Well done. You’ve launched your idea. You are now a business. The hard work begins now. Here are some things to think about.
- Work at customer service. Make people feel important, whether you are in retail or you’re a plumber. Go the extra mile. Be nice. Be pleasant. Be professional. If you don’t have any customers, guess what? You don’t have a business.
- Keep a good eye on the money. In the early days, make sure you know what’s gone on day to day. Don’t waste money. Before you spend a single pound, ask yourself ‘will this benefit the business?’ Know your costs. If you make something from scratch, what does it cost you to make it? How much margin do you make on each item sold? If you don’t have money coming in at the right time, you won’t have a business for long.
- Look at your sales. What sells well? What’s an absolute turkey? What can you change to make it better? What will you have to stop doing with immediate effect? Sometimes, we add something to the menu that we are really proud of and which we think is delicious. Yet it doesn’t sell. What do you do? You can try to push it and try to advertise it a little differently. Often, that doesn’t work and you realise that, no matter what you do, your customer simply aren’t going to go for it. Then you need to simply stop doing it.
- Never rest on your laurels. Always be adapting what you do. Tweaking here and tweaking there. Making adjustments. Launching new things. At The Coffee kitchen, we’ve launched something new every year we’ve been open. We change the menu frequently, try out specials, and introduce new flavours. We started with a simply menu. A very simple menu. It’s more complex now.
Your business thriving or failing will be up to you. In very rare circumstances, something might happen that’s not your fault and your business will have to close. This is unfortunate. But most of the time, if you had a good idea, got your figures right and marketed your product right, you’ll succeed. Good luck.