Open a coffee shop in Beijing

The "northern drift" who comes to Beijing to start a business is different from ordinary office workers. They don't commute regularly from nine to five, but think about their small business day and night.

Among all the "Northern drift" entrepreneurs, we pay attention to a special group: Christians. What is the living condition of this group? Do they value success and making more money, or the peace and stability brought by faith?

Because there are not many successful examples to refer to, their career is often the first for Christians to start in various fields. For example, this reporter interviewed a coffee shop run by a Christian couple. Looking back on the past is like tasting a cup of coffee, both bitter and sweet. In fact, their experience is also a valuable asset for other Christians. I hope new practitioners can benefit from the experience.

The owner of the coffee shop on Ailu Road.

In the afternoon 1 p.m, the reporter came to the Love Coffee Shop in a quiet corner of Wangjing. "In general coffee shops, there are many people in the afternoon, and there is no one in our store at this time." Shopkeeper Joanna joked, "If I didn't believe in God, I would have hit the wall."

This shop is not well decorated, but it is exquisite. Sofas, teddy bears and a series of soul books on the coffee table exude friendly hospitality to customers and care for their owners in every corner. I seldom come to this warm place for coffee. What kind of shop is "love in the cafe, love on the road"?

"In the busy social space, provide a quiet place for everyone to drink coffee and chat with friends." More than a year ago, with a simple idea, Joanna and a pastor friend Matt opened a coffee shop.

The address was chosen in Wangjing because Joanna had long wanted to live a quiet life, and it might be a good attempt to open her own shop. Three years ago, she invested 3 million yuan to buy such a small space of 140 square meters. After considering making a flower shop and being suggested to rent it out, the idea of young pastor Matt selling coffee here immediately touched her.

"Even the priest came to me, and there is no reason not to agree." After deciding to open a coffee shop, Joanna decorated it carefully immediately. I have already begun to ponder in my heart, "since there are priests here, let's make this a place to preach the gospel." Therefore, customers can not only enjoy delicious coffee here, but also see gospel documents and pamphlets, bibles, spiritual counseling books, books on marriage and family, and a series of books written by Louis. ...

In order to enrich the content provided to customers in the store, Joanna persuaded her good friend Celine to quit her job with stable income but heavy workload and join the small team. "She worked at Sony Ericsson, but the pressure of work affected her health," Joanna recalled. "I encouraged Celine to join us. Let's work hard and God will bless us. " Celine was sold.

"Celine is good at making desserts, pasta, sandwiches ... and coffee made by Matt." The three of them walked together and had a good time. They try their best to provide a detailed environment. The furniture purchased by Joanna and the food raw materials prepared by Matt and Celine are of high quality and high grade, and the whole store spent more than 300,000 yuan before and after renovation.

But after the action, all three people found that the reality was different from what they imagined, and the whole environment was not suitable. The location of the store is relatively partial in downtown areas. Some people came here and walked around the neighborhood, but they couldn't find a place and went back ... After a while, Matt left, and the store was not profitable. Celine didn't last long. Everyone needed to live.

One day, Joanna was still in Chengdu, and Celine finally decided to leave this small shop. Although Joanna was a little sad when she was told by her friend on her mobile phone that she was leaving, she replied comfortingly: You don't have to be sad at all. Doing business is inherently risky. If you find a satisfactory job, I am really happy for you, and I will bless you wherever you go.

The store has never turned a profit and is still in the investment stage, but the two main partners have left one after another. Joanna also muttered in her heart at first: you dragged me in, I invested money, and then you all left ... but she immediately put herself in her shoes: she (he) should leave, because I don't know what will happen if this continues.

Although she muttered something to herself, Joanna wanted to reassure her two friends and tell them that "I can do it alone". I occasionally shake my heart: I am not familiar with coffee, and I am not familiar with West Point. "I am mainly responsible for funding previous cooperation." What should we do?

Close the door? But at this node, there are three collective activities here every week: a church in Beijing has a six-month worship on Sunday, and the other is a collective gathering of more than 20 people on Saturday, all of whom are elites from all walks of life. They believe in God, right? But if the door is closed, where will they go to party?

Joanna thought, I plan to hold on first and not "close the door" first. In order to find someone to help, she also took in a migrant child, provided her with food and shelter, and preached the gospel to her. But the girl didn't stay at last. Joanna kindly told her: I hope you can remember your life during this period and try to move in a good direction.

