Talk me through setting up a cafe!

[gruffalocrumbley]

As the title suggests I have always wanted to run my own cafe and I'm trying to figure out how exactly you would go about setting up a brand new business. I literally have no idea where to start. It's just an idea at the moment and it may come to nothing so give me all the positives as well as negatives! I know that almost all new businesses fold within the first few years and it's deffo not going to make me rich but I have a few ideas of how I would make my place appeal to a certain target market and I feel there is a need in my area!
If anyone has any experience or advice they would like to share I'd be eternally grateful!

Thanks!

The first thing to realise is that it’s a business like any other. What business skills do you have? What do you know about food hygiene? Managing cash flow? Managing staff? Pitching your business to a lender?

Because that’s what you need to be hot on before you start thinking about what colour you’re going to paint the walls or what type of cake you’re going to sell.

Have you visited any trade fairs? Would be a good place to start.

Have you done a catering course ? Or worked in a cafe before ?

One of my best friends spent seven years running one of the most popular cafes in a small tourist town. She has just given up the lease because she couldn’t make it turn her a living wage, let alone make her rich - and she came to it with a decade’s worth of restaurant management experience and an accountancy qualification.

Plan, plan and plan some more. Draw up a Business Strategy. Do market research. Visit every cafe in your town and see what they’re doing. What would you have that they don’t?

You’d need to be able to do all job roles excellently, because you will need to cover for a chef, baristas, etc. regularly, and you can’t manage employees if you don’t know what their job involves.
I’ve worked in a very similar industry for 20yrs and wouldn’t be a manager or owner for anything. Absolute nightmare.

Your LA should have free short business courses that help you write a business plan. Sign up for one. Writing the plan is your chance to see if your idea is viable or not and will help you pull together everything you need.
FWIW cafes are notoriously difficult to get right, even though the margins on food are high.

Have a Google of "Mumsnet setting up a cafe". It's a surprisingly common thread. The following are just some of the many results.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3437791-To-wonder-how-easy-it-is-to-make-a-living-being-a-cafe-owner

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/work/2130966-Dreaming-of-opening-up-a-cafe-what-first-steps-should-I-take

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/going_back_to_work/146110-any-advice-on-setting-up-a-cafe-general-small-business

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/work/2513398-Starting-a-cafe-advice-needed

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/parenting/2415117-Advice-please-opening-a-Play-Cafe?pg=2

I'd take a short course at your local adult education centre about small businesses. Have you worked in a cafe? Or retail?
Do not underestimate the start up costs. Do a proper and realistic business plan. Unless taking over an existing cafe you will have to find a shopfront, make sure it is rated for a cafe, sign a lease for X months, refit it out, do a hygiene course, get a rating, get whatever certificates for selling/preparing food, source suppliers, hire staff, get your tax situation sorted etc etc. Outside of start up costs you should have at least six months savings to tide you over personally as you will be the last person to be paid, and may not take a salary let alone profit at all for some time (and may make a loss initially). I'd also try and find a partner to help financially and labour wise - unless you plan on being in the cafe every hour it is open plus extra to do ordering/paperwork/prep etc. Staffing will be one of your biggest headaches.