Running a Coffee Shop

This workbook turns the course into the tools and decisions that keep a cafe profitable: a recipe-costing and pricing model, a labor-budget schedule built from your sales curve, a supplier negotiation playbook, and a regulars and loyalty system. Work through one section per module, completing each worksheet and checklist with your own real numbers. By the end you will have priced drinks to the cent, set a labor budget you can schedule to, run a roaster negotiation, and launched a loyalty program you can measure.

Cost your core menu to the cent, price it to a target margin, and learn to read the prime cost that decides whether the shop survives.

Pick your best-selling espresso drink and cost it line by line using your latest invoices. Work through coffee, milk, add-ins, and packaging, then total it and divide by your menu price to get the cost percentage. Repeat for one food item so you see how much lower food margins run.

Build one card per menu item and size. Enter each ingredient, the quantity used, and the cost per unit, then total. Any item over a 35 percent cost is draining margin and needs a price or recipe fix.

For each item, divide its cost by your target cost percentage to get the price, then round to a clean menu number. Use a lower cost target (higher margin) for drinks and a higher one for food.

Turn your hourly sales curve into a staffing grid, build a schedule to a dollar labor budget, and control overtime and creep.

Export four to six weeks of hourly sales from your POS and average each hour to get a typical weekday and weekend. Choose a sales-per-labor-hour target and divide each hour by it to find how many labor hours that hour needs. Sketch staggered start and end times that cover the peaks without overstaffing the valleys.

Forecast next week's sales, multiply by your target labor percentage to get a dollar budget, then divide by your blended hourly wage to get the labor hours you can schedule. Build the schedule to fit this number, not the other way around.

Lay out each day with shifts that match your staffing curve. Assign start and end times, the role, and which baristas are cross-trained to flex. Total the daily hours and check them against your labor budget.

Run a real roaster and vendor negotiation, decide make versus buy, and set pars and a waste log that protect food cost.

Before you call or meet a roaster, gather your numbers and your competing quote, then plan which levers you will trade across. Decide your target price per pound, the payment terms you want, and the training or equipment support you will ask for. Write a one-line opener that leads with the relationship and your expected volume.

Score each candidate supplier across the levers that matter, not just price. Use it for your roaster, dairy, bakery, and broadline distributor. The best total package wins, even if it is not the cheapest sticker price.

Set a par for each key item based on usage between deliveries plus a buffer. To order, count on hand and subtract from the par. Keep pars tight on perishables and looser on shelf-stable goods.

Engineer the experience that creates regulars, launch a loyalty program you can measure, and grow through local community and reviews.

Walk your own cafe as if you were a morning-commute regular and a laptop worker. Note every friction and every comfort across speed, consistency, recognition, and space. List the top three frictions to remove and the top three habits (like learning names) to build into the team.

Design a program that raises visit frequency, not just discounts. Choose a tool that fits your POS, set a simple reward, and define the data you will use. Keep the reward explainable in one sentence at the register.

Plan and measure the local tactics that actually move traffic. Log each tactic, what it cost, and the visit lift you can see in your POS or loyalty data. Keep the ones that work and drop the rest.