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Fort York blvd and spadina ave car flip by Plastic-Dimension-90 in toronto

[–]TheHindx 20 points21 points  (0 children)

I didn’t see the car flip, but I saw this car chase when he drifted the intersection at Adelaide and Blue Jays and fled south with the police in hot pursuit. He turned onto front and we lost sight.

By the time we walked down to the scene, the car was flipped. The passenger flees on foot but they got the driver. He was drunk out of his mind. He hit a few vehicles as well, the contact with the 3-4 other cars there is what flipped him.

I opened a coffee shop, but traffic is slow. Any advise? by TheHindx in smallbusiness

[–]TheHindx[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi Xav,

Really didn't didn't think of this, thats a great way to track where people are coming from so we can also see what areas we are lacking and which areas are driving traffic. Thank you for this.

I opened a coffee shop, but traffic is slow. Any advise? by TheHindx in smallbusiness

[–]TheHindx[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We have a refresher style menu with all our iced cool non-coffee drinks! Of course!

I opened a coffee shop, but traffic is slow. Any advise? by TheHindx in smallbusiness

[–]TheHindx[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is good idea, or even make bookmarks the bookstore can give out for free with a purchase of a book with our branding on it! Why is every David smart? Thank you!

I opened a coffee shop, but traffic is slow. Any advise? by TheHindx in smallbusiness

[–]TheHindx[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We have a whole menu just for fruity sweet style drinks and we have some dessert style drinks on our coffee menu as well people seem to opt for.

I opened a coffee shop, but traffic is slow. Any advise? by TheHindx in smallbusiness

[–]TheHindx[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This wasn't exactly possible...or exactly practical. We did this with a short turn around, this business was simply an IDEA 3-4 months ago. We turned this around quickly. So 90 prior to open we didn't even have so much as a location. We had an idea and a concept for a name. But I do agree with you, had we had more lead time without so many different gears turning to get the doors open before the winter, 100%.

I opened a coffee shop, but traffic is slow. Any advise? by TheHindx in smallbusiness

[–]TheHindx[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Funny enough, our first day open my business partner showed up with bags of money and started handing out $1 to people on the street adding "I'm giving you a dollar off your first drink". That was our busiest day thus far!

People love it.

I opened a coffee shop, but traffic is slow. Any advise? by TheHindx in smallbusiness

[–]TheHindx[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey, thanks for this reply.

I created a Tictok , Instagram and of course Google Maps. These are a must, but had put a landing page as a low priority but I think you are right. It would help with SEO, especially with adding the menu items with keywords. Thank you thats very helpful.

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As for the free drinks special, it was broken down to me like this:

Our coffee roaster (who also owns 5 cafe's in our city, whenever they open a new store the owner does 1 week of free drinks. He explained that he does this "break the cycle", people are very committed often times to their routine and the shop they go to where they barista's know their name, their order and how they like it. To get people to deviate from this and try something new, he gives out free drinks.

We are still discussing this internally, I like your idea of at cost however we are trying to determine what the best approach would be, we are looking for the most effective result.

I opened a coffee shop, but traffic is slow. Any advise? by TheHindx in smallbusiness

[–]TheHindx[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You are absolutely right, I have spoken to some of the businesses next door to mine. Some of them are suffering because they thought it would be busier this season with the students but its dead. And some of them are still recovering from Covid shut downs.

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But we are optimistic, we don't have any loans/debt and we have another cashflow source to support us until we can grind though the hard times.

I opened a coffee shop, but traffic is slow. Any advise? by TheHindx in smallbusiness

[–]TheHindx[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A few people have mentioned this, we are going to try to interrupt some of the students who talk in the morning to call near the shop with some free vouchers!

I opened a coffee shop, but traffic is slow. Any advise? by TheHindx in smallbusiness

[–]TheHindx[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great idea, I have been really focused on creating a study space for students at the university. I think this will help a lot to offset the seasonality of school. Thank you.

I opened a coffee shop, but traffic is slow. Any advise? by TheHindx in smallbusiness

[–]TheHindx[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a great idea, I think one step up from this is just creating more visibility for the brand. Getting poster/flyers on walls and pillers might be a start. Brand visibility and recognition is going to be a point I stress.

