Opening a café...... Advice please!

Cosmocolic

Hi all,

Myself and my partner are seriously considering relocating to the country. We are currently living in our house in the Dublin commuter belt with a fairly long commute to and from work each day. We are both wrecked during the week and it seems that we are just living for the weekends and we don't fancy doing that for the next 30 odd years.

My family live in the area that we are thinking of moving to and they own a premises in the village which they have said we can have rent free to start up a business. There is also a small apartment that we can live in rent free. I have always had a huge interest in food and it has been a dream of mine to one day run a successful restaurant. I feel it would be best to start with a café/coffee shop and see how we get on for say 5 years before we think about opening a restaurant I completed the 12 week cookery course in Ballymaloe a few years ago and my friends/family would consider me to be an excellent cook. My partner has some barista experience and would make an excellent front of house person.

My main concerns are that I have no experience working in a commercial kitchen and also that the café would be in a rural village with dependence on tourist trade. The tourist season is April-September just 6 months, the plan would be to possibly only open for 6-9 months. We aren't looking to make a fortune here, just earn enough to live on, get a mortgage and to be able to afford to have a holiday each year. We are well aware that we would need to work our asses off for those 6-9 months but it would be worth it to get 3+ months off. The village is 15 minutes from the main town and consists of a few pubs, a small hotel, tourist shops and a newsagent. There is an existing coffee shop but it is the type that looks and smells like your granny's house if you know what I mean!

An indication of start up costs would be greatly appreciated - The cafe would have capacity for about 25 people so it would be quite small. My family would be willing to help us out serving tables etc initially.

Any suggestions/advice would be most welcome.

shoutman

Without trying to piss all over your parade, you are doing this at exactly the wrong time.

Opening a small coffee shop/cafe in a rural town which is dependent on tourist trade is just crazy.
There is going to be a big decrease in the amount of tourists visiting this country, and thats without taking swine flu into account.

TBH the way you have described your plans I think even at the height of boom times you would struggle.

Bellies

Best of luck with it, I disagree with the previous post.
Of course you have a chance to survive!!!

How's the other cafe shop doing at the momemt, what are their opening hours and do you know how many customers they'd have a day?

Rent free is a plus!
Tourists (Don't bank on it)

However, it would be a concern as to how you'd promote it and get bums on seats, what are you going to do differently that the other cafe shop isn't doing??

YellowSheep

Sent me some more info on location, what you want to do and I will give you a hand and some help on projection, menu etc. Cheers Oliver

kmick

If you start small and dont spend a lot on sparkling new commercial kitchens there is no reason why given your free rental circumstances that you cant turn a buck. Pick up tables and chairs at auctions. Put in a basic kitchen and buy a cash register. Open up and serve fresh local ingredients and keep your prices low. You wont make a huge wage considering there will be two of you but again you are rent free so that should help. Bear in mind all day breakfast cafs are two a penny and generally crap. Good luck

gnxx

I completely disagree that now is a bad time to start a business.

In your case you have the offer of a rent free period -- rent and staff costs are the nornal problem items for a startup, since they can not be moved.

I would urge you to consider two - three business lines from the same premises. For example combine a cafe with Internet or Deli. Tourist trade is good, but if you can try and create a baseline local revenue that will absorb some of your costs, this would be great.

I wish you all the best. I'm not in the food trade, but if you need any advice then please PM .....

fiscalstudent

I would agree with previous post in trying to colocate services to increase footfall. For example is there an artist in the area? Could these paintings be sold through your cafe?

Will the local residents retain customer loyalty to the cafe they ahve gone to for years and know the owners?

