Staffing & Labor
Efficiency Training Begins With the Basics
Efficiency is essential for a successful cafe, yet it's also one of the trickiest skills to teach. Here's how to start building efficient practices and passing them on to your team.
Section
Café Business
38 stories · Page 2 of 2
- Marketing & Branding
Turning Café Retail Into a Brand Statement
A thoughtful approach to café merchandise can transform shelf items into a meaningful part of the shop’s identity and bottom line.
- Staffing & Labor
Interview Questions That Reveal How Candidates Think and Collaborate
Hiring conversations go better when interviewers prepare thoughtful, open-ended prompts and listen for how applicants solve problems, receive criticism, and work with others.
- Marketing & Branding
Building a Marketing Foundation for Coffee Shops: A Three-Tier Approach
A practical framework for coffee business owners to craft distinctive marketing by starting with brand essence, then messaging, and finally strategy.
- Operations & Menus
Cafes Adapt Menus to Welcome Diners with Food Allergies
Coffee shops are finding ways to serve customers with food allergies and intolerances without sacrificing creativity or sustainability, from alternative milks to allergen-aware syrups.
- Marketing & Branding
Beyond the Mug: How Coffee and Tea Shops Turn Brand Love into Shelf Space
Three shops on two continents show how pins, candles, and playful slogans can extend a cafe's identity past the cup—and why small, useful souvenirs often outperform the obvious standbys.
- Operations & Menus
Coffee Business Owners' Earnings: What a 2023 Survey Reveals
A survey of 155 U.S. coffee business owners shows average pay by business type, the slow path to higher income, and why many intentionally keep wages low.
- Operations & Menus
How Coffee and Tea Shops Can Get a Better Commercial Lease
Practical negotiation tactics for café owners facing experienced landlords and agents, from countering first offers to reassessing deposit and lease terms.
- Marketing & Branding
Building a Visual Identity for Your Café Through Photography
First impressions often happen online, so it's worth learning how to take attractive, on-brand coffee photos—even with just a phone—to draw in customers and show off your shop's character.
- Staffing & Labor
How Coffee Shops Rethought Worker Safety and Pay During the Pandemic
From eliminating tips to creating wellness funds, independent cafés used the disruption of COVID-19 to address long-standing inequities for baristas.
- Marketing & Branding
Five Conversations That Reveal What Your Café Customers Really Value
With specialty coffee now widely available, the experience around your brand has become the real point of difference—and structured conversations with customers are how you find out what that experience is worth to them.
- Marketing & Branding
Making Twitter Work for Baristas: Education, Promotion, and Genuine Engagement
A practical look at how baristas can use a short-form social platform to learn from industry leaders, promote their cafés, and build a professional presence without overdoing self-promotion.
- Operations & Menus
Coffee Shops Adapt to Changing Seasons and Customer Habits
From take-and-bake scones to candles and bulk drinks, café owners are finding new ways to connect with customers and keep revenue flowing.
- Operations & Menus
Building a Local Hub: Five Strategies for Café Owners to Cultivate Community
Operators of independent coffee shops share how they connect with neighbors, involve staff, and respond to feedback to create a welcoming gathering place.
- Staffing & Labor
When Baristas Become Bosses: Inside Baltimore's Cooperative Coffee Scene
A look at how worker-owned coffee shops in Baltimore are rewriting the rules of employment—and why some are pairing cooperative ownership with union representation.
- Staffing & Labor
Union Breakthroughs at Two Coffee Chains, While Kaldi’s Faces Boycott
Employees at Discourse Coffee in Milwaukee and Cat & Cloud in Santa Cruz formed unions with voluntary recognition from their employers. Meanwhile, Kaldi’s Coffee organizers launched a boycott to pressure the company into recognizing their union.
- Staffing & Labor
Hiring for Values: How Coffee Businesses Find Staff Who Share Their Mission
A café or roastery that wants its sustainability and community commitments reflected in daily operations needs employees who genuinely embrace those priorities. Operators describe how they identify and onboard people whose outlook matches the company's purpose, rather than relying only on prior barista experience.
- Operations & Menus
Café Quality Upgrade: Lessons from a Two-Year Transformation
A coffee business owner shares how he rebuilt his café program by focusing on people, questioning every detail, and investing heavily in training.
