Food & Finance High School Coffee Shop a Winner

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This past October I was invited to speak about Restaurant Profitability at the Food and Finance High School in New York City. I met with a group of students who were planning a “pop-up” coffee shop, Murphy’s Beans ‘N Dreams that would be located at the entrance of their school and run for one week in December.  The students impressed me with their questions, including one about how to turn around a business in trouble.   I answered that one key strategy would be to get an honest appraisal of what is going on, which would require various team members to provide open and honest assessments.  (For more on this see Alan Mullally’s description of how he did this when he became CEO of the beleaguered Ford Motor Company, in “American Icon.”)

Students also asked how a business owner knows they are getting good prices from their suppliers. Answer: get competitive supplier quotes, based on your product specs. They also asked, how they could  stand out in the competitive restaurant space. Answer: know what makes your offering truly distinctive, and publicize that aspect.

Another satisfied customer at Murphy’s Beans ‘N Dreams

They did successfully complete their project and it was terrific to see it in action. I stopped by and was pleased to find that the Murphy’s Beans ‘N Dreams team was handling the morning rush efficiently, the place was attractively laid out, the coffee was delicious, and there was an impressive assortment of baked goods, fruit and sandwiches too.  Congratulations to Ms. Loehr’s class.