Setting up an internet cafe

chabsey

I'm doing some basic research into the costs of setting up a small internet cafe and thought I'd post here to ask for advice/thoughts.

The cafe I have in mind would not be in Dublin but rather in one of the busier towns that has a steady supply of tourists.

I would have up to about 10 PCs to start with and would actually sell coffee and food(unlike many of the so-called cafes out there).

I would be able to set up the networking, configure the broadband access and basically do all the computer stuff myself (including building all the PCs) but am not very sure about the viability of this type of business.

Assuming an hourly rate of between 2-3 euros (I'd not be after the bargain basement clientele)and services like printing, faxing, photocopying as well as PC maintainance, web design etc.

I'm not sure of rental costs and other hidden costs that I've no idea about.

Obviously this is all just in my mind but I like the idea and thought I'd see if anyone has any advice.

Merrion

Don't forget the cost of software licenses...it can be quite expensive as the number of machines goes up.

irishguy

Originally posted by chabsey
I'm doing some basic research into the costs of setting up a small internet cafe and thought I'd post here to ask for advice/thoughts.

The cafe I have in mind would not be in Dublin but rather in one of the busier towns that has a steady supply of tourists.

I would have up to about 10 PCs to start with and would actually sell coffee and food(unlike many of the so-called cafes out there).

I would be able to set up the networking, configure the broadband access and basically do all the computer stuff myself (including building all the PCs) but am not very sure about the viability of this type of business.

Assuming an hourly rate of between 2-3 euros (I'd not be after the bargain basement clientele)and services like printing, faxing, photocopying as well as PC maintainance, web design etc.

I'm not sure of rental costs and other hidden costs that I've no idea about.

Obviously this is all just in my mind but I like the idea and thought I'd see if anyone has any advice.

sorry to rain on your parade but i dont think this is the best business plan. Having worked in a net cafe [about 10pcs aswell] that did coffee, no one wanted it one one person asked for it in the time i was there. I dont think there is a market for a net cafe that does coffee and food. The busiest cafe in limerick is eurosurf, its €1 per hour at all times they have about 120ish pcs with a 2Mbit and a 512Kbit wireless link , which is adaquate [the 2Mbit line would be fine for that amount of pcs the 512Kbit line is for back only] they dont do coffee they dont have fancy premises but they have really cheap net access and they are in the center of town.
I even know of 2 pubs in Limerick that offer free net access to its clients.
If i was going to setup my own net cafe i would do it like ryanair, no frills. Get a large cental building [doesnt matter if its a bit rundown, the rent will be cheaper, but in has to be very central] Get around 50-100 low spec pcs [depending on the size of the town your setting up in] run redhat with mozilla + an IE skin so the average joe doesnt get confused because it looks different . dont install any extra software ,no printers,no scaners,no burners etc [less to break] get a 2Mbit ADSL line and thats it your open for business. I assume for the price your changing your going for the tourist only market and are not really looking for local to come in ? which is not a great market as Ireland is only open for tourists 4 months a year and there will be loads of Net kiskos going up around in high profile locations taking away for your busniness. Also i would take a look at www.irishwan.org you could setup a wireless access point sharing you net connection with other business/home users which if done right could pay for your net connection. Hope this was a help best of luck with the business

btw the net cafe i worked in wasnt eurosurf

sceptre

Hmmm, I must drop into eurosurf at some stage and have a look (I didn't realise it was busy at all). It's in a very central (and very cheap I'd imagine) location (and it's a few hundred yards from me so I should give it a looksee).

I'm not really a Net cafe type (NoLimits at home and now broadband and a big dirty line at college means there's no reason for me to bother) but the limited experience I've had of them (London and Japan) would tell me that cheap tends to be successful.

If you're in a major town with touristy types and you're going for the upper end of the market you may be disappointed. All it would take is for a guy to open down the road in a slightly less swanky premises and half the prices and your business plan shoots into bankrupcy.

If you're really going for the upper end of the market you've got to consider setting yourself up as a home for gamers who are prepared to pay a little more to get a little more. Tourists aren't necessarily dumb just because they're tourists. All the travel guides like Lonely Planet and Fodors are now including sectinos on available net cafes in towns. They're including prices as well.

Oh yeah - all the Japanese cafes tend to have free juice on tap in bottomless glasses. An addiction to melon fanta isn't nice. Especially when you can't get the damn stuff over here.

Agent Smith

melon fanta

dude that sound nice!

Señor Juárez

mmm melon fanta.


Irishguy, it is a very good plan, especially with the lack of software licences. but with so many PC's, after you make some money back from the business, would it be a bad idea to invest some back in and get a handful of high spec PC's? this way you could cater for the tonnes of casual users, and have a few higher spec gaming PC's for those among us who like to game in net café's. also by putting them onto the 512k backup line, you get good feedback as it would be dedicated to games (and not leeching/browsing!)

