There is a spare retail unit in my village - prob about 50m2. The village is crying out for a coffee shop and quite fancy the idea of running one.
Going to give it some considered thought but how much do these things take to set up - equipment etc.
Obviously depends on what you do with it but interested in any views - helpful mainly 😉
I think it might be too small but anyone done something similar?
Setting up and running are two different things...
Depends on what is already there, what image you want and how much of the shop fitting you can do yourself.
It should be a licence to print money if you get it right.
depends what vibe you're wanting and how much you can do yourself when it comes to shop-fitting & decoratiing. Modern or homely or arty or grungy or 'Friendsy'.
Do you know of any local artists? You could ask them to display some of their work.
What about bakers or cake shops for the eats and sandwiches.
i would reckon you would need :-
* Big coffee machine £1.5k (guess ?)
* Furniture £1k (at a guess, dependant on look you could raid local charity shops and be up and running for couple of hundred)
* White goods eg fridge, oven, microwave, water boiler etc
* Shopfitting would be dependant what's already there- but could be as cheap as chips or expensive depending on your feel.
* Decorating- £200 spent in B&Q and do it yourself.
* Music machine £500
* Stock- I have no clue on what you're projected demand would be- but I would do a simple calculation of lead time v demand v bulk discount. But it shouldn't be that much say £300?
* Rent and rates.
* Business set up costs £200
Maybe you should speak to a business advisor or your Small Business Advisor at the bank so that you can create a business plan to detemine the viabilty.
Good luck if you go for it.
I *think* you can get the coffee machines rent free if you sign up with a coffee supplier. Obviously depends how much you will sell etc, etc.,
Don't forget the costs of any training / certification you may need.
It's completely empty at the mo.
V helpful guys
Geoff - I'm not in south glos!
Was hoping to pick up some commuter trade as there is a station in the village too (1hr to London)
What would be the sort of clientelle? Old scone munchers, active people like bikers etc, or studenty laptop users / coffee lovers?
I have often thought that there is space for an urban feeling coffee house in the country. I like that kind of "spend the afternoon or evening" type atmosphere you get in a god city coffee house. Ifg thats whats needed, then free wifi is a must, dimmable lights, comfy sofas as well as proper sit at tables so people needing the type seriously can. Displays from local artists are good, as well as gigs by small bands etc.
Staff need to be friendly too and not too cliquey.
My prefered place has prepacked sandwiches, and two hot dishes every day, one soup and one stew, always veggie, but usually curry or goulash, home made and very tasty, served with wholemeal bread. They cook big batches and store in the fridge in microwaveable containers and heat as needed. All seems simple and works very well. Key thing is they do a couple of things well and dont do a lot.
HTH
Key thing is they do a couple of things well and dont do a lot.
Stripper?
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...you're right, it's not constructive, I'll not bother you again.
More than you think. A decent coffee machine - £5k or lease from the beans supplier. Some display units, fridges, tables and chairs/sofas - not a lot but need to look and perform so not particularly cheap. Have you considered the staffing costs?
Quality pays but needs paying for too.
Good luck!
Costs will be loads more than you think
?Staff - you cannot run a business completely solo? Who makes the coffee when you are having a pee? Are you going to do all the claening as well? Will one person serving be enough at busy times?
Equipment will be thousands. IIRC the coffee machine in my local place was £5000. You also need fridges, cookers and so on
Training - food hygeine certificates etc
Red tape. Plenty of that.
I have often thought that there is space for an urban feeling coffee house in the country. I like that kind of "spend the afternoon or evening" type atmosphere you get in a god city coffee house. Ifg thats whats needed, then free wifi is a must, dimmable lights, comfy sofas as well as proper sit at tables so people needing the type seriously can.
You just need to be careful that you get a good turnover of customers. Don't make it too comfy.
And an Esquire franchise [b]might[/b] be worth looking into - if only to see what sort of costs they assume.
http://www.esquirescoffee.co.uk/public/pages/interested
Check to see whether any grants exist plus what the local authority costs will be.
As said, you need to do a business plan with setup costs then running costs with (hopefully) income projections.
And tbh if it was a 'goldmine', somebody would already be there.
