becomes challenging for few coffee shop owners because these
implications demand sufficient time as well as efforts to hire a new employee and train
accordingly to facilitate the business (Wilson①a, Wilson, and Whittingham, 2013).
 Risk of Drowning the Ship: Many times, despite lots of hard work, planning, passion and
investment, the business of coffee shop fails. This simply means the investment made to

the business also drowns, which is a considerable risk taken by the coffee shop owners.
The risk is potentially justified as there is a reward for profitable, sustained and life-long
business on another side (Tran, 2013).
 Time Consuming: Starting a business is a time-consuming task because it is a collective
execution of planning, analyzing, efforts and hard work. Establishment of various things
and bringing all them up in a single frame takes time as well as pains. No successful
business are brought to the market overnight, there is a long story of passion, efforts, and
sacrifices behind it (Johnston, 2017).
 Married to the Business: Though this phrase is age-old for the business owners, it
validates the condition of a coffee shop owner. The level of commitment and work
demanded by a coffee shop startup literally makes it feel like marrying to the business.
Furthermore, owning a business means owning it for days, nights and even on weekends
(Wilson①a, Wilson and Whittingham, 2013).
 Competitors: This is the most crucial disadvantage of starting up a coffee shop because
the owner can rationalize the investment of money, efforts and time but the competitive
market condition is a firm challenge to face (Tran, 2013).
 Suppliers: Initially, coffee shop owners have to deal with the suppliers as well. In order to
get the entities at wholesale and competitive prices, trading with the suppliers is a must.
However, availing credit for those items will not be possible as no one would give credit
a newly started business. Hence, it is very detrimental to the cash flow (Johnston, 2017).
The problem of Budget to Start a New Project of Small Coffee House
The most prominent indigenous factor for failures of startups, especially SME’s, is
inefficient financial management and planning. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to give

priority to this factor. This may seem natural but in actuality, the founder is mostly found to be in
dissonance with the financial management. This could be driven by two factors, that is, either the
founding member(s) ignore the importance of finance function, or do not have the appropriate
knowledge or proper financial persons to make and implement financial plans.
The SME’s can be of many types, like, family owned, new technological market ones,
franchises, social and nonprofit ones, etcetera. The common point in all of them is that financial
issues, be those of indigenous (financial management) or endogenous (funding), are most
influential for success and failure of a startup.
Finding the initial funding for the startup of a small coffee house can be difficult. The
sources of funding can be many. To assure a constant funding for positive cash flow, the
business plan for the coffee house must be viable in the long run. In the present marketplace,
lean planning is more reliable with the one-page pitch as a tool to reflect the profitability of the
startup, customer base and stimulated growth.
The financing may have a lifecycle approach (Robb, and Robinson, 2014) with stages of
Initial Insider finance, intermediated finance, and the public finance. The initial insider finance
can be provided by the startup team, family members, and friends. The initial finance can also be
backed up by loans via local banks or credit union. It is seen that generally during first six
months, a startup with potential could not generate enough revenue to stay positive in cash flow.
Cash flow is the revenue the startup generates in terms of the expenses for its growth. For this, it
must be ensured that personal expenses are covered by a side or part-time job, or simply by
initial savings; up to six months. Intermediate finance is provided by finance companies, banks

or by venture capital, while public finance sources mainly from the stock market and debt
markets.
While the financial challenge in Existence phase would be to fulfill startup demands and
initiating growth of it; in survival, it would be of maintaining cash to break even. Some of the
processes to ensure this and later stages of the budgeting of the coffee shop would be Formal
cash planning with cash forecasting, functional management of budgets with the long-term plan
of dedicated planning and standardized cost planning.
To use the initial funding appropriately in creating growth in the organization, allocating
resources wisely in products, services and resources are what calls for strategic planning. The
two phases of existence and survival are cash demanding in market exploration, segmentation,
building customer profile, product development, sales and its mapping.
The next important item is of working capital and the management of its cores of account
receivables, payables and inventory. It is not advised to sell to customers with bad record or risky
financial shape. A long-term cash flow projection with one-year cash flow statements on
monthly basis is of prime importance.
Other Challenges Associated with the New Startup of a Small Coffee Shop
Considering the viewpoints of McAdam and McAdam (2008), creating a startup of the
coffee shop could be a facilitating as well as challenging because of its alignment to numerous
factors (McAdam and McAdam, 2008). Moreover, the author also inferred that apart from
financial and economic challenges, there are many other challenges in the following business,
such as:

 Financial: Creating a startup of a small coffee shop is considered as a factor of potential
market risk for the owner. Along with time, efforts and hard work, money is also an
important fixation in the business policies. Sometimes, risking the savings and debts
could lead to the accomplishment of successful businesses but initially, the owner should
be prepared for the loss of investment (Douceur, et al., 2010).
 No More Dependency over the Paychecks: As per the experiences of many coffee shop
owners, many times there comes the situation when they do not have enough funds to pay
their bills, employee’s salary and personal expenses. Sometimes, the owners even have to
work for 60-80 hours a week without expecting profitability for self. Thus, the owners of
the coffee shops are expected to administer all the practices by paying for the food, rent
and other basic necessities (Higdon, 2016).
 Ability to take Quick and Difficult Decisions: Owning a coffee shop in any city demand
the owner to be courageous and spontaneous in making business-related decisions.
Considering the business and investment at stake, it is required for the owner to take
difficult decision in hard times by analyzing the prospects from all possible scenarios
(Batova, Clark and Card, 2016).
 Ability to Adapt and Endure Growing Pain: After creating the startup of a new coffee
shop, the owner is expected to move along the learning curve of the coffee business. This
will certainly bring growing pains along with this. Therefore, it is expected as an owner
of the coffee shop to build up stress, making mistakes, challenging with the employees
and needless expenses (Douceur, et al., 2010).
 Adaptability to the Change in Lifestyle: Adapting the lifestyle of a businessman or an
entrepreneur is a challenging task in itself. The business starts demanding long

operational hours despite weekdays or weekends, consistently for weeks, months and
even for years. Furthermore, the family also needs to make sacrifices of family trips,
events or functions (Higdon, 2016).
 Being Right-Brained and Left Brained Simultaneously: This phrase is considerably used
to present the dilemma of a coffee shop owner, who needs to be analytical as well
creative while taking any potential decision of business development. Such implications
could help the coffee shop owner in achieving the visionary aspects of business along
with making it more feasible and economical (Batova, Clark and Card, 2016).
 Flexibility: Creating a startup of the coffee shop also strains the flexibility traits in an
owner. The rationale for this requirement is to make the make the optimum utilization of
the potential possessed by the owner. Sometimes, the owner is expected to wake up early
and work till late night, which indicates the need of flexibility for the passion to make
successful business venture (Douceur, et al., 2010).
 Providing Excellent Customer Service: In the modern scenario, there are numerous coffee
shops and cafes around people and all of them are equipped with high-class facilities to
provide quality food to the customers. However, the customers prefer going to the places
not only on the basis of a taste of the food or coffee; they prefer the places on the basis of
their overall experience. Therefore, the competitiveness of the market can be dealt with
better customer service (Higdon, 2016).
 Marketing of the Cafe: Building a brand and investing hefty amounts on it could be an
easy task. The challenge is confronted in the marketing of the proposed product or
service. Similarly, marketing of a new coffee shop is also a crucial task for the owner

because it needs to convince or attract the target population for the coffee shop (Batova,
Clark and Card, 2016).
Business Plan for the Startup
One of the real challenges for a business plan to be successful is to be discontinuous
innovative, something which goes beyond usual business and reaches out to the customers in
disruptive, unique ways (Zott, Amit, and Massa, 2011). The business plan must be originated
from reflecting the reason for starting this venture. The driving motive must not rise in response
to the external request but an opportunity.
The business plan helps make important business decisions, anticipate risks and
obstacles, set benchmarks, respond to financial unpredictability and most importantly gather
funding sources. In all, it manages Marketing, Operations, Finances and long-term development
effectively (Chen, Hope, Li, and Wang, 2011). Sometimes, the factor ruining its effectiveness is
impatience. The preliminary plan or the basic concept is incomplete to attract funding. The
factors guiding the initiation of the planning process are the main concept, understanding users
and their relationship with the products or services, clear business motives and focus, human
resource management, financial control, market trends, adaptability to change and adept
management.
The ability of the startup to be unique in be it in, products, distribution channels, market
regions, better integration of services has a better chance to let startup succeed. The business
plan process starts with etching out the basic business concept (Ramakrishnan, Jones, and
Sidorova, 2012). This is the basic, strategic foundation for future success. The next steps entail
collecting feasibility and specifics information, refining them as per requirement, followed by

