By Majd Othman
KUWAIT: With the growing number of entrepreneurs in Kuwait and around the world who don’t have the means to rent an office, more people are looking for a place which provides a quiet work environment and keeps them from getting bored. Due to this need, many of these entrepreneurs turned to get work done at cafes, using them as an alternative office. If you take a tour around cafés in Kuwait, you will notice many people who have become regular customers. The trend is also helping cafes grow their business.
Kuwait Times asked several customers at coffeeshops about why they like to work from there. We also asked a café branch manager about how the trend is affecting their businesses. Customer Ali Essa said that the main reason that pushed him to take his work sessions to cafes is the high level of focus that he enjoys there. He said there is mostly no one to interrupt him at a cafe, unlike sitting at home or at an office with other employees. Shaimaa Nabeel, a freelance designer, said that she is still starting out her personal business, so she cannot afford to rent an office.
She said finding a peaceful environment for working is not impossible after a recent decision by the Ministry of Commerce, which relieved entrepreneurs like Nabeel of the requirement to have a physical location for their office. "We have so many options for cafes that provide us with the perfect environment,” she said. While working from a café is cheaper than renting an office, it still costs money as customers are not allowed to sit at a coffee house without ordering anything. Most entrepreneurs who work from cafes daily stressed that it’s much better for them to pay around KD100 per month than to rent an office that will not cost them less than KD250 for the same period and for which they will need a license.
According to reports, the idea of coffeehouses started originally in London in 1652 which was named after its owner the Ottoman refugee Pasqua Rosee, whose main goal was serving Turkish coffee not only for the purpose of profit, but also to spread part of his country’s culture. With time, the cafe business around the world grew as one of the main sectors that the global business food and beverage market can’t ignore. As more customers choose to work from cafes, "it turned to be more profitable,” according to a cafe branch manager of one of the most famous international coffee houses in Kuwait.
He told Kuwait times that many factors contribute to making cafes a desirable environment for people to get work done. Project developers played a big role through understanding this new market need and taking advantage of it. He said that improvements in the café’s designs, furniture, lighting and services helped greatly in attracting more customers.
The branch manager pointed out that the trend has helped them build relationships with customers as they start to treat the café as their home or office, which makes them regular customers who are happy to come daily and pay for coffee and food. "Having a regular customer for any business is the way possible to gain fixed profits, not to mention that it will definitely lead to expanding the business through opening new branches to meet the customers’ growing requirements,” he said.