Thinking of opening a smoothie bar

Beta2

Hi

I'm thinking of setting up a new smoothie bar, much like ZUMO, but I have no previous experience in doing something like this.

My expectations are as follows:

Rent to be €3000 per month

Wages to be approx 112 hours a week at €9 = €1008 per week
+ PRSI and related expenses 50% = €504

Insurance, rates, esb, waste ?? I have no idea but I guess €300 per week?

So that a total cost per week before apples, oranges and bananas of €2562.

That’s a lot of smoothies to sell.

I guess the VAT rate on smoothies is 21%? so if I sell a smoothie for €4 I only get €3.16

Has anyone got any experience of stuff like this, how do my figures look, anyone got any advice on possible pitfalls?


Regards

B2

lomb

if u can find a suitable lease in a shopping center with approval in the lease for a juice bar il go halfs on it.
i looked into it, getting the lease is the hardest part. after that u can start printing money...
incidentally rents in shopping centers are 200 euro a sq foot pa. and u need to factor rates, and service charges which are also hugh.

jdivision

Beta2 wrote:

Hi

I'm thinking of setting up a new smoothie bar, much like ZUMO, but I have no previous experience in doing something like this.

My expectations are as follows:

Rent to be €3000 per month

Wages to be approx 112 hours a week at €9 = €1008 per week
+ PRSI and related expenses 50% = €504

Insurance, rates, esb, waste ?? I have no idea but I guess €300 per week?

So that a total cost per week before apples, oranges and bananas of €2562.

That’s a lot of smoothies to sell.

I guess the VAT rate on smoothies is 21%? so if I sell a smoothie for €4 I only get €3.16

Has anyone got any experience of stuff like this, how do my figures look, anyone got any advice on possible pitfalls?


Regards

B2

Some centre owners would consider a rent related turnover, eg you pay 7 per cent of your total takings as rent. Less likely these days because Zumo would be competing with you but would make it easier for you.

deedee lepoopoo

If you have no experience of these things I would defo work in a juice bar first to get the experience and how they manage the place, suppliers, amounts to order and make, etc. Even a few months working there to get the ropes.

With regard to shopping centre leases, a kiosk would get away with a shorter lease term alright, but it is very difficult to get into shopping centres as they scrutinise the potential tenant's convenant compared to stand alone shops. The landlords' want to be 100% sure that you will be able to pay the rent foremost and then carry out the lease terms, also having an extablished name is a plus, as this attracts customers.

They would give more kudos to a franchaise like Zumo as they are established. Would you consider a franchaise?

PM me if you want any other advice.

Zascar

Big risk going at it on your own, far better gettting a franchise and buying into an established successfull business. Picking a good Location is absolutely essential and can amke or break you. The Zumo in Jervis makes an absolute fortune, whereas others don't do nearly as well. I know the people who started Zumo and its a great success. I've seen the financials and if you get a good location you should start making pure profit after 2 years. let me know if you need any more info.

lomb

Theres no reason to take 2 years to break even. its a high cash flow business and as such with a lease there arent any once off costs except fit out and for that ud be borrowing under a business loan. in any case i doubt the fit out of a zumo could exceed 25 grand. personally i dont think the zumo franchise is worth anything compared to the onerous obligations and disclosure of leases before signing and pulling out clauses and if i could secure a lease i wouldnt give them a penny. all theyd do is try to gazump u on the lease. just my two cents from business experiance.

Beta2

Thanks for all your advice.

Its actually me and a friend that are thinking of setting it up, we both agree that it would be a lot easier initially to set up as a franchise operation, but in the long term our own business makes more sense.

We have the capital in place and the main obstacle is finding a great location.

Cheers

B2

Zulu

Beta2 wrote:

We have the capital in place and the main obstacle is finding a great location.
Cheers
B2

Come down and have a look at Sir John Rogersons Quay. O2 just open their head quaters there and there is nothing here yet.
You have about 6 big office blocks almost finished completion and a flake of appartment bolcks (all the grand canal docks development)

...I'll be expecting nice smoothies

DublinWriter

Beta2 wrote:

Its actually me and a friend that are thinking of setting it up, we both agree that it would be a lot easier initially to set up as a franchise operation, but in the long term our own business makes more sense.

You'd be wise to start off with a franchise, learn the ropes and various tricks of the trade, then open for yourself, even start up your own franchise!

Beta2 wrote:

We have the capital in place and the main obstacle is finding a great location.

Grab the golden pages, make a list of all the shopping centres in the Dublin area, and take a few days out to tour them all.

SouperComputer

if you want it to be a sucessfull business, be sure to budget for branding, marketing & advertising etc. Account for drafting of preceedures and manuals for forthcoming staff. Dont forget your accounting fees as this could be as much as 3.5K PA for a LTD company.

Also, if you can aim to have some savings thats is a good thing too.

Id also second the idea of working for a couple of places. Tone down your CV if needed, try a few places for a week each if you can, or even get others to do it for you and get information from them.