As per station users, you need to be between the ticket seller and the train...
The business plan will involve projections of customers. So your idea that the village needs a coffee shop might not be the same idea as the general population. Do some market reasearch, it'll save you a lot of time, energy and possible expense. (See, I can be sensible too 😀 )
Have you thought about a franchise?
Hadn't thought of a franchise but worth looking into.
I was thinking of doing the one or two things well type model. There's commuters in the village lots of mums with nowhere to go (my wife is one if them) and old people and lots of kids.
It's beside a tesco metro which is open all hours so footfall should be good.
Couple of bikers in the village too!
I like the stripper idea, maybe keep that for the evening special 🙂
[i]Hadn't thought of a franchise but worth looking into.[/i]
Franchise exist to make money for them, not you...
Just sit down and work out the numbers, then go and sit outside (for a week?) and work out when people are actually passing by - and the likelyhood of them actually taking time out.
Plus could Tesco's suddenly add a cafe/coffee point?
And what is the parking like?
Some good friends of ours opened one up in Bromsgrove about 18 months ago.
One of the most important things they have is a commercial grade dishwasher, they managed to pick one up off Ebay dirt cheap as it hadn't been listed properly.
If you want I can forward you email address on to them to see if they've the time* to answer any questions.
*It really is time consuming, it's not all about brewing a coffee and the odd cup of builders, She is there from 5am until 7pm and her husband still has to work full time.
If there's a station consider either making it some kind of drive thru or at least drive by (with easy parking) or get a mobile stall/car for the station platform or car park.
Without knowing what you want to do with the place (who your aiming it at) it's hard to give a figure. Realisticaly though start to think of a minimum £10,000 which is a lot closer to what you'll need than advice like this...how much do these things take to set up
Stock- I have no clue on what you're projected demand would be- but I would do a simple calculation of lead time v demand v bulk discount. But it shouldn't be that much say £300?
A lot of this amount is to cover costs you will encure before trading starts, solicitors, rent, equipment and staff during training/setup.
That really depends on how many covers you need to make it viable & what you want to achieve. But it does not sound too small.I think it might be too small
I suggest one of your first steps is to have a chat with the council as I'm guessing the property will have an A1 license - you'll need an A3 - they can give you an idea of how likely this is and you can get one in principle before you start spending any money.
Also start to think about potential customers. As mentioned in a post above spend [s]some[/s] a lot of time hanging around outside looking at the passing trade - it's good to have an idea of what you want but this needs to be balanced with what is needed? upmystreet.com will help when doing proper research into the demographics and business link have some great free (and not free) courses that will help you realise the things you have not thorght about.
EHO are generally quite helpful if you contact them (you do need to register with them 28 days before you open) as there are quite a few things to consider when fitting a new commercial kitchen - i can send you some info if you like - and if you've not worked in catering go on a hygiene course, it will keep them happy.
do your market research before you look at costs IMO, all the retail units that open near us seem to go to the wall pretty quickly and it was obvious that they didn't research the market
re the passing trade thing,
find out where a few (preferably failed) coffee shops have been situated, stand outside and count the number of passers by that fall into your potential target market (I'm guessing 18-40 and fairly well groomed). Do this 3x a day on a weekeday and a weekend (say morning rush hour, mid afternoon, evening rush hour)
Now repeat the same excercise at your potential premisis. If the number you get here is less than att he failed premisis your not going to do well.
Another thing to look at is the population of the village, look at similar villages, how many have coffee houses? If no other vilage of comparable size can suppourt one, then you dont stand a chance.
Is there a tourist trade? Think more Tea-Room than Coffee House?
Have you asked about the business rates for the location yet?
That can vary quite a bit on the location.
Location, rent & BR, all big hits, worth getting right 😉
Does the property have a A3 classification? If not what is your local authority planning department like to deal with?
Not sure what the classification is but it used to be a bakery but couldn't compete with tesco.
They are also building 750 houses in the village over the next two years which should initially be on line by middle of next year.
The village currently supports a butcher and a pharmacy and small tesco. Was thinking of chatting to the tesco manager as they are pretty friendly to see what info they have on customers etc.
