How To Open A Café – How To Start A Successful Coffee Shop
Have you ever felt a desperate need for a change in your career? Have you ever wanted to quit your job instantly, and start doing something that fulfills you? You may be sitting at your desk right now thinking about starting your own business. Mind flooded with memories of times spent hanging out in cafes, it brings you to a realisation: “I would like to open my own cafe!”
Adela, co-owner of Dos Mundos, Prague-based speciality coffee roastery, puts down key topics to realise and think about, before opening your own cafe. Dos Mundos have been on the specialty coffee market since 2013. The roasters have cooperated with several cafes, sweet-shops and other hospitality establishments throughout the years of business cooperation. As such they collected ten objective truths that might come handy, and help you open your business with realistic expectations.
Đang xem: Café
Adela put those truths down in 10 categories! Read on before you pick up the keys of your new location!
I – It will not happen overnight
The very first thing you should take into account! Even if the place you have chosen to be your future cafe is in a perfect condition, you cannot just open it for business immediately. In case you decide to do that anyway, there is more than a 90% chance that you will fail before reaching six months of operation. Why? There is a reason the person selling their business to you is leaving that space. The neighborhood might be going through radical changes, customers may dislike some parts of their service; bad management and other issues could impose challenges for new business being started there. Even if the previous owner claims opposite. You will need to find this bug, deal with it, differentiate from the previous owner, or at least make changes that will be registered.
It is realistic to open a cafe within three months (a very optimistic option) to eight months (a pessimistic option) from the moment you rented the space. For this period of time it is reasonable to have a discount for rent negotiated, or simply have enough money to start with.
Here are few examples of things you might need and their estimated delivery times: a new espresso machine (3 – 5 weeks), a customised bar and furniture (8 weeks), branded cups (4 weeks), a by-law approval of the construction from the Department of Hygiene (4 weeks), outdoor seating authorisation (up to 12 weeks). Further regulations will depend on your location and country legislations.
II – You must offer an extra value to your customers
To make customers search for you, you need to create a unique concept. Have a business plan ready, go the extra mile to make your customers experience something new and unexpected. They will come back for it.
First of all, define your target customer and create a concept that meets his needs. When you are ready, create one strong sentence saying why is your café unique. This will help you concentrate in the future.
Let me be a bit sarcastic here: homemade desserts and lemonades are not enough of a concept. They are delicious, but it is kind of a standard service nowadays. Here are a few thoughts on what you could do to establish a unique concept business. Take into consideration the development of your market! Offer a sort of technological innovation, feature a brand new product, a unique design. Specialise in a service that is nowhere to be found in your area, such as french pastries bakery. Perhaps you are opening the first cafe in the city serving filtered coffee. Become known as the best fruit sorbet shop serving specialty coffee in town! Surely, there are more ideas in your head!
III – Explore new areas of high potential rather than keeping it in safe and established neighborhoods
We dare to exaggerate a little bit with this rule. Yet, we mean it in the best way. Some city areas might be exhausted with competition already. There are others that might be of a better value to you, financially, and they might be the future hip spots in the city if you bring new breeze in the area. The potential of the originally chosen area can be explored easily. A simple search through reality estate medias can help you find out the number of cafes that left the area. If there have been many, it probably is not going to be an easy location to run a cafe from.
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IV – Know your numbers and be prepared
There is nothing more important than to know the funds you need to have in order to sustain with your business. So remind yourself of the basics of working with Microsoft Excel, and try to predict turnovers, revenues, costs of materials and costing of employees. To finish the equation increase all costs by 20%, and if on-paper the business is still in black numbers, you have a good foundation. Once you open, confront your business plans with reality. In case your bills do not match your expectations of paying and earning, do something about it. If you fear it is impossible, you might rather close the cafe down.
You will not be able to overcome this issue yourself. There can be many reasons for a setback: a poorly chosen location, lifestyle change of locals, not finding a customer base for your concept. The others will be hesitant to tell you, of course, but you can be the problem as well.
V – You cannot do it all by yourself
You need a strong support from your close surroundings, both financially, as well as mentally and physically. You just cannot stay all day long behind the bar, bake desserts in the evening, clean up the cafe, deal with the financials on weekend nights and go supply shopping on Sundays. You better count with some part timers from the beginning. Those can help you, if you are ill or in case of emergency. Not to mention that everybody needs a day off, sometimes.
VI – You need to have money for equipment
This relates to statement no. 4. Cafe equipment costs money. Opening a cafe is a long term investment. If you see it that way, you will agree it is worth it getting a new, quality machine that will last and will allow you to serve the coffee you want, without compromises. Why? Because coffee is the heart of a cafe business!
New coffee machines might be more expensive, but you pay the price for endurance of the machine’s service. In case the machine brakes, you get a profi service on it. A new basic 2 group espresso machine can cost 2 300 – 4 000 EUR without VAT. You can find better coffee machines for about 3 000 – 5 500 EUR, the great ones are priced at about 4 500 – 9 000 EUR and the fantastic ones up to 11 000 EUR without VAT. It does not end with buying a coffee machine, though. You need one grinder – if you want to serve only one coffee. In case of two options for espresso you will need two grinders. Count in one more for filter options. Grinder prices range between 500 – 3 000 EUR, depending on what do you expect from them, and what amount of coffee do you want to grind with them. If you want to offer decaffeinated coffee, you will need another grinder.
Next thing you want is a water filter. You can purchase one at 100 – 300 EUR, based on the water quality at your water source. It needs to be changed every 6 – 12 months. Well and then you need to equip your café with such things as a cooling showcase, fridges, ice machine, dishwasher, freezer and so on.
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VII – There are no millions in cafe business
If you think you will have a big profit (not revenues) in the range of tenths of thousands EUR, you will be most likely disappointed. Not that many cafes become so successful, and if they do, it is because of the very experienced people behind the project. Those people must have taken an advantage of a favorable situation, they understood a specific trend, or realized a potential of a place. If you open your first middle sized cafe (15 – 30 seats) have in mind that earning 150 – 400 EUR/day is a success. This is an example based on our experience from the Czech republic, where an espresso is sold for €1,40, and the minimum wage is €2,20/hour.
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