To operate a successful coffee shop, you have to balance five key performance indicators: marketing, customer service, product quality, consistency and speed of service.

That's a lot of saucers in the air.

But the two factors that are the biggest keys profitability are consistency and speed of service:

As those of you who roast your own coffee already know, freshness is everything. Coffee tastes best one or two days after roasting if stored airtight, and remains near that peak for only a few days afterward, so be sure to rotate your fresh coffee supply so that all beans are used within 10-14 days of roasting.

Coffees like Lavazza remain fresh for a year because they are packaged using a gas washing and vacuum packaging process.

After years of auditing coffee quality in coffee shops and restaurants, one brewing error consistently stands out: The grind is too coarse, resulting in an under-extracted, less-than-great pour.

There’s a lot of documentation involved in getting your coffee shop built out. Here’s what you need to know to get your coffeehouse plans right.

Like most coffee shops in the industry, you probably experience a rush of customers followed by lulls in business throughout the day. A little down time is good. It provides you with the opportunity to get things done around the shop. But if business becomes too leisurely you may have to ask yourself what you can do to increase your sales during these down times.

There is no easy answer, but you can experiment. And you have free resources at your disposal every day, if you choose to use them:

Coffee shops and restaurants are as much (or more) about customer service than they are about goods and transactions—though the goods need to be good, no doubt. A purely transactional business can earn revenue without an owner’s presence, but a coffee shop or restaurant needs the owner’s regular involvement. Customers expect it, and staff are more engaged when the owner at least occasionally takes orders, makes coffee and is actively watching over the business.

I’ve heard people who are considering opening a coffee shop say things like, “I think it would be fun to own a local hangout,” or “Everyone wants a coffee shop near them, so how can I go wrong?” Or even simply, “I love coffee, so why wouldn’t I love the business?”