Some helpful tips in here to assess the business model.
What else would peeps like to see from a coffee shop other than the obvious coffee and cakes business?
No tourist trade mind
The esquire fanchises are extremely expensive. You'd have to work damn hard just to recoup costs £40k to £125k! Their branding didn't look too good either.
What else would peeps like to see from a coffee shop other than the obvious coffee and cakes business?
The one thing the coffee shop near us lacks is some Sheffield stands to lock my bike to, as it's not within walking distance.
Free wifi a must too.
Loyalty card for coffee (9 stamps=free cup)?
Andy
if you do it employ part-time not full time staff
they are more flexible to cover each other during sickness, holidays etc
What are you going to bring to the business? Never mind what we want, why are we going to come to you?
How many houses in the village now? Do some sums based on that market ie everything from 1 cup per household per week upwards. Given we're still in an economic downturn, expensive coffee is one of the things people reduce spending on.
expensive coffee is one of the things people reduce spending on.
Is it, though? I thought small luxury spending actually went up as people cheer themselves up?
Andy
Avoid franchises ... as you will be working for them.
Stick to 2 group machine to start with as anything more than that is a waste or even 1 group if you can get one that has big boiler.
You can:
1) Buy
2) Lease
3) Rent
4) Buy a 2nd hand (not advisable unless you know what you're doing).
Price of beans vary but generally around £8 - £20+ /kg depending on beans.
I like friendly independent coffee shop that brew proper coffee and not £4 per cup shite. Be reasonable with pricing as there is no quick rich pyramid scheme here ... What £3 for a tiny slice of cake? Pui! Pui! Pui!
I like friendly independent coffee shop that brew proper coffee and not £4 per cup shite.
But is that where the money is to be made? Something tells me it's not 🙂
What else would peeps like to see from a coffee shop other than the obvious coffee and cakes business?
Sandwiches, and also breakfast food. I don't necessarily mean fry-ups, but something breakfasty like croissants or maybe get a waffle machine, and frying pan for pancakes 🙂
molgrips - MemberBut is that where the money is to be made? Something tells me it's not
That depends on your customers' experience but I ain't paying £4 for a cup of coffee and even £3 is still expensive for me, yes, £2 to £2.50 sitting in a warm cafe with good atmosphere.
My point is, you can't make a business doing what you and your friends enjoy - you have to do what makes enough money.
I suspect that not many people are connoisseurs of fine coffee, but many more like mild tasting coffee flavoured sweetness.
If after all overheads, rent, rates, electricity, equipment costs, legal costs, training costs, cleaning costs (You do know you have to take the temprature of your fridges every few hours and record for h&s inspections)and staff costs if you ever want a day off, you still earn £25k net, from a small village selling coffee at a price to make people come in, and can get that from village footfall on a tuesday at 11:00 am, then thats actually good going.
You need to make at imho at least £50k a year to manage that. - £1k a week. So thats £1k essentially of core coffee sales. - at a profit of say £2 a cup (and trust me, that is optomistic) thats 500 cups a week. Divide by 6 (to give you at least a day or 2 closed periods to do the books and stock/deliveries. So about 85 coffees a day min. Open from say 7am to 5 pm for your passing trade and thats 8.5 coffees per hour.
Or roughly one every 7-8 mins. Will you be so busy at peak to make up for the long periods through the day where your selling nothing? Will you have the staff to cope at core time?
What can you offer to make people come in? I am far too cynical to ever spend £2-3 on a simple coffee at say a railway station, in fact I actively resent the presence of vastly over priced coffee at "convenience locations". Is there a niche thats unfulfilled? Are you close to great trails and can offer secure bike parking?
McDonalds sell coffee for a known quantity for about the cost of your profit per cup, if your lucky. Why am I going to you? I think sandwiches and cakes are "so overpriced" typically, that I begrudge the cash.
Commuters tend to buy coffee at the station as opposed to on the way to it, you can't expect that trade any you get is a boon.
I have a friend who runs a successful cafe/coffee house. He works very long hours and barely makes a living.
I'm interested as to why you would say this...
Stick to 2 group machine to start with as anything more than that is a waste or even 1 group if you can get one that has big boiler.
