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July 27, 2018

How to open a takeaway coffee shop. Business plan: everything from site selection to payback

More and more people drink coffee, and few people are surprised by a take-away coffee kiosk. But a culture of drink consumption has appeared: now people prefer to drink coffee outside the home and sometimes pay a lot of money for a cup.

Most city dwellers constantly do not have enough time and do not always have the opportunity to visit gourmet coffee shops with good coffee. Therefore, a business model such as “coffee to go” or “coffee to go” has appeared, which allows people to quickly buy their favorite drink for little money.

“Coffee to go” and, in general, selling coffee is a highly profitable business, especially if you have more than one outlet. Today, the assortment of coffee is very wide, and thanks to competition, wholesale suppliers offer good prices and favorable conditions for different sales volumes.

The price of coffee beans, such as 100% Arabica, from trusted suppliers is an average of 400 UAH (1000 rubles) per kilogram. For one cup of Americano, you need about 7 grams of coffee - as a result, the cost is about 3 UAH (8 rubles) per cup, and they sell it at coffee to go points at a price of 15-20 UAH (45-60 rubles)! (The data is based on anonymous statistics of the Poster POS automation system for the cities of Russia and Ukraine.)

Coffee to go franchise or your own business model?

There are two ways to open such a business: independently or through a franchise. Depending on the choice of the franchisor, the finished project will cost UAH 70,000–200,000 (150,000–500,000 rubles).

Franchises for Ukraine:

Franchises for Russia:

A franchise package usually includes a ready-made brand book, point design and well-established promotion schemes, as well as its suppliers, technological cards and own drink recipes, business organization and accounting system consulting, perhaps even a general customer base and loyalty system. Some offer additional training for your staff at working coffee outlets as a bonus.

Of course, the availability of such services from the franchisor depends on the selected package and the terms of the contract. But in any case, in addition to acquiring a franchise, you will have to spend money and time on registering a business, purchasing equipment, initial investments in the first month of operation and working capital.

But you can save on buying a franchise, spend time searching for the necessary information and do everything yourself, having thought through your business model. This approach will take more time and effort, but you can invest more money in equipment or renting a good place. To help you in this difficult task, we have tried to cover all the most important points of the checklist for a novice owner of a coffee pot in this article.

Choosing a place for coffee

One of the most important points when opening a takeaway coffee shop is choosing a location. When calculating the patency of a place, it should be taken into account that approximately 3 people out of 100 are your potential customers. The greater the flow of people, the higher the revenue, the profitability of the institution and, consequently, the return on initial investment.

The most "fishy" places:

pedestrian crossings;

subway entrances;

public transport stops;

parks, squares, embankments;

areas near educational institutions (universities, colleges, etc.);

shopping centers and large pavilions;

airports, train stations.

To maintain a high turnover of your coffee pot, you need to constantly monitor the dynamics of parameters such as number of checks and .

The number of checks depends on the patency of the place and the correct definition of the target audience. Even despite the high traffic, there may simply not be your potential customers among people.

What documents are needed to open coffee to go

Registration of sole proprietorship (Ukraine), individual entrepreneur (Russia) or LLC

Registration of FLP (IP) is much cheaper, faster and requires the collection of fewer documents. When registering with the tax office, you need to classify your type of economic activity as “food retail”. You must also obtain permission to open a point from the sanitary and epidemiological service, territorial property management authorities and the fire inspectorate.

The entire registration process takes an average of 3 to 4 weeks. If you do not want to solve these issues on your own, you can entrust all the work to a company that collects and prepares documents. It usually takes no more than a week and costs about 2,000 UAH (5,000 rubles).

If you plan to open a coffee shop on the territory of a shopping center, then it will be a little easier for you: you do not need to obtain permission from the fire department and other services. Shopping and business centers have almost all the necessary permits, except for the sanitary and epidemiological station.

Equipment for coffee to go

The most important equipment that you need to buy for a takeaway coffee shop is a coffee machine. The volume of the tank must be at least 8 liters, and the power must be up to 5 kW (this must be taken into account when calculating energy consumption). A smaller coffee machine simply won't be suitable for the required speed and volume of coffee preparation.

For quick work and instructing beginner baristas, it is better to consider devices with a minimum set of necessary functions. The fewer additional features, the cheaper and easier the repair of equipment. However, setting up any professional equipment takes a lot of time, and you will also need an experienced person to supervise coffee preparation during start-up and debugging.

Buying equipment for a coffee shop is the most expensive part of a business plan. It is best to trust manufacturers whose dealers and service centers are located in almost all regions: Saeco, Egro 70 Series, Settanta, Nuova Simonelli, CMA, Arctic.

High-quality foreign equipment is very expensive: UAH 60,000–100,000 (150,000–250,000 rubles) or more. But you can always consider the option of buying a used coffee machine and coffee grinder, which will be almost 2 times cheaper. You can also rent coffee equipment or even free of charge from coffee suppliers - subject to the conclusion of an agreement for the purchase of a certain amount of coffee within a year or several years. In addition, they can advise on the purchase of necessary equipment depending on the volume of coffee preparation and quite often help with the repair and maintenance of coffee equipment.

Don't forget about sales stand costs, the design of a rented island or kiosk and various little things that are also important for the comfortable operation of the point without overlays:

consumables for coffee drinks (milk, toppings and syrups);

snacks, sweets, snacks;

disposable cups, lids, spoons;

bar inventory.

coffee shop menu

The menu in small coffee shops without tables, as a rule, is limited to only a coffee card, if you do not have imported cakes, chocolate or other sweets in your assortment. Coffee and drinks based on it - depending on the season. Sale of coffee provides from 80% of all revenue, the rest is related products, most often various desserts.

To diversify the menu, add positions that not only differ in the way they are prepared (latte, espresso, cappuccino, etc.), but also types and varieties of coffee that will distinguish the drinks in taste. Now it is not enough to present only one type of coffee - in order to stand out from the competition, you need to offer an exclusive in the form of a unique variety or a mixture of different varieties. Don't forget the toppings and spices!

And most importantly - do not be too lazy to arrange a stand for the sale of roasted coffee by weight in branded packages - this is real will increase your average check.

What you need to open coffee to go - the choice of supplier

The quality of the coffee is the most important factor when choosing a supplier. Be sure to check all certificates for products and production and the conclusions of the sanitary and epidemiological examination. You can read more about choosing a supplier in, in which she answered all the most important questions about choosing coffee suppliers and working with them Irina Uskova, CEO of the Coffee Molly business coffee chain.

Coffee shop staff

The job of a barista is often viewed as temporary. To avoid turnover, you need to think. Most baristas are paid by the hour. According to trud.com, the average salary of a barista in Ukraine is UAH 5,000–6,000, depending on the city; in million-plus cities they are naturally larger, and in the capital they are the highest. In Russia, salaries are slightly higher, but also differ significantly from region to region - on average, from 25,000 to 35,000 rubles. Usually the shift lasts 10 hours, but if the coffee shop is located in a shopping or business center, then the beginning and end of work coincide with the opening and closing of the center (for example, from 10:00 to 22:00), and then the duration of the shift is 12 hours.

In addition to the rate, you can motivate the barista with a share of sales within 2-3% if the plan is met and all work instructions are followed.

How to open coffee to go from scratch. Financial plan

Concerning investment, then opening a take-away coffee shop is considered a business with little investment. If you choose the most budget options with inexpensive rent and used equipment, then you can meet UAH 100,000 (250,000 rubles), and the maximum is unlikely to be higher than UAH 180,000 (400,000 rubles).

* The cost of rent in shopping centers of large cities in Ukraine and Russia starts from 1000 UAH (2500 rubles) and goes up to 5000 UAH (13 000 rubles) per square meter. The price depends on the location of the shopping center itself, its class and the location of the point inside the shopping center. The average area of ​​a coffee shop is 10 square meters. m.

