How to hear those vital wake-up calls..

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A lot of mistakes are made by people who run coffee bars - and sometimes all of us are lucky enough to learn from those who have turned their mistakes into practical experience, such as in this exceptional new book from Ireland's 'Coffee Boys', John Richardson and Hugh Gilmartin.

Hugh needs no introduction to the coffee trade - he’s a long-established consultant and a board member of the SCAE; John is the entrepreneur who at 28 ran the biggest sandwich business in Ireland, and at 29 had only the shirt on his back. What we learn in this book is the result of his experience, and as he learned from one man he quotes, Muhammad Ali - 'ain't nothing wrong with going down. It's staying down that's wrong'. Hugh credits his partner for teaching him 'advice based on the real world, not fancy theories - I realised from him that in the world of business, common sense was indeed uncommon'.

In this book they bring together their favourite stories and wake-up calls, from personal experience. They unashamedly, and rightly, deride the classic trade cliche 'it's all about the coffee' - it isn't, say the writers, nor is it about 'a wonderful lifestyle choice' or seeing a customer's face when they've had a wonderful cup of coffee. It's about money - it's about profit.

This book never ever strays from that focus, whether it is in showing how gross profit from two cups of premium coffee can be the same as the profit from a full lunch, or in warning of the danger of having staff who think the boss is running a goldmine. Johnnie once asked his own staff what they reckoned his gross margin was, and they were miles out - explaining the realities of retailing did a lot for the way they approached their jobs from then on.

The Boys dedicate the book to the guy who devised the 80:20 rule and they go farther than most consultants who just quote that principle… their inspiration, they say, was to find out exactly what makes up the 20 per cent!

The answer, in 52+1 rules and 100 entertaining pages, covers sets of wake-up questions (on freshness, cleanliness, and extractions), the need for 'hooks' on the menu, and the classic simplicity of the Jay Abraham principle, of only three ways to grow a business.

And never do the Boys lose sight of real profit - "a pound earned is worth a lot less than a pound saved," they stress. "A pound earned is only 10p/20p in your pocket… a pound saved is a full pound."

Read this book to learn the lesson of the mysterious chain-smoking man in the cheap brown suit… and why he was worth £40 million. And the psychology of the nodding head. And the danger of 'sour-faced hags', but the value of granny.

And what is the 53rd idea? It's how to wake up to what you don't know - and thus avoid the 'fictional paradise' of running a cafe from becoming your worst nightmare.

Wake Up and Smell the Profit, £9.99. ISBN 0-549066-9-1

www.thecoffeeboys.com