Sorso

Café
Jenna Ageeb

October 14, 2021

Jenna Ageeb, Emerald Houston, Caleb Braun 1
 Table of Contents

Contents

Introduction.......................................................................3

Major Decisions................................................................3

Surprises............................................................................5

Key Changes......................................................................5

Chance to Start Over.........................................................6

Key Takeaways.................................................................7

October 14, 2021

Jenna Ageeb, Emerald Houston, Caleb Braun 2
 Introduction
The name of our coffee shop is Sorso Café. My team came up with this name

because “Sorso” is French for “sip”, and each of the customers at our coffee shop will sip

the drinks they buy. The whole Café is designed with a modern French theme. This

includes modern-style furniture and French-themed décor. We have an Auto-Four coffee

maker which is a machine that creates four cups of coffee at once for maximum efficiency

and the quickest prepare times.

We pay for weekly online advertising and have flyers to brand our business and reel

in customers. Our flyers include Sorso’s logo which states the café’s names and uses

aesthetically pleasing colors to attract attention. Our flyer also includes the Café’s weekly

hours so that the open and close times are apparent for first time and returning customers.

The goal of our business is to provide a safe space, primarily for students, to grab a

caffeinated drink to wake up, to study/do homework, and to relax with friends. Sorso

attempts to create an inviting environment so that customers feel welcome and continue to

dine at our Café in the future. We also hope to sell affordable coffee to my customers, as

majority are in college and on a budget. Additionally, we hope that Sorso Café is a place

that my employees feel happy and respected working at.

Major Decisions
In order to achieve our goals, we had to make a few major decisions to turn the

goals into reality. First, to create an open, welcoming space for customers, we had to make

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sure Sorso has reasonable hours for students. We are currently open every day a week

from 7 in the morning to 8 p.m. Keeping Sorso Café open seven days a week allows

customers to stop by any day they want and grab a coffee before a workout, class, job, or

study session. Seven a.m. is a relatively early time for our shop to open and is intended to

draw early birds into the shop. Four p.m. is a relatively late time for a café to close and it

gives customers nine hours a day to stop by if they want to.

To ensure a comfortable environment at Sorso Café, we have selected modern

furniture to fit the aesthetic of an overall younger crowd. This furniture gives the space a

new, exciting look that is enjoyable to spend time in. Additionally, we train our employees

to provide premier customer service so that customers are pleased and come back

repeatedly. We believe that service is a large factor in deciding customer satisfaction. Even

if a customer had issues with their order, they will most likely be satisfied if they at least

received excellent service from our employees.

Another decision my group made to accomplish our goals was set coffee prices. Our

prices started a little high, as we were a new business and had minimal money. However,

after negative customer feedback about our high prices, we have lowered our prices of

coffee. Currently, a small cup is $3.75, a medium cup is $4.50, and a large cup is $5.00. We

may lower our prices even more based on customer feedback because the more satisfied

our guests are, the more likely it is that they will come back and repeat business.

One of our final major decisions at Sorso Café involves staffing. A large goal of this

company is to hire employees who are hardworking, happy, and not overwhelmed. In

order to accomplish this, we hired multiple employees and managers and started their pay

above minimum wage. However, this is another aspect our company is still adjusting and

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Jenna Ageeb, Emerald Houston, Caleb Braun 4
correcting. Many of our employees and managers have felt overworked and some even

quit. To compensate, we will have to hire more staff members so that each of their hours

can be spread out more. This will hopefully provide them with relief and allow them to

come to work more stress-free and ready to work.

Surprises
A factor that surprised me greatly about running a coffee shop is how expensive the

process would truly be. I knew going into this simulation that running a shop, or any

business for that matter, would be costly, but I did not expect it to be this costly. First, we

had to purchase furniture and a coffee maker which cost a couple thousand dollars. Then

we had to make initial coffee and coffee cup purchases. Now, mostly all our purchases

occur weekly and include coffee purchases, advertising, staff payroll, and more. It is

shocking to see how easily and quickly a person go in debt when running their own

business.

My team encountered a large challenge within our first week of business

surrounding finances. We miscalculated the amount of coffee we would need for that week

and purchased a large surplus. This was a giant set back in receiving profit and it is a

challenge we are still trying to recover from. Fortunately, we were able to purchase exactly

the right amount of coffee for Sorso every week following the first, which is setting us on

the track for success.

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 Key Changes
As I stated above, Sorso Café initially faced a few bumps in the road that put our

business in a rough spot. Because of this, some key changes were needed to turn our café

into a success.

A major key change that positively affected our business was lowering the prices of

our coffee. It seems that customers are more willing to spend smaller amounts over long

periods of time than to spend a larger amount at once. That means that we typically

generate more revenue because even though we are selling the coffee for a lower rate, the

purchase rate increases.

Another change that helped our company was adding different cup sizes. In the

BizCafé simulation, every company starts off selling medium size cups only. As time goes

on and your company grows, you are presented the option to sell small, medium, and large

coffee cups. My team decided to take advantage of this opportunity and sell all three sizes

and our guests seemed to be pleased with the new variety. Enabling multiple cup sizes is a

positive aspect because it lets customers save money or get a small jolt of energy by

purchasing a smaller cup, or to consume a large amount of caffeine to prepare for a long

day by purchasing a larger cup. We have learned from this change that people appreciate

options.

Furthermore, hiring more help was another change that benefitted Sorso. The

addition of employees led to faster prepare and serve times. It also allowed the hours of

each staff member to be spread more evenly so that one worker is not stuck with more

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weekly hours than reasonable. This change was win-win for everyone. It does cost more to

hire additional employees, but the outcome is worth it.

Chance to Start Over

If I had a chance to start my café simulation over, I would. The over-purchasing of

coffee in the first week of business led to a surplus of time spent and hard work to set my

business on the right track. If I could start over, I would calculate the pounds of coffee

beans needed for the first week more carefully to avoid this fatal mistake. I would also hire

more employees from the start if I reattempted this café. We were majorly understaffed in

the beginning which created stress in the workplace, and therefore a chaotic environment.

All this being said, learning from past mistakes is a significant sign of growth. It is

unrealistic to expect perfection from the get-go, especially when you are new to something.

So, even though I would restart Sorso Café if given the chance, I do not believe the café’s

setbacks were failures. They would only be failures if my group and I learned nothing from

them and had no idea how to improve them, but that was not the case. Instead, we

conquered our issues and worked together as a team to make Sorso Café a better business

in every sense.

Key Takeaways
A key takeaway I have uncovered from BizCafé this semester is that running a

business is no joke. The idea of starting and creating my own company and working for

myself has appealed to me since a young age, but it is important to note that this dream

cannot become a reality without an excess of time, dedication, and hard work. A business is

like your baby, and it must be handled with care and responsibility. Similarly, it is

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important to have a passion for the business you are trying to create. With a lack of passion

comes a lack of motivation and drive, two necessities when it comes to running a business.

Another lesson I learned from this experience was how to prioritize financial

decisions. For example, I learned that spending a little more money on advertisements is a

beneficial way to spend money as those ads draw in more customers, therefore generating

more revenue and profit. Another example was choosing the Auto-Four coffee maker that

makes four cups at once versus the machine that makes two cups at once. Although the

Auto-Four was much pricier, it saved more money to purchase the larger machine upfront

rather than purchasing the smaller machine first and then upgrading later on. If we

decided to do the latter, we would have ended up purchasing both machines which would

have been thousands more. Making responsible financial decisions can be difficult, but it is

essential to success.

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