I received a request from one of our readers to do a segment on how to
start a coffeehouse on a budget. - Here's to you Omondi! If you have any requests for specific issues
you'd like me to address - please feel free to send it my way:
coffeehouseguy1@gmail.com
Many people have an impression that they must spend a packet of money
to start a coffeehouse. I've seen
figures bandied about of $90,000 to $500,000 to get a coffeehouse up and
running. These same people feel
compelled to go out and buy a bunch of brand new, shiny equipment from their
local restaurant equipment dealer, all the top of the line furniture, the 'perfect' plates and high-end espresso
cups.... not to mention hiring expensive architects, designers and contractors
to make the place 'perfect'.
I beg to differ.
When setting up a shop, the two most important things are quality,
prompt, courteous (and fun!) service, with EXCELLENT food and drink that people
dont have to wait long for. These are the two main things that will get
your customers coming back again and again.
Everything else is of secondary
importance. Thus, when setting out to
create your coffeehouse, you must focus on those two things. All the other stuff - designed space,
beautiful equipment, perfect couches and
the marble countertops??? Not as important.
Naturally you need something functional - you need a usable space, just not an expensive
usable space.
Creating a usable space cheaply -
There are three main sources of expenses when starting a coffeehouse:
build out, equipment and operational
expenses. I'll start by writing about
the first of these three (build out) in this blog posting, and cover the other
two in subsequent postings.
First - Build out! The build out
is any kind of construction you need to do to the space before you can open up
for business. Any time you start construction, it will get
expensive pretty quickly. Plumbers,
electricians, carpenters, materials etc etc...
big money. SO, the best way to
avoid these expenses is to absolutely minimize the amount you will need
them. You can do this by finding a
space that used to have some kind of food establishment before. Ideally, you could find a restaurant, cafe,
deli etc that you could buy from the current owner and then take over the lease
(and change the business over to what you want). (NOTE - I will write another section later
about how to go about finding / buying a food-business that you can use to
convert to your coffeehouse. The short
version of this is to find a run-down business in a good area with excellent
foot traffic - that you can get for cheap.
Ideally the owner is older and looking to retire) If a food business has been in that space in
the past, all the plumbing, electrical, floors, ceiling etc will mostly be in
place. You will likely only need to do
some minor adjustments to the space to make it work for you.
I like to negotiate with the landlords to get them to throw in some $$
to cover some of the cost of renovations.
You wont always be successful, but it is worth a try. I can usually convince the landlord to give
me six months of free rent in lieu of a construction budget...
Once you have the space - plan on doing the *minimum* work on the space
you can. Focus on the aesthetics - make
it look nice. Erecting walls, painting, trim, lighting
decoration etc - this is cheap and easy to do, and can transform the look of
the place. That is what you should focus
on. Avoid as much
plumbing/electrical/floors/ceiling etc as possible - that stuff gets expensive
pretty fast.
For now, focus on just using residential grade counters, cabinets,
sinks, etc. I like perusing Craigslist
for used counters/ cabinet / shelving etc - you can get a steal of a deal
there. Here is an example!
$300 for a granite countertop with integrated undermount sink??? What an awesome deal!!
Sometimes, you can actually get some of this stuff for FREE! I found these cabinets for free online - all
you'd need to do is replace the hinges and the pulls, then paint them, and
voila - new cabinets!
So, you could get a bunch of stuff from Craigslist, and then fix them
up a bit, give them a coat of paint and then cobble them together for your
service area. Right now you are NOT
looking for perfect. You are looking for
usable. Later on, when you have a
strong, thriving business, you can replace the second hand stuff with upgraded
materials etc. THen you will have the
money to make those upgrades. For now,
this will get you up and running.
Who will do the work? I like to
do my own general contracting because it is less expensive and gives me more
hands-on control of the process. It is
a bit more time consuming, but you might consider giving it a shot. It is particularly good because you will
learn alot about the different trades, and how to assess the quality of
different professionals. I suggest
reading this book called "Be
Your Own House Contractor" It gives good suggestions and insight into
the process of finding subcontractors, negotiating with them, estimating costs,
where to get materials etc etc. I also
like using Angies List to find good plumbers / electricians/ painters/
etc. In addition, I 've had success finding
professionals by talking with some local architects that have had experience
with these subs in the past.
The important thing to remember when figuring out what you are going to
do with the space is that you can always go back and redo it if you need
to. Start out by doing it as cheaply as
possible.. a year later once the business is thriving, you can always go back
and get those marble counters. For now,
do it cheap... but with style.
This brings up the next point - style.
Just because you are keeping your expenses to a minimum, it does not
mean the place has to look slap-dash thrown together. Use creativity to create a wonderfully warm
and happy space (which is consistent with the Niche market you are aiming at -
more on that later). I enjoy reading
about cheap design / decorating ideas for the home - often times you can borrow
them for your shop. Makes a huge
difference in the place, for relatively little money. Here were some places I've gotten ideas:
There is also a cheap book on
Amazon ($3.99) called "Cheap
Home Makeover: Interior Decorating on a Budget". I must admit I have not yet read it, but it
was referred to me by a friend. The next
time I need to do some decoration, I'm going to read this book first.
In addition, you can find a bunch of cool stuff at Goodwill and other
thrift shops to find cool decorations and decorative pieces that you can adjust
to meet your needs.
So, to summarize this section on starting a coffeehouse on the cheap
: First, find a place that just needs a
cosmetic makeover - with as little serious construction as possible. You can erect walls (fix walls), counters,
paint and decorate pretty cheaply, but do as little electric/plumbing/floors
etc as possible. Second, try to get the
landlord to cover some of the cost with either a direct cash injection or free
rent. Third, find USED materials on
Craigslist (cabinets, countertops etc) and then paint them, change the hardware
for cheap etc, and cobble together the service area. Fourth, decorate cheaply - there are many
websites and other resources that can teach you how to do this - buy decorations
from Thriftshops, paint and repurpose.
In short, at this stage, you are just trying to get the place open for
business for the lowest possible price.
You can use this to prove that your coffeehouse concept will fly - once
it starts making money, you can replace things at your leisure with commercial
grade stuff.
In my next section, I'll go into finding cheap equipment for your
coffeehouse...
Let me know if there are any topics you'd like me to write about! I'd love to hear from you!!
best
Duncan
On a final note: as you may know, I'm in the process of writing a series of guides to show people how to move from a corporate job to owning a coffeehouse. Unfortunately, they are not going to be ready for a little while. However, If you are REALLY serious about starting your own coffeehouse, and you cant wait for my guides to come out, I also offer a 2-day, one-on-one intensive boot camp on starting a coffeehouse. You come up to New Haven for these two days, and we spend two intensive days going through all the intricacies of starting, owning and operating a successful coffeehouse. If you are interested, send me an email and we'll get it set up: coffeehouseguy1@gmail.com
On a final note: as you may know, I'm in the process of writing a series of guides to show people how to move from a corporate job to owning a coffeehouse. Unfortunately, they are not going to be ready for a little while. However, If you are REALLY serious about starting your own coffeehouse, and you cant wait for my guides to come out, I also offer a 2-day, one-on-one intensive boot camp on starting a coffeehouse. You come up to New Haven for these two days, and we spend two intensive days going through all the intricacies of starting, owning and operating a successful coffeehouse. If you are interested, send me an email and we'll get it set up: coffeehouseguy1@gmail.com
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