Leaving a good paying job for opening a coffee shop

[Goingindrain]

There's a shop which is empty at my local high street and there are 3 restaurants and shops like Greggs, cake shop and dominos but no coffee shop where people can have a sit down grab a coffee and cake.
I am a working mum of 2 little kids - 1 and 4 years old. I earn more than 70k and have a good pension. I have been working for over 15 years and have opportunities to go up in the career ladder.
I feel like my priorities have changed so much after having kids.
Problem is I am not a baker myself so I will have to employ people. My work gives me flexibility but I want to run a business. I am into Tech so no experience of this.
Should I still consider it or scrap?

Haha, no thanks

Read the work threads on here OP to see what some employees complain of. They’re human, they get ill and have babies. As you know yourself. I think you’re looking at this a bit with sunshine and rainbows. Tread carefully and beware.

Go and lay down in a quiet dark room for a while.
Hopefully this crazy idea will go away.

It’s a lovely idea OP, but unfortunately I think area dependent it would likely fail.

There have been 2 little coffee & cake shops try to start up in our little town over the last 5 years, there is a Greggs there and honestly Greggs completely kills them off. Their coffee & cakes have been much nicer, better quality, than Greggs BUT Greggs is cheaper and more convenient. There are some people of course who want a nice sit down coffee and are prepared to pay the premium for that but the majority of coffee shop customers (at least where we are) just want something quick, decent and cheap so Greggs win that business every time.

A really nice coffee shop has opened near me, they are busy most days, and packed at the weekend. I do a bit of work for them and they told me they made the grand total of 2k in profit in their first year… tread very carefully!!

I disagree!

I think opening a coffee shop, especially when you're not already in the industry, is a very efficient way to go bankrupt.

Don't do it.

think of something you can start evenings/weekends while keeping your current job.

What would you think if someone said they were going to start a tech business with no experience, but thought it would be a nice change?

If you want to start your own business start from your strengths, what sort of business could you run successfully with the experience you have? Would you need a shop premises to work from or just an office at home, think realistically not romantically. Your own business doing something you know run from home working the hours to fit around your children would be much more realistic and might even make money and lead to bigger things.

I can't think of any kind of small high street shop that has much potential for making money these days. And anything to do with serving food and drink has all sorts of extra hurdles.

Dont give up your day job as they say.

I can understand you wanting to work for yourself. I always did. But I began my antiques business as a side hustle and expanded after I got my state pension. Making money in hospitality is hard as other posters have pointed out. The start costs are so high and margins are narrow. Best to find some side hustle which suits you and work outwards from there.

£70k is a good salary. If you walk away from it you will likely struggle to ever get back to that amount as the job market is tough at the minute.
Are you putting the maximum into your pension and saving as much as you can?
What is it you really dislike about your job? If it’s lack of time can you go condensed or reduce hours ( going down to 4 days a week will cost a lot less than giving it up to run a coffee shop).

It is a big risk and you will need to get a business plan and investigate risks etc
Can you afford to take the risk?
You are currently in a well paid flexible job right now which is extremely fortunate when you have young children.
I am not in any way business minded but it sounds a great idea
Best of luck if you decide to go ahead.

To make a coffee shop wash its face let alone turn a profit you will need to work every hour God sends. It’s not for the faint hearted especially with small kids.

The price of coffee beans has gone up hugely over the last 12 months, NI and minimum wage, utilities, business rates etc - you need to go into it with your eyes firmly held open.

I’d expect school holidays, weekends and bank holidays to be the main chances to make money and the most likely days where you’re called into the shop by staff because of problems. (I’m assuming that your corporate job is weekdays only)

I don’t think that 70k is enough to pay others to run the business for you while you work the corporate job. Costs like minimum wage, rent and utilities are only going to increase faster than people’s appetites for increasingly expensive coffee and cake.

Greggs don’t sell great coffee, they sell coffee that’s ok and is cheap to buy. I’d much rather pay slightly more for a nicer product however not everyone thinks like that. Greggs would be your competition. You’d have to be bringing in quite a lot each month to cover rent, bills, staff, insurances, stock, equipment and everything else that goes with it plus enough to make a profit and pay yourself. If you’ve got a good location it can work but it has to be a good location with plenty of passing people otherwise it won’t work

Exactly, and I’m sure yours would be even nicer but sad fact is people mostly love cheap and branded

It is great coffee, especially the flavoured ones. Most people I know go there.

Just wanted to give you a pat on the back for having the ambition to want to do this, @Goingindrain . I used to work in a small food business (didn’t own it, though) many years ago and it was bloody hard work.

I do have a favourite coffee-shop near me which sounds very much the sort of thing you’re aiming at. Small, but very friendly and offers great coffee, snack-type food, bought-in pastries - they don’t make their own cakes but we have some excellent craft bakeries nearby and they buy in from those. It’s a busy little place, often packed out, and they do other things in the evenings so open later a few nights.

