Conscious Bean: Expert Insights For A Successful New Coffee Shop 

DeliveryRank has the opportunity to interview Matthew Evilsizor, the founder of Conscious Bean, a caffeination design firm based in Los Angeles, California. With a passion for crafting exceptional coffee, As a coffee consultant, Matthew guides coffee shop startups to create exceptional spaces and amazing coffee. His company focuses on cafe development, bringing love, transparency, and ethical sourcing to every cup. Matthew's dedication to quality and mindful roasting reflects his vision of coffee as a manifestation of love, community, and sustainability.

Conscious Bean® emphasizes designing, developing, and rejuvenating exceptional coffee shops. Could you elaborate on your holistic approach to coffee shop layout and design? Specifically, how do you optimize operational efficiency, functionality, and customer flow within a new coffee shop?

When you're thinking about starting a coffee shop, it's crucial to identify the why of your business, particularly your core customer. One of the best ways to approach this is by conducting a thorough competitive analysis of your local market. This helps you understand what your competitors are doing and what type of customers they are serving. Once you've identified this, the direction for your operations becomes much clearer because you're addressing specific actions and goals towards the target customer you’re serving and their specific wants and needs. 

From there, it's essential to track in on how many customers you believe you can serve on an average day—whether it's 175, 300, 420, 800, as concept examples. This figure will guide the scale of equipment required to support that volume, as well as the additional infrastructure, such as refrigeration, to hold that much product, etc. This, in turn, determines the amount of space you'll need to facilitate all these functions effectively.

This background work—gaining a clear understanding of your circumstances—is foundational to the creative process. You then focus on optimizing the physical layout of your space. People naturally work within a limited radius, which I like to visualize as a V-shape, with your arms extended outward. This range represents the natural space in which production occurs. Within this area, your goal is to make core actions as intuitive and accessible as possible, minimizing time, cost, and burnout or injury from unnecessary movement. A well-designed space allows you to serve more drinks per hour with greater fluidity. If things aren’t where they’re expected to be, inefficiency and frustration arise, both for the staff and the customer.

Connecting this to your customer involves understanding their objectives—what types of drinks they’ll predominantly order, the ingredients involved, and the equipment needed to prepare them. By knowing these specifics, you can create an intuitive layout that allows you to serve your main objectives efficiently and within the shortest possible distance. For instance, if you need to access the milk 300 times a day, it’s probably not practical to place it behind you. I've seen this arrangement often, where baristas have to bend over, retrieve the milk, and then return to the work area, leading to wasted time and unnecessary physical strain. Similarly, some older cafes with a heavy drip coffee focus place coffee machines at the ends of long bars, requiring staff to walk 20–30 steps each time to get supplies. This inefficiency can add up quickly, hindering productivity.

Ultimately, the goal is to understand the core purpose of your business—targeting the right customer, knowing their needs, and organizing your space to meet those needs consistently. This reduces stress on both the baristas and the overall operation, ultimately enhancing the guest experience. When drinks are served faster, and with higher quality and consistency, the entire process becomes more enjoyable for everyone involved. While it’s difficult to preempt everything, you can certainly plan and test. Speculating on numbers and experimenting with traffic patterns are key components. 

The only way to really understand how many customers you may serve in a day is by analysing, traffic patterns. For example, if 10,000 cars pass your business on their way to the city, you might expect to capture 5% of that traffic—around 500 customers. There are more granular details to consider in traffic patterns like stop lights, turning right or left, ease of sign visibility, and ease of parking. You also need to assess the demographic of those passing by—what types of people are walking by or driving past, and what other cafes are nearby. If you have well-established competitors like Dunkin’ Donuts or Starbucks across the street, replicating their business model could be challenging. Instead, your goal should be to differentiate yourself and attract a different customer base—one that your competitors aren’t serving.

These insights will not only help you estimate how many customers to expect, but also guide the design of your menu offerings and layout. For example, if you're targeting a large Gen Z crowd, you might find that cold drinks are in higher demand than hot ones. Knowing your target customer in this way helps define your menu and optimize your operations to meet their needs efficiently.

It seems everyone wants to start a coffee shop. What sage advice would you give first-time coffee shop entrepreneurs? 

What I’ve outlined here is really the science behind figuring out how to build a successful coffee shop, but the key piece of advice is to do your due diligence. Many people enter this space with an idea of what they “think” will be successful. While I don't want to discourage anyone from following their passion or dreams—especially if opening a coffee shop is something that holds deep meaning for them, but it’s essential to ground that vision in an understanding of the market you're entering and put numbers to your opinions if you want to heighten your likelihood of success.

So, to start with, the first step is a thorough competitive analysis and a deep understanding of your local market. If you don’t know the ins and outs of every coffee shop within a three-mile radius of your location—what works for them, what doesn’t, their menu pricing, and their customer base—then you're essentially guessing at what your community needs. And that’s a really risky move. Without this insight, your chances of being profitable are significantly reduced, or it will take much longer to reach success, simply because you don't understand what’s already driving other businesses in the area. Competitive analysis is a cornerstone in making informed decisions. This is so important, we developed and offer a set of forms to guide you to these answers.