** The list of purchased equipment includes: bar counter, refrigerator, coffee grinder, water filters, disposable tableware. The volume of purchased coffee depends on the traffic of the place.

Calculation of the cost of coffee to go

Consider the calculation of the cost on the example of a cup of Americano. As we said at the very beginning, at a price of 400 UAH (1000 rubles) per kilogram of coffee, about 120 servings can be made from this raw material - 3 UAH (8 rubles) for each. We also include here the cost of a glass with a lid, a stirrer and sugar - as a result, the cost of the drink will be approximately 7 UAH (18 rubles).

income per day

In the example, we calculate the average income of a take-away coffee outlet based on the average ticket amount and the number of purchases.

Monthly income

To increase profit, you need to increase the average check. Your barista can do this, the main thing is to properly motivate him. We need to sell more desserts, snacks, drink toppings, and encourage customers to order larger drinks.

The number of purchases also needs to be increased, but it is more difficult to do this: here it is already necessary to seriously work on the brand and recognition of your outlets with coffee to go.

It is very important to quickly serve the client: take the order, calculate and serve the drink. If the speed of preparing drinks depends only on the skills of the barista, then everything else can be greatly accelerated if an automation system is installed. For example, to use Poster POS, you will need an ordinary tablet that can easily fit on a stand. A barista places an order with a couple of touches on the screen, prints a receipt for the buyer, and the owner immediately sees this sale on the screen of his smartphone or laptop browser.

Payback point with coffee to go

The cost of drinks - 30-40%.

Profitability of sales - 22%.

Initial investment - UAH 105,000 (267,500 rubles)

Break even - from 2 to 4 months.

Return on investment - from 9 to 12 months.

Risks when opening coffee to go

What are the advantages and disadvantages of such a business? The success of the coffee-to-go business depends most of all on the location of the outlet. A big risk to business profitability is a decrease in traffic. For example, if your coffee shop is located in a shopping center, then the decline could be:

during the holiday season (summer is a rather difficult period for the coffee business: at this time, people prefer to go to nature, to the sea, abroad, and not to walk around shopping centers);

during the holidays (the basis of the target audience is students);

during a crisis in the economy, exchange rate fluctuations, etc. (when the purchasing power of people falls, they less often go to shopping centers for non-essential products).

If your point is located at the entrance to the subway or at a stop, then the traffic depends primarily on the weather. Daily revenue will decrease during snow, rain and severe frosts. People are in a hurry to take shelter from the weather, and not stand at the kiosk waiting for coffee. There is also a decline in the summer period, but profits at this time can be increased in other ways, which we have already described in the article.

Results

"Coffee to go" or a mini-coffee shop is a profitable business, but you should not count on excess profits. On average, the monthly income from one point rarely exceeds 40,000 UAH (100,000 rubles), and most often it is 20,000–30,000 UAH (40,000–80,000 rubles). It’s very good if you can break even in the first month, but later, when expanding the range and promoting the point itself, increasing awareness, you can reach a more worthy profit of 80,000 UAH (140,000 rubles).

Despite the fact that the cost of a cup of coffee is 30-40% of the sale price, the profitability still remains at about 20%. Part of the revenue goes to renting a good place, but thanks to this, you can earn more, so you should not cut costs here.

The first 30-60 cups of coffee sold per day pay off the cost of rent and consumables. And only the following sales will already bring 60-70% of the profit.

To earn more, the owners of "coffee to go" open several points in different parts of the city- firstly, to increase your income and increase brand awareness, and secondly, to compensate for sales declines in different locations. For example, a point in a shopping center brings a stable income on weekends, but shows a rather low efficiency on weekdays, but with a point in a business center, the opposite is true.

Do not forget about the loyalty of your customers: encourage constant purchases, hold promotions: “The fifth coffee as a gift”, “Free waffle with a large cappuccino”, etc.

♦ Capital investments – 1,700,000 rubles
♦ Payback – 1.5–2 years

Coffee is one of the favorite drinks of many people in our country. The morning begins with a cup of aromatic coffee; it is the constant partner of all business meetings, friendly gatherings and romantic dates.

But who said that coffee should definitely be drunk at home?

More and more people prefer to enjoy this drink in specialized establishments, so it is worth considering how to open a coffee shop from scratch if you are looking for a business idea.

A coffee house is an establishment where you can drink several types of coffee and tea, soft drinks, enjoy desserts and other snacks.

P.S. You can, of course, add salads and hot dishes to the menu, but in this case you cannot do with minimal capital investments.

What you need to open a coffee shop and how much money you need to start this business project, you will learn from this article.

Features and benefits of opening a coffee shop

A business such as a coffee shop is significantly different from a restaurant or fast food. This must be taken into account when forming the concept of your establishment, menu, thinking through the interior and other details.

If you are just thinking about what kind of establishment to open so that you can give out drinks and snacks to customers to take away, then it will not be out of place to learn about the features and benefits of owning a coffee shop:

1. When opening a small coffee shop, you can get by with minimal investment, because the area for this type of activity is small, you don’t have to keep several dozen cooks and waiters on staff, and you don’t need to spend a lot on the monthly purchase of products and other consumables.
   All in all, this is a great business for people with little start-up capital.
2. You should make sure that you can attach a summer terrace to your coffee shop, or at least just take the tables outside so that people can enjoy coffee and desserts in the fresh air during the warm season.
   This means that rooms with a narrow sidewalk are not suitable for opening a coffee shop from scratch.
3. The main visitors to coffee shops are students, women's companies and business people, so it is best to open your tea or coffee shop near educational institutions or office buildings.
4. Depending on where exactly you decide to locate your coffee shop, create a menu and pricing policy.
   For example, in the city center or at the train station, coffee and snacks that you will give to go with you will be great.
   If you are locating your establishment in a large shopping and entertainment center or in the historical part of the city, then you should take care of the interior, because most visitors will want to drink coffee directly at your place.
5. It is very important to think over the concept of your institution, to come up with a chip for it.
   A modern coffee shop is a place where people not only drink coffee, but where they have a good time with friends and colleagues, work if necessary.
   A business will become profitable if you take care of the details: interior, background music, menus, uniforms for waiters, etc.
6. This type of business pays off quickly enough, which cannot be said about the same restaurant or pizzeria.
   This is one of its main advantages.
7. You have a choice of which coffee shop to open: a romantic one for ladies and couples in love, a mix of coffee shop and fast food where you can stock up on drinks and food to go, on wheels, themed, etc.

How to form the competitive advantages of your coffee shop?

Only in Moscow itself there are several hundred different coffee houses, which indicates how much this one is in our country.

The competition is really high in this sector, so it is impossible without the formation of competitive advantages.

Be sure to make sure that in your coffee shop:

1. It was possible to drink coffee on the spot in a cozy atmosphere, or take any item on the takeaway menu with you.
2. There was a reasonable pricing policy.
   Remember that you're selling coffee and snacks, not jewelry, so don't overcharge.
3. The client received impeccable service in your institution.
4. There was a loyalty program for customers who are served here constantly.
5. It was possible to sit outside during the warm season.
6. There was a beautiful interior that would attract not only residents of your city, but also tourists.
7. They made great coffee and fed delicious desserts.

Do you need an advertising campaign for a coffee shop?

Interesting fact:
Coffee is one of the most traded commodities on world exchanges. In terms of volume, it is only ahead of oil.

If we are talking about a mobile coffee shop with minimal capital investment, then advertising can be completely dispensed with. It is enough to paint your car so that it can be seen from afar.

• press announcements;
• flyers that should be handed out in the most crowded places in the area where your coffee shop operates;
• urban forums and social networks;
• bright official opening, which will be remembered by the residents of your city.

This approach will allow you to form a client base as quickly as possible and avoid the main problem of a newly opened establishment: work in the first months at a loss.

