Thinking of leasing coffee shop - need opinions from you guys??

Jack_Flash

All,

I've recently expressed an interest in the lease of a coffee shop. It's something that's always appealed to me and I do have a little experience in the hospitality industry. Can you identify to me any pitfalls that I should be looking out for? What information should I be requesting from the current leasee?

Any help/advise much appreciated

pirelli

1.Let the customers read the daily newspaper for free when having there having a coffee.
2. Cheap sandwiches are key to making money on coffee when coffee prices are high.
3. Coffee prices are higher now due to a bad harvest.
4.Know when to buy cheaper wholesale, know your futures calander for the cheapest prices.
5.Don't try to learn how to run a coffee business from this forum.

Merrion

Also :
Location - high footfall retail or near a big office development?
Staff - choose carefully

niceirishfella

pirelli wrote: »

Don't try to learn how to run a coffee business from this forum.

Best piece of advice I've seen here in ages.:D

VO

You say you have experience in the Hospitality industry - do you have any experience of running a business? If not I would suggest you do a "start uour own business course before committing to anything. The difficulties in running a business are mutiple and you need to be aware of them before you set out.

Jack_Flash

VO wrote: »

You say you have experience in the Hospitality industry - do you have any experience of running a business? If not I would suggest you do a "start uour own business course before committing to anything. The difficulties in running a business are mutiple and you need to be aware of them before you set out.

Point noted. I do have experience of running a business although not my own and not a coffee shop. Can you elaborate on the difficulties you mention above?

Jack_Flash

Cheers for all the comments above guys. Keep 'em comin!!

Anyone out there already in this line of work?

rugbyman

I know several people who have gone out of business with coffee shops.
many of my colleagues have stopped getting their take away coffees, when they realised they were spending 500 p.a. plus.
Venture carefully, my suggestion ,dont do it. if you ignore this advice, at least drive down the rent of the place you choose/take over
rergards, Rugbyman

YellowSheep

Your rent and charges HAVE to be less than 10% of your achievable NET turnover. Otherwise it is not going to work.

Bandara

pirelli wrote: »

1.Let the customers read the daily newspaper for free when having there having a coffee.
2. Cheap sandwiches are key to making money on coffee when coffee prices are high.
3. Coffee prices are higher now due to a bad harvest.
4.Know when to buy cheaper wholesale, know your futures calander for the cheapest prices.
5.Don't try to learn how to run a coffee business from this forum.

Is this a wind up ?

LookingFor

The 'big' brands seem dominant at the moment.

For example: there are now FIVE starbucks in my local shopping centre (blanchardstown). And the good news (for them) is that they seem to be always really busy. Queues can be literally out the door with people willing to pay €5 for their coffee.

But I can't help but think this is at the expense of independents?

If you're going to try and compete with them, you'll need a very compelling proposition. Everything from coffee/food down to ambience, decor, seating, music, location, community involvement. It needs to look inviting from the street..I hate to say, but a lot of indie coffee shops don't really. Maybe it's just me but how a place looks and 'feels' tells me a lot about whether I want to have coffee there before I even order.

People gravitate to Starbucks because a) they usually look relatively nice and b) they know what they're getting, there's comfort in the brand. When it comes to an 'unknown' like an indie, you need to work doubly hard to convince people to bite. Sweat the small stuff.

(Re. the takeover of the 'big brands' though..I know some communities are actively trying to keep starbucks out, I heard such regarding people in Dalkey at least. So in some areas, some communities, they actually do embrace the independents, the home-grown local places..but more generally it seems to me people are more and more sticking to the chains)

SilverBER

I had a look at doing the coffee shop thing last year and came to the same conclusions expressed above. Starbucks, Costa, OBriens etc are difficult to compete against but they have put the money into the marketing so hats off to them. I think if you are going that road you need to offer something more familar to Irish people, maybe cheap breakfasts, healthy options stuff like that. Apart from that my main gripe was with the red tape and expense that was facing me. Stuff like planning, health boards, fire officers, insurance, fit outs, upward rent reviews. It's a minefield that the likes of the bigger lads farm out to consultants as part of the franchise cost but it is something that you need professional advice on.
As I say, I couldn't face the process but everyone is not the same. My idea was to provide a combined cafe / book shop. I was going to call it Star Books but I didnt think i would get away with it.
Good luck with it anyway.

AARRRGH

Get a job in a coffee shop for a year or two.

LookingFor

Two other things:

1) Starbuck's food is pretty bad and expensive for what it is. Costa's is better. But I think if you could attach yourself to a good bakery and offer people a place to sit down and enjoy what they've just bought in a bakery with your coffee, it could be an angle in on things.

For example, there's a manning's bakery in Blanchardstown that has amazing looking and smelling and tasting food. And I always lament they don't have an attached coffee shop. I would, at least occasionally, skip the Starbucks for a coffee shop they might run because the food is so good and is much better value than SB. Ditto, I'd be more likely to give more business to the bakery if I could 'sit in' to eat (it's purely takeaway as it is right now).

2) Small thing, but if you do go into this, do something different with your takeaway cups! All these white coffee cups are so indistinguishable. If I were running a shop, I'd order cups that were neon green or something, just to stand out! Small things like that can become iconic, if you can own a little piece of imagery like that, and it becomes 'free' marketing when people see others with the cup. Half the time, though, cups people are carrying around are just indistinguishably bland.

Mr. Incognito

Get a job in a coffee shop for a year or two.

This will teach you nothing about how to run a business. Not a thing.

LookingFor

Mr. Incognito wrote: »

This will teach you nothing about how to run a business. Not a thing.

If you're really starting from scratch it could be a good way of learning how others do things, and how things work. If you don't have any idea of the business, spending time on the front line in one wouldn't be a bad idea.

Maybe not for two years, but for 'enough' time to learn what you're gonna learn there.

Could also be good competitive analysis.. Working undercover!