I wanted to do something that I could be proud of

Anatolii Mospan, our client and founder of the coffee house Mister Sova in Odesa. Anatolii told us how he discovered the world of coffee and why children love his coffee shop so much.

Several years ago I decided to start a business. I had start-up capital, and I was thinking where to invest this money. I was choosing between a beer bar and a coffee shop. But the bar is a more seasonal business, and the coffee shop is universal, so I settled on it. I wanted not just to make money, but to create something that I would really like.

 

BEFORE THE OPENING OF MISTER SOVA, I DIDN'T EVEN DRINK COFFEE

Having decided on the sphere, I went to barista courses, where I learned how to use coffee machines and learned what coffee should be like. After a couple of months of searching for a place, I found a place near the house. For the first four months, while the coffee shop was still not profitable enough, I had to work seven days a week. A year and a half later, an acquaintance offered me to rent another pavilion, and I opened another coffee shop. And recently - the third. They are all in sleeping areas. 

 

I HAVE FRIENDLY RELATIONS WITH THE STAFF

I communicate with the employees in a friendly way: I will always help them out, if you need to pay an advance beforehand, I will always help with any request. I hire employees with work experience, but I retrain for myself. I pay great attention to the grinding of coffee, I encourage the guys to change it. Few people do this, although this is important, because for each method of making coffee, you need to select its own grind. The duration of brewing, temperature, pressure are also of great importance.

 

GOOD COFFEE CANNOT BE CHEAP

I would like people to buy less coffee in kiosks with the sign “Americano for 10 hryvnia” and appreciate the quality of the drink and their health. It turns out that many do not care what they drink. And making coffee is still a manual job, it cannot be cheap. I buy quite expensive grains and milk and good equipment. We have Indian coffee - 70% Arabica and 30% Robusta - this is a universal blend.

We promote coffee houses mainly through Instagram, but I don’t invest much money in advertising. I am more focused on the quality of the product itself. For me, the main achievement is when I hear from people that they are coming to me from the other end of the city, because after trying coffee at Mister Sova, they can no longer drink other coffee.

We also sell related products in coffee shops - healthy sweets, fitness bars, lollipops. We have a children's corner with toys, a drawing board, coloring pages and educational kits. Therefore, some of our regular customers are people with children. I have a very young child, so I wanted to create a family-type coffee shop, so that it would be comfortable for both children and adults.

I plan to expand the network: to open coffee shops in the center, some in to-go format, and selling coffee through a window is more profitable in terms of rent. 

I decided to register the trademark because I approach the business thoroughly. Registration is not such a big expense to risk your business: register a trademark - and you are calm that all the rights to the business belong only to you.