outlining the specifics and finally presenting your plan in a form which evokes interest. The
background technique of questioning in each of these steps helps.
To view your finalized plan as a third person or an investor helps a lot. This is the
reflecting process and includes amendments to any loopholes or drawbacks. The number of
pages for a coffee house startup must not be more than 10-15 pages. These days, as there is a
shortage of time with everyone, especially in the ever-growing investment markets, one- page
pitch is a popular mode of presenting the business plan. One of the effective ways to write it is
by STAR method. This acronym expands to Situation, Task, Action, and Result. This method
helps determine the context of a situation and the opportunity provided, and what actions were
taken in response to this. This plan is easier to get feedback on.
One page pitches are direct and to-the-point, are easy to update and act as a backbone to
the detailed business plan, if necessary. Business plans should project your anticipated exit
strategy or visions up to 3 to 5 years. For a business plan to be full-fledged, it must include a
description of the startup, Industry and market trends, Target market, Competition, Risk analysis,
strategic position, sales plans, Operations and technology plans, Social context, Development,
milestones, exit plans, and Financials.
Focusing on its execution is the next mandatory task of creating a business plan.
Critically and realistically devising marketing and distribution strategies is an important
consideration for the investor to be convinced. Also, in this fast pace of resource and price
changes, it is recommended to track pricing and marketing trends to compete with endogenous
changes.

Vital of Location
In addition to all the aforementioned things, location for the startup of a new coffee shop
is the most influential factor in determining the outlook of the business. In agreement to the
following context, Yu and Fang (2009) also presented a crucial discussion over the significance
of location in exploring and accomplishing the business opportunities. According to the authors,
visibility of the location is the principal factor, which needs to be considered while deciding the
location of the coffee shop. Majority of the population visiting the coffee shops belong to the
local masses, who wish to spend some good time with their friends, families or partners.
Therefore, location, which is visible to common masses, is important for this business (Yu and
Fang, 2009).
Agreeing to the following viewpoints, Collins (2008) further added that the entrance and
exit of the coffee shop should be easy and convenient even for the customers, who are in hurry.
There are numerous customers, who are a regular visitor to coffee houses on their way to work.
Such customers do not like visiting the places having chaotic systems of entrance and exit.
Moreover, the authors also emphasized the availability and occupation of the neighborhood.
Surroundings play a detrimental role in determining the success relations of the business.
Availability of the target customers nearby to the coffee shop is necessary for the successful
accomplishment of the proposed objectives because this business posses customers of regular
commutation (Collins, 2008).
The further assessment of the viewpoints of Karamshuk, et al. (2013) also revealed that
cost-efficient business planning is a considerable requirement to create a startup of the coffee
shop in the contemporary times. Therefore, the owner should critically analyze the location on
the basis of rent, expenses, lease, installments and maintenance charges. Along with this, the

demographics of the location should also be measured for the business operations because a
coffee shop surrounded by foot traffic is beneficial for business. Also, the surrounded foot traffic
should belong to the target customers of the proposed coffee shop, else all in vain. Therefore, the
demographics of the coffee shop location should be justified analytically in order to assure
overall and sustainable business development of the coffee shop startup (Karamshuk, et al.,
2013).
Overall, there is no denying the fact that implication of business like a coffee shop is
relatively dependent on the matter of location. A good location in the locality, having great
infrastructure, customer service and easy to access will facilitate the overall business. However,
not only location is competent enough to justify the business as the following market segment is
highly competitive in nature. Therefore, good quality food, beverages and of course coffee
aligned with the essence of customer relationship could lead the business startup of the coffee
shop to a market of next level (Dewri and Thurimella, 2014). The orientation of the owner
should be diversely activated to make a community instead of customers for the coffee shop.
Such attributes will lead to a justified accomplishment of the passion and efforts instilled in
creating the following startup.
Communication with Consumers
An effective marketing plan is necessary for recognition of the startup in the market and
to reach to the consumers. It must be designed with a constraint of budgeting in mind since other
areas take up a major chunk of the finances. It must be realistic and competitive with other
contemporary firms in terms of price setting strategies and regulating them with demands and
changes.

