New venture

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C

chet

Free Member
Jul 5, 2006
15
0
Nottingham
  • #1
    Hi all I'm Martyn and from Nottingham, I have just been made redundant and looking to invest my redundancy money into a coffee shop
    I hope to gain a lot of information from these forums which will help me along the way, I would also like to hear from others who are in the same industry

    Thanks

    Chet
     
    K

    Kaltons Solicitors

  • #2
    Hello Chet

    Welcome to the boards.

    If you want any help in setting up a coffee business, let me know.

    I personally have a lot of experience dealing with setting up shops, not only from a legal perspective but from a personal perspective after having worked closely with my parents businesses which involved a sandwich shop and a coffee shop in different areas.

    Let me know if I can help you with anything.

    Kind Regards
    Arif


    KALTONS SOLICITORS
    0207 7278 1817
     
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    C

    creospace

  • #9
    Hi Chet,

    Whereabouts in notts are you from, I used to live in Long Eaton and still have a lot of friends in notts.

    A coffee shop is a great business to open but also competitive. I've partially studied the reason for succes of coffee shops from a sociological point of view. It's quite interesting and the reason why in our current culture I know how and why they work if you get the inside right.

    and part time i'm a web developer :)

    Gary
     
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    C

    chet

    Free Member
    Jul 5, 2006
    15
    0
    Nottingham
  • #10
    Thanks all for the welcome

    creospace I'm from Clifton, I was in Long Eaton today looking for a location, but it looks like I missed the boat where ever I look, there are always at least 6 outlets that sell espresso, if there room for one more? who knows and I guess that is where the risk comes in

    Chet
     
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    E

    eshopcreator

  • #15
    Hi Martin

    You will find www.yorkcoffeesystems.com very helpful, they are members on here, we provide their online shop for them and I am sure they will be able to advise and assist you.

    The guy you need to speak to is Peter Dawson, Val Whittall or Jim Ball there. They will give you good advice and assisatance.

    All the best with your new venture and welcome to the forums
     
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    C

    chompy

  • #18
    :) Hello and Congratulations on Your New Venture;
    I hope you do really well. If it was up to me, everyone would flourish and go above what they expected.
    We have a new venture going, as well. We have just finished a site we've been working on for months. A lot of time and effort has gone into it. It took months to finish. It was designed to be a one-stop shop for patrons. A little of just about everything is on it. New clothing shops and things for men should be added soon. A portion of proceeds will benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. No, it's not to just draw people. We have always wanted to help those kids, and it seems, have never had the funds to do it. There's a special place in my heart for this particular charity, though we will be featuring different ones at times.

    The name of the site is: Ultimate Affiliate Site. I hope I've posted this according to rules. If not, please tell me, and I won't do it anymore. If interested, please contact me through this forum.

    Thanks and God Bless,
    chompy;)
     
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    B

    Boccabar

  • #20
    I opened my own coffee and sandwich bar in Northampton last November so I could give you lots of advice?

    The first and most important one is make sure you are fit and healthy! It is very hard work and do not under estimate this!

    We have found that sales can be so unpredictable due to weather and this damn credit crunch so setting yourself up to do business buffets, parties etc is essential. Personally we decided to use premium bread in all our buffets and you would be surprised how many clients we have won over by doing something so simple. It seems the majority of caterers use value bread to keep the costs down but their customers now come to us!

    Get a very good coffee supplier. The margins on coffee is so good that you would be greedy to pick the cheapest option - especially if you have local competition. If you have better coffee than the others then you will do well.

    It took us about 5 months to find some decent baguettes and paninis - I could help you with this and save you some time!

    Get a jacket potato oven. They can cost up to about £200 but it will pay for itself in no time!

    Find some very good cakes too.

    A sandwich delivery van can make very large profits. If you can accomodate this into your start up budget I would reccomend it. A rough guide is between 400 - 500 per day for each van (once you have an established route). However a sandwich van can cost you upto 10 grand so its a big investment. We realised this too late and are in a bit of catch 22 with it. We need the van to really push the business forward and make us some money but need the money for the van!!

    It has taken us about 6 months to be tinkering on our breakeven point for weekly sales but we are in a poor location but have the benefit of no competition. We are on an estate with 30 businesses and 1600 houses, we are the only coffee shop but no-one can find our shop!

    If you are interested in making a less risky investment we are considering selling a % of our business in order to push the outside catering and sandwich rounds. Or if you just want some advice on figures or anything else then let me know.

    Cheers

    James Shipley
    07958 497 507
     
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