# Question for cafe/coffee shop owners (or owners to be!) :)



## DASE (Jan 16, 2017)

Hello,

I'm looking at beginning a project to help cafe/coffee shop owners to recruit waiting staff/baristas. The concept is to link them with performers (actors, singers, dancers etc), who I think would be perfect recruits because they will be flexible about changing shift patterns (due to being able to fit work around performances/auditions) and because they are, generally speaking, more extroverted and 'bubbly' than the average person.

However, my opinion isn't worth as much as yours! Therefore, the question I really want to ask is 'to what extent would you prefer to recruit from a pool of performers rather than from a pool of all types of people?'. Or, in other words, to what extent (if at all!) do you agree that performers, on average, are a perfect match for cafes/coffee shops ?

I'd appreciate any thoughts, good or bad.

Thanks guys!


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## BertVanGoo (Nov 20, 2015)

I've seen this first hand in New York. It is something that could work in a city I'd imagine. People on broadway work there whilst going through auditions and they help increase tips by taking it in turns performing whilst serving. It's obviously a themed diner there, but definitely works. The owners know hat the staff can go at any time, but there are plenty of other performers who can fill in their spot

Ellensstardustdiner.com


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## Hal.E.Lujah (Aug 19, 2014)

Heya,

I've hired a couple of actors for some coffee shops. They were great staff in some ways due to their main skills, and bad in others due to them. I won't get into how individuals performed because that's just a mixed bag of anecdotes, but the main concern was actually around rota flexibility. I appreciate that they want to succeed as actors, and that's their priority, but getting told last minute that there's an incredible audition at the last minute was just too much strain on the rest of their teams. The long periods where they needed off were very disruptive and usually meant getting replacement staff.

What I think would be better suited for them is to look at freelance / 0 hour deals that bigger companies and agencies could offer, rather than independent businesses that need a more rigorous set up. For example, Catapult App is something that works great for both parties, as the manager can post a casual vacancy for a short period (i.e. one week) and the actor looking for work can apply for just those shifts with no commitment past that week.

I've seen lots of services like this fail, and a few succeed. If you have the ear of either the performing community or the ear of the businesses you're looking to provide staff to, it will work. It's also quite hard to monetise for yourself without damaging those relationships.


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## DASE (Jan 16, 2017)

Hi guys,

I really appreciate you both taking the time to respond. That's really useful feedback.

As the coffee shops wouldn't, generally, be asking the performers to perform, but rather just to act as normal waiting staff, I feel I would need to convince the owners of said coffee shops that hiring from a pool of performers is better than hiring from a normal group of people. I think the only difference between Catapult and I would be that I'm exclusively for performers. However, that may not be enough of a reason for people to use me over Catapult/Gumtree.

I think the logic of exclusively recruiting from performers is sound - flexibility for shifts, bubbly personalities - but this may not be enough to get people to sue a service solely directed at performers...


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