The London School Of Coffee was established in 2002, and was the very first coffee training facility in the UK. In 2005, they embarked on a new direction with their training, looking to offer potential business owners the knowledge needed to open their own coffee shops. My services were enlisted to develop and lead their How to Open a Coffee Shop training course.

After initial meetings, my first step was to produce a two-day program that combined industry knowledge with hands-on barista training. Day 1 combined insights such as:

• Finding the right location
• Licenses, planning, and legal considerations
• Buying an existing business, or starting from scratch
• Key industry issues
• Build costs and profit margins
• Developing your USP
• Equipment selection and layout design
• Branding, marketing, and operations
• A list of coffee suppliers
• How to plan your launch

The course was developed to illustrate industry-accepted profit & cost margins, meaning it was applicable to an international audience, and not just the UK market.

As a result, we often filled the course with students from mainland Europe and the Middle East, where it proved to be very popular.

Day 2 involved a caffeine-filled session of coffee cupping and barista skills, including:

• Ground coffee equipment
• Ground coffee brewing techniques
• The five basic tastes of coffee
• Single origin cupping protocols
• How your espresso machine works
• Understanding the coffee grinder
• The perfect espresso
• Milk texturing techniques
• Preparing your drinks menu
• Speed of service
• Daily cleaning

Running successfully for 14 years, it became one of the most popular courses at LSC, helping hundreds of aspiring coffee shop owners launch their businesses with confidence. Due to Covid-19, the course went online in 2019.

Subsequently, I went on to take that same expertise and distill it into my own Opening a Successful Coffee House online courses, designed to guide you through the entire process of starting your coffee shop.