Tackling My New Workflow
Good Evening! Happy Saturday! It’s been an alright week, I’m drinking some plain seltzer water and listening to Endtroducing by DJ Shadow here at the cafe, trying to get pumped up for the rest of this weekend! It’s been busy and i’m seeing a lot of new faces! I had some highschoolers come in at 7am sharp Friday and remembered “oh yea, I almost never see this demographic with my current hours unless it’s the weekend.” I wonder how much that’ll change now that school is going again here. I’m also hearing success stories from regulars! and regulars learning each others names! It makes me feel like we’re accomplishing our mission here and that rules!
This week I put out a sign for the weekend too! I’m ready to get busier! I’m less burnt out! I want to talk about how I did that! How i’m etching time out for myself working full time here. Since as a mostly solo operation i’m responsible for a lotttttt of checks and balances.
Mastering opening and closing
One of the biggest things i’ve been losing time and sleep over is opening and closing the shop. I tell myself to get here extra early to do things like dial in and sweep/mop if I put that off the night before. I’ll tell myself to stay late and clean up because I’m hesitant to pre close or put up chairs, in case I get a rush or people think we’re closed. Suddenly I’m at the shop until like 7pm and i’m working a very physical 14 hour day. Which becomes a ridiculous 84 hour work week. I was writing these closing task lists and pre closing/opening goals, that weren’t totally perfect and so they didn’t really get used.
So I stopped using the guides, and just started trying new stuff. Pre closing in ways that made sense, staying late every day to figure out the best way to do things. Coming in with less time to force myself to sleep and do things as efficiently and quickly as possible in the morning. That worked, I figured it out, now I’m pre closing quickly a half hour before close but leaving myself space to make drinks. I’m making sure dishes are done, then putting chairs up in the last ten minutes and making room to quickly sweep and mop.
I’m making things that take a ton of time, less chaotic; For example i’m writing an inventory/shopping list and trying to shop just once a week when possible. Something else that just took some time as I tried to figure out how much I needed and when. Time is such a valuable resource for my mental and physical health, that by being efficient I’m making all this way more sustainable.
Mastering and teaching barflow
I struggled early on with all those guides because I knew I needed them but thought I had to write them before really understanding the shop. So my paper is telling me one thing and my instincts are telling me something else as I actually put plans in action. Working behind the bar for awhile and getting a feel for everything has made all that so much easier. For example, we had a whole argument about whether espresso needed to mix with syrups in cold cups before adding milk/ice. We were worried it wouldn’t dissolve without it, but didn’t want hot espresso going in plastic cups. Turns out the syrups all mixed with cold milk totally fine and it was a non-issue;
My advice would be to still write those guides, especially as a team. You just have to understand that plans change, and be clear and concise with everyone about it when they do. If you fail to communicate effectively then you’ll have conflicting information on the table. Even at this tiny level i’m working alone so much that i’m forgetting to communicate decisions. I try and recap with the team in person and on a free team app like slack, where when a shared cloud document changes. everyone is aware.
Mastering financial restraint
So I set these sales goals shortly before opening to give me an idea of whether we’re making enough day to day. We often hit these goals but there are plenty of days we don’t. I’ve found myself impulsively spending money anytime we’ve gone over our sales goal for the day, rather than saving it to account for the days we don’t hit our goal. I had a vague idea that every dollar counts, but it’s only now as i’m seeing this money stretch out over a month that it really makes sense.
I’ve been struggling to keep up with expenses, and saying out loud to myself or my partner that “I shouldn’t have done this” or that. If I had been consistently cautious and responsible with every dollar of the business, I would have squeezed by this month without being late on any bills. I’m fortunate that this is happening to me now though and i’m not making more than my goals so consistently that i’m not keeping track. It’s forcing me to pay attention, and feel every mistake.
So i’ve been getting better about allocating money responsibly, updating my guides and systems, and opening/closing in a way that doesn’t suck all my time away. I’m being confident but honest here, it’s tough. This is a step in the right direction and I feel like i’m making progress. All I need to do is etch out more steps as I find my way.
Thanks for reading everyone, enjoy your weekend : )