Should I open a mobile coffee shop?

Today in any big city you can see a lot of cars decorated with images of coffee themes, which offer customers tea, coffee, hot chocolate, soft drinks and packaged takeaway snacks.

Since this business is becoming more and more popular day by day, we should separately dwell on how to open a mobile coffee shop, and is it even worth it?

Benefits of opening a mobile coffee shop:

1. Minimum capital investment.
2. Savings on staff - you can run this business yourself.
3. Large turnover of funds, especially in the high season.
4. Ease of doing this type of business.
5. Simplicity of the registration procedure.

Disadvantages of opening a mobile coffee shop:

1. Restriction of activities to the sale of drinks and snacks that you can take with you.
2. The seasonality of this type of business, for example, in winter, mobile coffee shops are not in great demand, because no one will drink coffee while sitting on a park bench at sub-zero temperatures.
3. The inability to earn big money on a mobile coffee shop.

How to open a mobile coffee shop?

Everything is extremely simple:

• you are registering as an individual entrepreneur;
• get all the necessary permits for business;
• you buy a roomy car, which you decorate in order to make it immediately clear what exactly you are doing;
• purchase equipment, disposable tableware, consumables for making coffee and other drinks.

After all this, you can immediately start making money selling coffee, tea and other things.

The main components of opening a coffee shop

If the business associated with catering establishments is new to you, then you should carefully consider taking into account all the nuances.

And you don’t need to immediately try to become the owner of a huge establishment!

If you have minimal capital investments and no experience in entrepreneurship, then you should consider opening a mini-coffee shop for 20-30 seats with an original menu: several dozen types of hot and cold drinks (mainly coffee and tea), a little appetizers and desserts.

Business registration

The official procedure for opening a coffee shop is quite simple.

First, you register as an individual entrepreneur or LLC, choose the form of taxation: UTII or USN 15%. By specifying OKVED codes, you can choose 55.30, which regulates the activities of cafes and restaurants.

If you are going to sell in your establishment not only coffee, tea and other soft drinks, but want to increase profits by selling alcohol, then you will need an appropriate license. This will slow down the process of opening a coffee shop and increase the amount that needs to be spent on registration.

If you are going to open not a mobile coffee shop, but a stationary establishment, then you will need permission from the fire department and the free economic zone, you also need to draw up a number of contracts that are standard for business, for example, for garbage collection, etc.

Coffee shop location

This business will only be profitable when the coffee shop is located in a high traffic area, preferably in the business center of the city or in the historical part of it.

The desire to save money and open a coffee shop in a residential area can be fatal and lead to ruin.

To open a coffee shop, both an isolated room and a corner in a shopping and entertainment center are suitable. The main thing is to choose a place that will help you get as many random customers as possible.

All the secrets on how to open a mobile coffee shop on wheels -

Advantages of this type of business:

Space for a coffee shop

It is better to choose a non-residential building to open a coffee shop. Otherwise, you will have to take care of sound insulation so as not to disturb the inhabitants of the house.

The area of ​​the room depends on the scale of your project. To accommodate 25–30 people, 60–70 sq. meters.

If you want at least 50 people to be accommodated in your coffee shop at the same time, then you should look for a room with a total area of ​​​​120 sq. m.

You should not choose buildings that are too small, because in addition to the main hall, you need to place a kitchen, two bathrooms (for visitors and staff), and a service room in your coffee shop.

Even if the room you found is in good condition, you still need to make repairs in it. Pay special attention to the interior so that customers enjoy being in your coffee shop. It is better to entrust such an important work to a professional designer.

Coffee shop equipment

Interesting to know:
More than 500 billion cups of coffee are drunk every year in the world. More than half - at breakfast!

Most importantly, the coffee machine!
Coffee shop owners can choose from an automatic or semi-automatic coffee brewing machine.

Better, stop at a semi-automatic coffee machine. Firstly, it costs less, secondly, it is easy to work with it, and thirdly, it is suitable even for small coffee shops with low attendance.

It is better to purchase professional Italian equipment from the brands La Cimbali, Faema, Rancilio and others.

The cost of a good semi-automatic coffee machine is 80,000 rubles.

Since coffee shops buy coffee beans, they will also need coffee grinders, at least two pieces. You need to allocate 40,000 rubles for their purchase

To equip the hall, you need to purchase tables, chairs, lamps, a showcase and a bar counter, decorative interior items. To complete the hall of a small coffee shop, you need 10 tables, 40 chairs, a bar counter, 2-3 hangers, lamps, figurines and other interior items. All this will cost you 50-100,000 rubles.

Before buying kitchen equipment, you should decide on the menu (whether you will serve hot dishes to customers) or everything will be limited to desserts and sandwiches.

P.S. You can even not prepare desserts in your coffee shop, but buy them somewhere, but customers do not like this very much.

If you are going to cook only desserts, sandwiches and salads in your coffee shop, then you should purchase the following kitchen equipment:

Item of expenses	Amount (rub.)
Total:	RUB 230,000
Hoods	10 000
Freezer	15 000
Microwave	8 000
Oven and stove	50 000
Food processor	10 000
Dishes	60 000
Furniture	30 000
Other	47 000

Among other expenses for the equipment of the coffee shop:

Item of expenses	Amount (rub.)
Total:	250 000 rub.
Arrangement of two bathrooms	70 000
Office space furniture: shelving, lockers, chairs, etc.	80 000
Stereo system	20 000
Control and accounting equipment (computers, cash register, etc.)	50 000
Other	30 000

As you can see, the equipment costs of even a small coffee shop are very serious. At least 800,000 rubles.

coffee shop menu

Coffee house owners who have been in this business for several years now argue that the optimal menu should be as follows:

• 6-10 types of coffee-based drinks;
• 5–10 types of teas;
• hot chocolate;
• Juices in assortment;
• 5–10 types of desserts;
• pancakes with salty and sweet fillings;
• 5-7 types of simple salads;
• 4-8 types of hot and regular sandwiches.

This menu is enough to satisfy the needs of different customers.

Revenues will increase if you provide customers with the opportunity to take away food and drinks with them.

Coffee shop staff

Most coffee shops are open seven days a week, so you'll need to hire enough staff to form two shifts.

For a small coffee shop enough:

	Qty	Salary (rub.)	Total (rub.)
		Total:	120 000 rub.
confectioners	2	20 000	40 000
Waiters	4	10 000	40 000
bartenders	2	12 000	24 000
cleaners	2	8 000	16 000

Coffee shop opening schedule

It will take at least 4-6 months to open a catering establishment, even a light version like a coffee shop.

If you are going to get a license to sell alcohol or the premises you have chosen require serious redevelopment, then this period can be increased by 1.5 - 2 times.

Stage	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
Registering and Obtaining Necessary Business Permits
Premises rent and repair
Purchase of equipment and furniture
Recruitment
Advertising campaign
Opening a coffee shop

How much money does it take to open a coffee shop?

No matter how hard we try to unequivocally answer the question " How much does it cost to open a coffee shop? - impossible.

The size of your capital investment depends on:

• the city where you are going to open a business and the cost of rent in it;
• the size of your coffee shop;
• the cost of services of a designer, builders and other professionals that you need;
• menu;
• your ability to negotiate a discount and much more.

If we talk about opening a small coffee shop (for 25-30 seats) in a small provincial town (number of inhabitants - no more than 500,000), then the average figures look like this:

Item of expenses	Amount (rub.)
Total:	1 800 000
Registration procedure and obtaining all necessary permits for business	40 000
Annual rent of the premises	450 000
Renovation of the premises (without significant redevelopment)	200 000
Purchase of furniture and necessary equipment	800 000
Purchase of the first batch of coffee beans, products and other consumables	200 000
Advertising	30 000
Additional expenses	80 000

Interesting tips from experts and comments from coffee shop owners about how

how to open your coffee shop from scratch and reach a good cash income.

