Internet Cafes?

6th

Ok this is something I've been thinking about and was just wondering if there is anyone here with experience with setup and running of one? I have no plans to run out and start up a business right now but I can see this as being a part of what I'd like to end up doing. Just to make it clear its only part of my potential plans.

monkeyfudge

I run an unsuccessful internet café.

What sort of questions do you have?

forbairt

I did up some facts and figures (rough) for someone on this before ... along with what they'd have to charge and so on ...

I'd recommend you do this ... including

Rent
Cost of machines (depreciation)
lighting / electricity / heating (calculate rough costs of having machines on all the time)
leased lines (or similar)
Employee costs (give even minimum wages by the amount of opening hours required even if you'd be running it)
Machine Lease / Rental / Purchase (given gaming machines have a limited life span)

The figures I came up with looked quite scary at the end of the day.

Either way best of luck with it

6th

forbairt wrote: »

I did up some facts and figures (rough) for someone on this before ... along with what they'd have to charge and so on ...

I'd recommend you do this ... including

Rent
Cost of machines (depreciation)
lighting / electricity / heating (calculate rough costs of having machines on all the time)
leased lines (or similar)
Employee costs (give even minimum wages by the amount of opening hours required even if you'd be running it)
Machine Lease / Rental / Purchase (given gaming machines have a limited life span)

The figures I came up with looked quite scary at the end of the day.

Either way best of luck with it

Yeah its not something I plan on doing in the next 2/3 years but I'll be thinking about it alot more come the end of 2008. As the IC is only part of my idea I've a lot more to consider. I had planned on the IC being the more stable part of it but scarey numbers might make me rethink that!

monkeyfudge wrote: »

I run an unsuccessful internet café.

What sort of questions do you have?

Unsuccessful you say? What does it take to make money from it? And why do you think your IC isnt doing what it should?

monkeyfudge

Well it was never really designed to make money.

It doesn't really cost anything to run though and is relatively unstaffed. While keeping costs down, it does restrict what the café is capable of doing. It operates on a pre-pay system and there is no means to print.

There are only 4 computers so even if it was really busy it still wouldn't be generating a huge amount of income. I stopped charging people to use it some time ago... but before that it might have been taking in €200 a month.

Here's what it looks like:



I was quite pleased with the wooden units I had made up for it.

forbairt

6th wrote: »

Yeah its not something I plan on doing in the next 2/3 years but I'll be thinking about it alot more come the end of 2008. As the IC is only part of my idea I've a lot more to consider. I had planned on the IC being the more stable part of it but scarey numbers might make me rethink that!

I'd been asked at the time to manage it ... I was thinking ok that'd be quite cool .. and I could do development / webdesign at the same time ...

Doing up a rough business plan taking into account all the costs really made me think again

Think about it ... its open 60 hours a week lets say
Thats 600 on wages (VERY rough obviously)
Rental of the place on top of that ? probably need something semi decent which more than likely will set you back 400 euro up .. (very unreleastic depending on location ... location being key to your success)
Electricity
Insurance
Rates
Depreciation of machines
Internet Access

You're now at running costs of at least 1k a week

if its what an hour ... 3 euro ... 4 euro ??

1000 / 3 = 333 hours the machines need to be used ..

lets say you have 20 machines ...

333 / 20 = 16 hours for each machine a week just to break even (on my very VERY rough figures which haven't really taken into account any other expenses apart from LOW rent and wages)

Start calculating more and you'll see you need to have the machines occupied a hell of a lot of the time ..

Look at how many internet cafe's are closing down ?

monkeyfudge

Yep. Trying to hit that sweet spot where it can actually turn a profit must be very difficult.

Most of the people who use internet cafés these days would be tourists, so your location would play a huge part in any possible success.

forbairt

I also think in 2 to 3 years mobile phone broadband is going to have such high saturation .. that a lot of people won't really be going online from internet cafes ...

A lot of mobiles now can hook into free wifi ...

spend 3 - 4 quid ... or just use my phone for free and check my email / whatever ... ?

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

monkeyfudge

I couldn't in good conscious charge for it as the service wasn't good enough and for the few measly euro it was taking in it wasn't worth listening to people complaining and looking for their one euro back.

It's just one small part of a larger IT project I'm involved in and that I'm funded for. Part of that funding is to provide internet access to the local community. There's no rent charges as it's in the corner of the a café in the building and it's seen as something that brings in customers. There are no staff charges as the staff already in the building just print off a ticket when when someone wants to use the internet and that ticket has a username and password printed on it.

The internet cost comes off our office internet connection, which is there anyway. But I will be looking into getting a dedicated internet connection soon enough.

As for Cork... last time I was there I used an internet café that seemed to be doing quite well... It was one that was aiming itself at more of a gaming market than a tourist market... but I'd imagine keeping your PCs up to date to run the latest games would be hugely expensive.

forbairt

The Scientist wrote: »

There's a chain of 3 in Cork City Centre doing it for €1 p/hr.

Ouch! how on earth are they staying in business ... I assume coffee

The Scientist wrote: »

Tough business alright, needs a lot of investment which yields very slow return...

I had originally spec'd 8 high end gaming machines ... and 12 desktop machines ... coupled with routers UPS ... game licenses ... and so on ...

I just don't understand why people are getting into the business. Do they do up business plans at all ? (that said I'm sure there are successful internet cafes ... I just don't see how its a long term thing)

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

Culchie

50,000 emigrants have left Ireland in the last 6 months, surely alot of these were the internet cafe customers?

spectre

I thought of getting into this business but opted against for a few reasons, the main one being mobile internet - 3g and the proliferation of pay as you go/FREE wireless networks.

If I was going to try to get into the business, I'd focus on busy location with plenty of passing trade and a basic service model - Minimal floor space, basic machines with decent headsets. Sell tea/cofee/soft drinks & confectionary. The costs of high end machines with big comfortable chairs in a nicely decorated spacious environment are too great and just not necessary.

Good luck with it if you decide to go for it.

thecola

The niche for this is also places where people are compulsary/artificially made gather and remain for some time. For example, airport. I havent found any pc behind the checkin line in Dublin airport, and not that I allways carry notebook with myself, nor I want to buy 24h ticket if I've time for some hour or two. And instead of spending some 5 quid on a paper, i definitelly preffer surfing elswhere.

Similar is in train stations, some state institutions where you've to sit in a row for some indefinite amount of time which normally is more than half an hour.

Other thing - make an agreement, and bring the machines in some fast food place - put along the wall - so while you're finishing your bagel, you just catch up with your mail, or check some other stuff, make it say - 1€/20 minutes and who would care about it.

You've to be mobile and bring the product to people, not just set up and wait for the crowd to run and turn it all over.

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

thecola

That's the point, badly covered. In Dublin Airport there are some pc's in public waiting area. Normally, I mean - where I've spent more time is behind the checkin. Ok, wont claim it's such a new world out there in Dub.Airp., compared to big hubs, but wouldnt hurt such place with normal lounge atmosphere, where you also have to enter your ticket number, so that system would monitor your boarding time, and anti-terrorist squad could check who was so interested in commercial plane piloting basics...

Yet if its Eircom, I guess you can forget about competing. It all must be buttered up and closed to new entrepreneurs.

monkeyfudge

Have Dublin City Council started putting up free wireless hot spots?

There's one in my building... great speed out of it, but some odd content filtering is at work.

Can't access boards.ie on it anyway.