Know Your Way Around “Owning a Café”

My weblog is just a few days away from being three (3) months old and at this stage I am inclined to assess whether it is accomplishing my objective of sharing and helping the café industry in the littlest of way I can.  The number one advice that a noob blogger like me gets from those who were on this field much earlier is never blog because of the money that it may make for you. Make sure to do  your blogging because you love doing it for your readers.

At this stage, I feel I owe to brief you on how to go around my weblog so you could get what you need from it in the shortest time possible. As a former café owner myself, I know  some legal and political issues which may confront you as you operate your cafés and it has become my passion to share them with you. I continue to observe and study more about the industry and I write them here too so it would do well for all of us to get familiar with the format of this weblog.

Let me start by saying that this blog is powered by WordPress and uses a magazine theme called Mimbo.  As a magazine format, the theme I am using give the reader an access to all contents of my weblog right from its homepage.

Unlike the usual blogsites where complete articles are printed in full in their homepages, Mimbo only have excerpts of my featured blog and the latest four articles I wrote. You have to click the blog title or the “read more” link to open the page containing the full article.

The “Most Read” articles and the “Latest Comments” are shown on the right sidebar using widgets which can I may change as needed. The left sidebar lists the titles of a number of articles under the Featured Category which I change from time to time.

My weblog’s header has two (2) menus aside from the title; the  Section Menu and the Category Menu which I wish to describe as follows:

A) Section Menu – known also as Page Menu and loacted at the topmost part of this site, it contains the links to different sections or pages of the website containing subjects of interest to my readers. At present, the Section Menu has the following links:

1. Home -When the link is clicked from any page, you will be brought back to the site’s homepage.

2. Feature Section – This is a multi-page section  which features people, organizations, places and events that contribute to the advancement and well-being of the Internet café industry in the Philippines. When moused over, it will immediately show the articles in the section and when the link itself is clicked, the Overview page will open.

3. Classifieds – The section is similar to similar to Feature Section except that it advertises some business solutions and opportunities  for readers. Your blogger is  either directly involved in the advertised items or has conducted thorough study of them to make sure that you will not be scammed.

4. Cafe 101 – This is a useful knowledge base page about the basic terminologies in the industry.

5. Forming ICA – Another knowledge base page but this time about organizing an Internet Café Association (ICA) in a locality.

6.  About – The page has a short write about yours truly.

7. Contact Me – A contact form will open when you click this link. You can write your queries in the form and it will be sent to my Inbox.

8. Forum – When clicked, the link will open Café Forum, a free-membership discussion board where my blog topics are automatically posted for discussion by members. Other topics can also be started in the forum.

B) Category Menu – This part of the header contains the main categories of the blogs I write. Some categories have sub-categories which will show when their links are moused over. When the links are clicked, a page containing the titles of blogs under such category will show. The categories, sub-categories are and their short descriptions are as follows:

1. Announcement – contains the changes and developments of the weblog itself.

2. BizTools – contains blog articles that give you tools that you can use in operating your café.

a) Accounting – blogs that will help you in determining the financial performance of your business.

b) Insurance – articles about getting business security cover against the various risks in running a café business.

3. News – blog containing important events that happened and about to happen in the industry as taken from reliable sources.

4. Regulations – articles discussing the laws and local ordinances that café owners must comply with in their conduct of the business.

a) Local Rules – blogs about the rules and regulations being imposed by local government units to café owners.

b) National Laws – discussions about the national statutes and their implementing agencies plus the various provisions of law and the circulars that enforce them.

5. Technical – an important category of blogs that discusses the technical matters that concern café business.

a) Hardware – personal computers, parts, accessories and any tangible materials relevant to café operations are contained on this sub-category.

b) Software – operating systems, application software and the like are what I discuss on this technical sub-category.

6. Uncategorized – any topic not falling under the above-described categories will fall under this category. As much as I can, I try to categorize my topics according to the categories above so you could easily determine whether you need to read o re-read a blog I wrote but when I cannot do so, it will be here.

Lastly, I wish to emphasize that every blog and page in this website has a comment box where you can write your comments and questions. I deeply appreciate your participation and feedback on anything I write on so I wish to request that you always use this portion of my weblog. Using a Gravatar in your posts will be a great add-on.

NOTE: You may wish to proceed to Café Forum for your questions and comments.