Startup Story
Good morning.
Lately, I've been writing columns, reflecting on the past, and hoping to share my thoughts on the future. This is Kato.
BASE COFFEE opened on April 2, 2014. I was working right up until opening, so I think I was working until around the end of February. My memory is a bit hazy though.
*A screenshot of my pre-opening shopping list. It seems I diligently accumulated items during breaks from work.
Even after deciding to open, finding a property was difficult, and the money I had initially prepared was far too little, so I think the person in charge probably gave up on me. Lol.
Since they were a company that would help with property searches, I contacted them about various places, asking "How about here?" or "That place seems vacant," but they just kept skillfully deflecting.
Considering I had paid a contract fee, looking back now, it might not have been a very good service. In the end, I didn't (or couldn't) ask that company for help.
However, precisely because I was in such a situation, someone reached out to me, and then another person willing to cooperate appeared. If it weren't for these two individuals, nothing would have come to fruition. I'm truly grateful.
*Under construction
We opened a coffee bean shop with an exceptionally low interior construction cost (thank you very much m(__)m) and only a roasting machine. When we first opened, we only had three high tables, offered only takeout cups, and even charged consumption tax down to the single yen (many people angrily told us to make it tax-included, saying "Don't make us pay 1 yen for coffee!"). It might have been a completely different place back then.
No breakfast, no cakes, no water, no liquid coffee, no drip bags... there's no end to the list of things we didn't have.
BASE COFFEE started under circumstances that were almost miraculous.
Six months later... to be continued.
I was 29 at the time. When I was 20, I decided to open a cafe by the time I was 30, so it was just barely within that timeframe. That year, there was a specific event that prompted me to open, and if that hadn't happened, I might not have opened at all.
*A screenshot of my pre-opening shopping list. It seems I diligently accumulated items during breaks from work.
Even after deciding to open, finding a property was difficult, and the money I had initially prepared was far too little, so I think the person in charge probably gave up on me. Lol.
Since they were a company that would help with property searches, I contacted them about various places, asking "How about here?" or "That place seems vacant," but they just kept skillfully deflecting.
Considering I had paid a contract fee, looking back now, it might not have been a very good service. In the end, I didn't (or couldn't) ask that company for help.
However, precisely because I was in such a situation, someone reached out to me, and then another person willing to cooperate appeared. If it weren't for these two individuals, nothing would have come to fruition. I'm truly grateful.
*Under construction
We opened a coffee bean shop with an exceptionally low interior construction cost (thank you very much m(__)m) and only a roasting machine. When we first opened, we only had three high tables, offered only takeout cups, and even charged consumption tax down to the single yen (many people angrily told us to make it tax-included, saying "Don't make us pay 1 yen for coffee!"). It might have been a completely different place back then.
No breakfast, no cakes, no water, no liquid coffee, no drip bags... there's no end to the list of things we didn't have.
BASE COFFEE started under circumstances that were almost miraculous.
Six months later... to be continued.