Because running a café takes more than just a good roast
Updated
March 18, 2026 6:29 PM
A cup of espresso being brewed. PHOTO: UNSPLASH
Coffee has grown beyond being just a drink—it’s part of culture, connection and even a daily productivity hack. Think about it: friends catch up over cappuccinos, professionals start the day with a quick espresso and students practically live on iced lattes during exams. It’s woven into routines, with two-thirds of American adults consuming coffee on a daily basis and averaging around three cups per day. That is much higher than other beverages like tea, juice and bottled water. It is therefore no surprise that the global coffee shop industry is projected to reach about US$123.43 billion by 2030. For entrepreneurs, that makes coffee shops more than cozy corners with good aesthetics. They’re a real business opportunity. But before you open a coffee shop, here are five things you should know.
Like any small business, the success of your coffee shop often hinges on where it is. Coffee may have broad appeal, but daytime foot traffic and visibility can still make the difference between a busy café and one that struggles to stay afloat. Opening near universities, office parks, co-working hubs or residential neighbourhoods with young professionals can instantly give you a strong stream of potential customers.
That said, choosing a coffee shop location is not just about picking a busy area. You also need to know your target market. For example, opening a third-wave specialty coffee shop in a low-income neighbourhood may not work if your prices are beyond what local residents want to pay. The same café might perform much better in a more affluent or fast-changing district.
Competition matters a lot in the equation too. Walk around the area and see what other coffee shops are doing. The goal is not always to avoid competition but to find a gap in the market. If nearby cafés focus on quick grab-and-go drinks, there may be room for a slower, more community-driven coffee shop built around hand-poured brews and a relaxed atmosphere. Simply put, your shop’s exact street address could make or break your business.
It’s important to understand this early on: running a coffee shop is not just about serving coffee. Customers today have endless options, from making coffee at home to buying from major chains like Starbucks. What brings them through your doors is often the overall experience.
According to a report by Salesforce, 91% of customers say they’re more likely to make another purchase after a great service experience. That means your café needs to give people a reason to stay, come back and recommend it to others. Maybe it is the interior design, the playlist that feels just right, the reliable Wi-Fi, the convenient charging points or simply the way the space feels. Remember, good coffee gets people in once, but a strong customer experience gives them a reason to return.
Opening a modest-sized sit-down café in the U.S. can cost anywhere between US$100,000 and US$350,000. The final number depends on your location, your coffee shop concept, your equipment and how much you spend on the fit-out and interior design. Beyond those startup costs, your monthly expenses—like rent, utilities, staff salaries and coffee bean purchases—will play a huge role in whether your business survives the first year.
Profit margins in coffee retail are thinner than new owners expect. On average, small to medium-sized coffee shops make a 3-10% profit margin, which means efficiency is key. Selling higher-margin items like snacks, light bites and pastries can help lift revenue. A US$2 slice of banana bread, for example, may cost cents to make but can still raise the average spend per customer.
You also need to factor in seasonality when planning your coffee shop revenue. For instance, in warmer months, there is usually higher demand for iced and cold beverages. Many cafés respond by introducing cold brew, iced teas, smoothies or limited seasonal drinks to their menus. That helps keep sales steady and protects the average ticket size throughout the year. At the end of the day, running a café is just as much about managing the numbers as it is about serving great coffee.
A barista isn’t just someone pulling espresso shots; they’re often the face of your coffee shop. A warm smile, remembering a regular’s order or sharing a fun fact about the beans can create the kind of connection that keeps customers coming back.
As specialty coffee culture boomed in the early 2010s, baristas became more than brewers—they are now guides and storytellers. By talking about coffee origin, processing methods, bean varieties and roast profiles, they help customers understand what they are buying and why it matters. That mix of knowledge and personality can have a real impact on customer loyalty.
That’s why hiring and retaining great baristas is one of the smartest investments a café owner can make. Beyond competitive pay, creating a workplace where people feel valued also matters. Training, room for creativity and a sense of pride in the craft can go a long way in helping staff stay engaged.
Opening a coffee shop is exciting, but opening the doors and hoping people walk in is not enough. Good coffee shop marketing today is less about spending big and more about telling a story people want to follow. Well before you launch, start building hype and share behind-the-scenes snippets on Instagram, whether that is taste-tests, design decisions or even the messy parts of setting up the space. That kind of content feels real and helps build anticipation.
Once your café is open, think beyond basic promotion. Loyalty programs, collaborations with local businesses or even hosting events like poetry nights, art exhibits or coffee cupping sessions can all help bring people in. Social media is useful here too; it is not only a place to post latte art but also where you show what your brand stands for. Do you focus on sustainability? Do you source coffee ethically? Do you support local artists? Those details humanize your brand and make your café more than just a pitstop for caffeine.
Overall, opening a coffee shop blends passion, community and entrepreneurship. It also requires clear thinking and strong business decisions. From choosing the right location and creating a memorable customer experience to managing costs and building a great team, success takes more than just brewing good coffee. If you treat your coffee shop as both a craft and a business, you give it a much better chance of becoming a local favourite.
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A breakdown of the mission aiming to turn space into the next layer of digital infrastructure.