The business of this small shop is expected to improve. Joanna heard that there is a "Jiuguo" coffee book bar nearby, which is also a Christian shop. She went there specially to see if she could learn anything. After going, she found that the coffee book bar was closed and the shop was taken over by others. It's time to do something else. When I said all this, I showed my regret.

"Love in the coffee shop and love on the road", Joanna still hopes that the business here will get better, and she will host some group parties and birthday parties, make friends and communicate. Now, she needs a good helper to turn her hidden good wishes into reality.

A clothing store owner's entrepreneurial experience of drifting north.

From working to starting a business, it takes perseverance to rely on friends.

With the help of my fellow villagers, I got the first venture capital, but the start was not smooth.

There is a home clothing store diagonally opposite the east gate of Tuanjiehu Park in Chaoyang District, Beijing. The facade of the shop is not big, but the brightly colored and beautifully patterned pajamas, carpets, cushions and other household items placed at the door have attracted many customers.

"What do you want to buy? There are many newcomers in the store, please feel free to choose. "

"Do you want pajamas? The products in this series are of good quality and affordable. "

Seeing off, the busy young female boss is called Yang Na. She is of medium height and has a delicate face. Introduce the goods, talk about the price, settle accounts and find money, and be familiar with the goods, giving people a clean feeling. In less than half an hour, more than a dozen guests returned home contentedly.

After graduating from Yang Na University majoring in fine arts in 2007, she came to Beijing from her hometown in Shandong and worked as a designer in a company. Although the income is good, the work is highly repetitive. After a long time, she felt a little monotonous and had the idea of starting her own business.

"Start your own business" sounds beautiful, but what is it actually?

Money is the first hurdle. Yang Na comes from the countryside, and her family's financial support is limited. I have worked for less than two years, although I have accumulated some, but it is not enough.

By chance, she met a Shandong couple who run a household clothing business. They promised to sell goods to Yang Na on credit, and then repay the payment when she had sufficient funds. This solved the financial problem for her to open a small shop and gave her strength and courage.

But Yang Na also knows that to succeed, it is far from enough to rely on the help of fellow villagers. There must be many difficulties in opening a shop. Sure enough, the experience of finding a store site gave her a duel.

In order to find a place with low rent and large passenger flow, she almost traveled all over Beijing: Chaoyang Joy City in the east, Haidian Wuluju in the west, Yizhuang in the south and Beiyuan in the north. Go out at five or six in the morning and go home at nine or six in the evening 10 just to see more places.

In order to save money, subway and bus are her main means of transportation. When thirsty, take a sip of your own water; If you are hungry, please help yourself to a roadside stall. Walking in the sun is a bit overwhelming. When she was most tired, she felt that she was falling apart.

After more than a week of persistence, Yang Na finally found a favorite place near Chaoyangmen. Yang Na's first clothing store officially set sail.

From zero to more than 70 thousand yuan, hard but happy

It is not easy for a person to run before and after, but as long as he thinks of a small shop, his heart is very practical.

Yang Na has long known the business strategy of the new store. The first is to ensure the quality. The first batch of goods was carefully selected by her. Followed by small profits but quick turnover, in order to earn enough popularity, she priced the goods and basically did not make money after eliminating the cost.

Despite this, Yang Na is still a little uneasy.

The night before the opening ceremony, Yang Na stayed up almost all night, excited and nervous. Excited, I finally have my own clothing store. Nervously, the monthly rent of the store is 1000 yuan, and tens of thousands of yuan are still owed to fellow villagers. Can you do it yourself?

On the first day of starting a business, Yang Na's worries were dispelled. After opening the door at 9: 00 in the morning, business came one after another, with almost no intermission. I was so busy on the first day that I forgot to eat lunch and dinner. At night 10 closed at half past six, Yang Na squatted on the ground and giggled for a long time.

Yang Na is not satisfied with the victory. During the day, she will greet guests in the store; When she was free at night, she rushed to her hometown shop to see if there were any new fashions. With warm service and reasonable price, the store achieved sales of more than 40,000 yuan in the first month.

Compared with working in a company, the pace of life after self-employment has obviously accelerated. Yang Na recalled that when she first opened the store, she rented it near the east of Gongyi Bridge in South Fourth Ring Road, and it took more than two hours to commute every day. Get up at 6 o'clock in the morning and get home at 12 in the evening. In order to save money, she didn't hire a clerk, only she was busy.

Although the life is hard, it is also very fulfilling, which brings a lot of happiness to Yang Na.