Is it profitable to open a coffee shop?

It is not in vain that businessmen are asking this question, because catering establishments do not always pay off due to the high level of competition in this area.

And yet the coffee shop is a profitable business!

This is evidenced by at least the following indicators: to make a cup of coffee, you need to use 7–8 g of ground beans (the cost of one serving is about 10 rubles). The average price of a cup of espresso is 60 rubles. That is, the profitability of the business is 500%.

The amount of your income for the most part depends on the number of customers who visit you and on the amount of their average check.

Let's say 60 people visit you every day, the average check of each is 250 rubles. That is, the amount of daily revenue will be 15,000 rubles. You can earn 400,000–450,000 rubles per month. Even after deducting the cost of utilities, staff salaries, taxes, advertising and supplies, your net profit will be 100,000-150,000 rubles per month.

Download a ready-made business plan for a coffee shop with quality assurance.
The content of the business plan:
1. Privacy
2. Resume
3. Stages of project implementation
4. Characteristics of the object
5. Marketing plan
6. Technical and economic data of the equipment
7. Financial plan
8. Risk assessment
9. Financial and economic justification of investments
10. Conclusions

If you try, you can demonstrate the same result after six months of activity. Capital investments in this case will pay off in 1.5–2 years.

Don't be intimidated by the amount of money you need to invest in the business at the initial stage. It is not for nothing that entrepreneurs constantly ask themselves the question, how to open a coffee shop. This business is promising and profitable.

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The article below provides an example coffee shop business plan, advice on market analysis and location selection. In addition, the article will be useful to those who want open a coffee shop in a small town.

Have you noticed that big cities live at a frantic pace and have almost forgotten what sleep is? “Well, yes,” you say: “International cooperation and work, constant movement and active life of residents.” Nothing like that, just in big cities there are too many coffee shops. What if you were lured around every corner by dozens of enticing signs offering a fragrant cappuccino or a hot Americano in a casual setting stylized as a French coffee shop? You would also sleep less.

If you are interested, then remember that, like any other undertaking, a coffee shop is not an easy business. There are many pitfalls for beginners, but if you are persistent, creative and not afraid of difficulties, then you will succeed.

What do you need to open a coffee shop? How to open a coffee shop from scratch

Location

Some say that the success of a food service establishment is fifty percent location and another fifty percent location. And this pun is not just empty words. It is unlikely that you will want to go to the other end of the city to drink a cup of cappuccino. Chances are you'll give your preference to a small coffee shop in your area, or get your caffeine fix somewhere downtown by putting it on your to-do list between the movies and hanging out with friends.

Another reason why coffee shops should be located closer to the center is informal business meetings.

You are a writer and have an appointment with a publisher; you want to get to know your future business partner better, or you arrange a meeting with a person from whom you want to order the decoration of the banquet hall and the menu for your daughter's wedding. What do these people have in common? All of them, most likely, will meet in a coffee shop, not far from their homes or somewhere in the center.

What do we have. There are three suitable places to build a coffee shop: a small town, a residential area, or the center of a large city. In the first two options, the main determining factor is the absence of nearby competitors. If you can’t find such a place, then make sure that your institution is different from all competing ones.

To open a coffee shop in a larger city, the presence of competitors must also be taken into account, but on a less global scale. You will not be able to open the most popular establishment, for example, in the capital, from scratch, without experience in this field. The upside is that you don't need it. You just need to open a coffee shop that will be a little different, not the same as the one across the street or on the next street. You can read about how to do this under the heading "Idea".

A positive factor when choosing the location of your future coffee shop will be the presence of a large university or college, an office center, cultural and historical attractions, parks and large shopping centers nearby.

Documentation

The coffee house is not only the abode of cappuccino, americano, espresso and summer, but also a sea of ​​paperwork. Where to begin? Well, let's go in order.

Lease contract. It can be perpetual, long-term, medium-term and, accordingly, short-term. In addition, you can arrange either a direct lease or a sublease. In the first case, you can save money, and in the second, you can get a more expensive room, but already with repairs or some equipped amenities. You choose.

The first thing you need to get to open a coffee shop is a written permit from the sanitary and epidemiological station and the fire department. In order to get it, the premises must meet a number of requirements that you should take care of.

But this is important not only for obtaining a document, compliance with sanitary and epidemiological standards and fire safety is an important factor in the normal functioning of your institution.

The target audience.

Who is your establishment for? Here is the first question you should answer. It is important to understand here that anyone can be your potential visitor. There are only two groups who might not want to visit a good coffee shop: people who have heart disease and those who hate coffee.

Although, if your menu includes decaffeinated coffee, all kinds of teas, cocktails and lemonades, and you can also take a portion of ice cream or a piece of cake for them ... Well, in this case, literally anyone can become your visitor.

If you take it more seriously, then your typical visitors will still be people between the ages of sixteen and forty-five, of average income, mainly office workers, people of creative professions and students. Having such an orientation, we can already assume what additional services we can provide and what we can change in our institution.

A cozy atmosphere, delicious coffee and other drinks, desserts and simple snacks (paninis, sandwiches, brioches), fast and pleasant service - that's all that visitors expect from a coffee shop. And yes, given the age of your future visitors, do not forget to buy a Wi-Fi router, believe me, you will not regret this purchase.

What else do you need to open a coffee shop. Good concept is the way to success

Idea

If you want to make repairs, hire a couple of people, set up tables and start making money, open a canteen.

Running a coffee shop is a delicate matter, almost an art, if you do not have creative thinking and imagination, then you will not last long in this business.

A few examples from world practice.

In Japan, at the aptly named Alcatraz, you can have a Brain Scorcher cocktail with Cow Guts on Death Row. But do not forget to take your fingerprints before entering and choose a prison uniform that fits you. Extreme lovers in this unusual place are full both on weekdays and on weekends.

You can also tickle your nerves in Belgium. At the Heavenly Dinner Cafe, you and twenty-one other strong-nerved people can dine at the height of a sixteen-story building.

But the owners of the cafe "Metro St. James" attract customers in another interesting way. Every visitor here can pay for their coffee with a kiss. It would seem that such an innovation can significantly hit the owner's profits, but in fact, his earnings have increased significantly.

There are already dozens of establishments scattered around the world where you can spend time in the company of several dozen furry neighbors. In France and Japan, you can drink coffee with mustachioed purrs, and in Korea, at the Dog House Cafe, with more than three dozen of a person’s best friends. And this is only a small fraction of all the variety of ideas for cafes that have already been invented, created and put into operation.

Yes, it is difficult to compete with such, but do at least something to stand out from the gray mass. Among the popular ways today to turn catering establishments into a place of real relaxation, you can choose unusual design ideas, the presence of computer and board games, the choice of printed literature, all kinds of entertainment methods related directly to YOUR possession.

For example, in Lviv, in one of the coffee shops, they offer to go down into an equipped mine for the extraction of coffee beans. Yes, yes, a large underground room with rails and carts, picks and shovels, where all the walls are covered with coffee. Few people get past this. There it is not only a way to attract visitors, but also an additional source of income.

If you want a simple and banal business, a coffee shop is not for you, but if you want to dedicate your life to an unusual and complex, but no doubt creative activity, then go ahead and fight.

Registration

An item that should be tied to the previous one. If you have already decided on the marketing idea of ​​your establishment, then you have to fit the interior and exterior of your cafe to it. Again, I do not advise you to immediately take everything into your own hands and start mixing paint, laying tiles and applying plaster to everything you see.

For example, do you know which type of porcelain stoneware is best for the entrance area, which wallpaper will be easier to clean from coffee, and which material will show itself better as a countertop? If not, then look for the interior designer's number.

