It’s Bungalow Coffee’s 1st Birthday and we are celebrating by taking you behind the scenes of how we built and scaled this brick & mortar baby.
(If you’re new around here- I opened a coffee shop during a pandemic 🤪 Take a look at Bungalow Coffee on Instagram or browse our website.)
Going from corporate employee to the digital space to owning a brick-and-mortar coffee shop in the bustling heart of Downtown Las Vegas, has been quite the juxtaposition – but the most fulfilling one I could’ve imagined.
The Space Was Kismit
In March 2020 (just before COVID hit), we hosted a The Social Bungalow meetup in the space that would, unbeknownst to us, become our very own office one day. The private upstairs meeting room was filled with our IRL community, and it was our first experience being able to infuse the Bungalow magic into that space.
During the height of 2020, the previous owner decided it was time to part ways with the coffee shop and listed it for sale. It was then that one of our best friends Polina, @TheMarketingModel, spotted the announcement and sent us a red alert text about it’s availability. I immediately hit them with a slew of “I’M INTERESTED” DM’s and soon enough we were under contract and had the keys!
The Quarter by Quarter Plan
Q1 2021: Pre-Opening Efforts
The Focus: Pre-Coffee Shop Opening
We utilized Five Figure Instagram’s lessons to create a plan for full community nurture before we opened our doors. Identifying people within the city who we felt would be able cultivate the right atmosphere at the shop- between local coffee lovers, DTLV philanthropists, influencers, business owners, artists, and foodies, we found our people!
It was all accomplished by searching specific hashtags, hunting through local location tags on IG, and scouring the “recommended people” tab.
PRO TIP: It’s not just those with a large following, it was about the people who were really displaying their love and knowledge of coffee & the community that we looked for! We reached out on Instagram, engaged heavily & authentically, and then invited those primary people to a private invite event the Friday before opening day.
The energy was palpable the moment we welcomed our first VIP inside, and the event was a success with nearly 200 people through the door with access to our full drink menu and tray passed food items.
PRO TIP: We hired a photographer for the event and specified that we needed a FAST turnaround time (we’re talking hours here), so once the images were received we whipped them back around in the DMs.
We individually shared each attendees’ photos with them to up the excellence factor- so even with 200 people in attendance everyone could see that we knew their name/face and received a personalized thank you. Our VIPs were able to share the images themselves and create additional online excitement with their own communities. The posting commenced throughout the weekend and by the time we opened on Monday, March 15, 2021, we had a line at the door waiting to come in.
Our organic marketing efforts proved to be effective, so we knew it was time to up the ante on promotions. We hired a PR company that also allowed us to establish ourselves through various aspects of media coverage- TV segments, online articles, events, gala giveaways. Local news stations covered the opening and amplified the buzz happening around the newest addition to downtown Las Vegas.
Q2 2021: Coffee Shop Ops
The Focus: Operations
Our team of amazing baristas have been critical to the success of Bungalow Coffee from day one. We went through a lengthy hiring process (detailed at the bottom of the blog) and early into Q2 we promoted two shift leads in order to provide support to the team & ownership.
We soon learned that with a brick and mortar, sales reflect day to day changes and it’s important to keep a keen eye on what impacted orders with a microscopic lens.
Was our signage clear enough, did our front of house team actively recommend new menu items, did a nearby event impact traffic? All of these factors (and so much more) helped us create reports to use for menu/protocol adjustments.
We scheduled a VIP session with our consultant to come back into Las Vegas to watch the shop operations as a whole. The consultant analyzed our operations, spoke with the staff, timed EVERYTHING, walked around and did competitive recon, and watched the general day to day service over the course of three days.
On the final day, he drafted a multiple page report about what was working, what needed attention, and breakdowns of all the team members and their roles. This report gave us great in-depth analysis to springboard into a dialed-in Q3. (No matter the niche, we’re huge advocates of hiring a coach/consultant!)
Q3 2021: Creating Our Cadence
The Focus: Nurturing a Foundation of Excellence
Once we had our consultant’s report in hand, we began implementing changes immediately. We took action and added additional equipment to the coffee shop, created new procedures for our team, and even added new recipes to the menu.
One of our core tenants is quality in all we do, and we made it our mission to further standardize our operations to ensure that Bungalow Coffee is synonymous with consistent excellence.
With this as our guiding light, we knew that we needed to create systems and documentation for every item on our menu to ensure that no matter who was working, our customers would receive the same delicious experience.
Q4 2021: Solidifying Our Operations
The Focus: Systems Structuring & Expansion
From our experience in the online space, we were well aware of the importance of automating and delegating to create massive growth. In Q4 we were able to hire a full-time operations manager who was the GM for the biggest specialty coffee + roaster co. in town.