.. a big boiler yes, but why is a 3 group a waste? Do you not think it depends on how many cups it needs to fire out per minute/hour/whatever. Or are you suggesting get more than one machine if you need the extra capacity?
molgrips - MemberMy point is, you can't make a business doing what you and your friends enjoy - you have to do what makes enough money.
I suspect that not many people are connoisseurs of fine coffee, but many more like mild tasting coffee flavoured sweetness.
Okay, yes, whatever you can squeeze out from the customer but so long as you do not leave a bitter taste in their mouth.
Didn't make myself clear ... I just drink coffee with 1 to 2 sugar that's all no milk etc, so I guess £2.50 is the max I will pay.
I want to know how big this village is and how many potential customers there are?
Chew - the point is, how many of you are there?
Okay, yes, whatever you can squeeze out from the customer but so long as you do not leave a bitter taste in their mouth.
i see what you did there 😀
Some good things to think of here.
There isn't a shop at the station but the shop is by the station (on station road so right by where everyone walks by) and could potentially do something at the station too.
Jujuuk68 - This is what concerns me, I'd done similar simple sums working back from an income. I'd try and make more from some good sales (breakfast croissants say) but it requires a constant footfall maybe.
The village is a population of about 3,400
So if say I needed 80 cups a day then that's 2% of all people day in day out buying a cup. Taking into account that some of those are children or won't drink coffee it, is that viable? We'll see.
The next large settlement has about 7000-8000 people and is a Market town and has three two coffee shops (it has a larger pull mind)
It's going to require some good sums but I'm up for that. I'd keep my job as back up and my wife and another mum would run the shop (the other mum knows almost everyone in the village so I reckon would be useful !)
phil.w - MemberI'm interested as to why you would say this...
.. a big boiler yes, but why is a 3 group a waste? Do you not think it depends on how many cups it needs to fire out per minute/hour/whatever. Or are you suggesting get more than one machine if you need the extra capacity?
Several reasons in no particular order:
1) New start up - business might pick up slowly but I might be wrong. The idea is to save some £££ first as you can always add another machine or get a bigger one if the business is so good your 2 group can no longer cope.
2) Not to put all eggs in one basket. i.e. if you have a 3 group and for whatever reason the machine breakdown you are ****ed. I would rather get a 2 group + 1 group if I were to start a cafe. The one group with very big boiler like Elektra (well, I like the look of Elektra even when one of their 3 group exploded recently ... LOL!) or the efficient La Spaziale (53mm portafilter basket ... hmm ... don't like that but not a problem).
3) Skill of the barista. 2 group should be able to cope with most orders if the barista is effective enough so save some £££.
Where I work there is a guy selling take-away coffee (coffee only) in a mini van at a high traffic zone with a compact 2 group WEGA and he serves non-stop almost every morning. I reckon on a good day from 8am - 10.30am he could have served up 200 - 300 coffee ( assuming 30 seconds shot). He only makes the coffee while his assistant put a lid on the cup and take the cash etc. Oh ya ... most of the time he was only using one of the group head anyway. Hardly two at once.
Therefore, unless you can beat him I see no reason in getting something more than 2 group.
🙂
molgrips - MemberI want to know how big this village is and how many potential customers there are?
Chew - the point is, how many of you are there?
LOL! I guess not many but then if you have had a good cup you will always try to get that "fix" again with a daily visit.
I suspect that not many people are connoisseurs of fine coffee, but many more like mild tasting coffee flavoured sweetness.
To that I concur. Seriously... Coffee, UK you're not serious people 😉
Yeah, and in France I had a 'cappucino' that was black coffee with squirty cream on top... 🙄
Chewkw - indeed, but many business go to the wall with a small loyal customer base. Don't forget most people still drink Nescafe at home.
molgrips - MemberChewkw - indeed, but many business go to the wall with a small loyal customer base. Don't forget most people still drink Nescafe at home.
No, I am not referring to those ultra niche coffee shop that want to hack off your arm for a cup of ultra niche coffee (they think they are god sent like those celebrities shite).
