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
