Between tracking food costs and inventory, and building your customer base, it's easy to hastily hire a new barista when you're short staffed. But don't hire too quickly just so you can get back to running your business. Even if it means you and your staff will be working extra hard until you hire right, be sure to find the right person.

Cafe management isn't all coffee and pastries. Whether you’re an owner-operator or you employ a full-time front-of-the-house manager, people are the core of your business. You need to know how to engage them, motivate them, and teach them.

Coffee shop marketing should be a constant in your business. Besides your inviting location, highly visible signage and killer espresso, how do you attract customers to your coffeehouse? Drink specials or coupons? Co-marketing with other businesses? Live music? All of these approaches have their merits and potential upticks in sales.

Not unlike your clothes, your menu design says a lot about you. Are you clean and polished and easy to read, or disheveled and a bit confused? Keep the following guidelines in mind when creating your menu and you’ll be sure to make a positive first impression:

A good restaurant menu will encourage customers to dive into your offerings. They should be able to rely on popular go-to items and new favorites—with a fair amount of flexibility mixed in, so they know what to expect. But your menu should not be set in stone (read: do not laminate). The big reasons for keeping it loose: fluctuating food costs, spoilage and passing trends.

Business owners are known to dread creating a formal coffee business plan, and many especially avoid revisiting an old one. But a truly valuable business plan is a living document. By keeping it up to date, you are forced to step back from the chaos and make sure the big picture still makes sense. And if it doesn’t, you can take corrective action instead of burying your head in the sand.

As a small business owner, you wear many hats and have a plethora of tasks to complete throughout the day. It can be hard to find time to do everything, so you have to be efficient wherever possible. By making small changes to your inventory management system, you can save hours.