You may have to pay more at this stage than for developing flyers for advertising, but nothing can be done. In any case, it will be cheaper than doing a second repair in six months due to improperly selected materials.

Basic requirements for materials: strength, aesthetics, environmental friendliness, functionality. There are no exceptions for you. A beautiful repair can attract visitors, while the right one will provide them with convenience, a minimum of problems for you and will allow you to easily fulfill all the requirements of the sanitary and epidemiological station and the fire department, so do not neglect the services of a specialist in this field.

An item that deserves to be taken seriously. Many people neglect advertising, especially when opening a coffee shop in a small town, but today, even at a small cost, you can significantly increase the flow of visitors. So why give it up? The principles of good advertising are simple: it should be focused on your target audience, be informative, beautiful, creative and bring out your best side. Depending on your capabilities, you can choose one of the following advertising options:

1. Outdoor advertising. Billboards, signs, signs. If you are going to open a small coffee shop with a staff consisting of you, your cat and an accountant, then this is clearly not for you. Large billboards are more likely to advertise large or even chain establishments, which are often already well-known, but you can order several small signs that will be located near your establishment. Place a name, a short description and the exact address on them (it’s also good to have a route from the location of the sign to the coffee shop).
2. Advertising on the Internet (social networks). A simple and effective way, focused mainly on young people. Your job here is to select the right public, group or community in which your potential visitors can see ads.
3. Leaflets, flyers. This ad works in only one way - if you have really good, beautiful, unusual and informative flyers. If it's just a piece of paper with your address, hours of operation, the name and image of a coffee mug, then such a flyer will end up in the first trash can that a passer-by gets in the way.
4. Advertising in the media. Of course, a commercial filmed on a well-known channel is effective. Effective and incredibly expensive, so we will choose another option - advertising in local newspapers. This option is more suitable for small towns. You can say that no one reads newspapers today, only the overheads of many thousands and the corresponding profit from these publications will be against it. In a city with a population of about 40,000-50,000 people, the average newspaper comes out with 15,000-30,000 copies. Most sold out in the first three days. An ad with a color picture will cost from ten dollars.

Whatever type of advertising you choose, do not spare the money and order it from a professional. Today on the Internet you can find hundreds of freelance designers who will develop high-quality advertising for you for little money (everything from flyers to a corporate symbol and slogan).

Even if your coffee shop is located in the city center, on a busy street, you need to show potential visitors why they should go to your establishment.

The coffee house is a gathering place for mostly young people (17-35 years old). With this in mind, the best idea would be to advertise on social networks and on popular sites (for watching videos and movies, online shopping, etc.). In a big city, advertising can also be ordered in the form of a video shown before a movie in a cinema, organize the distribution of flyers (it is better to order the design from a designer, because if they are not attractive enough, a passer-by will throw them away even despite what is written there).

If you are ready for serious investments and cooperation with designers, then advertising will not be a problem for you, and you can choose from a range of all advertising services available in your city.

In the same case, if you want to organize advertising quickly and inexpensively, order one advertising image (poster) from a freelance designer and arrange advertising with a popular community on a social network that your potential visitors can enter.

A good advertising move would be to organize a celebratory opening of a coffee shop with all the attributes of a real holiday and, accordingly, guests, and they will definitely be. If you put up an inviting sign announcing the opening of a new coffee shop and simply decorate the entrance, then this already guarantees you several visitors, and then it’s a matter of image. In such establishments, it is important to leave a good impression so that people come back, bring friends and recommend this place to their acquaintances.

How to open a coffee shop in a small town. Business plan for a mini coffee shop

If you don’t want to immediately take on the burden of managing a large establishment, but have long dreamed of a mini-coffee shop, a business plan, then where to start.

What are the benefits of a small coffee shop? Lots. The first is a small headquarters; the second is a small initial investment; the third is pleasant figures in the lease agreement.

To write a business plan for a small coffee shop, we must first understand what we mean by the word "small". For example, in Poland today there is a coffee shop, the total area of ​​​​which is 5 square meters (without utility room). Of the workers - the owner and his wife. But if your plans are something more, then you will need more staff.

1. Dishwasher cleaner.
2. Cook.
3. barista
4. Waiter.
5. Accountant.

If the institution is really small, then the functions of a cook, barista and waiter can be performed by one person, and the owner himself can deal with accounting.

From the furniture for the hall, you will need tables, chairs (or armchairs), a rack and a few little things for decoration. From equipment - a small refrigerator, a coffee maker and a device for cooking or heating ready-made meals (this can be a small stove, sandwich maker, microwave, waffle maker, ice cream maker, etc., here you already choose what you need).

Possible earnings will depend on the cost of drinks, the location of the coffee shop, the opening hours and the number of seats in your establishment.

Due to the low start-up costs, a small coffee shop pays off in less than ten months.

Coffee house business plan. How much does it cost to open a coffee shop. How profitable is a coffee shop as a business

If you decide to turn a coffee shop into a profitable business, then this will require a considerable initial investment. In addition, a fairly decent amount directed to pay salaries, pay taxes, rent and purchase products will become your constant waste.

Opening a coffee shop from scratch is not cheap. Make sure you have enough money to keep your establishment afloat in the event that the cafeteria does not turn a profit in the first couple and will work for a while. Many restaurateurs note that this happens very often. At first, when the cafe just opened and it does not have a permanent audience, it is very important to maintain a positive reputation among customers so that they tell their friends about you and come back themselves.

Another option is also possible. Immediately after opening, your establishment can be visited by a large number of people. Do not rush to finish building three floors and recruit staff. Over time, the influx will decrease slightly. The excitement around new establishments is a common thing.

Running a catering business is highly dependent on the factors of the overall economy of the country and the financial condition of citizens, but if you have a well-thought-out business plan, a coffee shop is an ideal establishment that will remain in demand. Even if you don't have the money for an expensive restaurant, a coffee shop where the check can be around two dollars is a good substitute.

Opening a coffee shop will require considerable initial investments, which will include the purchase of furniture, equipment and materials, lease and repair.

If you are already firmly convinced, then the business of your life is a coffee shop, a business plan with well-thought-out stages of all organizational moments - this is where you should start.

Well, let's start with the staff. All the items that you may need are listed here, although some of them are optional, or they can be combined.

1. barista;
2. Cook;
3. Dishwasher;
4. Cleaning woman;
5. Waiter;
6. manager (manager);
7. Accountant;
8. Security guard;

It is most often offered to organize a work in two shifts, but you are not limited in choice: if the institution does not open very early and does not close too late, then workers can be recruited with the expectation of one shift. But, nevertheless, the best option is two.

Coffee houses are rarely round-the-clock establishments, but if you decide to arrange work from dawn to dusk, then, accordingly, you will need more staff.

The next cost item is rent. Any advice here is completely useless. The cost of rent depends on many factors, ranging from the presence of a working wiring and ending with the state of the real estate market. The only thing I can talk about is the types of rent, and they have already been mentioned above.

Materials:

For the floor, you can use porcelain tiles (satin tiles are perfect) and self-leveling floors made of polymer concrete. If the entrance area is separated, then in the hall itself you can use carpet, laminate flooring, homogeneous linoleum or the same polymer concrete and porcelain stoneware.

For walls, paint and decorative paper-plastic panels are preferably chosen. In addition, decorative stone is often used with imitation of different coatings, plaster (stone, pebble, bark beetle, Venetian, decorative concrete, etc.), less often, but still there are wallpapers (polyvinyl chloride, bamboo and "liquid").

For the entrance area, you can pick up a clinker facing brick, or simply paint a brick on a load-bearing wall without additional coating.

A two-chamber double-glazed window is advised, if you choose the option with imitation wood, it will greatly decorate your establishment, but, accordingly, it will cost more.