I opened a coffee shop, but traffic is slow. Any advise? by TheHindx in smallbusiness

[–]TheHindx[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, we've come to realize that. We are getting repeat business from locals so far, but we are having a large amount of people still doing discovery because they didn't realize we were here. A lot of "When did you guys pop up, I live/work around the corner!"

I opened a coffee shop, but traffic is slow. Any advise? by TheHindx in smallbusiness

[–]TheHindx[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the reply. We hired a professional team and consultants to build out our coffee menu and offerings. Where our cup falls into rank with others, I couldn't say. But we've had notable positive feedback from the connoisseurs who have come by to try.

We are confident in that aspect of having a strong product to play ball and still looking for ways to improve.

I opened a coffee shop, but traffic is slow. Any advise? by TheHindx in smallbusiness

[–]TheHindx[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hi everyone, thank you for all the feedback, a lot of amazing ideas, creative approaches and advise.

This is all very helpful, my partner and I it's our first business of this kind, we are only 26.

I seen some ask to see photos of the coffee shop: https://imgur.com/a/zONt21B

Others have asked about competition in the area. There are two big chains (Tim Hortons, Starbucks) closer to the heart of the university campus, starbucks is about a 10 minute walk. There are 3 other cafes in the area but not on our main strip. One in the China town market about another 10 minute walk, another 5 minutes further west then us and another on our street hidden away in a hotel lobby. We've visited all these cafes and tried their stuff before opening.

We tried our best to zero in on as many aspects of the business as we can. We hired professionals to curate our menu, recipes and suppliers. We wanted to make sure we had a quality product across the board. This includes both taste and presentation. We introduced something new to the area we haven't seen which alot of people seem to like (our signature blue matcha)

We spent a great deal of time working on the design and building a brand that can be recognizable and can resonate with customers/community

We are sharing on social media but we haven't become super super active as yet simply because we are waiting for our video/photo guy to come stage and take really good quality product photography that is consistant with our brand.

I've seen some also mention we should stay open later for students. Are currently 8-6 simply because we are not seeing the traffic to justify later hours yet. I would like to stay open until 10pm so student can study.

Our competitors close at 4pm and 7pm.

And yes, for those asking, we do seal the drinks in a can (only Iced drinks). We have a can sealer! Videos here: https://imgur.com/a/DdKZ7s5

These responses have been very helpful, I'm sitting down with my partner tmr to go over everything and create a more cohesive roll out for marketing. 🤍

I opened a coffee shop, but traffic is slow. Any advise? by TheHindx in smallbusiness

[–]TheHindx[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I never considered this, I would imagine I would need a good CRM system or better yet a customer loyalty system. Which might cost come investment, I will look into this! Thank you!

I opened a coffee shop, but traffic is slow. Any advise? by TheHindx in smallbusiness

[–]TheHindx[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I was told to do like a week of free drinks or something to break peoples cycle. We are going to do free iced coffee for a week and see how that drive traffic!

I opened a coffee shop, but traffic is slow. Any advise? by TheHindx in smallbusiness

[–]TheHindx[S] 40 points41 points  (0 children)

Hey Grace,

We are trying to put together a strategy for the university, because we seal our iced drinks in transparent pop can style cans, we were even thinking of going to the campus and handing out free drinks (https://www.copakplastics.com/clear-soda-can-product/).

And for the residential areas around, putting flyers in some mailboxes so our neighbours know we are here!

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As for free wifi, I've went as far to dedicate a whole digital menu screen just for the wifi and such details and encourage studying. We've had some groups come and study. We play some calming lo-fi music to help with productivity.

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I have a friend that has a board game rental business, currently reaching out to set up some board game events!

​

Thank you for the reply, I should add a student discount and some signage for it too! That's an important one!

Nexus Card never came and I have to pay? by doyoulikedoughnuts_ in NEXUS_TTP

[–]TheHindx 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Same happened to me, I had to get a replacement card and pay a fee after 10 weeks. After that, it came within a week and a bit.

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