"How Coffeehouses Became the Epicenter of Information Exchange"
In 1661, a man woke up from his bed in Britain and decided to start a “coffeehouse” or what we now know as a coffee shop. However, his plan was not necessarily to sell coffee but to create space where people could access information about their interest while drinking coffee. It was an era when government information was scarce to the citizens. He decided to contact a parliamentary clerk to supply him with news that his customers can share and discuss. At the same time, they sip their much-loved cups of coffee away.
His coffeehouse became the hub of information on politics, governance, stocks and policies. In no distant time, many coffeehouses started coming up in different parts of Britain with information themes. So there were political coffeehouses where people interested in political information would get to read and discuss politics. There were financial coffeehouses for those interested in the financial market news and information. The more attractive the news was, the longer the people stayed in the coffeehouses and the more cups of coffee they bought.
This was how coffeehouses became popular, and the coffee industry went commercial till it became a billion-dollar industry. Have you ever wondered why we invite friends out to have business conversations or deeper conversations over a cup of coffee in a coffee shop?.
This story taught me some lessons;
1. Always connect your product to a need of the people.
2. You can use a commonly known product as an attraction to sell a new product (Using coffee to sell the information in the story).
3. Don't build a shop to sell a product but rather create a tribe of customers to use the value your shop is providing.
4. Your business doesn't necessarily need to sell the product it was named after; it can sell something even more significant. (The coffeehouses were mini-libraries).
5. You can solve a problem through a common thing that people love (People can drink coffee in their houses but they preferred to go to the coffeehouses because "information" was there").
Oluwaseun David ADEPOJU