On the subway and bus home, Yang Na often takes out a small account book to settle accounts. The account book is not particularly professional, but it is full: not only the sales of the day, but also the rent and daily expenses. When it sells well, it will be very happy on the road.

Careful management has paid off, and the turnover of Yang Na clothing store has been rising all the way, with a monthly income of more than 70,000 yuan at most. In less than a year, Yang Na paid off her fellow villagers' money.

From managing the store to managing people, you should charge yourself more.

Shops are dead, people are alive. Mobilizing the enthusiasm of shop assistants is a science.

After more than two years' accumulation, by May of 20 1 1 year, Yang Na's store had been on a small scale. How to further expand the business has become her key consideration.

It is the simplest way to increase the area on the basis of the original storefront, but the difficulty is also obvious: although the passenger flow is large, the monthly rent per square meter storefront is very high because it is located in the bustling commercial district of Chaoyangmen.

Yang Na decided to pick a location with low rent. 20 1 1 year 1 1 month, her second store opened on Tuanjiehu Road.

After the opening of the branch, Yang Na has more employees.

Yang Na doesn't have much experience in human resource management. At first, she didn't find it difficult to "manage people". After signing the contract, I simply told the clerk a few times about my experience in entertaining customers and let them take up their posts. However, it turns out that the effect is not good.

Tuanjiehu Road Store opened for the first month, and its sales were not optimistic; Unexpectedly, the sales of Chaoyangmen store are not as good as when I took care of it myself. After several observations, Yang Na finally found something strange: the clerk didn't entertain the customers according to his own instructions at all, but was not enthusiastic about most customers. After customers come in, the clerk likes to ignore them. As a result, many customers just looked around and left without buying anything.

"Now, my main responsibility is no longer to manage the store, but to manage it." Yang Na said that shops are dead, people are alive, and people need more flexible methods and more flexible incentive mechanisms.

In order to "recharge" herself, Yang Na asked many friends for management books. She has become a frequent visitor to libraries and bookstores.

Gradually, Yang Na began to master some skills of human resource management. For example, how to allocate the ratio of basic salary to incentive salary; How to make employees regard store management as a responsibility? Yang Na redesigned the new salary mechanism, which gradually improved the enthusiasm of shop assistants and improved the operation of the store.

"There are more places to charge." Yang Na said that the needs of customers are constantly changing. If you want to keep up with customers, you should also keep learning and accumulating, such as reading fashion magazines, browsing fashion websites, asking designers for advice and so on. Improve your taste and ability to distinguish product quality.

"In addition, many customers will say when bargaining, how much money is sold online is cheaper than your home." Yang Na said that she also wants to open an online shop, and she is studying online shop knowledge recently. When the time is ripe, it will be put into operation on a suitable platform.

From making money to doing things, let entrepreneurship achieve "transformation and upgrading"

There will be many difficulties in the transition to brand management, but I believe the efforts will pay off.

After four years of operating in household clothes and other products, Yang Na feels that it is time to "transform and upgrade", that is, from the original simple agent sales to brand management.

Yang Na said that the business in these four years is more about making a living and meeting their own survival needs. Now, she wants to put more thoughts on business, from "simply making money" to "doing things seriously".

In her spare time, Yang Na likes to go shopping in big shopping malls, especially some brand clothing stores. Yang Na said that she often has such a clothing store in her dreams: personalized decoration, bright French windows and unique clothes. People who come in want to stay a little longer even if they don't buy clothes ...

In order to realize this dream, Yang Na first registered her own clothing brand and hired a designer who used to work for a well-known foreign design clothing company. After several plans, she plans to open another new store near Shifoying in Chaoyang District.

Now, with her own brand, Yang Na often goes back and forth to the garment processing factories in Beijing and her hometown in Shandong to discuss the details of cooperation with production, such as delivery date, processing technology and cost calculation method. Fortunately, many manufacturers are old friends who have worked together and trust each other, which saves a lot of trouble.

Looking forward to the future, Yang Na is also under great pressure: the salary of employees has risen rapidly, and now everyone has to say less than 3,000 yuan a month. Coupled with the store rent, the cost of normal operation of several stores in one year is at least 600,000. Moreover, as a recruit of brand management, she doesn't know how many variables will be on the road in the future.

But Yang Na is also very confident: after several years of training, she has accumulated a lot of experience in management, marketing and customer relationship maintenance. Although the process of brand management is different, it is relatively easy to add bricks and tiles with the basic framework.

"Think more and learn more. Stick to it and your efforts will definitely pay off. " Yang Na said.

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