Regional and Local Differences
From a national perspective, state and local codes and ordinances vary widely in the hoops they require you to jump through when opening your coffee business.You definitely want to find out what the requirements are for your locality before you purchase your equipment and sign the lease.

Navigating your way to official approval of your coffee enterprise in the real world of agency bureaucracy and red tape can run the gamut from "Hey, no problem,"  to any of a thousand scenarios from hell.

Get Involved!
It is very important that you do all the necessary legwork, find out as much as possible ahead of time- and document everything. You need to prepare for all manner of eventualities.

The minute that you start to conceptualize your business and begin planning your operation:

Visit your agency offices and talk to your zoning and planning people, the building department, the health department, the fire marshal, and whoever else says that they have the power to stand in your way.
   
Tell them in clear language: This is what I am proposing. This is what I want to open up. This is what I want to do. And ask them: "What do I need to know?"

Get information-up front, before you make the commitment to actually take a location-about codes, specifications, and anything else local and state agencies might foresee as a problem. And document everything!

How to Work With Agencies
If you think you are going to convince your local health department folks to deviate from their codes, or if you think you are going to be able to appeal to their common sense, forget it! Basically, you have to accept that you are dealing with a government. You have to look at your situation from the health department's point of view: These rules have been adopted over years and years to protect the public's safety.

If you are to have any success in negotiating with your health department, you must first understand what the agency is trying to achieve with its codes and regulations. Without an understanding of the health department's goals, its rules and regulations will not make sense to you.

The place to start is with a copy of the local health code. Pick one up and read it carefully.

Guidelines you can use in working with the health department and other agencies are:

• Never accept as a final answer, "No, you can't do that."
• Always come back with, "What do we need to do to make this work?"
• Make them state and clarify what it will take to make this workable.
• And get the folks from whom you are going to buy the equipment involved in the process.
• Always remember the importance of working closely with your local, county, and state officials in every aspect of your operation.