What we learnt at Kunzum cafe

So after the ecstasy at Thadi, my friend and I continued on our journey to hunt down more cafes to inspire us. Kunzum cafe was next on our list. Conceptually I had really liked this place. The idea to have a place where people can come, sit  down, relax, talk about their travel plans and share their own travel stories, all this sounded like fun. Just reading about such a place excited me.

With all this in mind, we finally stepped into this cafe. And I was instantly shocked. There was no kitchen in this cafe. In fact this was not a cafe at all. It simply had one side board with a kettle and assorted tea and coffee packs. Trying to hide my initial disappointment, I took off my slippers, to enter the cafe. Yes that's right, you have to take your shoes off before seating yourself. I think I understand the idea behind it, which is to make you feel comfortable, as if you are at home. However in reality the flooring was not all that clean, and so bare-feet walking on a dusty floor did not exactly make me feel at home.

Since there was no menu and there was just one guy who seemed to be serving everyone, for a long time my friend and I just sat there and wondered what to do. We started looking at some of the photographs which were hung on the walls. They were quite pretty. I went and got some travel books about Delhi and Himachal Pradesh from their extensive book shelf and started flipping through the pages. After giving the lone waiter enough time to finish his many tasks, my friend went and placed our order. I wanted something cooling since the temperature in Delhi is still quite a bit high for me at this time of the year. But I had to accept the green tea instead, since there was nothing cold on their sideboard-kitchenette.

Soon we were feeling a bit too suffocated because of the closed nature of the space, and also because the people sat on neighbouring tables had stopped being entertaining, we decided to leave.


Learnings;
The Good: The idea/theme of the cafe is undeniably good. Especially because I pride myself as a world traveller, the theme was closer to heart for me.
I also liked the idea of pay what you like. It sort of made up for the fact that this place is not really a cafe. This also means if you don't like the place or the product, at least you can pay what you feel is correct, instead of being forced to pay an exorbitant price and leave feeling looted.

The Bad: The space was much too closed and there was absolutely no ventilation. To add to this since the place is tightly packed with high, low chairs, sofas and single mattresses on the floor you cannot help but get in each other's way. Eavesdropping into your neighbour's conversation is not an option, it is compulsory here.
Personally a very big negative in my mind was also the fact that there was no personal touch. It is possible that  I went to the place at a wrong time, but I would have really liked it if the owner of the place was there, speaking to people and helping newcomers to connect more with the central theme of the place.

The Ugly: I felt a bit cheated, because this was not a cafe. Tea, coffee, confectionery are the highlights of a cafe, but this place did not put any focus on this aspect at all. My personal belief is ambience cannot be the only highlight of a cafe, the product that is sold also needs to match up to the level of the ambience.

All in all it was a good learning experience, and we went back home with lots of scribblings in our note pad. It is important to learn how to do things. It is also important to learn how not to do things.


Sell Coffee, not your soul

The Bean-diagram

Since many of you wanted to know the goals and aspirations of SYB, I thought a graphical representation of the same would be useful.
Here at SYB virtual world,

• We promote coffee, art (of any form) and revolutionary thinking
• We aim to build a global network of people who have something in common with our ideas, and would like to make a difference

Members of the SYB society will be valued for their contributions towards

• Cafe and art reviews
• Sharing your creations with us - You could provide links to your own work of art or tell us what you want to create
• Helping us spread the idea/concept of SYB far and wide

 I hope the above outline makes our immediate objectives more clear. We think that the only way we can create an impact and make a real difference to the world is when we all work together.


Sell Coffee, not your soul

Inviting birds of the same feather!

SYB invites people who love coffee, art and/or revolutionary thinking, to join us and share our space. You can review your local cafes, and art shows. You can tell us your views on the future of the universe. Yes we are that varied! We love creativity and we love the process of creation. We want you to share your fantasies and whims with us and others who are inspired by the power of your imagination.



The only requirements:


1) You want to change the world!

2) You don’t mind writing about your plans and ideas!

 

Sell Coffee, not your soul

Building blocks of the model

Entrepreneurship comes from within most of the time. It is not something you are specifically taught in schools and colleges. Although there are colleges who claim to be 'teaching' you to be an MBA, I seriously do not think that these institutes by default help you in becoming one. And yes this is a personal view, but well this is a personal blog so the opinions are mine, though I will be glad to listen to different view points.

For me the 'urge to create' is the first step to be enterprising. Next would be the 'urge to learn' and soak in information from wherever and who ever. Third would be an 'eye for opportunity' and the ability to think out of the box (is that an MBA jargon? who knows!). And fourth important and perhaps the most crucial bit to distinguish yourself from being another arm chair expert is to be confident enough to 'take the plunge'. To implement your idea. If you ever wonder why a person with a brilliant idea cannot start his/her own business, you can probably make a list of 100 reasons. But I am also fairly certain that 50% of these reasons are excuses and not reasons. The other 50% however are critical aspects or issues which if not given fair amount of consideration may most definitely cause your the whole enterprise idea to go down the drain. 

Which is why I am building this virtual model for SYB so that I can do some simulations before taking it to the physical level.(And given that my specialisation is modelling, simulation and controls, maybe I know no other way to go about problem solving!) By doing so I aim to:

-Get time to study the basic domain of coffee, cafes and running a shop in more detail

-Give the 50% of the worrying issues enough consideration so that when I take the plunge, I can reduce my chances of failure by some amount

-Gain knowledge and know people from the field of art and coffee, who will be both my consumer as well as supplier

-Understand and study the working of a successful, efficient, sustainable small scale business.

-Understand the target market and gain some e-presence in the field.

So what will be the model behind SYB?

