Use the Hiring Process to Your advantage When Opening a Coffee Shop
Management
When starting a coffee shop, if you are an absentee owner or want to pass the management to a dedicated manager they will need to have the authority to hire, fire, purchase and possibly sign checks. You will also have to pay them what most owners make in a year in order for them to take on the responsibility of the entire shop. In order to get and retain an excellent and proven manager, the salary should be competitive and quite possibly include some perks. Pay in the $35-50,000 per year range is not uncommon depending on your [anticipated] volume. If you do not have the volume to have a dedicated manager then obviously the business may be something you should manage yourself unless you are focusing on other things. However you will need a moderate to high volume shop to justify a dedicated and passionate manager.
When you are interviewing for management for your coffee shop start-up, look at their previous employment and see any patterns, positive and negative. Is their work history short and choppy without good reasons like moving out of the area or going back to school? Contact their previous employers to confirm the accuracy of past jobs. Ask for references and check them out.
Is your manager going to also buy coffee beans for your store? Are they going to buy food products and your other stock? Decide what their responsibilities are going to be and plan accordingly.
They have to be worth their pay in every way but be careful not to mingle. Let them manage, unless of course things are not progressing as they should, then intervene. But, if you take any of the authority away or override their authority, they will quit. Well, at least the good ones will. Of course you have to make them 100% accountable for your business and their mistakes, but you hired them to manage so let them manage.
Employees
As in management, you need to be sure you find the right employee each time you hire someone when you are opening a coffee shop. Be sure you know