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Effective Small Business Lending Advice for Coffee Shops

In the United States we love our coffee. We consume over 146 billion cups of coffee a year, making the United States the leading consumer of coffee in the world. Because so many Americans drink multiple cups a day, people are reliant on coffee shops and cafes for their daily caffeine intake. Are you doing your best to serve them well so they’ll keep coming back? Here is some advice for coffee shop and café owners.

Keep the menu simple: Many customers may not want to feel overwhelmed when entering a coffee shop. Instead of having your menu littered with various items, try to keep the basics at the forefront. The simple things like regular coffee, lattes, and espresso should be easy to find for customers when they order.

Loyalty cards: A common perk used by coffee shops is the loyalty card. If you give out loyalty cards—say, after 9 coffees you get the 10th free—customers will have a reason to keep coming back to your shop to get that free cup of coffee.

Set the right price margins: Are you setting your prices based on your margins or what customers will expect? In some cases, you may need to sell regular items such as coffee at or below market price. To counteract this loss, you should set high margins on other items that are unique to your shop such as baked goods or sandwiches.

Customers take their coffee seriously and remain loyal to their preferred coffee shop or café. You want to be doing everything you can to make your coffee shop the best it can be in order to manufacture this loyalty. Sometimes, you may need extra money to do that, and AmeriMerchant can get you the working capital you need to improve your business and bring more customers in.

For more information on small business lending for coffee shops, call us at 1-800-267-3790.

This article was originally published by AmeriMerchant

Published: February 4, 2014
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David Goldin

David Goldin is the President & CEO of AmeriMerchant, a leading provider of working capital solutions for businesses including merchant cash advances and business loans. Founded in 2002, AmeriMerchant has over 120 employees and is headquartered in New York City. David's previous experience includes co-founding an Internet development company and building it from four to fifty people that was eventually sold to a multi-billion dollar publicly traded telecommunications company. David is also a founding member and President of the North American Merchant Advance Association (NAMAA), a 501c trade association for the merchant cash advance industry.