A cup of coffee is an integral way to start the day for billions of people all over the globe. The beautiful thing about the internet is that if you have a coffee business, then your market is any one of those people that enjoys a cup.
With this in mind, you only need a small fraction of those people to buy your coffee for you to be extremely successful. And you can do all of this from the comfort of your home if you do it right.
There are a number of ways to create a coffee empire these days without needing to open a cafe in a brick and mortar location.
In this article, I will go over the basics when it comes to starting a coffee business based out of your home along with basic startup money tips.
Set up your website
The biggest consideration when setting up your site is to make sure that it is easy to navigate so shoppers can find what they are looking for and that they can easily make their purchase. This forms the basis of the user experience that is what you need for high conversions no matter what product you are selling. If you already have the site set up make sure that you have a conversion rate optimization expert do a UX audit to make sure that it is good from the start.
You should also have a blog on the site so that you can attract some shoppers by using good SEO techniques and to build your email list. This list is how you can build a devoted following of repeat customers.
Private label or roast it
You don’t even have to have your own coffee roaster or direct line to coffee importers to have your own line of coffees to sell. This is the point where you have to choose. You can contact a local roaster and ask if they can do a private label in which you buy your coffee from them and they bag it in your own package with your logo.
Or, you can actually buy green coffee beans and roast it yourself. This is a major undertaking and will require you to already be an expert on coffee and not just an enthusiast.
You’ll make more of a profit potentially from roasting it yourself, but it can be a lot of work and may not be worth it.
Private label is the easiest and most efficient way of starting your coffee business.
Find a niche
There are a lot of coffee based online businesses out there and it will be hard to stand out. The best way to make a name for yourself is to find a niche within the bigger market.
For instance, you may want to focus on a certain type of coffee that not everybody is doing. Start by doing a keyword search to see what people are looking for. Then make a note of who is providing the coffee that people are searching for and if you can compete in that area. If you find that there is a small but dedicated group of people having trouble finding a certain small type of coffee then that is a clear indication that you have a market-ready to buy from you if you can provide it.
For example, if you want to target families, you need to ensure that your space is a family-friendly cafe.
