Hi everyone,

I am new to this site and it is the first time I post a question. I have a small internet cafe in San Francisco. It is at the basement level of a 3 story building. I have been running the cafe for 2 years now. I keep trying to think of new marketing ideas. The cafe is only 610 sq. ft and it fits about 20 - 25 people. It is quite small.

I was reading through the forums and see some people suggest holding events at their cafe/coffee shops. I held a couple events before, but my cafe is too small and people aren't too happy about it because it is too loud and too crowded. I am thinking about finding teachers to teach small classes/seminars at the cafe at night, probably between 6:30pm to 9pm. I am thinking students might buy something from the cafe before the class starts. It also help to get more people to know about my cafe (hopefully they are the ones who live around here as well).

Does anyone have any experience with having teacher teach classes/having seminars in a cafe? How do you find the teachers? How do you charge them (by hour, by night, etc)?

Any suggestions or other marketing ideas are appreciated.

Some sources for locating potential teachers:

Local real estate companies
Local mortgage companies
Continuing education programs
Chamber of Commerce
Business Journal

You can run small ads in publications that reach thee audiences offering your space for small classes.

Depending on the person or company you may charge a small rental fee of $50-100 to offset any costs to you for hosting the class.

The decision to be made is whether or not to make these classes private to those who RSVP only; essentally close the cafe during class time or give a certain amount of space to the class which limits how big the class can be.

Business case for closing cafe during class time is whether or not you make the bulk of your money at the cafe during night or day.

If business is slow during the evening hours on say Monday- Wednesday then it may make sense to host classes during that time and charge a rental fee or participant fee.

Another idea to drum up more business is to keep tabs of celebrities doing live online chats or interviews and then advertising them at your cafe. Similar to how sports bars bring in more people by advertising to come watch the big game on our screens with your friends and family.

Or you can sponsor classes on various online topics - how to create your own blog, what is YouTube, Understanding MySpace, fantasy leagues and why they are so popular. etc.

My first thought is that it is an internet cafe, perhaps courses directly related to that is a good idea. Ie; internet marketing, website design, etc. The other thought is to use the computers to teach people to use them better.

I don't know that I would be attending other types of seemingly unrelated classes in an internet cafe... Although, it is San Francisco, an internet cafe that teaches poetry might go over well.

You never know until you test the idea.

Good luck with it.

T

Tina Brooks, VP Marketing
Brooks Pepperfire Foods, Inc.
Makers of Peppermaster Hot Sauces
http://www.peppermaster.com

Eat more peppers!

HI,
Tell us exactly where you are located in San Francisco...
then when any of us are in the City, we can drop by.

Also, what are your hours?

Cyberhost at Idea Cafe
The Fun Place for Serious Business(sm)
:-)