We are humans. We can't run away from mistake. All we have to do is make it less. As in internet business, you must know some common mistakes so you can keep your internet business at success and top performance.
There are some very common mistakes made by internet cafes owner which may bring down the business. As we might know, it is not easy to attract customer to come to your internet cafe, especially when you got so many competitors around within your area. It is easier for you to attract customer before you begin your internet cafe business. Before the openning, do some promotion like banners, flyers and in your advertising do not forget to state 'free surfing in the first and the second day'. It will cause customers from other cyber cafes come to yours in the first two days. People want to now how is the new cyber cafe, is it the same or different from other cyber cafes. Or may be they just want to have free surfing! Whatever they think or whatever the purpose, do not spoilt it with common problem of internet cafes.
The main major problem, which will certainly make your customer go away, is computer crash. It is really frustrating for a customer if the computer they use got crash. They have to wait for reboot or have to use another PC. And how will you assure your customer that the other PC will not crash? If this problem is not solved, you will loose some customers.
Make sure your computers ware built by good brand of hardwares. Even though the specification of those machines is up-to-date, the brand built is also important. Computer built by any cheap motherboard with sound and VGA built-in will definitely crash very often. The worst case is the computer cannot be use only after a month you start your business. You start with 30 units of PCs, but in the end of the month you have only 20 units left! You just start your business and suddenly you have to change 10 units of motherboards!
The best is to use branded PC, such as Dell, Compaq, Hewlet-Packard or if you got little budget, built your own PCs by branded items such as Intel motherboard and processor, good brand of memory and etc. Try to get the best product with your little budget, if can, increase your budget a little. If you cannot afford it, do not install the highest end of games or software. Do not use Windows XP. Do not install Half-Life2. Do not install Ms Office XP. But how you could compete with other internet cafes?
Slow Computer
Another problem which will make you loose your customers. When your computer is slow, you cannot install up-to-date software and games. You will make those PC crash often if you do that. Although you cannot afford to buy the fastest PC for your cyber cafe, you also should not buy slow PCs. Choose in the middle or a little bit higher than the middle. So you will not be leaved behind by your competitors. If your targetted customers is not gamers, than you will have any problem with slow computer. Install Win98, Firefox browser, mIRC and Ms Office 97 is good enough. But slow computer still will make you loose in the competition.
Do not allow smoking in your internet cafe. Smoking will only attract few customers, but avoid more customers. As always, smokers can get into non-smoker area, but non-smoker cannot. So we should choose the bigger number of customers. In the other hand, smoking will cause your internet cafe stinky and dusty.
Not Enough Computers
The number of computers also has major impact in your business performance. Imagine if your internet cafe is always 100% full. Customers have to wait for their turn. Of course, you will think this is a good sign for your business. But unfortunately, this sign will only bring your business down. In the future, people will always thinking your internet cafe is full so they will avoid you internet cafe and go to your competitors' internet cafes. So, to solve this problem, you must make sure your internet cafe is always ready for more customer. Your customer will be very happy if there is always available PC for them when they come.
Employee Problem
If you have only 10 units of PCs, manage the internet cafe yourself. You will not able to pay your employee. If you got 20 and above unit of PCs then this is the right number to get a worker to manage your internet cafe. You cannot handle it by yourself. Employee also can bring your business up or down, so you must be very choosy. Some of them may cheat the amount of money paid by the customers and give their friends to use the computer free of charge. The best solution for managing your employee is by using the best internet cafe management software. The software must be able to log activity of the employee and be able to detect any suspicious activity by the logged data.
Bad Maintenance
Keyboard and mouse are the most important hardwares for your customers. Think. These two hardwares are the only hardwares interact with your customers. Bad maintenance keyboard or mouse will only make your customer use it for five minutes and then run away. They want the best for what they touch and hold. A higher budget for keyboards and mouses is needed to make sure your customers' satisfaction.
As a conclusion, you can make sure you are leading the competition if you try your best to avoid those mistakes.
