Reply to: Who on here had a 'Coffee Shop' Plan B?

[Freamon]

1. Get the basics right
2. Choose something to differentiate yourself and focus on being extra strong in that area

[d000hg]

Have most of Ramsay's places not gone down the pan in fairly spectacular fashion too ?

I don't know about most but I've definitely heard him say he's taken big losses.

Watching them on TV, the prices they pay for top ingredients is pretty extreme. Although a £90 steak is taking the P a bit, but then good restaurants have a LOT of staff.

[Gibbon]

Most of the profits in these restaurants come from upselling expensive wine. There is some serious profit margin in some wines. Once the wealthy started to cut down on wine his profits were wiped out. He closed several but has managed to hang in there.

The El Bulli story is different. They never made a profit. Every year he closed the hotel for 6 months to concentrate on creating a new menu for the year. I also think there was just one sitting a night. They were fully booked for the year within a day of starting the booking. But imagine the costs, they had more chefs in the kitchen than customers.

Yep, but the trick is to go for the cheapest or a quite expensive one; house wine if they have it. The biggest mark up is on the 2 - 5 cheapest as this is where most people buy not wanting to look cheap by ordering the cheapest.

[fullyautomatix]

Have most of Ramsay's places not gone down the pan in fairly spectacular fashion too ?

Most of the profits in these restaurants come from upselling expensive wine. There is some serious profit margin in some wines. Once the wealthy started to cut down on wine his profits were wiped out. He closed several but has managed to hang in there.

The El Bulli story is different. They never made a profit. Every year he closed the hotel for 6 months to concentrate on creating a new menu for the year. I also think there was just one sitting a night. They were fully booked for the year within a day of starting the booking. But imagine the costs, they had more chefs in the kitchen than customers.

[TestMangler]

I'm sure I read the restaurant rated the best in the world for several years in a row could only open a few weeks a year as it lost money hand over fist.

Have most of Ramsay's places not gone down the pan in fairly spectacular fashion too ?

[d000hg]

A guy I know left a well paid permie job and started a gourmet restaurant in Cornwall. It even got a Michellin star after a year. He had to then shut it down since it bled all his money.

I'm sure I read the restaurant rated the best in the world for several years in a row could only open a few weeks a year as it lost money hand over fist.

[eek]

A guy I know left a well paid permie job and started a gourmet restaurant in Cornwall. It even got a Michellin star after a year. He had to then shut it down since it bled all his money.

A friend quite advertising to work as a chef. He lasted six weeks and returned to advertising at the first opportunity.

About a year ago a chippy opened on the site of an old chippy. It lasted less than a week which at the time I thought was strange as he didn't give it a chance to working. Thinking about it the owner was probably right if it didn't work right away nothing you can do will fix the issue.

[fullyautomatix]

A guy I know left a well paid permie job and started a gourmet restaurant in Cornwall. It even got a Michellin star after a year. He had to then shut it down since it bled all his money.

[d000hg]

Always ensure you ask for advice on a forum full of knobs with inflated egos and the belief that they actually know what they're talking about

I'll have you know I ran a tuck shop on my school bus, if only Young-Apprentice was around I could have been on and talked about how I was running a business

[lukemg]

Good luck and I admire anyone who is prepared to take this kind of risk but I wouldn't touch it with yours.
I always remember a prog about 2 IT bods who were on telly with some entrepeneur chap and took over a city centre shop to convert to a bar, food etc. yes, location was wrong and they had no experience and made plenty of mistakes.
They followed them for about 6 months and it was a steady grinding decline as they worked 70 hour weeks to cut staff costs, tried everything to get people in DJ's, adverts, discounts.
At the end of it the chap supposedly mentoring them said look, you have basically paid a grand a week out of your own money for the privilege of working 70 hours a week as a barman and waiter.
One of them piped up that they hadn't just done it for the money and that the experience had been very important too. The other chap looked like he wanted to kill him.....

[fullyautomatix]

The best way to approach this business model is to have a USP. In the UK I would say a USP for a coffee shop would be to sell space cakes. It will be rammed full with hippes all day. Just make sure you dont sell to kids though

[TestMangler]

Always ensure you ask for advice on a forum full of knobs with inflated egos and the belief that they actually know what they're talking about

[eek]

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

Sit in the window a few times and count how many people go past and whether they are shopping or dashing by.

That is your immediate customer base and only a few of them are going to come in and visit.

[d000hg]

Yeah. There must be thousands of idealistic people who think "I can get people to come" with special offers, amazing food/ambience/service/etc, but it doesn't really work that way.

It's a bit sad but probably true.

[Platypus]

There are several in my town. The one that isn't in a town centre position has a licence, opens late, same idea as you. It's failing.

The other two have footfall. Lots of it. The most successful place became trendy with the yummy mummies and is making a fortune.

So my (free therefore worthless) advice is that you need footfall. 'Destination' places off the high-street don't work (in this economy).