Brody Sweeny is giving a speech in Limerick on May 7th I think, perhaps this would be useful for you to attend...http://www.lcoeb.ie/



_____________________
www.fiscalstudent.com

chillywilly

this is a great time to start a business imo, especially since its rent free....thats a big weight off your shoulders! Make sure your cashflow is in order. It sounds like you are aiming t just get by with a bit on the side for a bit of leisure.....thats well acheivable

itsonlyme

Cosmocolic wrote: »

Hi all,

Myself and my partner are seriously considering relocating to the country. We are currently living in our house in the Dublin commuter belt with a fairly long commute to and from work each day. We are both wrecked during the week and it seems that we are just living for the weekends and we don't fancy doing that for the next 30 odd years.

My family live in the area that we are thinking of moving to and they own a premises in the village which they have said we can have rent free to start up a business. There is also a small apartment that we can live in rent free. I have always had a huge interest in food and it has been a dream of mine to one day run a successful restaurant. I feel it would be best to start with a café/coffee shop and see how we get on for say 5 years before we think about opening a restaurant I completed the 12 week cookery course in Ballymaloe a few years ago and my friends/family would consider me to be an excellent cook. My partner has some barista experience and would make an excellent front of house person.

My main concerns are that I have no experience working in a commercial kitchen and also that the café would be in a rural village with dependence on tourist trade. The tourist season is April-September just 6 months, the plan would be to possibly only open for 6-9 months. We aren't looking to make a fortune here, just earn enough to live on, get a mortgage and to be able to afford to have a holiday each year. We are well aware that we would need to work our asses off for those 6-9 months but it would be worth it to get 3+ months off. The village is 15 minutes from the main town and consists of a few pubs, a small hotel, tourist shops and a newsagent. There is an existing coffee shop but it is the type that looks and smells like your granny's house if you know what I mean!

An indication of start up costs would be greatly appreciated - The cafe would have capacity for about 25 people so it would be quite small. My family would be willing to help us out serving tables etc initially.

Any suggestions/advice would be most welcome.

Receipe for disaster. Absolutely.

You be better off getting a job putting posters for Duffys Circus!!!!.

All joking aside you maybe glad of a job with them if the coffee shop goes belly up.

shoutman

In all seriousness, it's all good and well wishing this guy the best, but he came here for advice and I sincerely think the best idea would be for him to scrap this idea.

Obviously we don't know all the variables but from what he's wrote it seems like he will be operating in a, no disrespect intended, bit of a one horse town.
Having a cafe with a capacity of only 25 is normally a bad idea, no matter where it is, but planning for it to be open for only 6 months of the year and expecting to make a living off of such a small operation is just nonsensical.

Let's say for example you get a contract with a tour company whereby they bring their tour bus to the town and recommend they eat at your cafe, which if you do get this off the ground is something you should look into. The bus will come and your cafe may be full, but there will be overspill going into, either the pubs or the other cafe.
Say average spend is a tenner (I'm presuming soup, sandwich and a drink), thats €250 in the till, a cutback of that will go to the tour operator, then you have your staff costs etc. After everything, you will be needing an awful lot of these tour buses to be making any money at all. 25 seats is just too small to be making a yearly wage in six months, especially when there will be days where there will be no one coming, due to weather or whatever.

Yes you are getting free rent, fantastic, it would be one of the biggest costs otherwise, but its not worth anything if you are still going to be running a small town coffee shop that you are looking to be supporting yourself, your wife and any possible children that might come down the road.

I just think this is one dream of yours that you should have a long hard look at.

But if you do decide to go with it anyway, I wish you all the best.

Mr. Presentable

I'd counsel against, I'm afraid. I tried it myself in the 90's and here's my overriding memory.

It takes a full busy week to recover from one rainy day.

A restaurant might be a better bet, if you have very nearby parking.

itsonlyme

nipplenuts wrote: »

A restaurant might be a better bet, if you have very nearby parking.

No!!! No!!! No!!!

This is not the right time to be opening any kind of food service business, coffee shop, sandwich bar and most definitley not a restaurant. Unless of course you HAVE OODLES OF UNBORROWED AND UNSECURED CASH/CAPITAL that you are able to RISK.



