Okay, so as it turns out…setting up a business MIGHT be a little but more work than I was anticipating. I made a checklist and everything! And so many things have popped up that were NOT on the checklist! It’s almost as if I shouldn’t have bothered with the checklist in the first place.
I’ve seen so many chic little cafes in the CBD, and I thought I could replicate their success. All you need is a coffee machine (preferably a massive one from the 1970s), a barista with dreadlocks, another barista with loads of tattoos and then a few home-style recipes (with avocado) that I can serve on trendy wooden chopping boards. And maybe some garnish.
Everything else is just window dressing, or so I thought. Now my cafe mentor is telling me to research designer lighting in Melbourne, because the commercial lighting sector can make or break a new business. Designer lighting wasn’t even ON the list for some weird reason! Maybe I need a new list, one with spaces at the bottom so that I can add new things.
Bah, no time! I have to focus on the nitty-gritty, like proper lighting, apparently. I guess now that I think about it, whenever I’ve walked into one of those nice little cafes, there’s always been a nice lighting design. Even in places like Barstucks, there’s always a softness to the lighting that invites people to stay. Maybe sometimes to do with the warm tones helps with this too. I should spend less time on comfy, chic seating options and more time on this. Or perhaps it’s time to do another trawl of every cafe decent cafe in Melbourne. Commercial lighting solutions are a bigger industry than I thought. More important than the barista with dreadlocks?
No…surely not. Nobody will take my cafe seriously if they walk in and the person making their cafe has normal, practical hair.
-Owen