How to run a proper work cafe?
It happens all the time. A local cafe advertise themselves as “the perfect remote work corner in the city”. You haul your ass and laptop there in excitement, sit down, only to meet another disappointment. The place is perfectly unsuitable for working. Whoever runs the place clearly has no idea what makes a “perfect” spot.
This post isn’t for programmers. It’s for those clueless cafe managers who wish to capitalize on digital nomads and remote workers, yet fail miserably, and can’t figure out why. Let’s see your common mistakes, and how to fix them!
- No power outlet, or only a single one
This is a no-brainer, but it reveals that at least half of cafe owners have no brains. This isn’t even the “what-were-you-thinking” kind of mistake, but “gosh-you’re-frickin’-retarded”. You built a cozy place, inviting people to sit around for a long time, but you’re shutting out your best paying customers. What gives? If you don’t want us, put up a sign: “Sorry, no outlets!”
2. Poor or no wi-fi
One may think this is another no-brainer, and it really is, to an extent. However, “having wi-fi” means more than subscribing to the cheapest provider, and briefly checking if the connection works with your phone. Wi-fi is an essential part of a work cafe, and unfortunately, it’s way less reliable than power. There’s nothing more disappointing than finding the perfect spot, ordering a coffee, flipping out the laptop, only to find there’s no wi-fi connection, and nobody knows why, or how to fix it.
You can’t afford to wait for days for tech support. Your staff must be able to fix common wi-fi issues. This doesn’t mean you need an on-site network engineer. You’re probably hiring students anyway, and it’s really not that difficult to find one who’s tech-savvy enough to know how to restart a router.
The wi-fi must be powerful enough to cover your entire place. Invest into signal repeaters, they really aren’t expensive. I’ve seen many and more places where the best working spots were in a wi-fi dead spot. Being sorry doesn’t fix anything.
Consider the demand! How many people do you expect to use your wi-fi? In peak hours, you may have not only a few remote workers, but also a bunch of “normal” people casually swiping their phones. Each device consumes some of your bandwidth. Some routers even have a maximum number of allowed connections. It’s particularly annoying when you need to do important shit, but you’re locked out of the network because a gang of teenage girls are flipping through Instagram, and you must wait until they finish. (Not in an eternity.)
You might want to use a firewall for various reasons. It’s not a good idea to throttle bandwidth or block YouTube, unless you’re using a satellite connection somewhere in the outback. We aren’t watching videos for entertainment: many of them are important tutorials for the work we’re doing. We may also want to listen to Spotify or other music streaming source.
3. Shoddy furniture
The number one mistake is thinking that a table is a table, and a chair is a chair, and that’s all. No, that’s not how it works. Nobody likes to balance his laptop over a wobbly cafe table for hours, while sitting on a bar stool. These may be fine for regular patrons, who just gulp down their coffees and leave, but not for hours of working. Your furniture may be the number one reason nobody ever comes back to work at your place. Just try to sit there with your own laptop for an hour, and you’ll see.
Big, comfy sofas are a tad better, but not always. Actually, keeping the laptop in your lap is only comfortable when typing. Rectangular, stable tables and ergonomic chairs or benches is what we need.
4. I’m hot, I’m cold, and that damn sunlight
Patrons love sunlit places and big glass walls, right? Well, not us! We have a screen to stare at, and sunlight makes it glare. If you have a darker spot in the back of the place, turn that into the work corner. We aren’t all vampires, so it doesn’t need to be pitch dark, just make sure we aren’t getting any light from behind our backs.
Cold draft can also ruin the day. Is the AC directly over our heads? Then we won’t sit there for long. Are we getting a gust in our faces every time someone walks in? Same deal. These annoyances may not seem much when you’re just sitting with a morning coffee, but they seriously hamper productivity when you’re working.
Perhaps this is the best place to mention two other things. One: don’t make us sit right next to the washroom. People would be passing by us all the time, yelling back at others at their tables, slamming that door, fanning us with the smell of pissoirs. No, thanks!
The other thing is kids. They like to run around, screaming and bumping into things, while mom is staring at her smartphone with dead eyes. You can’t have a kid friendly place and a remote work corner at the same time. Put up a barrier or something. A cookie dipped in vodka also works, it puts the little brats to sleep in no time.
5. Only coffee?!
You may have the world’s best coffee and fanciest cake, and it still won’t take you all the way. If coffee is the only thing you can offer, you will never be the work spot you aim to be. There’s only so much coffee we can drink. If we can’t get anything else, we’re packing our laptops and leave in an hour or two.
Offer a diverse range of thirst-quenching drinks. Water is an obvious option, and placing a pitcher of water on our table is a five star move. Have orange juice, various smoothies, sodas and others on the menu too. Tea and fruit tea is big! Think in pitchers again, not cups.
6. Where’s the food?
Cake is great and all, but it’s not food. It may not look like that, but we’re doing physical work on that sofa. (Yes, we officially do, check labor laws!) If there’s no food, we’re going to leave at lunch time, and not come back. Perhaps ever. But if you help us through this hurdle, we’ll stay, and not just for that very day. That’s how you build faithful patronage!
Look at Starbucks, and don’t be shy to steal their ideas. Sandwiches are easy, and they make good revenue. Offer a range of healthy snacks too. A cup with a dozen grapes, and a few cubes of cheese. Granola in yogurt with berries. Lassi, an Indian yogurt drink is a great liquid snack, and it can be made of any fruit, not just from mango, as everybody seems to think. Come up with a selection that wouldn’t be boring to eat three days a week, and you got yourself a proper nomad-friendly menu.
7. Music is a productivity killer
The worst thing you can do is force your patrons to listen to blaring “music” (read: some immature, eviscerated eunuch whining about “muh summer love”, fixed with autotune as a failed attempt to mimick actual singing). Many of us can’t stand music at all while working. Others want to listen to their own music, through their own headphones. The standard should be Starbucks again. Notice how they turn off music when they have several people working on laptops, or play some absolutely neutral elevator music at a low volume, so it won’t come through a pair of headphones. (Except at Christmas. Everybody must listen to 1950s Christmas recordings in December, it’s the law.)
In summary…
Remote workers have different needs from your everyday patrons, and some may be difficult to understand unless you walked a few miles in their shoes. Test your place before advertising it! You may really become the № 1. remote work spot in no time if you follow these simple rules!
