Coffee is not for amateurs...

Not very long ago a coffee shop opened in my High Street. It wasn't part of a chain, and it had the look and feel of a greasy spoon.

More recently a branch of Costa Coffee opened up opposite and within a few weeks the original coffee shop had closed its doors for good.

There is a lesson to be learned from this. And if you think about, an important lesson for Internet marketers.

When you open a new business in a market that has some established national (or international) brands, there seems little point these days in looking like a poor relation.

You may only have one branch, and you may have some great unique selling points, but in order to make people want to use you, you have to 'fit in' with what the market expects.

For coffee shops at the moment, that expectation is for a calm environment with sofas and easy chairs, newspapers to read and a wholly baffling range of speciality coffees.

You have to invest money in shop design and signage that can stand alongside the multi nationals.

You have to 'feel' like an established company.

And you have to understand the dynamic of the business.

You don't need to be the only coffee shop in town - my sleepy little town has a Costa Coffee and a Nero Coffee (as well as a busy Macdonalds), and they all do good business. There is room for competition even in a small marketplace.

But there isn't room for amateurs.

It's amazing how many people fail to understand that in all kinds of markets.

I'm not talking about deceptive 'fake-it-until-you-make-it' practices. It is about assuming an air of professionalism in all that you do right from the word go.

Martin