Once you've done that, the next step is to hone in on your unique selling position (also called your USP). For instance, maybe you want your coffee shop to focus on Brazilian pastries. That’s fantastic and can be a unique differentiator. But it’s essential that your passion aligns with the needs of your customer base, and that the market can actually support your offering. If you’ve done your homework and this fits the community, then you’ve got something truly special. But if you dive in with your USP without considering whether it’s necessary or wanted, you could find it much harder to build a profitable business. Understanding your USP will allow you to further clarify the requirements of equipment, layout, and menu that will define your future business.

After solidifying your USP, the next phase is financial forecasting. This largely comes from your market analysis. For example, the price of a cup of coffee in urban Los Angeles is likely to be higher than in rural America. Each community and segment has its own pricing structure, and it’s crucial to align your prices with what’s viable in your market. Understanding these price points gives you a clearer sense of potential profitability, as well as insight into your expenses.

From here, you can begin to project potential revenue. With this, you'll know how long it will take to become profitable and what your financial opportunities truly are. Too many people come into this with strong convictions about what they think will work, but haven’t done the necessary research to validate those assumptions. In my experience with financial modeling for businesses, When I do financial forecasting for new coffee shops, all to often people are so confident their idea will make them tons of money only to put numbers to concepts and find they are barely profitable or even taking sustained losses. I’d much rather help someone realize this early on, so we can adjust the plan before they invest their life savings into a dream that may not work.

The financial side of things isn’t the fun part, but it’s the foundation that will ultimately ensure longevity. It’s about building a clear, realistic vision. That's how you make a plan and that is how you manifest the best chance for sustained success.

When selecting equipment for a new coffee shop, What are the most important considerations and decisions?

A successful coffee shop isn’t just about serving great coffee; it's about the operational efficiency, consistency, and customer experience that all need to come together. Understanding your target customer and tailoring your offering is key. This will guide not just your menu, but your equipment and the style of coffee you make.

When it comes to equipment, the decision you face is often between two paths. On one side, you have the super-automatic espresso machines, and on the other, classic espresso machines with skilled labor behind them. Each has its trade-offs, and deciding which path to take comes down to your goals, resources, and the level of skill you’re able to realistically source for your business.

Path A: Super-Automatic Espresso Machines
These machines, especially the newer high-end models, are incredibly efficient and can cater to a variety of skill levels. For example, Starbucks uses super-automatics to maintain consistency across their locations. With these, you can ensure that all of your baristas, regardless of experience, are producing the same quality product every time. While the upfront investment is high, these machines significantly reduce the need for extensive training programs, as they essentially take care of much of the technical aspects of making coffee.

However, the downside is that these machines can be quite expensive, and you’re sacrificing some of the artistry and customization that can come with more manual methods. If consistency and speed are your top priorities and you’re looking to scale with minimal complexity, then super-automatic machines are a smart choice. This allows you to put extra effort into your customer experience program and lean into creating a vibe as well as a consistent product. 

Path B: Classic Espresso Machines and Skilled Labor
If you're passionate about the art of coffee-making and are committed to offering a more high-end, artisanal product, then investing in high-quality classic espresso machines might be the way to go. These machines—ranging from affordable to very expensive—offer the ability to craft unique, high-quality drinks that reflect the skill of your baristas. However, as pointed out, the key here is having obtainable skilled labor—baristas who understand the science of coffee, the role of grind size, and the mechanics of espresso, and the speed of quality drink production. This path requires a strong training program and ongoing support to ensure that every cup is as good as the last. This is often a big challenge as the wages are usually low, leading to high school and college workers who may not have the true experience/skill and who only work for a short period before heading on to the rest of their lives. 

If you go down this path, be prepared for a steeper learning curve and higher labor costs, but it can set your coffee shop apart as a place where quality and craftsmanship are paramount.

The decision really comes down to your vision and resources. Do you want to focus on a consistent, reliable product that’s easy to replicate and scale? Or do you want something more artisanal? There’s no wrong choice, but understanding your business model and your team's capabilities will help you make the best decision.

If the idea is to open a coffee shop just for the vibe and the social aspect, without a clear plan for profitability, it’s going to be a tough road. The margins in the coffee business are often thin, and it takes a lot more than just passion to make it work long-term. You need to be diligent, plan well, and think through all the nuances if you want to create something that will sustain.

It seems like the coffee shop's menu is so important. How do you create an enticing coffee menu?

I feel menu creation is often framed in a way that overcomplicates things. In reality, a coffee shop menu, especially for espresso drinks, comes down to a relatively simple foundation: coffee and milk. From there, it’s all about ratios, flavor combinations, and understanding what my target customer wants. It’s a balance of creativity and functionality, but it all starts with knowing exactly who I’m serving and why.

