We’re inviting coffee shop and roasting company business owners to participate in the first-ever Coffee Business Owner Salary Survey.
Do you know how much money the average coffee shop or roasting company owner makes? By participating in this survey, you will help establish the first benchmark for personal compensation among coffee shop and roasting company owners. Your insights will be invaluable for entrepreneurs evaluating a potential future in the world of coffee.
- The survey is only open to businesses located in the United States.
- This survey consists of nine short questions and will take four minutes to complete.
- All answers are completely anonymous. We will never share identifiable data.
The survey will run from February 2nd through March 1st. We will publish the results in late March of 2023.
Special thanks to our community partners at Keys To The Shop and Espresso Outlet for helping get the word out.
Why Do We Need A Salary Survey For Owners?
It’s unclear how much coffee shop and roasting company owners get paid. Most estimates sprinkled throughout the internet are educated guesses at best, or pure fiction. For example, the most-cited article on coffee shop owner compensation comes from Chron Magazine and confidently claims, “On average, within the industry, a small to medium-sized coffee shop can earn anywhere from $60,000 to $160,000 in personal income for the shop owner.” The article fails to cite a single study or survey to support the claim.
This is a problem for a few reasons.
Firstly, for people who dream of opening their own coffee shop or roastery, developing a reasonable expectation for personal compensation is nearly impossible, since there are no meaningful benchmarks to draw from. When you’re evaluating a new venture that will define the next several years of your life, having an accurate sense of the challenge and reward will help new owners align expectations with reality.
Secondly, we’re in a period of deep, justified skepticism between business owners and workers. The coffee industry has not been kind to labor. We believe increasing the clarity around owner compensation will help our industry have more precise and productive conversations about how value is shared equitably.
To address these issues, we’re launching the first formal survey of coffee shop and roasting company owners. We hope the survey helps build transparency throughout the industry and helps owners plan sustainable budgets for long-term growth and well-being.
If you have any questions about the Coffee Business Owner Salary survey, send us an email.
