I’m considering a second book as a follow up to Restaurant Owners Uncorked (“ROU”). But this time, I’d like to interview coffee shop owners. A few thoughts on why I’m considering it…

First, the book would help tons of people who are considering entering the coffee shop business. We like helping people, and the people who read this book are also the audience for our app. So there you go, it’s a way to help people that may one day be customers.

Second, the idea of owning your own coffee shop is cool. Lots of people think it would be fun. Many people dream of doing it. But I bet most people don’t realize how hard it really is, and what you need to do to be successful. Meanwhile we have a lot of successful coffee shops as customers, so we can find out from their owners what it takes to make it in a highly competitive business.

Third, I’m a huge coffee fan. I’ve been drinking it for years. For my money, there’s no better smell in the world than fresh ground coffee beans. I’m so into it that I’ve graduated from coffee to espresso. I love it. I make some at home when I wake up, then after the kids are off to school and I’m out the door, the first thing I do is hit my favorite local shop for more. (I know what you’re thinking by now if you’re reading this, so here’s my confession: “Hi, my name is Wil Brawley, and I’m addicted to coffee”). Anyway, I have no plans to open my own shop, but I would love to learn more about the business side of it. I guess this a selfish reason, but I suspect there are tons of other people like me that love coffee and like learning about how the retail side works.

Fourth, a cool book would help Schedulefly further build our brand in the coffee shop community. We already have a lot of customers in that niche, but my hunch is we could have a lot more if we published a good book and people started to take notice. Coffee shops don’t tend to have tons of staff and lots of scheduling headaches, but they do tend to employ relatively young, web-savvy employees that view Schedulefly as a cool benefit. And effective team communication is always critical, even with just five team members. So we’re a good fit for coffee shops, and we’d love to serve thousands of them.

Fifth, I already learned what it takes to put together a book. I know the costs. The time involved. Etc. And I also know what I would do differently than I did with ROU. I’d probably interview 5-10 owners, not 20. I’d try to keep the book to 100 pages or less. I believe the book could be a lot simpler, though no less valuable, than ROU, especially given that it’s such a narrowly focused subject.

Anyway, I had this idea last spring and I bagged it to focus on other stuff. But having sat down today and written this blog post and listed out the reasons to do it, I think I might push my chips in this time. I’m not committing just yet – but I like the idea a lot.

If you think it would be a fun book, let me know. I’m at wbrawley [at] schedulefly [dot] com.

Wil

P.s. Restaurant Owners Uncorked has been very well received. It has great reviews on Amazon, and we keep selling lots of copies nearly a year after it was launched. It’s a great read! Check it out.