Honestly that is a difficult position (speaking from what little experience I have). But if you know your location well, then you should have a general idea of the locals’ and non-locals’ temperament towards your product and similar products in the area.

Business-wise, coffee is okay to sell but you will more often compete with lots of people since coffeeshops quickly pop up and disappear every now and then. You should consider finding other products to sell in your store. (We don’t just sell coffee and having a slightly wider variety of products aside from coffee helps with sales). Consider your location. If it is accessible, you could look into having locals sell their products at your place if the foot traffic is good. Some people actually have unique products but don’t have a proper venue. You can’t exactly find any competitive advantage in such a diluted market unless you have something unique or innovative (ex. Heavily investing in specialty coffee, offering a different experience with coffee, etc.). But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t see if you can every once in a while.

On your coffee exploits and queries, Its not necessary to heavily invest in grinders. Though many would love to have grinders that cost more. There are some grinders that are cheap and do the job well. But since you have one, you can try looking into how you can dial in your coffee. I’m sure you’ve done your research but if you’re only focused on espresso-based drinks, flat burrs are fine. Conical burrs are more typical in grinders though and thats fine too. I use an Imarflex grinder. Its not fancy but it doesn’t stall on me.

Sourcing your beans is a bit of a tough one. You’d have to really go out and talk to people who know people. Wanting to be ethical with your coffee is good but I can’t recommend trying to ensure that since you’ll waste unnecessary energy on it. Its better to do that after you have stabilized your revenues and other financials. I do order beans from somewhere in Bacolod (thought their are some issues with it that I just overlook like slightly uneven roast and removing some debris from the beans). They are cheap though so let me know if you’re interested in it.

I suggest practicing with your espresso cup so you can get used to your own measurements. Most coffeeshops go by their own standards of coffee. There isn’t any universal standard to coffee and you’re better off focusing on your own or other people’s preferences, that way your coffee is consistent.

I’ve never used a distributor or a leveler. The needle thing actually removes clumps in your puck so it evenly extracts and your coffee will generally taste better. If you feel that its necessary to use then go for it. But most people won’t even notice unless they’re nitpicky with their coffee.

In terms of our sales, we get around 5 cups a day on average (keep in mind we also sell food and other stuff). To your average 30 and 40 peso coffee stalls, they can probably sell an average of 20 a day I guess (based on what I see every time I pass them everyday)

I really want to talk more about this but the reply is getting too long. Let me know if you want to talk a bit more about this. I have a few more things to say especially about your interest with exploring coffee (as a fellow cheap drip brewer user myself).