New cafes are opening in Singapore at a faster rate than you can say “let’s go cafe-hopping”. Many people dream of opening their own cafe one day. But in Singapore’s competitive food & beverage industry, is it really that easy to start a cafe?

• Remember to be very intentional about what you say and don’t say on chatroom platforms. DON’T: Access free public wi-fi while working on sensitive material. With so many of us working remotely or sending a few work emails over the weekend from a cafe, it’s tempting to grab your laptop and log on to free public wi-fi.
• Organizations must have a framework for how they deal with both attempted and successful cyber attacks. One well-respected framework can guide you. It explains how you can identify attacks, protect systems, detect and respond to threats, and recover from successful attacks. Watch a video explanation of the NIST cybersecurity framework (1:54).

We had a chat with Miss Daphne Goh – owner of Assembly Coffee, one of our favourite coffee shops in Singapore – to find out more about the challenges of running a cafe. Before you jump on the bandwagon, here are 10 things you should know before opening a cafe:

Read: From rental, to interior design, labour cost, and kitchen equipment, here is a rough guide on how much it costs to open a cafe in Singapore.

#1 THE OWNER HAS TO BE HANDS ON

Thank you for using the FCC’s Small Biz Cyber Planner, a tool for small businesses to create customized cyber security planning guides. Businesses large and small need to do more to protect against growing cyber threats. As larger companies take steps to secure their systems, less secure small businesses are easier targets for cyber criminals. ThinkUKnow what young people see, say & do online? ThinkUKnow is a partnership between the Australian Federal Police, Commonwealth Bank, Datacom and Microsoft, and delivered in partnership with all State and Territory police and Neighbourhood Watch Australasia.

Clearing tables. Checked. Washing dirty plates and cups. Checked. Serving tables. Checked. Dealing with difficult customers. Checked. Getting your hands full in the kitchen. Checked. Working a full 12-hour shift and on weekends. Checked.

Unless you are hiring someone to run the operations, you have to be responsible for everything in the cafe. Not only do you have to set an example for your staff, you have to present to make sure that everything is running smoothly and to troubleshoot immediately.

#2 A MOUNTAIN OF PAPERWORK AND ADMIN STUFF

From settling the payroll, to rostering the work schedule for your staff, to filing the accounts for the cafe, there are a lot of paperwork that you have to do. These are the boring back-end stuff that you do not see.

#3 YOU HAVE TO DO ENOUGH RESEARCH ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT TO SELL

These days, consumers are very discerning and savvy; they know exactly what they want. In short, you can’t expect to serve mediocre food and drinks and get away with it.

Recipes don’t just appear out of nowhere. They are only possible with many trials in the kitchen. One of the common misconceptions about opening a cafe is that most people think it is more important to focus only on the design and interior.

#4 DEALING WITH SUPPLIERS WILL BE YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE

Your supplies don’t just appear magically. Dealing with suppliers is a skill on its own. Sometimes, suppliers will leave you hanging by not showing up, and that is when you have to think on your feet and figure out how to react.

You risk incurring the wrath of your customers when you do not have enough ingredients, you risk bearing the increased food cost due to the shortage of ingredients, and all these will eat into your (already very thin) profit margin.

#5 YOU HAVE TO BE AT THE CAFE EVERY DAY

Running a cafe is not easy. Period. You have to be at the cafe every day and you will be working so hard that you would question yourself about the heavy commitment and if it would be all worth it.

#6 YOU WON’T HAVE MUCH FREE TIME FOR YOURSELF. THERE IS NO ROOM FOR SELF DEVELOPMENT

Because you are working at the cafe practically every day, you don’t have much free time for yourself or your loved ones. That means no afternoon tea dates with your friends, no vacations, no free time for anything. When you have a rare day off, chances are you will be repaying your sleep debts. Or preparing for the next day of operations.

#7 IT IS DIFFICULT – OR ALMOST MISSION IMPOSSIBLE – TO HIRE GOOD STAFF

Being a chef or a server is not exactly glamourous. Neither does it pay well. Very few people want to work in the food & beverage industry and one of the main challenges of opening a cafe is always finding good staff.

Naturally, people come and go, and it is difficult to find – much less, retain – good staff. Most part-timers are not committed, so you can suddenly find yourself in a situation whereby they disappear at the eleventh hour and not turn up at all.

When you can’t find enough staff, you have to end up doing even more things on your own. And your customers won’t care if you are short-handed. They are only concerned if they can get their food promptly.

#8 MOTIVATING YOUR STAFF – EASIER SAID THAN DONE

Equally challenging is the task of motivating your staff. So you think you are the boss and the staff have to listen to everything you say, right? Not exactly. When your staff are unhappy or feeling demoralised, it is your job to motivate them and make them continue to fight along with you. Maintaining staff morale is easier said than done.

Read: 5 Things you never knew about working at a cafe.

#9 DEALING WITH DIFFICULT CUSTOMERS IS PART AND PARCEL OF LIFE IN A CAFE

As with other businesses, dealing with difficult customers is inevitable. The customers may not always be right, but they sure as hell will make things difficult for you.