Just coffee that taste like coffee ... 🙂
I'm pretty sure that a coffee shop is A1 in planning terms, the same as the bakers it is now / was last so planning consent shouldn't be necessary. That is one reason why corporate coffee shops / sandwich bars have spread so quickly.
Env Health will have a view on matters however but probably common sense - you don't want to poison anyone do you?
I have sorted out alot of these places after they have gone bust and I have to say a population of 3-4,000 is on the small side and will make it a lifestyle business; i.e. you work bleeding hard for little return. Not necessarily a bad thing but don't expect to pay off your mortgage with it. In a small town near me there is a Waitrose whose cafe is permantently jammed and a really decent independent coffee shop 250metres away that is empty and must be due to close soon. Totally unfair but somewhat predictable.
Gross profit should be 65-70% of turnover, net of VAT. Wages will be your big cost but hopefully under 35% of turnover (although this will depend on whether you many employ people or do it all yourself, taking your income from the profit). Ideally rent will be <12% of turnover. If you make 20-25% net profit you will have done well.
My biggest advice is don't sign up for a long lease in your personal name or give a personal guarantee (PG) to anyone. Just don't, I beg you.
Don't be put off but don't expect easy money.
What I am saying is that you have to appeal to the widest possible customer base. If that means boring coffee then that's just too bad.
chewkw -
Yep, I would agree with that - I think i've worked one place that made full use of a 3 group, it was quite unique though.Several reasons in no particular order:
It can be done on A1 depending on hot food quantities, they need to be kept below that of cold food. - That's a rough guide as different planning departments will be more/less flexible.I'm pretty sure that a coffee shop is A1 in planning terms
If it's a sole trader or partnership you can't avoid personal liability. It needs to be a Limited company for this. - or is that not what you meant?My biggest advice is don't sign up for a long lease in your personal name or give a personal guarantee (PG) to anyone. Just don't, I beg you.
molgrips - MemberWhat I am saying is that you have to appeal to the widest possible customer base. If that means boring coffee then that's just too bad.
Yes, absolutely after all you need them to support the business but good coffee does not mean boring so long as your customers like them and are willing to pay for them.
3-4000 population ... one group to start with.
🙂
This came up recently at work
The planning status of coffee shops which also do food is potentially a grey area - tread carefully with the Council
jhw - MemberThis came up recently at work
The planning status of coffee shops which also do food is potentially a grey area - tread carefully with the Council
What is it actually?
Is that to do with cooking in the premises?
🙂
Make sure you give the coffee shop a good name. "Rob2's Cup of Tar" ain't going to work, but coffee shops called Starbucks seem to do quite well, so you could try that - OK I know it's a common name, but if it works, it works.
Joking aside, as someone has already said, do the marketing. You need to have some idea how many cups, buns, etc you are going to sell [b]before[/b] you set up. Ask around and find out if someone knows someone who used to do the market research for Starbucks or Costa - and then see if you can get some free advice.
But the name needs to be good too.
What is it actually?
Basically yeah, it's the amount of cold food served relative to hot food - but I think it's an uncertain area is the main thing, it could go either way, so you have to let the Council take the lead a bit...
This might help:
http://www.propertyweek.com/a1-planning-permission/3091596.article
last I heard to open a coffee shop is now circa £9m 8)
Hi
I have an unused Rancilio 3 group sitting in my garage (cost circa £7k 4years ago). It belongs to a friend who unwisely opened a franchise coffee shop.
Sure open a coffee shop work 24-7, but do it for yourself not a franchise.
That's quite a lot!
Yep 75kg paper-wieght
3400 seems pretty small, but it is hard to say without knowing the make up of the population. Fortunately the ONS can help you there:
http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/
To work out your potential customer base you'll need to know the demographic groups who buy coffee in the type of shop you want to open - you could buy some market research, or do as thisisnotaspoon suggests and do your own- and see how many of those you have in your potential catchment area. I suspect it is a lot fewer than you think.
It is probably worth speaking to owners of similar shops in similar places, and asking the locals if they want a coffee shop (you'll need to ask careful questions to work out who likes the idea from those who would actually buy stuff from you).
tonyg2003 - MemberSure open a coffee shop work 24-7, but do it for yourself not a franchise.