The prices are given from online stores of building materials, as this is one of the most profitable options for you. For a wider choice, here is the difference between the most expensive and the cheapest option on the site:

1. Wallpaper: $2 - $73 per roll.
2. Decorative plaster: 7 - 105 dollars per bucket.
3. Porcelain tiles (for floors): 4 - 82 dollars per square meter.
4. Decorative panels: 8 - 16 dollars per square meter.
5. Double-glazed window: 18 - 46 dollars per square meter.
6. Ceiling and wall paint: 1.5 - 100 dollars per liter.
7. Plinth (wood/plastic): $0.5 - $11 per meter.
8. Clinker facing brick: 0.1 - $ 4 per piece.
9. Portland cement: 0.04 - 0.09 dollars per kilogram when purchased in bulk.
10. Stretch ceiling: 3 - 25 dollars per square meter.
11. Armstrong (suspended ceiling): 2.5 - 10 dollars per square meter.
12. Bulk floor (polymer concrete): 0.15 - 10 dollars per kilogram.

I won’t give prices for furniture, because even on the site they have a huge spread and it’s easy to choose something for your wallet. In addition, you can save even more if you buy used furniture (second-hand).

From what you may need: a chair, a table for four, a table for two, a counter, an armchair, a sofa, a lamp on the ceiling, a wall lamp, curtains (Roman, roller, Japanese, fabric), blinds, a tablecloth.

Technics

The required amount of equipment will depend on your menu and organization of work. You can cook only coffee in the coffee shop itself, and order ready-made sandwiches and desserts, or add homemade dishes and fresh pastries to the menu.

From the necessary things you can buy for the kitchen: stove, oven, waffle iron, blender, microwave, refrigerator, yogurt maker, ice cream maker, sandwich maker; for the hall: a coffee machine, a showcase-refrigerator, an audio system, a TV and a Wi-Fi router.

Profitability.

Well, now let's talk about a little more pleasant things - about your future earnings. Let's try to calculate the minimum profit that you can get from a small coffee shop.

Suppose our coffee shop has five tables of four seats, two of two, and six more seats at the counter by the window. Total: thirty people - the maximum that we can accept at the same time. But you should not be limited to this, you can add the “coffee to go” service and then you will have a constant flow of customers. But we will take the idea without changes for now.

Profitability is calculated from fifty percent fullness of the hall. But for you - this is the minimum. We will still come out of a more positive indicator of eighty percent fullness. This is more typical for a small establishment in the city center. On certain days, this figure can reach all one hundred percent, but it is difficult to calculate this. In restaurants and bars, these days are weekends and holidays, but in coffee houses the influx is high even on weekdays. Thus, we will allocate ten days a month for one hundred percent fullness.

Next, let's talk about prices. They will be different for different types and portion sizes. However, most still choose medium portions. Let the average mug of coffee cost 0.7 dollars (small - 0.5, and large - 1). More than half of all visitors will order something for coffee. Let the cost of one dessert be in the range of 0.5 - 1.5 dollars and let half of all visitors order dessert for themselves (although in reality there may usually be more of them).

What do we get?

30x0.8x20=480 - visitors per month on ordinary days.

30х1х10=300 – visitors per month on peak days.

780 visitors per month (minimum).

390 - only coffee will be ordered.

390 - Will order coffee and dessert.

390x0.7 + 390x(0.7+1)= $936 – minimum total monthly income.

Of course, if the location is chosen well, then your profit will be many times higher.

The payback of the coffee house will, first of all, depend on the initial investments, but if they were low, then the institution will fully pay off in less than a year.

Summing up everything written above: in order to open a coffee shop, you need to analyze the target audience and the market for such establishments, draw up a business plan, determine the location, complete all the necessary documents, make repairs and equip the premises, hire attendants and stock up on great patience.

What could be nicer than drinking a morning cup of aromatic coffee with a delicious croissant in a small cozy coffee shop? Enjoy the smell of coffee and fresh pastries, have a leisurely conversation and enjoy the unique atmosphere... And how nice it must be to be the owner of such a coffee establishment. Do you want to become one? Let's figure out how to open a coffee shop and what this pleasure will cost.

Create a concept

So, first of all, it is necessary to decide on the concept of the future coffee shop. Will it only serve coffee and desserts? Will you offer visitors the opportunity to have a tasty and inexpensive meal, for example, a business lunch? Will you make alcoholic cocktails or add liqueurs and cognac to your coffee? Will it be a place for coffee lovers or a quick coffee to go? Maybe you have some original idea of ​​your own?

Another point to think about. If the idea came to your mind to open a coffee shop under the “wing” of some well-known chain, having bought a franchise from it, then you will need to find a suitable premises and invest a certain amount in the contract. Everything else the franchisor will help you organize. But then it will no longer be your own "brainchild". No changes to the "corporate style", product range and service model at will, most likely, will not be possible.

It is much more pleasant to open your own coffee shop from scratch, think over the interior to the smallest detail and create a unique atmosphere and cozy atmosphere in it. Of course, creating a coffee shop "with your own face" is a costly business, but it's worth it.

Prepare the necessary documents

You should start creating a business by choosing an organizational form of activity. It could be or. Register a company by submitting an application and the necessary documents to the tax office.

To start working in the optimal tax regime, you need to notify the tax authorities immediately after registering the company about the transition to a special tax regime. For a coffee shop, a scheme (if possible in your area) or a “simplified” one is suitable. If you think that it will be more profitable for you, keep in mind that only 5 days are given from the date of registration of the organization to apply for the transition to this system. In this case, it is better to choose the “income minus expenses” object as the tax base, since the expenses in your coffee shop will be large.

In the tax office, it is also necessary to conclude an agreement for the maintenance of KKM with a licensed organization.

If you plan to sell alcohol, apply for a retail license to the territorial department of the consumer market. Please note that a license is not issued to individual entrepreneurs. Keep this in mind when choosing the legal form of your organization.

At the next stage, it is necessary to draw up a set of permits and sanitary-epidemiological documents. Their list is established by legislative acts and regulatory documents of Rospotrebnadzor (“Rules for the indication of services in the field of catering”, the Federal Law “On the sanitary and epidemiological welfare of the population” and others).

The list of documents required for opening and operating a coffee shop includes:

• conclusion of SES and OGPS on the premises;
• contracts with utility providers;
• PPK (industrial sanitary control program);
• an agreement with SES for disinsection, disinfection and deratization;
• contract for the removal of solid waste and organic waste;
• contract for the destruction of mercury-containing lamps;
• an agreement for the disinfection of the ventilation system, if a coffee shop is opened in a residential building;
• an agreement with a laundry (dry cleaning) for washing the uniforms of employees and table textiles;
• consumer stand;
• documents regulating the activities of catering facilities;
• internal sanitary documents (Journals of accounting for disinfectants, waste disposal, etc.);
• security contract.

Find and refurbish a space

The coffee shop must be located in a very busy place. Best of all in a business or student area, close to major transport stations or railway stations, in a large shopping center. A quiet residential neighborhood should not even be considered as an option: the coffee shop will pay off only with high attendance.

The requirements of the sanitary and fire services for the premises of a coffee shop do not differ from the requirements for other catering establishments.

You can open a mini-coffee house on an area of ​​​​50 sq.m, for a larger scale you need 100-150 sq.m, of which allocate enough space for preparing drinks and trading, separated from the hall by a showcase or bar counter.

Bringing the premises to the current sanitary and hygienic and fire safety standards, the requirements of the licensing authority (in the case of the sale of alcohol) is carried out during the repair. Preliminarily coordinate the redevelopment project with the interested authorities (SES, fire supervision, architectural bureau). Based on these approvals, you can obtain a permit document from the local interdepartmental commission.

Interior renovation is a very important part of the preparation of the premises. The design should match the concept of the coffee shop. For example, minimalism is welcomed for the take-away coffee format and high-tech design is more suitable, for a mini-coffee house - a cozy home environment. The interior should have a corporate identity that distinguishes your coffee shop from any other. A coffee house is a fairly democratic institution, so you can show a fair amount of imagination in its design.