The marketing plan includes basic steps of making target customers aware of your
products and their uniqueness factors, planning on basis of market demographics, the underlying
theme or message in your products or services, their responsibilities in the social context. It also
includes strategies to communicate that meaning or message to them, delivering at more than
their expectations scale, and techniques for securing actual sales. Marketing includes
advertisements, public relations, telemarketing, e-marketing and sometimes direct mail
solicitations too. Marketing specialists, like, consultants, advertising agencies, etc.
The major elements which are a basis of communication to the consumers are Product,
Price, Place, and Promotion. The product aspect includes the types, range, and features of the
product (Tian, 2011). On a realistic level, it is mostly the benefits which are seen by the
customers rather than the features. Plus, on a longer-term basis, they look out for a product
which fulfills their broader sense of well -being rather than just basic needs or amenities.
The price aspect includes the cost leverage it provides as compared to its competitors.
Plus, these need to be regulated in response to fluctuating market needs, demands, and trends.
The place feature includes the location's ambiance, convenience, transportation routes, décor, etc.
It is one of the important factors in attracting a customer base. Finally, the promotion includes
the marketing strategies, tactics and the amount of marketing done.
There are five F’s or five metrics which help ascertain the marketing plan. The first
metric is Fitness. It ensures that the products and services are up to date with customer
expectations and if it is really fit for the purpose fulfillment of the customer. The second metric
being Fulfillment measures startup's ability to meet the quantity requirements and needs within
the stipulated time. Generally, it is measured by deliveries which are on time and in full quantity

or amount as expected by the customer or as ensured by the startup. Fast, the third metric
measures how long it takes for the organization to meet the requirements of the customer. This is
usually, the response-lead time between an order and the delivery. Flexibility includes its ability
to meet the fluctuating demands of the market and the response time it needs to respond to the
changes and trends. The last factor of Fare includes the cost which is employed in delivering
and/or transporting the services and goods to the customers. This must be optimized for the
profitability of the startup.
Many times the targets and product specifications of the organization and the customer
motivations and demands do not match. Therefore, trade-offs must be considered wisely for
better risk assessment and future success rates with growth in long run.
Conclusion
On the basis of all the aforementioned discussions and arguments, it can be inferred that
consumption of coffee is an age-old practice for mankind. Undoubtedly, the consumption
methods and practices have changed to a great extent with the evolution of time; still, the
principal orientation of the people is same. The origin of coffee was traced from Ethiopia and
gradually the production and cultivation moved to other regions such as Africa, Italy, Brazil, etc.
Furthermore, the passage of time also classified the types of coffee such as green coffee, roasted
coffee, green beans and many more. The gradual rise in the consumption of coffee in everyday
life prompted the influence of the business idea of coffee shops.
Considering this aspect, the following research is undertaken to make vital discussions
about the startup of a small coffee shop in the city of Brisbane, Australia. The orientation of this

research descriptively presented enlightening information about the history, production,
evolution, and industry of coffee. Furthermore, this study also made a comprehensive evaluation
of the advantages and disadvantages associated with the creating a startup of small coffee shops.
The auxiliary arguments of this research explored the various challenges such as budget,
financial risk, employee retention, location and challenging lifestyle, which an owner of a coffee
shop faces after establishing a business of own. Overall, it can be concluded that this study has
made enlightening discussion over the proposed topic of starting a small coffee shop in Brisbane,
Australia. Along with this, literature review from credible and authentic academic sources
potentially contributed to the validity of the following research. Thus, this study can be presented
as a competent piece of authentic information to the aspiring researchers and entrepreneurs, who
are willing to engross in the business of starting a coffee shop.

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