Be your own boss rather than slave for others.
rob2 - MemberThat's quite a lot!
That's rather normal for 3 group.
🙂
I've searched out some stats on demographics as there was work done for the new house build plus the village did a big survey for it's recent parish plan which surveyed what facilities people want, how many people work, wage ranges.
Need to get number crunching!
Searching out grant options too.
Will look at franchise if only to have a comparison to a self own business model
Again, even with this info, I think you'll still have to do your own market research and be prepared to make changes to your original idea. Sometimes someone can throw in an idea thet you hadn't thought about. I'm going through this process at the moment, at the most basic level it's quite interesting from a research point of view, invaluable.
Good luck.
Hi,
A coffee shop opened recently in a village near me around a year ago.
It seems to be doing quite well.
http://www.chosencoffee.co.uk/
if you use good coffee then your chances of success start to go in your favor. nothing worse than burnt tasting over extracted coffee. even the yummy mummies with their skinny mocha chocca vanilla lattes can tell the difference between good and crap coffee.
if you have a good local roaster they should be able to help with barista training.
unless you and your family who are going to help in the cafe don't have a love for good coffee or can at least taste the difference between good and bad then your clientele has just halved.
it's the same with bike shops, enthusiastic and knowledgeable staff attracts business.
all the cafes i use are focused on the quality of their coffee and then the food/cakes, they are all very busy and all use good beans (square mile/monmouth/hasbean). if the product is good they become destination visits rather than passing trade, people choose to go out of their way or stop off because the coffee and cakes are so good. passing trade and non-repeat business doesn't grow a business.
if you are ever in 'that London' check out flat white, milk bar, espresso room, dose, beas of bloomsbury, brill, the modern pantry.
Cheers good stuff here
Don Simon - yep going to take some days off and do some surveys by the current shops on footfall , what people would be looking for etc. Not been in business on my own before (and still may not be!) but lots to learn
Rob,
There are coffee shops in our village.
One pretty much the size you're looking at, the other huge in comparison.
Both privately owned, not franchise, operations.
Village is circa 5000 people and we do have a small flow of tourists (mostly coach trips looking at locations used on last of the summer wine etc) and plenty of walkers / the odd few mtbers etc passing through
Smallest appears to do really well from across the spectrum - youth, yummy mummies, right up to the 'olds'
All food, cakes etc are home made (by various suppliers so they are not baking all night as well as working all day) and prices are sensible.
I can try and have a word with Lisa, the owner, for any top tips - I can say though that she does run it with 2 staff - herself and a.n.other. The do work very hard through the day but they have their regulars they all know and have a laugh so it might not 'all' be work for your wife and the other mum - so long as back up staff are available for busy times / illness etc. Lisa opens 9-4 - catches the school runs and she herself goes off to pick up her kids etc at the end of the day.
Given the other mum in your plan is well connected I'd sit with her and ask for honest opinion on it working, then invite a few unknown (to you) folk into the same conversation - that as well as checking rates etc, as already mentioned, should start to give you a picture for the potential?
Almost forgot - the much larger shop here is IMO not as good (coffee not good, food not all home made) but - and it's a big one given the space you're looking at - it is 'buggy friendly' - plenty of space to park up prams on the lower floor, loads of nice comfy sofas upstairs for those who want to get out of the way. Their other big SP is homemade ice cream which is rather good...
Franchises - may have changed but I'd considered it years ago and, when I (very briefly) looked into it, the major chains were looking to people who could / would open 3 'units' in a given geography so that gets real silly expensive...
Have fun......
If you do open it with your wife and best mate running it, then do it as a business and make them both Directors. That way by paying a salary (circa) £450pcm and the rest in divis (obviously need to make a profit for this), you'll save a whole shedload of NI (employers and employees) and income tax.
Imo i think you will be very lucky to set a coffee shop up for less than 15k.
if your next to the station you need to put a hatch in the front window and serve from there, so many people will personally do without if they think there pushed for time.( and people always run late near train stations.
dont ignore any of the cash croppers either.
Bacon, sausage, tea, coffee, toast, homemade cakes/sandwiches if you can make it yourself do-so, but make it well dont make it cheap.