If you look at espresso drinks, they’re just variations on a few core items…espresso and milk. That's it. And from there you have macchiato, cortado, cappuccino, and latte which are just ratios of those two ingredients. At the heart of it, that’s the menu. The rest is about tailoring those drinks with unique twists or flavorings based on what your customers desire. So, rather than trying to create a menu that satisfies every possible palate, I can design a menu that’s targeted and intentional for the people I want to serve. 

I’ve seen a lot of coffee shops get stuck in the trap of offering a huge menu, thinking they need to cater to every customer variant (this is a simple way for me to tell if they have done their business plan diligence). But the reality is, most people only gravitate toward a handful of drinks. If I can understand what that core group of customers is after, whether it’s a sweet, flavored latte, a black drip coffee, a ceremonial grade matcha tea, etc. It makes operations more efficient and helps ensure you’re not overextending with unnecessary options.

Ultimately, I believe menu creation isn’t about arbitrarily choosing a variety of items. It’s about aligning the offerings with my customer base. Once I have a clear understanding of who I’m serving and what they want, menu creation becomes more about making thoughtful, targeted decisions rather than constantly experimenting with new things.

How does engaging a coffee consultant early in the planning phase significantly accelerate the road to profitability?

I think the process of coffee shop creation can be broken down into a few key phases, and the first two phases are often the least understood, even though they’re the most critical. These are the Coffee Shop Business Plan which to me includes the coffee shop competitive analysis, the coffee shop financial modeling steps, and a clearly defined business plan. Next it’s the City Planning and Health Board phase. Once those are in place, the process becomes more personal, as the foundation is already built. But these first two phases are crucial and value the most from expertise.

When dealing with the coffee shop business plan phase, which I lovingly refer to as phase 0. The three questions I most often get from people are: “How much equipment do I need, and how much will it cost?” “How much money can my coffee startup make?” “How many employees will I need, and how much will my labor cost?” “How big of a loan should I take out?” And the ever-important and always popular…”How long will it take my new coffee shop to become profitable?” These are tough questions to answer, especially when it comes to financial modeling. There’s not much out there to guide people through these aspects in a clear, numeric way, so my company has developed personalized packages for anyone who needs these questions answered. Every other solution out there offers a theory or an e-book about “How to start a coffee shop.” We give you real data and a complete financial forecast that gives you a three-year pro forma that you can take directly to a banker. Without this, people are shooting in the dark, and that can be very frustrating for all involved, especially a potential investor.

If you can’t access financial modeling or don't have the budget for a consultant, diving deep into competitive analysis at least gives you a sense of your market. Understanding your competition—who they're serving, how many customers they’re reaching, and what price points they're offering—will give you a solid starting direction. If you want to build a plan, understanding your market and then building out a financial forecast are key steps to ensure you’re going the right direction. This stuff is the bedrock. It’s the insight and foresight upon which an actual business plan is created. Your business plan is your road map, and when you’ve done your diligence, all the questions that originally seemed difficult to answer in your business plan now feel more like drawing lines to where you want to go on a map. But it only occurs once you have a clear understanding of where you are headed and why. So if you don’t feel clear with the details of your business plan, then you need to go back and do your competitive analysis and financial forecasting and it will shine a light on your path. 

From my viewpoint, that's phase 0. A clear plan built on understanding your competitive landscape, forecasting what you believe you can carve out of that landscape for your own business, and laying that vision out into words in a strong business plan. This set of three phase 0 steps we sell is the most common work we do with coffee entrepreneurs, and it is truly money well spent. 

From there, you take that plan and you start to design your shops layout and flow. You’ll likely need to bring in an architect, especially if you're planning to make capital investments or alter the space structurally. In the U.S., it's usually a legal requirement to have an architect for this stage, and their involvement is essential for navigating city planning and health board approvals.

I recommend finding an architect with experience in the local community, especially one familiar with food and restaurant businesses. They’ll not only understand the structural needs but will also have connections with local city planners and health boards. A good architect can be a powerful advocate who helps push your project through the approval process efficiently.

I will caveat that I believe an experienced coffee consultant should work in tandem with the Architect. Not all food businesses function the same, you can’t templatize a coffee shop so understanding the minutia that leads to efficiency, function, and flow really should come from the coffee consultant’s expertise. The architect will share the local building codes and unique healthboard specifications that are specific to your community, confirm the design and function meet requirements and then help bring that design through city requirements. I’ve found that while hiring professionals can be costly, it's often the most effective way to handle those early, difficult stages. Once the groundwork is laid, though, the role I, or any good coffee consultant, would take on is more about offering guidance and experienced support. I fully believe the coffee entrepreneur needs to do the rest of the creation process predominantly themselves. They need to understand their business and what they have created so granularly if they want to see how to continue to grow and evolve the vision once they open. So after the first two phases, my job is to help them avoid pitfalls that would be difficult to foresee or understand.

This approach helps keep costs down for the entrepreneur and ensures they’re deeply knowledgeable about their business. After all, it’s their dream, and they need to be empowered to succeed with the right support. Understanding the details and minutiae of their business will make them much more capable of managing the challenges ahead and will ultimately save time and money in the long run.

If you would like to find out more about Conscious Bean, please visit https://consciousbean.com/coffee-consulting