But….there’s always a but. The owners are really energetic, proactive and great at moving things forwards, yet I overheard one of them talking to a customer who'd dropped in for the first time and asked outright whether they were making money. The answer - no. They’re just kind of holding their own. And this is after several years now. And there are 4 other coffee-shop type places in the same (not very long) street.

I know of someone else locally who started up a casual diner place but managed somehow to also keep her very good job (with excellent pension benefits) at a well-known company in London….tbh I wouldn’t give up that income and pension if I could help it. Sorry ☹️

Just adding to the chorus of “no! Don’t do it!”. I go into my nearest town every couple of months. It is a busy place and there is plenty of money swilling around yet every time I go it seems a coffee shop has either just opened, rebranded/shifted its emphasis/reduced opening hours to stay in business or just shut down. The only one that has outlived the independent coffee shops and two chain coffee shops is the one that has been in the town since 1962 and is more of a tea shop that has slightly unwillingly become a coffee shop in the morning before wheeling out a lunch menu of prawn cocktail and Black Forest Gateau and then happily reverting to a tea shop in the afternoon. That business is in an historic building which is a pull in its own right and has space for a lot of covers.

It seems to me that wanting to set up a coffee shop is a bit like the romantic idea of years ago that I remember my parents’ generation romanticising, ‘we’d like to run a country pub when we retire’. The couple who did achieve this dream bankrupted themselves (and that was in more bouyant times).

The only person I know who has a cafe pays herself less per hour than the six formers who help her, in fact I think she generally can’t pay herself at all. It’s an absolute headache, huge staffing problems, energy bills, massive hours (not including the paperwork) and low spending customers. She’s desperate to off-load it. Use the skills you have for something else @Goingindrain!

I know people who have done it and failed (and they were excellent bakers, mostly staffed it themselves and offered some food).

I wouldn't do it, cost are sky high. I can't begin to imagine the number of coffees and cakes you would have to sell just to break even.

Oh and lots of people will say they will come to a coffee shop, it doesn't mean they actually will.

If you don't need the £70k a year it's a great idea. You'd be lucky if you hit a profit in year three. I'd suggest you get a job as a manager of a coffee shop for 18 months and spend that time working out if it would be worth it.

I set up a bricks and mortar high street business just short of a decade ago, so yes it can work, but am I earning £70k a year? Certainly not. Did I leave an established well paid stable job to do it? No. Am I called when I'm trying to enjoy a birthday meal with family because a pipe has burst? Yes I am, I was in a crawl space on Sunday morning with a torch between my teeth looking for a dead rat.

Stick with the pension and the holidays.

We did this nearly 40 tears ago. I had been off work for a few years while tge children were pre school, we had been moved by DHs company to the SE. At the time DD was due to start school my DF in the NW had a stroke, the beginning of a 30 year decline until he died. DH had recently been promoted, well paid job with good prospects, but not particularly happy. We sold up,moved North, used the equity plus a mortgage and bank loan to buy a small house near DF and start a franchised business selling art and framing. It was tough, and less financially rewarding than previous jobs, but I could take time off whenever needed for school events and out of school activities. We gave up 5 weeks holiday for one week if we were lucky, weekend working, and the security of regular salary every month. But. Not once in 30 years did we wake up, dreading going into work. One bit of advice if you go ahead, set up as a limited company and try to get any leases in the company name without a personal guarantee, this means you wont have to sell your house should it not work out. Good luck, its hard work but very rewarding.

I am realising after reading these responses that it's not a good idea. I should may be focus on my job and kids and count my blessings. Thanks all!

Should I still consider it or scrap?

Have you actually considered a business in any realistic sense or are you just throwing out an idea?

Saying in effect 'My priorities have changed with children but I want to run a business' is scant information for anyone to form an opinion, other than negatively.

Have you considered the mobile coffee shop idea someone earlier suggested? You could maybe look at that instead? Maybe I am a dreamer too but it's sad when people have an idea and they are forced to just forget about it! 😔

OP before investing in your own coffee shop I'd suggest the following.

• Get a job as a batista in a coffee shop and see how you find actually working in that kind of environment
• See if you can do a "pop up" coffee shop in someone else's premises. Some coffee shops are closed on weekends, for example, and will let you hire the place out. You could try this to help build up your brand, before jumping in with your own place.
• Watch all the coffee shop videos you can on YouTube- ESPECIALLY the ones where they talk about why their coffee shop business failed. You will get invaluable insights into both how the industry works, and what attracts customers/drives them away

Most people I know that go there go because it’s cheap and is ok coffee. If you’ve like it that’s fair enough everyone has different tastes