Starting a new business

New start

Dh wants to open a small cafe/healthy food shop (sit aprox 8 ppl). He is weighing up the pro's & cons etc. He wants to set it up in a empty shop unit in a rural area. There are no shops in the area( last 2 closed down) as people seen to prefer to shop in Lidl etc now.

There is a hairdressers & beauty salon in one of the housing estates (where we live) and also a busy crèche. The national school is across the road also.

He thinks it would be great to have ready made meals, vacuum packed fhealthy burgers, coffee's sandwiches and to sell lots of healthy and delicious foods. He thinks the parents dropping kids to & from the crèche would love this and is all eager to get it going. He's recently qualified as a chef and is an Outstanding cook so I have no doubt whatsoever his food will be amazing.

Thing is I'm scared. I'm also worried because it's not in a town we won't get enough trade or enough people passing the door?

Can anyone offer any advice please? Thanks

Tenigate

Can't offer much constructive advice other than to say good luck.

Health and safety standards might drive him round the bend. Kitchen with 2 sinks, w.c., certs, etc.

Maybe stand on the street where trade would pass for a couple of days. Ask passerbys about demand and if they'd use the shop. you might find many drop kids to the school/ creche then work a 9 to 5, so wouldn't necessarily use a coffee shop.

Guess the key is to avoid committing to leases (have a break clause), don't spend much on fitting out a place til you know it will work.

Jim2007

He should not open anything until he has a reviewed business plan. The reviewed bit being the important bit!

In it he needs to examine all the costs and look at various estimates of the revenue, some idea of the margin and so on. He needs to have answers to questions like how much do I need to sell to break even, if an average customer spends say 15 Euro on visit how many do I need per day?

Good luck with the decision.

Baybay

I lived in a rural area similar to what you're describing. A cafe opened selling a good range of homemade/ artisan products & pricey coffees.
I've no idea about the intricacies of starting a business but a lax attitude to opening & closing times began to mean a lot of customers would go further afield to somewhere they knew kept regular hours.
If parents are going to use the service, it needs to be consistent & reliable because school & work times don't vary too much generally.