Learn How to Open a Coffee Shop

Whatever your stage on the coffee shop ownership journey, the 7 Steps to Success are for you! Start today if you are:

• An entrepreneur dreaming about your first coffee shop.
• A barista looking to become a business owner.
• An experienced café owner seeking to streamline operations and grow your business.

We start by giving solid information and answers to the most important questions about opening a coffee shop:

• Determining how much does it cost to open a coffee shop?
• Finding a location
• Developing a coffee shop business plan
• Choosing the right equipment
• Creating a menu
• Training
• Attracting customers
• Marketing
• Obtaining financing
• And more!

Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea has helped more than 300 independent coffee shops get off to a successful start without paying a hefty franchise fee. Since 1991, Crimson Cup has roasted and packaged quality, great-tasting coffee in Columbus, Ohio while providing coffee shop consulting and a coffee shop franchise alternative to entrepreneurs and independent business owners. We’ll show you how to keep your coffee shop successful over the long term. Crimson Cup caters to independent coffee shops, and currently works with about 400 businesses.

With our assistance, you can start your new coffee shop from a position of strength and experience. We’ll ensure that you have a successful opening by helping you to find a location, write your business plan, train staff, and more. With our help, you’ll avoid the most common pitfalls while still remaining independent. All of which makes opening a coffee shop much easier!

Crimson Cup is not a franchise or coffee school. Crimson Cup is a one-stop shop for independent coffee shop success.

A coffee shop franchise typically charges a huge fee just for the right to purchase their products and equipment then they dictate your name, your environment, and your attitude. Crimson Cup shows you how to open a coffee shop and can provide all the support that a coffee shop franchise does —but without the franchise fees, royalties, and restrictions on your business. Crimson Cup is an affordable and flexible alternative to a franchise.

A coffee school will be happy to take your money to be trained in their classrooms, but then sets you free to sink or swim. Buried deep in their website terms and conditions, you’ll often find language like this: “does not represent or warrant that (i) Client will be profitable as a result of attending Texas Coffee School classes or from receiving consultation or advisement from our coffee school, or (ii) that consulting services or training from our coffee school will be the difference between profitability and unprofitability, success and failure, financial or otherwise, of Client, Client’s business, or Client’s career.” Not much confidence-building there!

With over 30 years of experience in the specialty coffee industry, we know what it takes to be successful:

• Our coffee buyers travel the globe – by plane, boat, bus, jeep, foot, and even mule – to discover exceptional coffee and cultivate long-lasting relationships with the hard-working farmers who grow it.
• We roast our own coffee, which consistently wins national awards for quality and sustainability. If you buy the book, we’ll send you some free samples!
• Our 7 Steps to Success consulting team has been there and done that in the coffee industry, helping over 300 entrepreneurs across the country open and grow their independent coffee shops.
• Follow the path of hundreds of successful 7 Steps customers. Some have grown their businesses for 5, 10, 15, or even 20 years. Others now own multiple shops. And they’re still working with our team.
• We operate a growing chain of Crimson Cup Coffee Shops which act as test laboratories for new coffees, drinks, brew methods, marketing promotions, and more. So, unlike most coffee consultants, we back our advice with hands-on experience!
• We provide a complete line of quality coffee shop products – including award-winning coffee, tea, sauces, smoothie ingredients, and syrups – to create awesome drinks that your customers will love.
• You’ll get our proven playbook for independent coffee shop success – including a coffee shop business plan, competitive pricing strategies, advice on choosing coffee shop equipment, drink recipes, marketing plans, and more.
• Our hands-on training comes to you! Your 7 Steps trainer will travel to your coffee shop the week before your soft opening, teaching you and your team using best practices in drink preparation and café management. Then, your trainer stays with you to support your team on opening day.
• Our success depends on your success. For decades, we have grown our company by helping entrepreneurs like you grow their coffee businesses.
• You’re not locked into long-term contracts, franchise fees, or royalties. Instead, we keep earning your trust and business through attentive service, month after month and year after year.

No! We tell you everything that’s expected, up front. No surprises. So here’s what you need to know: In order to work with us, you must agree to follow our proven 7 Steps to Success process. If you do that, you will have a much better chance of success than going it alone. And, since 50% of small businesses fail within the first three years, that’s no small thing.

No, but we’d like for you to give us a try. We work with more than 400 customers nationwide and none of them would continue to work with us if we provided inferior products, overpriced equipment, or ineffective training. We want to be with you for years, not just when you first open your coffee shop. The best way to do that is to help you prosper with quality products and continued support.

Absolutely. Most so-called “coffee schools” give you a few hours of training on their equipment plus some classroom time in their offices. We train you in your coffee shop with your equipment to get you and your staff ready for opening day. And, as long you’re following the 7 Steps process, there’s no charge for training. Roast magazine editors cited our education and training programs as a factor in choosing Crimson Cup as their 2016 Macro Roaster of the Year. Here’s Debbie Fulks of Court Street Coffee in Athens, Ohio talking about the training and ongoing education that she and her staff have received to help them stay successful in a competitive coffee shop market:

We think they’re among the best in the business. In competitions and blind taste tests, Crimson Cup consistently takes top honors against both well-known mega coffee shops and other small roasters like us. We provide a complete line of products including coffee, tea, sauces, smoothie ingredients, and syrups. In 2016, were were honored as Roast magazine’s Roaster of the Year.

We love small businesses. We believe that small businesses build communities in ways that big businesses can’t and that being part of a community can be the most rewarding part of independent business ownership. To learn more about how members of our community become successful in their communities, check out our testimonials.

No! We want to earn your business. That means we must keep providing top-notch products and support every day which has been our philosophy since we were founded.