In Delhi’s hip Hauz Khas Village, up the cobbled lane that houses boutiques and galleries galore, Shubhra Krishan and Ankur Chauhan discovered Kunzum Travel Café, a certainly-not-lonely planet. In here, they tasted seriously great coffee, and had a terrific tete-a-tete with the amiable owner.
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| Anubhuti and Ajay Jain, Owners of Kunzum Café |
At some point in life, almost every city dweller finds himself dreaming of owning a bakery, a café and/or a bookshop. The enterprising Ajay Jain, formerly a journalist, went ahead and brewed up his dream into a beautiful reality.
The idea is simple
You walk in and settle down on one of the classy, comfortable chairs. There’s flavoured tea, coffee and top-quality cookies for you to enjoy, and conversation to indulge in if you would like. You might like to browse through one of the many travel books and magazines or simply switch on your laptop and lose yourself in the pleasures of the cyberworld.
You can leave little scraps of memories from your own travels—maybe an entry ticket to the Louvre or that old boarding pass from your flight to Leh. Just tack it on the pinboard or jot down a thought on a post-it.
You can buy one of Ajay’s gorgeous photographs or prints, or simply gaze at them in admiration.
Right on the money
The brew and the biscuits are on the house, but if you’d like to tip, that would be nice, thank you.
Now the really interesting thing about this business model, says Ajay, is that the pay-what-you-like idea actually paid off! “We average an earning of about `70 to 80 per cup, which helps us foot the bills and sustain the running costs of the place.”
Half the customers are regulars—that’s how good Kunzum’s cup of coffee really is. The daily footfall: an impressive 50-100 people.
The only downside, Jain feels, is the size of the space. There’s so much traffic during events and functions at the café that he wishes he had a larger space to accommodate all who wish to come. It’s an easy start-up business and requires very basic finances. More encouragingly, mark Ajay’s words: if you are a friendly and social person with a zest for travel, this can be a wonderful business idea for you!
He points out that there is a long gestation period but one does eventually break even and reap the benefits in other ways, such as PR, corporate sponsorships, etc. According to him, “how this café has evolved and grown, has been like another travel journey for us”.
Ajay Jain and his wife Anubhuti Rana are now thinking of extending the idea to other locations across the city, but he is candid enough to admit that the costs this time around are bound to be much higher, since they don’t own any more properties.
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| Ankur Chauhan gleaned these valuable tips from Ajay Jain over a hot cuppa coffee at the Kunzum café: 1. Find a pleasing location in a cozy area rather than a commercial complex 2. Do tasteful interiors, simple but with a nice ambience 3. Staff should be well-trained, very sociable and friendly 4. Make sure you serve a great cup of tea/coffee to attract customers 5. Plan some interesting events to get people talking about the café 6. Use social networking sites like Facebook/Twitter for PR 7. Create interaction on a day-to-day basis. For e.g. letting customers put up their travel pictures or notes about their travels 8. Have a nice full library of travel books for customers 9. Sell things at the café like photos, books, merchandise, etc. 10. Keep unique crockery that adds to the over-all environment |
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Meet Ajay and Anubhuti
Ajay is the kind of traveller most of us only dream of becoming one day. He is known to load his SUV and zoom off to the Himalayas for months, wife sitting happily beside him.
Anubhuti, a master of the German language, is now content with learning the language of wanderlust. Ajay, a former journalist, is now a blogger, author and publisher. From his travels, he brings back fascinating stories and lovely photographs which turn into books, framed art and food for reflection and fodder for smiles.
In this world of suffocatingly snooty clubs, the Travel Café is like a cool, free-flowing breeze that carries with it the whiff of ocean spray and mountain air. Inhale!
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