Coffee Shop Business

23x28 foot - that's pretty small place - for tables, chairs, counter space and also a kitchen area etc. You could hardly swing a cat in that place. You would also need to consider toilet areas as well. no way 28ft place is big enough for all that.

Insurances, (buildings, contents, commercial, public liabilities etc) - repair bills for coffee machines.

Banking costs, tax, accountant fees, National insurance for staff, pension scheme (see auto enrollment)

No way would you make nearly £2 profit on a cup of coffee after all of the above is factored in.

Also what about your costs/wage/dividends etc?
 
alexthecheese said:
The place I am looking at has been closed for ages and is right next to the train station - literally about 10 shops down from the entrance. It's the slightly grubbier side, littered with kebab shops and suit cleaners - but it's otherwise ideal.
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What kind of customers do you expect in such a place - commuters? If so, does the train station offer a competing service eg. on the platform? Doesn't sound like the kind of location that's going to attract sit-in custom...
 
alexthecheese said:
Really? Wow - that is... exciting.

The place I am looking at has been closed for ages and is right next to the train station - literally about 10 shops down from the entrance. It's the slightly grubbier side, littered with kebab shops and suit cleaners - but it's otherwise ideal.
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Express an interest. Get the price. Low ball them. See how many swear words the letting agent can fit into one sentence and go from there :D
 
alexthecheese said:
Really? Wow - that is... exciting.

The place I am looking at has been closed for ages and is right next to the train station - literally about 10 shops down from the entrance. It's the slightly grubbier side, littered with kebab shops and suit cleaners - but it's otherwise ideal.
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Try offering free heroin with every order.

Sounds like the right kind of area.
 
You need something to mark it out as different and attractive. Free tea & hentai screenings for the over-60s?
 
Try and figure out how many people will physically pass by the shop everyday, and figure out what percentage of that number of people you'd need to come in and buy your coffee and cakes.
 
You can cut the salary down a lot if you do most of the work yourself.

I used to work in an internet cafe solo and serve a lot of coffees.
 
The size of your proposed shop sounds similar to Ciscos in Stirling, they do very well and are near both a Cafe Nero and Costa (as well as several fast food places).

It's about footfall though, is there enough people in the area to support it and would you need to be open all those hours if most people come in at lunch time mon - fri, you may get away with 7am-4pm mon - friday and 8am - 6pm on sat and close on sunday?
 
Robertnpmk said:
Or you do what A guy locally does and have a coffee van and go and serve all the business around the area. No rent to Pay. No Wages to pay apart from your own. Winner.
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If you do do this, don't be the **** who beeps his horn about 208890 times while driving round the business park, or a get a ****ing annoying "dixie horn" to let everyone know you're there, because you're liable to get a brick thrown at you. :mad:
 
You will need to sell much more than just coffees to get anywhere.
You also have to factor in far more expenses.


Also 20K to refurbish a shop to be a coffee shop wont cut it, have you seen how expensive commercial espresso machines and grinders are. You could sink 20K into equipment and another 50K into gutting and styling the innards.
 
D.P. said:
You will need to sell much more than just coffees to get anywhere.
You also have to factor in far more expenses.


Also 20K to refurbish a shop to be a coffee shop wont cut it, have you seen how expensive commercial espresso machines and grinders are. You could sink 20K into equipment and another 50K into gutting and styling the innards.
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My grandparents owned a rather successful local coffee shop for decades. The idea of spending 20 large on a commercial Gaggia espresso machine and grinder is absurd. Gaggia's most expensive commercial machine is a shade over £5,000 and their commercial grinders are below £1,000. My local Caffe Nero operates on this level of equipment despite their predictably high footfall, I can't understand how any new independent would require anything more than this.
 
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Regarding rent, my missus has just got a unit in a shopping centre rent free for a 7 week trial of her business as it was empty but the owner still had to pay rates.

By letting her use it the council let him off the rates for a period as part of their scheme to get the high street back on track. So there's bound to be some negotiating to be done on whatever the place is advertised at.
 
Theophany said:
My grandparents owned a rather successful local coffee shop for decades. The idea of spending 20 large on a commercial Gaggia espresso machine and grinder is absurd. Gaggia's most expensive commercial machine is a shade over £5,000 and their commercial grinders are below £1,000. My local Caffe Nero operates on this level of equipment despite their predictably high footfall, I can't understand how any new independent would require anything more than this.
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A lot fo of the high end commercial espresso machines are more like 7K, grinders 2-3K, and then you need to have 2 or 3 of each in a large successful coffee shop, not least to have redundancy.
 
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