Maybe in 18 months we will have turned a corner in the economic climate and consumers will have the confidence to spend,spend and spend more with confidence. The only type of food businesses that will weather the current storm are supermarkets, grocery shops and filling stations.

shoutman

Without trying to divert this thread totally.
I think current economic conditions would make it excellent to expand a chain of restaurants once you have a huge amount of backing and are willing to take a short term hit.
It would pay huge dividends long term as costs are so low at the moment.

celtictigermrk2

Best of luck with your venture if you decide to go ahead with it. I would see and agree to a certain extent with both points of view expressed so far on this thread.

In one way it is a very challenging time to be opening any type of business, but especially one in the retail/food sector. Many cafes/bars/restaurants are going out of business around the country. You have to do your best to minimise the possibility of that happening to you.

As regards other posts, I agree that location is key. You have to have a good number of people coming in your door for most of the year. Pitch yourself at the tourist market, but don't forget the locals either.

In terms of product, make sure your premises is inviting, clean and cosy. Warm in winter, airy in summer if needs be. Keep your menus relatively tight, do this by creating combinations of foods e.g. salads, sandwiches, main meals, from a small number of basic ingredients. Keep a firm eye on costs, learn how to work out the unit cost of everything on your menu and price it accordingly from there making sure you make a decent margin. Be sure to not take too much margin though, consumers are very price sensitive in todays climate so if you need to charge a high price for something on your menu to justify it, then drop it and get something else. Offer good value deals; soup&sambo; coffee&scone; free kids size samples of what their parents are having... Tailor and rotate your offerings so that you capture the different eating times of the day e.g breakfast/lunch/evening.

And think outside the box, be creative as other people have mentioned with regards to generating income from other sources.

Best of luck.

flanree

If you can offer a proper pecan pie, yer halfway there. Aslo, would it be an option to focus on take away for such a small premises?

I'm not qualified enough to tell you whether or not a restaurant/café would or would not work for a variety of reasons.

What I will recommend is if you do go ahead with this, conduct market research on the local businesses (if there are any - no idea what sort of town this is) and their employees and see if you can get into the corporate side of supplying lunches to them, ask them what they want, try not to pay too much attention to what they would be willing to pay (you'll need an expert in the field for that - people will always have an issue with price regardless of how much or cheap it is) and if you regard Gordon Ramsey as someone with a clue, then "keep it simple" with reference to the menu, don't try and please everyone either.

Mr Benevolent

In essence you're giving yourself a job as waitress/cook with no days off. You're better off find a busier town (again, footfall). How much tourist trade is there really in the area? Yes it's a cash business, but the overheads are still there. You could be better doing a roving coffee & sandwiches business in a city/industrial area.

Id agree with shoutman all the way. Not the time nor the place.

What you need to do is look at disposable income in the area. If there are no tourists your relying on the locals. What is unemployment in the town? Are companies/factories etc making wage cuts at the moment?

If this is the case then money stops getting spent on non essentials. In a cafe you make a big markup on teas and coffees. Luxury coffees are no more, just look at starbucks closing stores left right and centre all over the world.
If people are unemployed or having their wages cut, they then bring packed lunches to work, they dont spend 5-10 euro a day on their lunch.
Breakfast becomes cornflakes and toast again, instead of an omlette in the cafe.

For a cafe lunch is the key, getting all the people from local business' in, thats your bread an butter. That plus shoppers - they give you the weekend trade, but if you aint got no shops in the town you'll struggle at weekends as well.

Bandara

to be honest it sounds like you know its not really a runner but your hoping to be convinced otherwise/have it justified to you otherwise as the idea sits well with your current desire to get out of the rat race. This is completely natural as the idea is very exciting.

In this instance though I think your best off passing on this one as it sounds very much like its not really a runner, even cafes in great locations can fall on their faces despite the best efforts of committed knowledgable people such as yourself.

