Who on here had a 'Coffee Shop' Plan B?

[vetran]

If its slightly rural I think its gotta be a mum's hang out or a telecommute cafe. depends on area (Mum's hang out once it gets known becomes a location they go once a week/month. contact a few of the toddler groups to donate cakes for charity - (the vicar will have the details).

get a soft play area 0-5 years to catch the pre school mum's (properly done & insured), decent range of healthy soft drinks & treats plus some real naughty ones.

tele - commuting area should be away from the kids.


If there are offices nearby maybe it can be a lunch location exclusively and can open at 10am.
Sandwiches, paninis & baked potatoes. freshly squeezed orange juice (fast auto juicer on counter).

Bacon butties from 7-8am?

Coffee & tea should taste incredible.

[FiveTimes]

The market to go for is mum's with babies and selling cupcakes it would seem.

People will part £1.50 for a frosted cup cake that cost pennies to produce. Lots of ikea high chairs, decent changing area, lots of homemade cakes, soup, sandwiches, salads and a kids menu and you're laughing.

Bright, clean and friendly is what the family look for.

Place I went to recently had a cupcake rota showing which days the various flavours would be available. Seemed pretty cool.

My sister in law ran a tea rooms at a local garden center and she made a mint. The cakes are important and will suppliment the drinks.

[BlasterBates]

You want to be careful here, location is very important. I know a restaurant that has had several owners and it doesn't matter who owns it, it just fails. Around the corner is another restaurant and it's always full, the difference is it's next door to a conference centre. In fact the restaurant owner of the successful one tried is hand at the other one and failed as well.

If you're in the wrong place it'll never work.

...I'm not saying that is what the problem is, but be aware that the wrong location is very difficult to fix.

I spent some time playing in one or two failing pubs including that one and another both on the same road...you just couldn't get the punters to come in. The fact was the main shopping street ran parallel and it was on a main road...just a naff road to have a restaurant on.

[Ketchup]

I think the actual coffee is the most important aspect. To many people focus on location for the coffee shops, i would rather walk 5 minutes out of my way to get a decent cup than a tulip cup on the way to the station. Most coffee shops are full of kids who know nothing about coffee, i would suggest actually learning about the product you are selling.

There are a few independant coffee shops i can recommend in the farrigndon/islington area is you want to visit any for ideas

[TestMangler]

I owned a Cafe for two years, in what can only be described as a remote rural location.

If it hadn't been for a unique and individual set of circumstances, I'd still have it.

Even in it's location, it was a reasonable money maker. Kept wife/daughter in jobs/salaries and made a bit of profit. Wouldn't replace contracting though, money wise.

I would imagine that opening one in a town centre would have much higher operating/opening costs to go with it's higher turnover potential.

[BrilloPad]

Sounds like a potential mug's game to me, in the present economic climate, and with the fierce competition from the big boys like Starbucks and even supermarkets these days.

+1. Those guys pay no tax. The UK kills off small businesses.

[TestMangler]

+1. Those guys pay no tax. The UK kills off small businesses.

They also still charge £4 for a coffee.

The key to making a business like that work (or any business !!) is cost control. Too many people don't think through lease costs and other associated premises costs, staff costs, raw material costs etc.

Another Cafe where I live closed not long after I opened (no connection). It turned out he was paying 17.8p per unit for electricity when i was on 8.9p and he was paying 15% more for food items from the same supplier as me. When we discussed it, he basically told me he never thought to approach supplies for discounts, and just accepted what they gave him. I spent as much time fighting down costs as i ever spent working in the place.

[ChrisPackit]

Kept wife/daughter in jobs/salaries and made a bit of profit. Wouldn't replace contracting though, money wise.

This is exactly what I have in mind, to keep the Mrs busy and stop her going working for someother schmuck on not much more than minimum wage! As long as it makes a profit and keeps the Mrs entertained then that's fine by me...

[TestMangler]

This is exactly what I have in mind, to keep the Mrs busy and stop her going working for someother schmuck on not much more than minimum wage! As long as it makes a profit and keeps the Mrs entertained then that's fine by me...

Your outcome may differ !! (Please accept disclaimer).

I don't know where you are with your plans or where in the country you're looking at, but as i said in a previous post, control your startup and running costs (and material costs) with an iron fist ! Make your financial projections realistic. Are you looking at buying existing or starting from new ?

[ChrisPackit]

Are you looking at buying existing or starting from new ?

This place has recently opened about 6 months ago, and has spent 10's of £££ on a refurb from a Wine Merchants into this Cafe / Coffee bar and fitted a new kitchen with new appliances etc, leather sofas etc etc. Looks OK, if not a little Chavvy, but most of the expense has already been spent on setting it up. I'm in a fortunate position to know that the owner is in an unfortunate position financially. I think the places ticks over at best at the moment, but I think it needs to focus more on the Coffee Shop than the serving-cafe-style-food side of things.

I would need to sit down and see if the numbers work. If I learned anything from my last venture, it's all about having the overheads low and having the right staff for the job.

It's Manchester area BTW, but in a satellite town of that.