Select furniture and purchase equipment

Of course, the furniture must obey the general concept. For guests, you will need tables and chairs, as an option, comfortable sofas or ottomans, according to the number of seats. Provide a place for outerwear, preferably next to each table if these are wall hangers, or one hanger-rack for several adjacent tables. Interior items, designed in a common style, will give your coffee shop coziness and individual "zest".

Decorate the coffee brewing place with a bar counter or a beautiful showcase for baking. Don't forget to buy the right utensils. Each type of coffee is served in its own special cups.

Equipment for the kitchen and coffee preparation is quite an expensive item in the coffee shop business plan. Since your guests will be coffee connoisseurs, you won’t be able to save on the quality of coffee equipment. Each type of bean needs its own grinder. It is possible to conclude an exclusive agreement with a coffee supplier on the condition of providing you with a coffee machine or a professional coffee grinder for use.

So, you will need:

• refrigerators and freezers;
• coffee machine and several coffee grinders, mixer, juicer;
• microwave and oven for baking;
• cash register, mobile terminals for waiters;
• necessary furniture for the kitchen.

Hire and train staff

A lot depends on the staff of the coffee shop. What's the use of your "magical" atmosphere and expensive design if the waiters are slow and the barista brews tasteless coffee.

If you do not have your own production, this will make the task somewhat easier. It will only be necessary to establish relations with suppliers of semi-finished products and finished baking. If a kitchen is planned, cooks and a technologist will be needed.

To work in the hall, look for waiters and organize training for them. It will depend on their fast and high-quality work whether the guests of your coffee shop want to return to you again.

Specialists in brewing coffee - a barista, must be in a coffee shop, otherwise you will not have a coffee shop, but just an ordinary cafe. Unlike bartenders, who may not be present in a coffee shop if the volume of work on bottling alcoholic beverages and preparing cocktails is planned to be small.

You can maintain cleanliness in a coffee shop with the help of cleaners, or you can offer one of the employees to perform this function for an additional fee.

If you do not plan to manage the process of your coffee shop yourself, then take a competent manager. An accountant can be invited to come.

Let's calculate how much it costs to open a coffee shop

The cost of opening a coffee shop depends on its format, the range of services provided, and the cost of rent.

For example, opening a mini-coffee shop for 8 tables without own production will cost at least 1.3 - 1.5 million rubles.

This amount includes: rental of premises, repairs, paperwork, obtaining permits - about 1 million rubles. Equipment, furniture, dishes - another 300 - 500 thousand rubles. Monthly costs will amount to at least 250 thousand rubles.

A coffee house for 20 tables and with your own kitchen will cost you at least 5-6 million rubles.

Registration of a company, rental of premises, preparation and implementation of redevelopment, obtaining approvals and licenses may well take up to six months and require about 1.8 - 2 million rubles. Furniture and equipment will cost approximately 2.6 million rubles, since organizing your own production is quite expensive due to the purchase of all kinds of equipment and special furniture. With a competent approach, your expenses for the kitchen will pay off quickly: the mark-up for pastries can reach up to 600%, for snacks and salads - 250-350%. Your staff costs, rent and utility bills, current expenses will amount to about 1 million rubles per month.

In addition, it is necessary to provide for an advertising budget in the amount of 30-50 thousand rubles. It is better to single out your target audience (employees of the business center, students, visitors to the shopping center) and direct efforts to promote your establishment to them purposefully, without wasting time and money on a full-scale advertising campaign. It is unlikely that someone will travel from the other end of the city to drink coffee in your coffee shop, but for visitors from the adjacent area, it may well become the most favorite place where you can have a bite to eat, “sit out” a free couple, chat with friends.

In addition to the above figures for total costs, it is worth adding about 30% more reserve funds for contingencies and project financing in the first 1-2 years of operation.

How soon will your coffee shop pay off? Expect that the markup in a coffee shop is much higher than in ordinary cafes, but the average bill is much less - about 150-200 rubles. Everything will depend on the activity of visitors. Keep in mind that some guests will sit for a long time with one cup of coffee, talking with table neighbors, or “hanging out” on their laptop or tablet. Therefore, in a very busy place, ensure that there are enough seats in order to constantly maintain a turnover of customers.

The average payback period for a coffee shop is 1-3 years.

• Do not try to save on the quality of coffee and equipment for its preparation.
• Pay special attention to the staff. Employees are the face of your coffee shop.
• The style of the coffee house should be maintained in everything: music, menus, napkins, staff uniforms. Your own style is your "calling card" and your pride.
• Focus more on female taste, women go to coffee shops more often.
• Make a zone of free Wi-Fi, provide sockets for charging devices.
• Equip a small children's room.
• Remember that the best advertising is word of mouth. Treat your visitors as your dearest guests and they will keep coming back to you.

As you know, I worked in Cian. Cyan is the largest website for renting and selling real estate in Russia. When you have a treasury of diamonds at hand, you constantly willy-nilly look at these sparkling pebbles from afar or close.

Over the weekend, I got a hobby - I spent hours flipping through the pages of the site and studying offers for renting and buying real estate from all categories: from grandmother's sheds on Sadovoye to commercial space and ready-made businesses.

Once I was lucky - I saw an advertisement for the sale of small pavilions in a business center under construction on Baumanskaya. The price was suspiciously low for such a chic place and unspeakably high for my wallet, because I just bought myself a new building, which I am currently renovating.

I called a friend: “Denis, buy a room. Let's open a coffee shop there. Office plankton drinks coffee all the time, the cost of a glass of slurry is 12-18 rubles, they sell for 150 and more. Think for yourself, this is a goldmine! And he took and bought.

They decided that I put my mind, strength and activity. Denis is money.

Before that, I had never had offline businesses, but I read the cool book “Business as a Game” from the creators of Mosigra (this book is definitely the fastest and most fun way to learn about the main stones when opening something offline) and thought that nothing there is no complicated.

I came up with the concept: “Coffee from around the world”, . And I thought that in my coffee point there would be all the most beautiful and, yep, craft.

The first thing that bothered me was that a coffee shop needed equipment, and I had no idea what kind. I didn't want to buy the wrong thing and waste my money. Therefore, I decided that I needed a consultant for the purchase of equipment. Barista manager. I posted job ads on several sites, wrote who I needed, with what experience and competencies. People started calling. I weeded out twenty people at the stage of the first calls, negotiations to send me a resume and an interview. I invited eight people to the office of Denis's company, talked and realized that you can't make coffee with such people. One seemed reasonable. He said that he worked in large companies, he opened the network himself. His name was Eugene. In fact, Eugene was given carte blanche to create an ideal workplace for himself.

I won’t go into details, I’ll just say that in two weeks it turned out that Evgeny’s entire work experience was a fiction, and the only thing he was capable of was googling and sending me pages of sections of sites with equipment with the words “choose a coffee machine here” . In short, we broke up. And I decided to go the other way. And I signed up for a three-hour master class with a title like “how to open a coffee shop”, where I learned everything that I needed (now I can conduct such myself).