Take your time, the right thing will come along.

Good luck.

NewFrockTuesday

25 seats is very few unless theres a huge ammount of footfall. Id be very wary.

On the other hand.....

I work in a friends place when I go home - the usual times like long weekends, Easter, Christmas etc - any busy time basically. And even when its not I tend to just go out and make a nusiance of myself in general

Easter is a really busy time by us but this year it was off the chart. The busiest in about 5 years Id say. Im home this weekend and already the place is black with people. (Achill btw) Folks are finally using those holiday homes that they built when they had a few bob. I think alot fewer will travel abroad this year and will holiday at home and given that 2 years ago it was cheaper to go abroad than have a week in your own country, alot is changing on the price front and there value to be had now. One guesthouse I know - its a very good one - is already booked out for most of the Summer....but its mostly regulars so Im not sure that a solid indicator but its earlier reservations this year.

So, all in all, I think we will see a return to the old days of busy beaches and kids shivering at the edge of the sea. Campsite romance and chips on the beach

Best of luck with your venture if you go ahead.

maninasia

Deleted User wrote: »

Id agree with shoutman all the way. Not the time nor the place.

What you need to do is look at disposable income in the area. If there are no tourists your relying on the locals. What is unemployment in the town? Are companies/factories etc making wage cuts at the moment?

If this is the case then money stops getting spent on non essentials. In a cafe you make a big markup on teas and coffees. Luxury coffees are no more, just look at starbucks closing stores left right and centre all over the world.
If people are unemployed or having their wages cut, they then bring packed lunches to work, they dont spend 5-10 euro a day on their lunch.
Breakfast becomes cornflakes and toast again, instead of an omlette in the cafe.

For a cafe lunch is the key, getting all the people from local business' in, thats your bread an butter. That plus shoppers - they give you the weekend trade, but if you aint got no shops in the town you'll struggle at weekends as well.

I know this might be hard to believe but Starbucks is more popular than ever in many countries in Asia. Not everywhere has a real recession going on....there will always be a market for quality coffee, tea and bakery houses. When I was back in Clifden last year I was astounded at the quality of the local tea shop...it was doing a great trade...really depends on location and size of town. The coffee shop on it's own might be hard to justify for your total income all year round, you may have to add on another concept to it...renting bikes, activities....can you run a business from there selling home-made stuff online, baked goods? Online business is huge in other parts of the world, it's going to pick up big time the next couple of years in Ireland. You can try it for a year, nothing ventured, nothing gained...pick up your equipment cheap now, don't buy anything new!

Bandara

maninasia wrote: »

I know this might be hard to believe but Starbucks is more popular than ever in many countries in Asia. Not everywhere has a real recession going on....there will always be a market for quality coffee, tea and bakery houses. When I was back in Clifden last year I was astounded at the quality of the local tea shop...it was doing a great trade...really depends on location and size of town. The coffee shop on it's own might be hard to justify for your total income all year round, you may have to add on another concept to it...renting bikes, activities....can you run a business from there selling home-made stuff online, baked goods? Online business is huge in other parts of the world, it's going to pick up big time the next couple of years in Ireland. You can try it for a year, nothing ventured, nothing gained...pick up your equipment cheap now, don't buy anything new!

coffe prices in dublin have dropped from up around 2.95 a cup to 1.50 a cup in the past 6 months as they fight amoung themselves to stay afloat

waves

Well, have a look at the following places...

Joe's cafe in Lahinch
Mamma Gumbas in Enniscrone

Both in surfing towns and used by surfers and locals alike.

They are all small and busy businesses which work because they serve great food and have character.

Footfall is obviously important but also having a place where people really want to go to... as far as I can see, people will go somewhere on weekend mornings and people still go out to eat.

If you offer a decent all day breakfast, "best breakfast in town", people will come.

