My Day to Day as a Solo Owner/Operator
Good Morning, Happy Hump Dayy!!!! This is typically our slowest day at the cafe and a good day to write. I’m drinking water, after upsetting my stomach with a whole milk chai latte. Tasted great and I love our masala chai from Hugo tea. We just started carrying retail tea, and just sold a box! Listening to the New Order album “Power Corruption and Lies.” A cafe classic! That first riff on Age of Consent, incredible. Today I just want to talk about what it’s like being the sole business owner and barista at a small coffee shop of about 16 seats / 800 sqft. The challenges and general day to day. That’s a pretty common question but not one I really want to get in to during a light conversation haha. More on that! Below!
Weekly Schedule
First I’ll start with my idealized schedule, what I write out for myself and how it normally goes. We’re open Tuesday to Sunday 7am-3pm. I work every day, and I have for 5 months.
On Monday I’ve usually got a laundry list of tasks i’ve built up throughout the week but didn’t have time for, cafe related or otherwise. So in the morning i’ll get a little more sleep than usual and then get up to plan all those tasks out. Since this is my only day off I’ll sometimes have plans like going to the zoo or having breakfast with my mom, meaning I need to plan my cafe tasks around those events. On Tuesday I come in a little sooner to make sure we’re ready for the week, I’ve normally got a little more prep like filling squeeze bottles and topping containers which get cleaned on Sundays. It’s a busier weekday since it’s our first day back. I try to shop for the next few weekdays after work, and maybe bust out a major cleaning task like scrubbing the bathroom grout, since i’ve got the most energy after a restful Monday and staying late isn’t as difficult. Wednesday should be the easiest day of the week, since we’re stocked up and it’s our slowest day. I work on things like writing blogs, planning events or responding to emails on my laptop at the bar. I may also do lots of pre-close prep so I can get out asap, and head to places that close soon after us like the bank for change, or restaurant depot for bulk paper goods. Thursday is a slightly busier day; For the most part i’m working bar, and after work I may shop for the weekend (Fri-Sun), forecasting based on how the week has been.
Friday is usually a busy morning and slow afternoon so I come in early to prepare like I would on Tuesday, then I have one employee who helps primarily on weekends come in during peak hours (8-10:30am). One most weekdays I just dial in one espresso machine grouphead to prolong machine life and waste less coffee, on Friday I’ll dial in both to prepare for rushes. I’ll also do things like stock more cups or lids for the day, anything to increase speed during high volume as one person. Saturday is a dedicated bar day! Meaning be ready at 7am sharp to open, backstocked with drip ready to go, that sort of stuff! Constantly reset and be ready. My employee comes in most of the morning, and if we’re busy enough may stay late. I’ll still usually tackle the afternoon solo which may mean a longer clean up, and for that reason I’ll usually be there a little late. I usually try to focus on resting after work and heading straight home. Sunday is the last day of the week and often as busy as Saturday, so we again focus on bar and then do a long clean up. On Sunday i’ll do heavy cleaning like our grease trap, air filter replacement and ceiling dusting, or floor scrubbing. I’ll also clean things on bar like squeeze bottles or pumps. For me it helps to do most of this all in one day so nothing is forgotten, since we have a small cafe it’s not a big workload increase, and we’ll sometimes have time mid-day.
Breaking that down, and my daily advice.
Mondays it’s important to sleep, it’s important to go grocery shopping and plan meals for the week, it’s important to have a life if you can. Clean your house, cut your hair, watch a movie. Ultimately as a business owner there’s a lot of paperwork to be done too, and I try to multitask by visiting another cafe with my partner and doing some laptop work there. then we go shop afterwards, whatever to get out of the house. You’re steering a cultural ship, you won’t be able to have fun or radiate fun in the cafe, if you have zero in your personal life. You can get stuff done and still take breaks.
Tuesdays you might have a lot of energy, which is great but you don’t need to come in on 150%. What you have is enough and overextending yourself leads to burn out. That might seem obvious but still! Pace yourself! Come in solid, hold it down, have fun. Save money for the next couple of days, since this may be your busiest weekday. If you’re really feeling it, put that energy towards tasks like cleaning or talking to people in the sitting area.
