2024-10-01 · Telegram (in Russian), t.me/iliathoughts/333

World Coffee Day and what I have to do with it

By the will of fate, I not only like brewing a proper coffee, I also have a connection to the coffee craft. Many years ago we invested in a coffee shop that was pleasant to visit. We decided to help the founder turn it from a single point into a chain and create a source of passive income. The idea seemed great, but reality made its own adjustments.

It turned out that standing behind the counter in one coffee shop and running a chain are different skills. And the one who can do the first is not always ready for the second.

The chain did not start paying dividends as planned. On the contrary, it required large investments that were never returned. We had to part ways with the founder, and so that it all wouldn't sink, I had to dive into the work and do crisis management.

It turned out that the restaurant business is operationally the hardest. Harder than management companies. To change a management company, residents have to hold a meeting. To change a coffee shop, it is enough simply not to come.

Over the last year and a half we closed the unprofitable points. Of four coffee shops, one was sold, and a second was rebuilt as a different concept with a different team. It immediately started bringing 3x the revenue. The third had to be closed completely. In the end one point remained: Papa Carlo in the Yeltsin Center.

The location and the simplicity of management, because there is no kitchen and nothing is cooked to order, let it stay in the black.

Now that the crisis management stage is behind us and many lessons are learned, we can finally think about the concept of the coffee shop in the Yeltsin Center, to make it a visible point on the coffee map of Russia. I wrote a concept and showed it to my friend Lesha Burov, who is a big name in the country's restaurant world. He says if you can implement what is written in it, it can't help but take off.

We have already done the operational hygiene: the display case is full now, there are tasty sandwiches, and good beans and milk arrive on time. That immediately gave +20% to revenue. Now the task is to learn marketing, to tell the townspeople that we are doing well again and they can come to us.

Now we need to carefully implement, day by day, what is written in the concept, breaking it into operational tasks. And not get distracted.

And do come visit. Yeltsin Center, at the end of the atrium, by TsUM.