I think that if you diversify slightly, you could do well - baking your own breads and cakes/supplying local businesses with sandwiches/doing a discounted rate for school kids at quiet times (when the schools close at 3.40/4pm).... specials for mother and toddlers between 10 and 11.....

Open til 7 and do cheap and cheerful dinners....

Just do it across the summer season.

Maybe I'm being very optimistic.

If the main town is 15 minutes away, how will you attract them to your place?

NewFrockTuesday

coffe prices in dublin have dropped from up around 2.95 a cup to 1.50 a cup in the past 6 months as they fight amoung themselves to stay afloa

i posted a while back that I had seen coffee for €1.50 on Angiers Street. I tied it today and it wasnt nice at all. Im going back to the €2 Buzz coffee in Avolon House tomorry. Lifes too short for bad coffee.

maninasia

Hammertime wrote: »

coffe prices in dublin have dropped from up around 2.95 a cup to 1.50 a cup in the past 6 months as they fight amoung themselves to stay afloat

Where I live you can get pretty good fresh coffee for 1 euro for years, coming to a street near you in Dublin soon I am sure!

DubTony

I haven't read this thread. I'm not going to. It seems that half the posters on here feel they can buck the trend and open a coffee shop / Subway / Cafe anywhere on this fair isle and make a go of it.

Let's get real. Coffee shops are not where it's at. I think this is common knowledge. So, in my opinion the only way one will work if it's in a location where there are a gazillion people not "scared of the recession", and it's offering is something special.

This is a google result for "Starbucks Closes"

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en-us&q=starbucks+closes&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

To the OP. Your reason for doing this seems to be (from your post) to achieve some sort of life outside work and commuting. However you seem to be prepared to spend every waking hour working a business just making a living in order to take 3 months off. I fear that your motivation may be one of frustration and dis-satisfaction rather than actually wanting to own and operate your own business. (I may be wrong here). While many businesses are started out of a desire to get away from something, there's usually a strong desire to do that something a lot better than it has been done.

Your intention is to open a coffee shop in a rural village with mainly tourist trade and you say your parents live there. You don't say whether or not you or your partner come from the village or area. If you don't, it won't matter whether the other coffee shop smells like your granny's coffin, Bridie and Mary will still stop there for their tea and bun because Kathleen has been there since Winston Churchill started smoking cigars. Add to that the fact that they can't talk about you while they're sitting in your cafe.

Believe me, if the place isn't absolutely thronging with tourists for the 9 months you open, you're looking for a lot of pain and heartache followed by considerable financial hurt as well. Consider this venture carefully, and then reconsider it.

You will be seen as the big bad guy coming out from the city to try to put "the local woman" out of business. Do not underestimate the massive disadvantage you will have as a blow-in. Outside of the main urban centres this country is very much in the 1950s. Mark my words, if that local woman buys a new tablecloth, she'll be the talk of the village, and you'll be looking at empty chairs and an expensive coffee machine gathering dust.

spurious

You could always start off small, working from home, doing things like sandwiches for wakes and funerals, catering for 21st buffets, small meetings etc. and build a reputation before opening a shop.

itsonlyme

Now your talking Tony.... why didnt I just say that....

Your the only one who said it straight......your spot on for a Dub(I think)............ and its the truth...

DubTony

itsonlyme wrote: »

Now your talking Tony.... why didnt I just say that....

Your the only one who said it straight......your spot on for a Dub(I think)............ and its the truth...

Unfortunately I speak from experience.

motherfunker

The cost of setting up a kitchen is unbelievable. A dishwasher will set you back a few grand, you need chiller cabinets, fridges, a ventilation system, stainless steel wall coverings, display cabinets, storage facilities, the list goes on and on and on.
If you are a good cook, why not cash in on the recession and capatilise on the restaurant industry's losses, do catering for small dinner parties, eating in is the new eating out so they say but alot of people cant cook very well. Do a Gordon ramsey and bring your food to the public, go down the street with some small free samples, let the people know you are there, let them taste your food, hand out business cards and menus.
The hospitality industry is a thankless industry, most people who work in it want out of it. Just think of all the small cafe's and restaurants who you have seen go bust in the first 2 years, they all started out with a dream like yours.

