We had been preparing this project for more than two years. We invested tens of thousands of euros into it—we will not be lazy later and even tell you the exact number. And finally, it works. Not perfectly yet. Not exactly the way we imagine it. But it works. It already solves the problem we set out to solve. Ladies and gentlemen, meet: digital tips at Fenster.

Big changes usually don’t happen suddenly or by accident. What took place last week had been clear and obvious for a long time, but the time to act only came now. Within one week, spaced out by just a day or two, three Fenster employees were let go. That’s not a small number, considering that at this moment Fenster employs only nine people.

From time to time people contact us about a franchise, or about simply buying our cones or coffee for their restaurants and cafés. Until now, we made decisions on a case-by-case basis, depending on the situation.

It happened. On Google Maps we now have 4.7 instead of the 4.8 we proudly held for five years. Well, 4.7 is still very cool. It is a fantastic result of hard work, and I am proud of it. We held onto that number for 1,600 reviews. Honest ones.

First, I am very proud of Fenster’s 4.8 rating based on nearly 1,600 Google Maps reviews. It is extremely hard to earn a score like that when you only serve coffee to go. We put in enormous effort to reach it. And yet I insist: a high Google Maps rating does not always mean you will be satisfied. Here is why.

I really love to boast about the legendary €84,000 we earned in February 2021. That feeling—that you can actually hit such numbers—is so powerful that it still affects me today, almost two years later.

This is a long, serious, and very expensive topic. By September 2022, our own POS system had already cost us about €30,000, and I have no idea how much more it will cost. But we will keep building it—and maybe never stop. In fact, it is no longer just a POS system.

So, we have dealt with cash. Now the question is: how do we accept payments from our visitors? The three obvious options are cards, online payments, and direct transfers (from the customer’s account to ours). In this episode, I will talk about cards.

One day I was making myself coffee, as always—calmly, enjoying a nice summer morning. Or maybe it was the afternoon. No, I’m sure it was after lunch. (This is me trying to sound like a writer—hello, Ivan Malkovych, don’t mind me.)