Vision:

To establish a medium to support, promote and discover the power of 

thinking, dreaming, inventing, creating, learning and educating.

Virtual vision: same as above.

Medium: 

A cafe, which sells great tasting coffee and confectionary and at the same time use the cafe space to

demonstrate works of art/ideas of new upcoming artists in all fields, hold workshops and perhaps even

encourage buying and selling of art pieces.

Virtual medium: To have an interactive website which will store our ideas and learnings about the business and at the same time give out information (in terms of links, sites, address as well personal reviews) about different coffee shops, enterprises, arts, artists and performers. It should attract people from different backgrounds and hope to establish a common platform for them to interact and talk about common interests.

Marketing ideas for the cafe:

There are several of my own and some inspired by other places we have been to as well as some from friends and colleagues. To name a few

-Free wifi in cafe

-Writings on the 'wall' (Could be digital writings so that it is easily modified)

-Theme evenings

-Take away cups

-Holding clever quip of the day compitition

-Printing the winning quip of the month on the cups

-With permission from artist, printing art on coffee cups -- as suggested by FK

-Having a cool face recognition system at the entrance of the cafe, which will recognise the face of the customer if he/she is a member of the cafe and projecting a welcome message for him/her on the wall -- as suggested by Punit (update: customer who have their laptops with them can use the wifi in the cafe to to hook onto the cafe network and project thoughts on the 'wall')

Marketing ideas for art promotion and forming a common platform

-Have a membership to the cafe available, and with the help of a simple form, gather information in what kind of art or experiences each member is interested in, and what art group would he/she like to join given the opportunity.

-The cafe will also hold regular competitions for different art form and maybe aim at publishing compilations of art.

-Help in connecting the right people with the right people and the same time know customers better.

Coming up as part of the business model :

-The revenue model

-Food industry rules, laws and certification

-Target audience, location

I guess I need to have a marketing idea for popularising the blog as well but I have always been bad at selling myself or my writing having grown up with the idea that if I am good people will come to me. But obviously times have changed and it needs more effort and some shedding of ego to get it rolling. This is probably the first step to success of SYB!

Sell Coffee, not your soul

Introducing Art-space - featuring Black Sheep

Today is also the day to reveal the second and very important facet of this blog-space. While coffee to us is the blood that runs in our veins, it is only the means to achieve a greater end. The end is so varied that just using the word 'art-workshop' does not really do justice to it, in case its wide spectrum is not perceived correctly. SYB will be a place which not only sells coffee but also promotes art of all and any genre. Anything that is creative and demonstrable will be promoted here in this virtual space. So if any of you guys out there write, paint, sing, play music, dance, do dramas, write clever computer programs to do something 'cool', please please do let us know. All of you and especially if you are at a stage similar to us (which is at the starting point, full of passion and rearing to go ahead), please write to us and SYB will make it its business to know you and get you the right viewer-ship.

With this aspect in mind, I would like to put in a few words about our visit to the Black sheep art gallery in Oxford City, which we visited yesterday. We were just passing by this place when some of the really nice paintings from this gallery caught our attention. Also the gallery was nicely heated, making us automatically walk into it... since I am new into the art scene, I was generally looking at some of the oil paintings which were displayed. Punit on the other hand was having an interesting chat with the lady at the counter (and casually name dropping as well, and talking about the similar paintings he has seen in Paris and Tate Britain). One of my favourite one there was an abstract sky painting with a burst of red in it. Another one and I think by the same artist, Jonathon Show, was a deep blue sky with lightning in it.

With this serene picture in my head, I am going to sign off here. Although I had some more stuff to share, I think its time to call it a day for today. 

Coming up next 
-writing a busniess model
-marketing ideas for SYB 


Sell coffee, not your soul

why coffee?

Why coffee, as many of my friends who I have been discussing the idea with keep asking me. So finally I decided to make a list of reasons as to 'why coffee?'

• Because coffee sells like hot cake
• Coffee sells with or without hot cakes as well :)
• It wakes you up
• It's what we need at the start of a day, middle of the day, or even post dinner
• It's climate-proof (sells hot as well as cold)
• It's age proof (caters to all age group with different taste in food)
• It's affordable (even the most expensive coffee is affordable)
• It's a good excuse for a first date
• It's a good bonding idea for friends and family to meet up over once in a while
• It's a great hangout idea...A cafe is a place where 'F-R-I-E-N-D-S' meet everyday :)
• I have seen trends of most artistic and passionate people having lots of coffee while they are creating something or thinking
• Coffee and art are for some weird reason deeply co-related

 The reasons above are more commercial, apart from these there are a few personal reasons as well, but for right now I am stopping at this much





Sell Coffee, not your soul

In search of my roots

Coffee House Kolkata has always lured me. Except for being born in kolkata, I don't really have much connection to the city. I haven't grown up here to see the city change or fall in love with its people. But there has always been some part of me searching for a place to belong. While I cannot identify with any place in particular in this city, the Coffee House in my fantasies represents the concept of an organisation I would like to be part of.

To me The Coffee House has always been a symbol of the brewing change in the air. It's a place where people who think beyond their own time and generation meet up and weave their seemingly impossible dreams.
It's a place where no name sounds too big, and the unknowns sit next to famous personalities without fear and swap thoughts and ideas.
It's the place where change is treated with reverence and every idea small or big is dicussed, debated and fought over.
It's a place where you don't have to bring a friend to have a nice time, because there is no way you can feel left out in a place filled with like minded people.

I don't really know in what condition this place is these days, since I have only visited it once and that too about 15 years back, holding my dad's hand... yet what it stands for in my head is why I have been so fascinated with it. And in my mind I have a greatness, which I have visualised and want to implement at some point.
 
 
 
Sell Coffee, not your soul