AARRRGH

I also think this is a bad idea.

Free rent should not be a selling point for you. I know a busy, well located cafe in Dublin city centre whose rent is only €600 per month.

The poor location of your cafe is making it very likely the business will fail.

I understand you are desperate to leave your current life, and the idea of free rent is very appealing, but you need to be completely emotionless when working on your business plan, and I think, from what you've told us, that you might struggle.

Passion is an emotion which is essential when writing a business plan but I do get what you mean in this context.

Mr.Boots

I am about a year into running a small rural cafe/restaurant.
It is realy hard work....like realy realy hard work...for very little profit.
We cover our costs, we pay ourselves a small wage, but forget about taking 3 mounths off, thats just madness!!!

If i were you i would follow my dream but i would choose the location carefully, dont just pick that town beacase of the free rent.
Perhaps move away from dublin.....let your partner get a job in his/her field...and you get a small seconhand catering trailer, tour the local farmers markets/ festivals etc giving people great great food and advertising yourself as being available for functions etc.
The trailer is always saleable if it dosnt work out......but if it dose work out maybe you could consider getting a premises.....

A few costs to think about when running a cafe..

Wages
Purchases
Vat
Paye/prsi
insurance
rent
ppi/imro
gas
electricity
water
comercial rates
credit card machine
phone
wine licence
waste

Mr.Boots

Mr.Boots wrote: »

I am about a year into running a small rural cafe/restaurant.
It is realy hard work....like realy realy hard work...for very little profit.
We cover our costs, we pay ourselves a small wage, but forget about taking 3 mounths off, thats just madness!!!

If i were you i would follow my dream but i would choose the location carefully, dont just pick that town beacase of the free rent.
Perhaps move away from dublin.....let your partner get a job in his/her field...and you get a small seconhand catering trailer, tour the local farmers markets/ festivals etc giving people great great food and advertising yourself as being available for functions etc.
The trailer is always saleable if it dosnt work out......but if it dose work out maybe you could consider getting a premises.....

A few costs to think about when running a cafe..

Wages
Purchases
Vat
Paye/prsi
insurance
rent
ppi/imro
gas
electricity
water
comercial rates
credit card machine
phone
wine licence
waste

Have to say, great post. It's about as real as it gets and I hope people pay attention to it. Particularly like the idea of the catering trailer - great way to test the market without breaking the bank, gives an idea of the work and responsibility involved.

Reflector

I think you might struggle but you might get by which it seems that is what you are looking for. I think people always consider business ventures to be raking in the money rather than simply improving quality of life.

It is important though to do projections and cost analysis. Work out how much you would earn and multiply it by 0.8 to get a worse case scenario. Do as detalied a business plan as you can so to cover yourself and know what to expect. this is still an adventure and all business ventures have an amount of risk no matter what. Just prepare as best you can and if I was you I would find a similar place in a similar area and bring the owner out to dinner and ask them exactly how they did it and what difficulties they had.

Also there is a place on Dame street in Dublin called The Queen of Tarts" It is about the size of the place you are talking about so might be worth a look.

madonna123

Cosmocolic wrote: »

Hi all,

Myself and my partner are seriously considering relocating to the country. We are currently living in our house in the Dublin commuter belt with a fairly long commute to and from work each day. We are both wrecked during the week and it seems that we are just living for the weekends and we don't fancy doing that for the next 30 odd years.

My family live in the area that we are thinking of moving to and they own a premises in the village which they have said we can have rent free to start up a business. There is also a small apartment that we can live in rent free. I have always had a huge interest in food and it has been a dream of mine to one day run a successful restaurant. I feel it would be best to start with a café/coffee shop and see how we get on for say 5 years before we think about opening a restaurant I completed the 12 week cookery course in Ballymaloe a few years ago and my friends/family would consider me to be an excellent cook. My partner has some barista experience and would make an excellent front of house person.

