Coffee shop business

Get a loan/investor

Just keep in mind that for every coffee shop that succeeds, 10 others won't make it past the first year. There are many variables than just opening a hipster spot and waiting for the cash to roll in

>>1175705
I'd say the odds are even worse than one in ten.

What about opening a shop based solely on being a good study spot? Like being in the suburbs where's there's only libraries and Starbucks, you dont see too many spots where you get a place opened every day, covered in outlets and not blasting shit music

>>1175772
suburbs isn't a good idea. you want to do it by a college campus if you can. shill on social media (yik yak) for your business. create a buzz within the community. people go to places because they are convenient and popular.

>>1175772
it's called a campus library / group study rooms

>>1175779
But suburbs are where the other college students are. Junior colleges and suburbs near universities. Kids in college will want to stay home if possible to save costs, and therefore it would cost less to go around the corner to a place to study instead of commuting to school on the weekend.
plus, adults doing online degrees who want to stay near home to pick up their kids

Coffee shop is more of a hobby, unless you have a good location.

a suburb coffee shop is an awful idea, you either open in a big city or don't open at all

as someone who is in the coffee shop business I’ll tell you this:

we are in a chain coffee shop in a small town in the uk, on average we make 2k a day, £1600 of that is profit (£300 labour, £50 stock average), the rent, electric and gas ect... is paid for by the chain head so it does not come out of our profits.

Having a independent coffee shop would be a good idea at the moment as the media is slagging off the major coffee shops so people are wanting to go to independent shops.

remember that you have to get a good loan to start (decent coffee beans, 20k for a decent coffee machine, good stocker ect...)

and training staff can take a while (6 months to learn how to make a good flat white ect...)

good luck

>>1176122
how much did you borrow to start your coffee shop?

What are the ingredients for a successful coffee shop? Location? Quality of coffee? Organizing events? Overall trendiness of your place?

>>1175583
I know this place, it's in Taipei.

>>1176852
I was wondering if someone would know it.
You're correct, you owe me coffee now

It's viable but there's a lot of stuff that goes into it.

If you want to get started with coffee in general, the most economical thing to do with barely any startup, would be to just order large amounts of green coffee beans, and start roasting them yourself.

Go to local farmer's markets, set up a website, and just shill your product as hard as you can in all the local community spots. Maybe get some packaging or have a graphic designer make something up for you.

Depending on where you are you could make a bit of money doing this. I have some friends who have a small coffee roasting business who make money this way, but they don't do it as a full time gig.

Hopefully, you'd eventually gain a bit of a following for your coffee and after saving up some money, or getting an investor, you can make an announcement to your customers that you're getting a retail location, with an actual coffee shop.

However, the biggest thing for coffee shops is location. My friends who do the coffee roasting thing are only really able to make a go of it because we live in a small Southern town that is getting progressively more hipster as time goes on. There are coffee shops and roasters in the area, but not many, so competition is not that fierce.

With a coffee shop, location is everything. If you want a chill spot where people hang out, you should be by a college campus, a community college or high school will still get you the sort of traffic you're looking for though. However, if your goal with the coffee shop is to make money, you need it easily accessible by car, and either in a suburban residential area, but by a main thoroughfare where people can stop off easily, or in a business-centric area where people can easily get coffee on their way to work or on their lunch break.

The thing is, owning a restaurant, or bar, or coffee shop where people sit and hang out for hours might be cool, but it's not as profitable as one where you give people product and they get the fuck out.

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>>1177848
thanks for the feedback.

I'm actually entertaining ideas about what new concepts could be done around coffee shops.

Imagine a place that is
- half coffee shop during the day
- other half is a coworking/space, complete sound isolation from the coffee shop place.
- At night it turns into a bar and start serving alcohol

It would be a paradise for young startup professional, you get off the office and boom you're into a cool bar where you can pick up chicks.

Maybe my idea is shit, but I see no innovation in all those places. I'm sure we can do better.

>>1178522

In business parks and office buildings you'll ocassionally see coffee shops or bars attached to offices like that. They usually do really well before the start of the workday and at lunchtime so it's not an entirely new concept. Usually those places are chains though so if you wanted to get in on that you'd have to underbid them.

What city are you in? I imagine something like what you're describing would fly in the Pacific Northwest but real estate is expensive and startup culture seems really boom or bust to me.

>>1175583
Hire attractive baristas- one opened in my head own and the first day I went there they had fat mutants everywhere- they lasted 6 weeks. The guy who started it went to my gym and said his wife hired them.

>>1179027
Hometown fuck you spellcheck

They can be a profitable business, but only with extreme luck. My family's been operating one for breakeven or slight profit and it's definitely causing some serious graying of the hair.