I wouldn't try to be a coffee shop i would aim for the poshest cafe selling the best coffee and cakes in town.
Try and attract as much of the takeaway market as possible, they dont create washing up and have a higher profit margin.
your first employe must be someone you can trust.
cleaning products cost a fortune.
People will steal from you.
Remember not all of the general public are rude idiots,(all though some days this may not seem true).
Theres some good money to be made if you get it right, and get it right quickly.
Ive got a mobile burger van that does tea, coffee, burgers, bacon,, hot dogs, chilli, and vegetable curry, cakes, flapjack, 5 days a week outside a local college/school,parked in a lay-by from 5.30 am to 2 pm.
tea £1s/1.50l pg or tetly
coffee£1s/150l nescaffe or kenco
builders brew (in your own mug) £1.50
bacon roll £1.75
sausage roll£1.60 2 sausage £1.90 3 sausage
hot dog roll £1.50
burger £1.50/180 cheese
chilli beef £2.00
veg curry £2.00
cans £1
Every item is priced at twice what it cost and in some cases more.
Takings are around the £700 a day mark i pay a lady £75 a day to work it, she restocks from the cash and carry on the way home,so she's finished every day for 3 i make the chilli/currys at work and freeze them there, then transfer them to the freezer in the van simple.
I paid £8000 for the van in feb 2010 and paid it all of by the end of november,the big money is in the vans that can cook chips/run fryers but the running costs are massive, but i intend to book on a few events this year and see how it goes.
I wont kid you though, its very hard work and its quite dirty as well, but at the end of the day its over £3000 a month profit.selling food anyone can make, but very few do it well.
M
If you do open it with your wife and best mate running it, then do it as a business and make them both Directors. That way by paying a salary (circa) £450pcm and the rest in divis (obviously need to make a profit for this), you'll save a whole shedload of NI (employers and employees) and income tax.
£97 a week is the magic figure to pay yourself to avoid tax & NI and then dividends for the rest.
Leaving NI out of the equation for various reasons, as income tax is 20% and corporation tax 21% you need to be pushing a profit of circa £40,000 before this actual becomes worthwhile if it is the only reason to become a Limited Company.
Guys, this is great stuff.
Some offers of help in here, if you are ok with it I'll email you to follow up if that's coolio.
Good info there Merchant-Banker. I think it would be better to slave it for £3,000 net profit per month for yourself than be a lowly bureaucrat (me) any day.
Spoke to Lisa - turns out she bought the shop as a going concern so apologies, cannot assist with opening costs.
Couple of things she did mentioned (sorry if done above - no time to browser and check)
Our local council - you have to register with as providing food etc, you have to go on hygeine courses and they do come and inspect on a regular basis. PResume that's a national thing?
Equipment - plenty of refurb stuff around to keep costs that bit lower.
HTH
Chris
Bit of an update for those interested!
We've done several full day surveys to get info on what people would look for, how often they would use it. Fed that into a giant cost/revenue model
Spoken to the local councillor about planning permission
Spoken to all the local businesses to understand the customers
Got contacts together for possible shop fitting
People seem really up for it and what they really want are nice cakes and bacon sandwiches in the morning
Lots still to do though!
good luck with it .
Good luck but please don't commit yourself personally to a long term lease that could sink you if the business does not work out.
We've started discussions on the lease and they have agreed in principle a stepped lease rate and a break clause
If anyone knows any cheap suppliers of equipment let me know!
God stuff and now you have something viable less luck of the good variety is needed. 😉
Geoff Burch has a book Go It Alone where he uses the example of a cafe /coffee shop to ridicule people who have poor business plans/ ideas. eg make sure you have a daft / twee name for the coffee shop and let things generally go down the toilet from there.
Cheers mac 😉
I work in financial/business planning so I'm purty good at the numbers - it's a business venture afterall and we will press go only if the return is acceptable. With two kids in nursery a pipedream is not something I can afford!
An acquaintance of mine has just (a few months ago) opened one in Darlington. It's called "Afternoon Tease" and it does burlesque lessons as well 😉
Nothing else to add, i just i'd give it a plug.
http://www.afternoon-tease.co.uk