My main concerns are that I have no experience working in a commercial kitchen and also that the café would be in a rural village with dependence on tourist trade. The tourist season is April-September just 6 months, the plan would be to possibly only open for 6-9 months. We aren't looking to make a fortune here, just earn enough to live on, get a mortgage and to be able to afford to have a holiday each year. We are well aware that we would need to work our asses off for those 6-9 months but it would be worth it to get 3+ months off. The village is 15 minutes from the main town and consists of a few pubs, a small hotel, tourist shops and a newsagent. There is an existing coffee shop but it is the type that looks and smells like your granny's house if you know what I mean!

An indication of start up costs would be greatly appreciated - The cafe would have capacity for about 25 people so it would be quite small. My family would be willing to help us out serving tables etc initially.

Any suggestions/advice would be most welcome.

hey Iv just been looking at liquidation auction web sites.. loads of nearly new kitchen equipment going very cheap.. I think your very brave. A new cafe just opened 4 months ago in my local village and is going really well. Gets a great lunch time crowd and kept the menu simple and tasty. BEST OF LUCK

murpho999

My only advice would be about your food skills.

You say you have never worked in a kitchen, well how in the name of God do you think you can run a restaurant?

I don't mean to cause offence but having family and friends tell you that your food is good does not mean that its true. They are biased and the real judges will be customers.

There seems to be a notion out there that any body who's succeeded in following a recipe can then go on and cook food that is suitable for public consumption, when this is really not the case, after all, as you have no catering experience you only have to screw up one meal to lose a customer forever who will also give you a bad name.

I really think you should think long and hard about this. Have your food tasted and honestly appraised by strangers, analyse how much money you need to make per week to make a profit, and then work out how many customers a week and what spend per head you would need to do this.

itsonlyme

Mr.Boots wrote: »

I am about a year into running a small rural cafe/restaurant.
It is realy hard work....like realy realy hard work...for very little profit.
We cover our costs, we pay ourselves a small wage, but forget about taking 3 mounths off, thats just madness!!!

If i were you i would follow my dream but i would choose the location carefully, dont just pick that town beacase of the free rent.
Perhaps move away from dublin.....let your partner get a job in his/her field...and you get a small seconhand catering trailer, tour the local farmers markets/ festivals etc giving people great great food and advertising yourself as being available for functions etc.
The trailer is always saleable if it dosnt work out......but if it dose work out maybe you could consider getting a premises.....

A few costs to think about when running a cafe..

Wages
Purchases
Vat
Paye/prsi
insurance
rent
ppi/imro
gas
electricity
water
comercial rates
credit card machine
phone
wine licence
waste

ALSO.......

security,
leasing/bank loan/ bank charges,
depreciation
bookkeeping/accountancy,
stationery,
advertising,
commerical van/fuel/milage/motor expenses,
repairs and maintenance,
packaging,

antoinolachtnai

Maybe one of the other businesses in the village or town would be interested in selling up to you. It might be hard for you to believe, but this might be a better bet than starting from scratch.

Thechef

I have a cafe restaurant. in farm area. The business is affected by the crisis, the lack of construction workers and also that the route is no longer the main road, now is the M4.
Like everything in general. but the coffee shops are not profitable, except in the big city. And I mean Dublin and office areas. from my experience in this country and in others 10 years ago that I'm here. I would say that the cafe in Ireland is a petrol station business and vending machines, but machines semimanual.cony tables and waiters. it increases the cost all. In other countries, where existing cafe culture, the business is more profitable, so the people can work, but here is hard and almost impossible. As has been said here in other posts, the problem is not the rent, may be free, it is still expensive. The problem is the poor sales and everything else that is more than a rental.