Wednesdays are slower, don’t get discouraged, make good use of your time. If you have new beans on bar or anything else you need to try, taste it with guests in the sitting area, share it with people walking in and talk about your feelings on things. Enjoy your slow hours, sit outside with a cup and say hi to people walking by. Read a book, talk to people about the book, they’ll probably ask. You can get out of here on time! If you have to run somewhere after work like the bank, todays the day! Crush those chores!
Thursdays can be surprisingly busy sometimes, prepare yourself and be present. Think about everything you may need for the weekend, and get ready! Stock up and take notes! EZPZ! Don’t be afraid to overstock if you can afford it, you never know what’ll happen on a busy Saturday.
Fridays are when everyone wants to treat themselves for the end of the work week, so it can really pop off around 8am! Be ready for that! Get drip and faster items ready to go to make it as seamless as possible! Part of why I have an employee on staff for this rush is to let weekday warriors know we’re ready for ‘em! and instill that experience! I try to get a good nights sleep tonight too! If i’m not feeling it now, I will by tomorrow! Weekends can drain ya! Thank goodness I can afford an employee on weekend mornings, having someone work with you can make a huge difference in the energy of the space, and is worth the cost for a better experience!
Saturdays just focus on running the bar well. Stay clean and well stocked all day. Stay ready for anything and keep the energy high, do your best to give everyone a fun experience. Think of the weekends as party days, since most people are coming on their day off to check you out. You can keep that party going by keeping music upbeat and talking with guests as though you’re having fun, that this positivity is the expectation of the space! You’ll find that this encourages guests to talk to each other, and then they’re kind of carrying the energy on your behalf. It’s amazing when that happens, how many restaurants or cafes have you visited where everyone is joining in on a group conversation rather than sticking to their clique? It’s not hard to make it happen if you’re open to it as the host of the space.
Sundays are similarly upbeat, but since you’re low on energy remember the tuesday saying, pace yourself. If you can maintain like 80% energy and just stay positive with everyone, you can keep it going. Most of our traffic is like 10am-noon on Sundays, so during those hours I have my employee supplementing things and keeping energy high. I remind him that i’m not in a bad mood today, i’m just kind of zombie mode haha. I hold down bar and he holds down concierge up front. We make it happen! I finish the day and wrap up with a dedicated slow and steady goal of cleanning shoppp! Today is the day i’ll really clean the cracks, since I don’t really have to get up early on Mondays. But you may be dead! and going home is okay too! you can clean next week! just write it down!
Unexpected detours and life advice.
I might make the above sound clinical, but stuff you can’t predict happens every single day. You may need to run somewhere unexpected right after work, or commit to something that takes your night away. To keep things fun you may also need to organize events and social media content that takes hours or days away from you. So fitting those in can be a challenge. Try to schedule them weeks in advance if possible so you can see them coming and push them back too haha.
At the end of the day, this is a lot of work. When I began I had a second job, but quickly had to quit after about a month for my own sanity; Not everyone has that luxury, and if you find yourself working two jobs including running a coffee shop. I have a few more pieces of advice.
Talk to your friends or significant others about what’s going on, putting things into words can organize or ground the chaos in your head. You might not realize how overextended you are if you’re the only person who knows about it.
Eat food, no matter how busy you are. A good meal can give you energy you didn’t know you needed. Even if you’re running on unavoidable low sleep, walmart has cheap smoothies at 5am, a cold meal-prep burrito has tons of cheap carbs, you’ve got plenty of milk in the fridge for cereal or oatmeal. There are affordable and clutch ways to make food happen, and you’ll be flying through calories.
Just go home if you need to go home, most things can wait until tomorrow. You need more time away from the business than you may realize. This is not an excuse to slack off all week and let things fall apart, just articulate what needs to be done, and do it another day.
Thank you for reading, we’re getting a decent bit of viewership here now so hopefully someone finds this helpful. Have a great week!!!!!!! @u@ / - Elias