You have to find a way to differentiate yourself from the hundred trillion other coffee shops out there without departing from the notion of a coffee shop. You need a strong customer base, built up by a combination of one of these three things: location, quality of product, quality of service. You need to find a way to stay ON TOP of your production cost, labor cost, rent/utilities/maintenance and other misc expenses. Any one of these can run amok at any given time if you aren't an owner with the energy of a meth head and the attention to detail of a surgeon. You have to find a way to balance prices of your product with their cost while not driving them above the cost-to-quality ratio of your competitors. You need to find one or two good bakers. This seems like a fucking no-brainer but seriously. Holy fuck. I've seen so many bullshit "partners" come and go because they're "good" at baking but nobody likes their shit. You have to develop some sort of desserts/snacks that compliment a coffee house, and drop everything off your menu that you can't make competitive with the other local places. I mean that in terms of both quality and price. Finally, unless you want to work 70+ hour weeks, you're going to need to find employees that are actually good at what they do to keep the business going. One of the best tactics is to look for college students trying to pick up a shift or three to keep their lights on while they're getting their degree. They are usually intelligent, and if you talk to them about being a good reference for future jobs before they start, they'll give it their all if they're ever trying to find a real job.

I heard the profit margin for most food industry business is something around 7% can anyone confirm?

>>1175583
It's all about location, atmosphere, outlets, and seating.

You need to have a lot of preparation, but it's definitely possible.

>>1176827
He's not the owner. He's a chain employee.

>>1178522
Liquor licenses can be a total cunt to come by and maintain.

>>1175583
Don't pay attention to any of these retards ITT. People that hangout in your coffee shop DO NOT MAKE YOU MONEY. It's all about capturing that morning commute crowd everyday and they're only interested in to-go. That is where you make the money.

Yes, owning a specialty store where hipsters hangout seems cool and it doesn't hurt to have that vibe. But your main customers should always be people who are in and out and not the leeches sucking down your wifi and taking advantage of cheap refills.

Best locations are either near downtown, near apartment buildings, or near school campus.

>>1179045

>People that hangout in your coffee shop DO NOT MAKE YOU MONEY. It's all about capturing that morning commute crowd everyday and they're only interested in to-go. That is where you make the money.


I agree. That's what I was saying here: >>1177848.

I think I read an article months ago about how Buffalo Wild Wings was actually hurting financially because people like the restaurants so much, they tended to just hang out there, taking up seating and time that could be used to serve other customers.

Having a hipster hangout place is awesome, and you can definitely try to accomodate that. However, always remember that what makes or breaks coffee shops is the morning rush crowd.

I knew a girl who worked at a coffee shop who told me about this one high profile Asian businesswomen who was stressed out every time she came into the shop. She spent no time there other than what it took to get her coffee and get out, but she bought at least 3-4 $4 lattes everyday.

That's the kind of person a coffee shop needs to attract to stay afloat.

I've always wanted to have a game café, though maybe a little more than just a coffee shop, serve food and alcohol too..

>>1179068
Listen to me and this dude: >>1179053

IT'S ABOUT TURNAROUND. You want customers in and out. Not sitting around and sipping one drink.

Look at Yahtzee and his "Mana Bar". Same concept, video games and drinking but it failed. Because that shit is about getting people in who are trying to get laid, and as many in and out as possible.

That shitbrick writing his screenplay on his Macbook isn't making you money. It's the line of people in the drive-thru

>>1179068

It won't work if you just attract gamers who hang out there. You would need to attract regular bar patrons as well.

>>1179075
>>1179098
Well, for now it's a pipe dream i've not figured out. The successful ones i know of are very event based, are are open pretty late (on average 9-11pm), running various themed evenings and tournaments.

I guess almost the opposite of the morning rush type, filling the place out with people who want to hang out after work.

I know my FLGS has a crew of about 6 regulars who are there all the time, i have no idea if they makes the owner money.

>>1179109
Well depends on what your goal is and how much money you're looking to make?

Want to drive a 2003 Volvo S40? Copy that model.

Want to drive a BMW or Mercedes? Imitate Starbucks

>>1179114
Problem with bongistan is ridiculous rent for property and taxes on small businesses, the best locations for the Starbucks model are only affordable by large chains and independent places are relegated to side streets and quirky alleyways.

1 or 2 streets can mean the difference between 200k in annual rent + rates(taxes) and 20k for a similar sized place.

>>1179122

Didn't know you were in fucking bongland good luck starting a small business then.

>>1179122
>Bongistan
GET OUT

>>1179122
>>1179135
Just buy GXY and ride it to the moon