Starting and growing a business is no easy feat, and it takes a lot of hard work, dedication, and a willingness to learn from your mistakes. This is something that Rosario Juan known as Ros by her peers, the owner of Commune Cafe and founder of Home Brewers Philippines, knows all too well. As an advocate of Philippine coffee, she is passionate about showcasing our homegrown coffee to the world.
Ros shared 3 hard lessons she learned when running her successful cafe in Poblacion Makati since 2013, and they’re relatable to other businesses too, and here’s what they are.
1. Turning your passion into a business is not always fun
Turning your passion into a business is not always fun. You might love your product, but when you start selling it, it will be a different story. You need to keep up with the demands of your customers, and you need to make sure that your product is consistently good or high quality. That means that you have to put in long hours, sacrifice your weekends, and give up some of your personal time. You have to be ready for the challenge.
It is not always a bed of roses. In fact, Ros always tries to dispel that myth whenever a friend of hers decides to pursue their passion and turn it into a business. If you will go down this route, be prepared to put in a lot of hard work. It’s one thing to enjoy your product and treat it as a passion project or a hobby, it’s a different ball game when you ask people to pay for it with their hard-earned money.
You have to make your product worth buying.
2. Be agile
Second, you have to learn how to be agile. In other words, you have to be flexible and able to adapt to changing market conditions. The pandemic has taught many business owners the importance of being agile. The ability to pause, recalibrate, and adjust according to the market’s condition is crucial. Rosario learned this lesson the hard way. When the pandemic hit, she had to shut down her cafe temporarily and operate minimally. She then had to figure out how to pivot and offer delivery services, which saved her business.
Growing up in a family of entrepreneurs, she used to seek advice and help from her family, but this time around it was everyone’s first time experiencing what it’s like to run a business in the midst of a pandemic. So that’s what she did, she figured things out along the way – she paused, rethink her strategy, and then recalibrated. Before she knew it, the lockdowns were over and she’s made it through one of the biggest crises in the world.
Being agile is not just about surviving, it’s also about thriving.
3. Running a business isn’t just about you
Lastly, when you start a business, it’s no longer about yourself. It’s no longer just about your dreams and aspirations. You now have what you call stakeholders – the people who work with you and rely on your business for income. It’s not just limited to them; it’s also their families, the food delivery drivers, and everyone else indirectly involved in your business but is creating some income from it.
Rosario learned that her responsibility goes beyond just making a profit. She has to take care of her employees, provide them with a safe working environment, and make sure that they have job security. It’s a big responsibility, but it’s also rewarding.
Pursing her passion while thriving in business
Rosario likes to travel a lot, and during one of her overseas trips, she was amazed to see how business owners, especially those in the cafe industry, were able to run their businesses using just a tablet (an iPad) and keep track of everything using their laptops or smartphones. She wanted that level of convenience and she wanted to run her business that way in the Philippines, so she searched for something similar in the Philippines and she discovered StoreHub.
StoreHub is a cloud-based POS system that is perfect for small to medium-sized businesses because it can boost the efficiency of your business operations. And since it’s cloud-based, you can do the following with it:
- Access and generate business reports anywhere with an internet connection, making it easier to manage your business on the go.
- Manage your inventory remotely.
- Monitor your staff.
- Run promotions, discounts, and loyalty programs to keep your customers coming back.
- Set up cashless payment options, to make it easier for your customers to pay for their orders.
Starting and growing a business takes hard work and dedication, but with the right tools and resources, you can make your business a success. With StoreHub’s cloud-based POS system, you can manage your business efficiently and focus on growing it.
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