chabsey

Originally posted by irishguy
sorry to rain on your parade but i dont think this is the best business plan. Having worked in a net cafe [about 10pcs aswell] that did coffee, no one wanted it one one person asked for it in the time i was there. I dont think there is a market for a net cafe that does coffee and food. The busiest cafe in limerick is eurosurf, its €1 per hour at all times they have about 120ish pcs with a 2Mbit and a 512Kbit wireless link , which is adaquate [the 2Mbit line would be fine for that amount of pcs the 512Kbit line is for back only] they dont do coffee they dont have fancy premises but they have really cheap net access and they are in the center of town.
I even know of 2 pubs in Limerick that offer free net access to its clients.
If i was going to setup my own net cafe i would do it like ryanair, no frills. Get a large cental building [doesnt matter if its a bit rundown, the rent will be cheaper, but in has to be very central] Get around 50-100 low spec pcs [depending on the size of the town your setting up in] run redhat with mozilla + an IE skin so the average joe doesnt get confused because it looks different . dont install any extra software ,no printers,no scaners,no burners etc [less to break] get a 2Mbit ADSL line and thats it your open for business. I assume for the price your changing your going for the tourist only market and are not really looking for local to come in ? which is not a great market as Ireland is only open for tourists 4 months a year and there will be loads of Net kiskos going up around in high profile locations taking away for your busniness. Also i would take a look at www.irishwan.org you could setup a wireless access point sharing you net connection with other business/home users which if done right could pay for your net connection. Hope this was a help best of luck with the business

btw the net cafe i worked in wasnt eurosurf

No problem about raining on my parade, I posted looking for comments just like your one. I hadn't thought of redhat and mozilla, it'd save a whole load on software licences and probably end up being more secure/stable than windows. Does Eurosurf use Windows or linux do you know?

I also agree about the coffee cause the most I've ever bought in a net cafe would be a can of coke or something similar, using the net while eating chocolate cake isn't always the best idea.

The 1 euro price would certainly price most everyone else out of the market but it would be hard to make money unless the place was full (but then that equally applies to only having 10 PCs at 2.50 a hour).


It's only a vague idea at the moment but thanks for your replies.

irishguy

eurosurf use win98/2000 and some xp machines at the moment . its setup very nicely that evertime a pc reboots it pulls an image from the server and boots from that so there are very few tech problems. Also there might be an open source project for billing in net cafes have a look at http://sourceforge.net/ and you could reduce the amount of people required. If you had 50 pcs and and they were full have the time [at €1 per hour they should be] then thats €200 per day which i agree thats tight but the more pcs the better. Having 10 pcs wouldnt work at €1 per hour unless the cafe part of the business was going really well

shoegirl

The cheaper places I know of in Cork and London were always full but you can cut costs by getting basic pcs and running basic software.

But if you are going to run it cheaply I'd suggest long opening hours, lots of extras that won't cost you much (list confectionary and coffee rather than proper food) and stuff like cd burning, printing etc (lets face it even at 10c a sheet if you get 6 euro extra a day it eventually adds up. Comfortable seating helps too.

You can garner the attention of the locals if you offer good membership deals.

Señor Juárez

y'know... how bout a food counter, like in every newsagent, you know the kind, full of chocolate and whatnot

pete

don't forget your insurance costs

Merrion

I don't think there's much margin at the low end of the market. However if you do extra stuff like training sessions (Explorer, web design, MS Office etc) as well this should be viable.

alleepally

you could also add on international call facility as well? i notice a lot of the net cafes do that too.

PaulH101

Hi there,

Interesting thread here as I am in a similiar situation but I strongly believe that the only way to really make this work is with the add on of the Call Cabins. With the amount of tourists and emigrants living in Ireland now te convenience of being able to do emails and call home at a significantly reduced rate is surely appealing. I would also just stick with vending machine type sales of hot and cold beverages and snacks. No maintenance required or minimal at the very least. A printing and faxing service would also be made available.

Now my only problem is finding the resources to set up call cabins. Do any of you know of any resources for setting this type of thing up?

Many thanks, Paul

monkeyfudge

I run a tiny internet cafe in Coolock. Just 4 PCs.



It doesn't do a huge amount of business, but it doesn't cost much to run either. It runs on a pre-pay system that prints a username and a password on peoples reciepts which they use to access the the internet.

As such I have absolutely no staff at the thing at all. It's in an OPW building so the reception staff and the secuirity staff in the building look after things for me.

People accessing porn was a big problem for me as it's such a public building and the OPW weren't happy at all. I've since had to really tighten up secuirity on the PCs and put a net-nanny type software on them.

But I'd agree, you need around 50 PCs in order to make a profit. You won't make much on net access alone, you'll have to make your money off printing and CD burning charges... and the international calls.

kennyk

Hi,

I set up an Internet Café myself a little over two years ago and so far it is going pretty okay. We are located in a small town in Co. Cork (pop. 5,000) and run a network of 11 computers and five voip phones.

As for costs we offer a range of access options from a standard 10c per minute to prepaid offers at 5c per minute. I realise that that can sound expensive compared to Dublin, Cork and Limerick but given the local market we have and the small number of computers anything less then this would make the business unviable.

We you consider that whatever rate you charge will include VAT @ 21%, then at 1 euro per hour (83c per hour excluding VAT) you would need 100% occupancy just to cover staff costs at 8 euro per hour and that is before you pay rent, rates, light, heat, insurance, advertising, leasing, etc., etc., etc.

In over two years of operation I could probably count on both hands the number of price related complaints we have received, we have probably received as many positive comments over the same time period.

If you want any help, advice etc. feel free to contact me via pm or email.

Cheers

Ken