Updated
January 8, 2026 6:32 PM
The Hubble Space Telescope, one of the fist space infrastructures. PHOTO: UNSPLASH
PowerBank Corporation and Smartlink AI, the company behind Orbit AI, are preparing to send a very different kind of satellite into space. Their upcoming mission, scheduled for December 2025, aims to test what they call the world’s first “Orbital Cloud” — a system that moves parts of today’s digital infrastructure off the ground and into orbit. While satellites already handle GPS, TV signals and weather data, this project tries to do something bigger: turn space itself into a platform for computing, artificial intelligence (AI) and secure blockchain-based digital transactions. In essence, it marks the beginning of space-based cloud computing.
To understand why this matters, it is helpful to examine the limitations of our current systems. As AI tools grow more advanced, they require massive data centers that consume enormous amounts of electricity, especially for cooling. These facilities depend on national power grids, face regulatory constraints and are concentrated in just a few regions. Meanwhile, global connectivity still struggles with inequalities, censorship, congestion and geopolitical bottlenecks. The Orbital Cloud is meant to plug these gaps by building a computing and communication layer above Earth — a solar-powered, space-cooled network in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) that no single nation or company fully controls.
Orbit AI’s approach brings together two new systems. The first, called DeStarlink, is a decentralized satellite network designed for global internet-style connectivity and resilient communication. The second, DeStarAI, is a set of AI-focused in-orbit data centers placed directly on satellites, using space’s naturally cold environment instead of the energy-hungry cooling towers used on Earth. When these two ideas merge, the result is a floating digital layer where information can be transmitted, processed and verified without touching terrestrial infrastructure — a key shift in how AI workloads and cloud computing may be handled in the future.
PowerBank enters the picture by supplying the electricity and temperature-control technology needed to keep these satellites running. In space, sunlight is constant and uninterrupted — no clouds, no storms, no nighttime periods where panels lie idle. PowerBank plans to provide high-efficiency solar arrays and adaptive thermal systems that help the satellites manage heat in orbit. This collaboration marks a shift for PowerBank, which is expanding from traditional solar and battery projects into the realm of digital infrastructure, AI energy systems and next-generation satellite technology.
Describing the ambition behind this move, Dr. Richard Lu, CEO of PowerBank, said: “The next frontier of human innovation isn't just in space exploration, it's in building the infrastructure of tomorrow above the Earth”. He pointed to a future market that could surpass US$700 billion, driven by orbital satellites, AI computing in space, blockchain verification and solar-powered data systems. Integrating solar energy with orbital computing, he said, could help create “a globally sovereign, AI-enabled digital layer in space, which is a system that can help power finance, communications and critical infrastructure”.
Orbit AI’s Co-Founder and CEO, Gus Liu, describes their satellites as deliberately autonomous and intelligent. “Orbit AI is creating the first truly intelligent layer in orbit — satellites that compute, verify and optimize themselves autonomously”, he said, “The Orbital Cloud turns space into a platform for AI, blockchain and global connectivity. By leveraging solar-powered compute payloads and decentralized verification nodes, we are opening an entirely new, potentially US$700+ billion-dollar market opportunity — one that combines energy, data and sovereignty to reshape industries from finance to government and Web3. PowerBank's expertise in advanced solar energy systems will be significant in supporting this initiative."
This vision is not isolated. Earlier this year, Jeff Bezos echoed a similar idea at Italian Tech Week, saying: “We will be able to beat the cost of terrestrial data centres in space in the next couple of decades. These giant training clusters will be better built in space, because we have solar power there, 24/7 — no clouds, no rain, no weather. The next step is going to be data centres and then other kinds of manufacturing.” His comments reflect a growing industry belief that space-based data centers will eventually outperform those on Earth.
The idea gains traction because the advantages are practical. Space offers free, constant solar power. It provides natural cooling, which is one of the costliest parts of running data centers on Earth. And above all, satellites in low-Earth orbit operate beyond national firewalls and political boundaries, making them more resilient to outages, censorship and conflict. For industries that rely heavily on secure connectivity and real-time data — finance, defense, AI, blockchain networks and global cloud providers — this could become an important alternative layer of infrastructure.
The upcoming Genesis-1 satellite is designed as a demonstration mission. It will test an Ethereum wallet, run a blockchain verification node and perform simple AI tasks in orbit. If the technology works as expected, Orbit AI plans to add several more satellites in 2026, expand into larger networks by 2027 and 2028 and begin full commercial operations by the decade’s end.
To build this system, Orbit AI plans to source technologies from some of the world’s most influential players: NVIDIA for AI processors, the Ethereum Foundation for blockchain tools, Galaxy Space and SparkX Satellite for satellite components, Galactic Energy for launch systems and AscendX Aerospace for advanced materials.
If successful, the Orbital Cloud could become the first step toward a world where part of humanity’s data, computing power and digital services run not in massive buildings on Earth, but in clusters of autonomous satellites illuminated by constant sunlight. For now, the journey begins with a single launch — a test satellite aiming to show that space can do far more than connect us. It may soon help power the systems that run our economies, technologies and global communication networks.