#10 YOU WILL BE CONSTANTLY WORRYING ABOUT MANY THINGS

Every moment, the owner of the cafe is worrying about something. Be it operations, staff rostering, dealing with suppliers, updating the various social media platforms, testing new recipes in the kitchen, maintaing staff morale, interviewing new staff, paying the bills – there are things that you have to constantly think about and your mind never really gets to rest.

If you are planning to open a cafe, read our guide on How much it costs to open a cafe in Singapore..

In our last article, we went over some of the different types of Internet security threats that are out there, and some of the horrible stuff that they can do. However, that information is by no means meant to make you afraid of the Internet; in fact, avoiding many of these types of Internet threats is actually a lot easier than you may think. Remember that most cyber-criminals rely on automated computer programs to do their dirty work for them, and these programs can't think for themselves (at least, as far as we know). So, as long as you know how a malicious program behaves — with the most important aspect being how it makes it onto your computer in the first place — you can safely work around it while using the Internet.

6 Internet safety tips to stay safe online

Here are some general precautions that you can take to make your Internet experience fun instead of frightful. We'll be going into more detail with many of them in later tutorials.

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1. Find and use a trusted piece or suite of antivirus software.

Most viruses and malicious programs that can't be dodged with the rest of the precautions below are relatively minor ones that can be dealt with by antivirus software. This is a program or set of programs that you can install on your computer to detect and outright block many viruses and other malicious programs that try to enter your computer from the Internet. Many of these programs also have measures for isolating viruses that do happen to make it onto your computer so that they can't do damage, and then you can either delete them or find a way to fix the infected file(s) from there.

NOTE: This is an absolute must-know tip for Windows users, since most viruses are designed to attack Windows-capable computers. However, it's also good to know for Apple users, since there are some viruses that can attack Apple computers as well.

2. Use your passwords wisely.

Many of your accounts on the Internet (and some programs or systems on your computer) require a password — and perhaps other user credentials — in order to access them. Passwords are an essential line of defense against identity thieves on the Internet, so it's important to know how to use them properly. Create passwords that are easy for you to remember, but would be difficult for others to guess, and try not to use the same password for every account. Change your passwords periodically (say, every 3 to 6 months), and reset them if you think someone is using one of your accounts who shouldn't be. Write down your passwords so that you'll remember them, but put them in a place where only you can get at them. Or, consider using a password manager program to help keep your different passwords in order.

We'll have an entire course on how to use passwords effectively in the future, so stay tuned!

3. If a website or email looks fishy, delete it or otherwise get away from it.

We explained that certain types of Internet dangers — such as Trojan horses or phishing scams — are designed to trick victims into doing something dangerous that they otherwise wouldn't. However, many of them aren't all that clever or convincing, if you look closely at them. There are often dead giveaways that you can look for to know that you're dealing with a phony website or email, such as advertising that seems too good to be true, numerous spelling and grammar mistakes, weird-looking or misspelt email sender addresses or web addresses, or direct requests over email for personal information or money (most legitimate businesses will never do this).

If you run into a website like this, get out of it as soon as you can, and don't click any links on it. Similarly, if you get an email like this, delete it as soon as you can; don't click any links in it, and definitely don't open any attachments on it.

4. Control how much personal information you put on the Internet.

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Cyber-criminals can't steal your identity or financial information over the Internet if you don't put it there for them to find in the first place. Doubtless, though, there will be some websites where you are required to input personal information, such as if you are buying or selling things. Use the guidelines in tip #3 to only give your personal information to websites that can be trusted to keep it secure.

Things get a little bit murkier when it comes to social networks and websites. You want to express yourself and let other people get to know you, but putting information onto a place like Facebook or Twitter makes it easy to find and/or spread. Fortunately, many of these websites have privacy features that you can use to limit who can see information that you post. However, before you share information in the first place, it's a good idea to ask yourself if you'd be willing to let a total stranger — or at least a friend of a friend — see it and share it.

5. Only make payments on trusted websites.

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Following tips #3 and #4, if you're going to use trusted e-commerce websites to buy goods and services, make sure to pay for your stuff through the specific website that you're using at the time, if you can. This ensures that a trusted website has a record of your transaction, and can help you out if something goes wrong.

Some third-party sellers attempt to have customers make payments for items outside of the websites that they sell them on. Not only do many e-commerce websites disallow this (because it cheats them out of commission fees), but even if a site does allow it, you probably shouldn't go for it. It's a very easy way to get scammed, since nobody with the proper authority will have a paper trail to help you track down and punish the scammer.

6. Log out of websites and other Internet-based programs when you're done using them.

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This is a really important precaution if you use public computers, but it's not a bad idea in general. If you're using a website where you have to log into a user account, be sure to log out of your account once you're finished using the website. Also, disable any features of that website that allow you to stay logged in if you close your web browser or don't do anything while logged in for a little while. Forgetting that you're logged into a website or Internet-based program could mean that a stranger could sit down at the computer you were using, and find that they're able to access your account without even cracking your user name or password. That's a very easy way to have your confidential information stolen.

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Again, we'll be going over many of these precautions in greater depth in our upcoming tutorials and courses. In fact, our next set of tutorials in this course deal with our very first precaution: antivirus software!

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