Bringing on someone with this level of experience and specialized coffee knowledge meant that we had a higher level of industry know-how than anyone on the current team possessed. Hiring someone with much more experience, allowed Bungalow Coffee to get even more dialed-in on quality & protocols. This + the feedback from our consultant meant we had were totally on top of SOPs, checklists, inventory, and HR. Experience can be the difference between being a “good spot” and being the city’s premier coffee destination.
Q1 2022: The Record Breaker
The Focus: Growth and Future Planning
Our biggest months yet arrived at the top of 2022! Bungalow Coffee had four straight weekends in a row of record breaking sales, which came at an exciting time as we look toward what’s next for the coffee shop. We never expected to break our opening weekend records in such a short period of time, and not even a year into it we’re seeing the demand from our Las Vegas community for more of the coffee they love.
What contributed to this?
- More time and tenure in the city, becoming a favorite, becoming a habit
- We increased our priced in January 2022 (hello product inflation 👋)
- We added to our food menu becoming more of a brunch/lunch destination
- As the demand occurred, we added more seating- Wrap booths, new tables, more barstools
- We started renting our space for events + renting our coffee cart to private events (multiple streams of revenue!)
- Rolled out our Bungalow Coffee custom app to create for efficiency for those on the go
As we’ve always said, we make coffee for the city that likes to drink it.
But wait, how did we go from serving specialty coffee to turning into a high-caliber cafe? It’s comes back to our team…
Core Factors in the Success of a Brick & Mortar
Hiring: It’s About the Right People
Our best advice: Hire someone who shares your core values, everything operational is teach-able.
Months before opening, it dawned on Ryan that if I help people with marketing, there must be someone out there who helps people with opening/operating a coffee shop. With the research we were consuming from books, to podcasts, to online, we found our ideal coach. (Also mentioned in the Q2 2021 section)
We quickly booked a strategy call with him; admittedly, it was quite exciting to be on the other side of a strategy session for a change!
Most of his experience was as a consultant who comes in and uplevels the procedures of a fully operational coffee shops, so we were a different challenge. We had the space, and certainly the passion, but we lacked the knowledge and the experience.
However, we felt that he could provide the level of support we needed and after our first call, we knew we found our coach and mentor. Our consultant booked calls with us every few weeks in which we dialed in recipes, schedules, equipment needs, and hiring. He then came out to Las Vegas and hosted a “barista bootcamp” training for all our new staff- which was also a great opportunity for our first-ever coffee shop team to bond!
Additionally, we hired a chef that has worked up and down the Las Vegas Strip to help optimize our food program.
(Prior to that we just had pastry and toast recipes created by me, which are still on the menu today! My crowning culinary achievement. 😆)
Chef Joe brought along recipes, top level vendors/contacts, and must-have equipment. He also attended our staff training sessions, early launch events, and walked us through all the health department codes.
The Bungalow Team
Let’s be direct- we are nothing without our team. We went through 200+ applications, pouring through questionnaires, and doing the work to ensure that our hires were a core value fit.
PRO TIP: Our core tenants of hiring and team construction are being taught inside of the upcoming, newly remastered Business Expansion Blueprint– something we adhere to both on The Social Bungalow and Bungalow Coffee side!
Our staff is the heart of the coffee shop, they create the welcoming atmosphere and constantly strive to provide excellence for our customers. Upon opening, and at the advice of our consultant, we created the roles of:
- Barista
- Lead barista
- Shift-leads
- Cafe Assistant
- Manager
From one set of business owners to another, we can’t encourage you enough to continue fostering relationships with your team- we love when our extended Bungalow team of current and former baristas continues to message to ask for advice, share life updates like relationship and pregnancy news, chats sports in the DMs, or update us on career milestones. The relationships are what makes this so worth it.
Menu Updates, More Seating, App Creation
The menu we opened with, has molded and changed to suit our customer’s preferences. We remained flexible on our offerings to see what the community wanted and were asking for. As we saw needs, we adjusted. We now have not only added more breakfast sandwiches, we have added multiple launch options from healthy salads and quinoa bowls. These afternoon changes allowed us to increase the average order value dramatically.
We built, and they kept coming. As our name continues to get out more and more, we have had to constantly add additional seating. Since opening, we have added 16 more seats to our shop. This allows our customers to truly come and “stay a while”.
As mentioned previously, we spent months working with an app development company to create our own Bungalow Coffee app that allows guests to order for pick-up or curbside. Available on both the App Store and Google Play.
A gratitude-filled shoutout to all of the TSB friends who have made a special trip into Bungalow Coffee when you’re in Vegas.
I can’t explain to you what that means to me + the ability to meet you in person? Incredible! Keep coming back, I’ll be here warming your cup. 😉