Hey Veeky Forums

Hey Veeky Forums

I'm thinking of starting a cafe. My idea is to absolutely minimize my costs and create a business plan that is absolutely barebones to anchor myself as a staple in a neighbourhood. I've worked as a barista for quite some time now, and know how to make better coffee than any shit quality big chain like Starbucks. While my idea isn't very high tech, what do you think?

A cup of coffee costs 40 cents to make, and can be priced more than 10x that.

also, since the idea is very broad, how would you go about it?

FYI THIS IS A BUSINESS POST NOT A CRYPTO POST

Remember that the correct location is very important. I've seen restaurants and cafes fail because they thought "relatively big street with lots of pedestrians and cars = customers". Nope, not at all. None of those pedestrians and drivers were interested in stopping for coffee, they had other things to do. Simply put, different streets are used for different purposes, by different kinds of people, or people with different kinds of schedules. It's not as simple as "more people walk in front of my shop = more people will enter my shop".

I completly agree. I would be opening the cafe in montreal if anyone has any ideas about the landscape. Developing neighborhoods in montreal???

>THIS IS A BUSINESS POST NOT A CRYPTO POST

>he isn't roasting his own bitbeans

IT ISN'T TOO LATE, GET ON THE SHIP

>know how to make better coffee than any shit quality big chain like Starbucks
how does making the coffee make such a big difference? wouldn't the choice of beans and roasting make the biggest difference in coffee taste?

Hey user! Look at me!

Perhaps you would do well to read "Propaganda" by Edward Bernays. It could possibly contribute to your ability to reach customers in a way that isn't too pushy while simultaneously not too transient in meaning.

Another good word about cutting costs is, that you should make quality a priority as well as the delivery of that product, as one of the oldest and most effective means of propaganda is the oral referral of colleagues to a particular place. If the scenery is nice, the reception is polite, and the product is at least on par with major chains, you will be acknowledged as a potential for exponential growth.

Best wishes!
*poof*

>as well as the delivery of that product
make sure you deliver the product to the customer...good advice!

>Remember that the correct location is very important.
This, friend of mine use to run a coffee cart. She ended up having to cash it in because the place she was allowed to run it from just wasn't profitable.

>Developing neighborhoods in montreal???
Not from Montreal but rather than look at "developing" neighborhoods I'd think more about finding a street where people need a caffeine fix. infiltrate their mental process, let that good smell waft over to them like every fucking Subway store does with that saccharine bread smell.

Like I know you're trying to get in on the ground floor of a developing neighborhood, but you have no idea how the actual day to day process of people's lives will unfold, better go for a semi-established area where there isn't a cafe yet, but you can perfectly position yourself into their "funnel". I'm not sure if that means be close to retail establishments, or be well positioned for people going to the office or coming back... maybe you should aim for college kids, I don't know.

Take your camera, walk around town with a schedule of the day and take photos, take notes: if I was starting a business I'd make sure to pound pavement

Starbucks did it by imitating the artsy coffeehouse scene, they have sugar and milk which along with caffeine are the biggest money makers. It's a dessert place, that's what people don't understand. If you want a cafe, you need to match the culture of the area and the businesses around the location. Get talking to the owners around your prospective location, find out what you can offer them, join your local business groups or whatever. Without community, you have nothing.
>coffee has good margin
It had better have a damn good margin for all the rent you'll be paying you dumbass. Here's an idea, packaging. You brew coffee hot, sell them in those tetrapaks that they use for soy milk and shit and place it in a hot storage. There's your fucking cafe.

>You brew coffee hot, sell them in those tetrapaks
i think that will melt the plastic lining and pollute the coffee, also thats a sucky ass way to drink coffee

You should start a coffee shop that only accepts bitbeans for payment, and then call it Coffee Bean. Its a pun on "Bean".

What he means is that presenting the coffee in an appealing way (whether that's high class, hipstery, or some other aesthetic) will go a long way with customers. The delivery is important.

Two Words, OP:

>College
>Campuses

These rich little shits have absolutely no sense of money or responsibility. Have a mobile coffee cart and serve coffee at high-traffic areas on campus. I'm serious. Target audience + High traffic + mobility = high profits.

Fuck, I think I might even do something like this. People are so dumb. Why do I not just go do this. Wtf I love business now.

Cost EVERYTHING out not just the cost of your goods sold. You need to know what the depreciation is on your machines, rent estimate, insurance costs, labor (the biggest single expense with wages, employee taxes, benefits, recruitment costs, ect), utilities, and anything else that might cost money. Some will vary with your produciton (utilities, cost of goods) and others won't (rent, labor to a degree). Find out how much you need to sell to break even each month and then make sure you take into account your taxes on profits after that. If you can still make a living after all of your costs then it will be good but do some honest and hard market research and remember things will almost always cost more and bring in less than you expected so plan for that. I'm just about to finish my MBA and work in procurement so I deal with a lot of contractors and trust me its harder to make a living than people think but if you plan it out right and have the ability to manage costs while keeping customers you can be your own boss and even if you just make enough to cover your costs at first and can live off of it in a year or two you'll feel great and learn a lot.

Coffee industry isn't headed that way. Get out more, google third wave

Do what Dutch Brothers is doing... they are very successful.. low cost... created fucking cult basically.

Literally no one cares if you make a good coffee

you either draw hipsters in with rustic decor or you go broke

There's a college near me that actually has a starbucks INSIDE of it now. They also have a subway too.
At first I was like what the fuck, but I guess this is going to be the future.
It's kind of surreal that you have classes and a huge inside patio there, almost like the college just abruptly turns into a fucking mall.

>A cup of coffee costs 40 cents to make, and can be priced more than 10x that.
I remember this thread from last month.

made me laugh that you were so hung up on retail price vs wholesale cost.

I can second this. I work at a cafe on a college campus - this shit turns over so much money. Students and staff.

Do you live near Bellingham?

>I've worked as a barista for quite some time now, and know how to make better coffee than any shit quality big chain like Starbucks
This phenomenon is so common in food service we should have a name for it.

I don't know how many times I've heard cooks say they make the best food so they should open a restaurant.

I'll try to be gentle-
nothing about making coffee qualifies you to run a business. In fact if you think you personally will be making the coffee you've already fucked up.

I'm kind of in the same boat as you. I have a great business idea for a coffee chain (I say idea rather than plan, due to my lack of knowledge of what it takes to run a business.)

I have a name that directly correlates with my States history, and would be creating an atmosphere that my States residents could feel proud of and feel that is theirs. (I'm being ridiculously vague because this idea could be stolen and isn't trademarked yet)

I know what the store will look like, the logo, uniforms, cities ect. I just don't know anything about making coffee. I've never worked a machine that wasn't a simple button press to make a cup. I have no business experience or capital to play around with. I've been thinking about a loan, but I have nothing to leverage as a minimum wage dropout that lives with my parents at 23.

It hurts to have a vision of something great but be so far from reaching it.

Since you're still living with your parents now would be the perfect time to Wageslave for another year or two and try to scrape together enough for your ideas man. You've got a finite amount of time left to try shit like this out, fucking go for it.

Coffee has high margins, but it's a low pricee item, so you need to be consistently selling it all the time to break even. It's not like a restaurant where two people can come in for an hour or two and drop $100. More like two people come in, drop $6 and stay for an hour or two.

Coffee shops are all about volume. You need to always have someone in line.

Trap maid cafe

You could make a coffee stand that you can bring around so you can always go where there's people in need of coffee. Like near metro stations, business districts and universities