Here are some useful things from there:
- you can not buy any equipment at all, but rent it from a tea and coffee company (provided that you become their hostage and then buy only their products. Which, in general, is not bad and allows you to save a lot at the start),
— the best coffee machines and coffee grinders are made in Italy. But for a coffee grinder it is unprincipled and you can take any.
- all magazines (for SanPin inspections, etc.) and consumer corners can be bought as a ready-made kit on the Internet, from there invite people to fill in and check this rubbish necessary for the state. For the first three years, no one has the right to check you at all, you are considered a coffee startup, but in Russia everyone wanted to shit on the ban on taking fees from a novice entrepreneur, so they will come to you as soon as they find out about your existence.
- coffee that is roasted in Russia (buying beans in Brazil and other countries suitable for this) is shit, but such beans are fresher than imported ones. Since only a month must pass after roasting for the beans to be considered fresh and of high quality,
- real Arabica, which is so valued in Europe, is not very popular in Russia. Since it is not so tasty and rich smells and gives sourness. Therefore, for us, Arabica is badlyated with Robusta (it is cheaper, but it smells awesome) - in different proportions, starting from 15 percent of Robusta and reaching up to 30.
- almost everyone buys desserts and other buns frozen, at special food factories, in coffee houses they only warm up and add syrups.
A lot of little things, a la: all the strong coffee smells in coffee shops are created by special flavors from cans, Starbucks and others sin with this. Or about which coffee shops use high-quality coffee and cool coffee machines (DoubleBee, McDuck) or search for it by country, bring it and roast it (DoubleBee). The fact that the carob coffee machine gives the best settings for the taste of coffee (Craft coffee houses), and the automatic machine (McDuck) reduces the preparation time.

After the master class, I had complete clarity on the equipment in my head. I decided to buy it (I don’t like to depend on anyone and be in any bondage). And in a week I bought everything I needed: a coffee machine, a coffee grinder, a small refrigerator for milk and perishable food (you can take any cheap, unprincipled one), a cash register (now everything should be fiscal, with an Internet connection for transferring data to the tax office. It is MANDATORY necessary register and verify). Agreed on a boiler for hot water (for tea and other drinks). And installed a CCTV camera to monitor the process.

I ordered a furniture rack in Bryansk (cheaper, but the mentality there is peculiar - they moved the deadlines for the readiness of the rack 3 times and postponed delivery 2 times, and then I had to redo something), and I drew the sketch myself, crawling around the room with a tape measure (it should be taken into account all the nuances of arranging the equipment to make it convenient, and little things like the length of the cords of the machines). It should be noted that here you need to have at least a general idea of ​​​​the work of a barista, because an inconveniently placed coffee machine reduces the speed of the process several times, increases the loss of coffee (was spilled, spilled) and aroma (it took a long time to carry the horn from the coffee grinder to the coffee machine) and affects the mood clients of the coffee point, hurrying about their business.

Then I began to look for a supplier of coffee and tea and found the simply amazing company TeaCo. When they tell me now that in Russia there are no well-functioning companies with great service, approach to clients and clear logistics of all processes, I cite them as an example - THERE IS. They are really very cool and it was an unreal thrill to work with them! Firstly, they hold free master classes on proper coffee brewing. I went to it and in 2 hours I learned how to brew coffee on a carob coffee machine, learned everything about the types and varieties of coffee, won a lot of test bags with grains (learning takes place in the form of a game and competitions), chose the varieties of tea I needed. And agreed to rent a boiler. And that they will set up my coffee grinder and coffee machine for the optimal coffee preparation modes (the taste of the drink, and the aroma, and its saturation depend on the size of the particles when grinding the beans). The correct energy consumption and service life depend on the settings of the coffee machine. Secondly, they sell really cool raw materials. Thirdly, as a bonus to the coffee I bought, they gave me tea pairs of good design and sold portioned sugar at a significant discount (however, if you ask tea and coffee companies for a discount, they ALWAYS give it either in money or in the necessary small things).

Properly brew coffee on a cone like this:
With quick and clear movements, the horn is substituted for the coffee grinder (it works automatically when the lever is pressed), at the same time water is poured into the coffee machine (it must be placed next to the coffee grinder), then the horn is inserted into the coffee machine and boiling water passes through the grinding for no longer than 15-30 seconds. I see now that many do not pour boiling water, pouring not very hot water from the pipes of the coffee machine into your cup - the taste of the drink suffers. If you drink coffee with milk and syrups, then this can be neglected - you will not feel the nuances of taste.

I started looking for a barista.
She did it this way - she invited everyone adequate by telephone to a coffee shop, asked about the experience and told the conditions, and then asked “to treat the security guards of the business center with coffee.” My simple request led some to a stupor. They stood and looked at me with an expression of “What? Are you out of your mind?” or “What? How to do it?". We said goodbye to such people, I needed a sweet, smiling and courageous person who would establish contact with people and sell easily and cheerfully (it is repeat customers that make up the backbone of coffee points revenue). Some didn’t like the work schedule (I wanted to open early to catch those who just came to work) or the conditions (they wanted to receive more than the average price for a barista in the market (40 tyr per month)).

Then I found the girl Lisa. She said that she was studying, but she was going to “solve this issue”, that she really needed a job, and then she approached the guards and kindly asked what kind of coffee they wanted. I cooked it properly and gave it to them with a smile. I rejoiced.

Lisa was delighted that everything was ready for work. She said that she was ready to go out right tomorrow and start working, that she was glad that everything was new (equipment), excellent (conditions) and good (everything else, including me).

Lisa wrote down my second number and said that she would add it to WhatsApp in the evening, on the eve of going to work, she came with me to the subway and said "see you tomorrow, Ekaterina."
And for tomorrow, first I turned off all the phones and did not answer messages in WhatsApp. Then I read the WhatsApp and did not respond to SMS. I was worried that Lisa suddenly fell ill, slipped or twisted her leg. There is such ice on the street (we opened a year ago). Right wow! Something happened to Lisa. But no. Lisa read the messages and was silent. Lisa never called back or answered.
I decided that I needed to change my approach again. Freaked out. And she scammed a smiling and talkative barista from another establishment.

With him, we bought the missing little things (rubber mat for the cone, ice cream spoons, Monin syrups, household chemicals, everything else) and opened. Two months later, we went into profit, and then I took up other things, transferring control of the coffee shop to Denis completely.

What I took away from this experience:
1. Brewing coffee in small coffee pots is profitable, but the margin of the business as a whole is not very high (from 100 to 300 tyr per month).
2. Revenue VERY strongly depends on the place and traffic (read the book “Business as a Game”, there is more about choosing a place).
3. It is better to own the premises. If you buy it at the construction stage of a business center, then at the end you get real estate that costs about 2 times higher than the original one. But there is a risk that the business center will not be fully occupied, then the passability will be very different from the desired one.
4. In any business center there is a management company, and you need to know the degree of its fucked up right away. For example, they won’t let you make repairs normally (only at inconvenient times, they won’t help with disconnecting or connecting communications), they will set high Internet tariffs, prohibit branding your own premises to your taste, give a low overall voltage to the power grid, or they won’t let you down water and divert the drain. Or they will rent out the next room to someone who wants to become your competitor (it’s good to evaluate the degree of fuckedness of a person who shoves his coffee pot over the wall away from you, but this is impossible).
5. People must be searched carefully and their adequacy must be checked immediately, and skills - albeit in an impromptu, but “in the field”.
6. It is worth going to master classes on general issues and on brewing coffee, brewing and choosing tea. This is very useful, and will facilitate the search for staff in the future.
7. It is better to agree on shares with a partner right away and document it in as much detail as possible (what is not written is not there). Think over Plan B right away - if things don’t work out, then everyone’s efforts will cost so much.
8. Offline business is a pain, but the experience is interesting. Maybe I'll do it again sometime.
9. At work, in any business, . Save your nerves, time and money. It is checked up repeatedly in different situations and employment.
10. Interesting ideas and dreams about the ideal design and concept can actually be broken by the physical dimensions of the room and the surrounding reality. And in general, it's not always bad.
11. The barista is very fond of cheating your money, not breaking the check (this will set you up before the tax audit), or buying cups on their own (accounting is kept on them, other methods are unreliable). Therefore, glasses need to be branded and clearly counted.
12. The margins of tea and other drinks are higher, but they are bought much less often than coffee.

If you have any questions - ask, I will answer, I will supplement the post. It was not possible to write about everything at once.