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?

If you want to work for yourself it seems much more sensible to me for you to work in a similar sector to your current role, or at least in a sector where your skills are relevant. Even then, working for yourself is hard work, far longer hours than your productive time (think invoicing, bookkeeping, VAT returns, marketing - all carried out outside billable hours).
A coffee shop is harder still - endless trips to the cash and carry, baking, cleaning, dealing with environmental health.
And childcare could be a nightmare. What happens when they're sick or during school holidays?
Don't give up your dream of being self employed. But do spend time (months or even years) working out what and how before giving up your lucrative job.

I see those mobile coffee shop folk freezing their asses off at festivals or shopping precincts and it doesn't seem like much of a dream to indulge in alongside a full-time job with tiny kids. Maybe there's some big draw I'm missing, but think OP would be better off going down to 3 or 4 days if poss, enjoying the DC till they're in school and using that time/headspace to develop a fuller sense of and practical plan for experience/training in what she really wants to do next.

That is still an expensive option, you need around 100k to get set up initially so it is a big start up cost

It's a bit like the question "How do you end up with a £1M Farm, start with a £2M one..."

Break it down into manageable steps, learn to do all of the things that make for a good coffee shop first. Learn to make excellent coffee, to bake, to fry a mean bacon sandwich, etc. Then spend a fair bit of time learning to be exceptionally clean and pass your Food Hygiene qualifications. Keep going, then add in a bit of work experience and then see if you still want to do it.

I'd go part-time at your job, you'll still make more money probably.

I love working in cafes and can bake but it killed my feet, even only doing a couple of hours a week in a community cafe. But never say never, people told me 20+ years not to do the thing I did but I'm retired now and very comfortable, practical jobs are great if you don't mind the drugery!

Sit down with a piece of paper

cost of
annual rent
annual heating bills
paying cook,
paying childminder

how much profit on a coffee
a cake
a tea

how many can be seated

by visiting other cafes how busy will you be in any hour in the morning,
lunchtime
afternoon

do some assessments using estimates

A mum local to me has done this on mat leave, she opened it just after she gave birth; it looks terribly hard doing it with young kids, she has one in primary and a newborn. She shares a lot of the ins/outs on her insta.

What I’m saying is so many people on here and in person assume most people are middle class like them, or concerned about the best taste, atmosphere, supporting independents, etc when in reality most people in this country are working class and think stuff like greggs is delicious, including me.

I’d wonder why the chains aren’t already there if it was a profitable site. Without sounding like an arse, if your high st only has Greggs and Dominoes it’s indicative of poorer clientele who don’t have the £7 for a cappuccino and slice of red velvet each week.

My high st has Costa, Nero, Starbucks, Gails plus three independents - that’s where you want to be!

Blunt, but 100%.

What's her insta id please?

Because I am an optimist and try to do difficult things. That's a useful skill. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes not

Oh gosh! Had no idea. Maybe OP better off looking into setting up an online business of some sort using social media or apps. Either way, I do agree the coffee shop idea is probably not viable then. What a shame.

I took redundancy during covid and worked in a new local coffee shop. It didn’t do very well. They blamed covid, but in reality they just weren’t great at running a coffee shop. They bought everything in, so it was hard to make a profit. While I furloughed I taught myself to bake decent cakes myself. I had my horse trailer converted and six months later I opened a little coffee/cake/toastie kiosk on our farm. I’ve been going four years and have made a salary for myself each year. Not a huge one, probably equivalent to what I would earn working in someone else’s cafe, but I like being my own boss and can work it around caring for my mum. It is hard work and unsociable hours. I only open weekends and school holidays, as these are my busiest times. So it wouldn’t be great with a young family. I kept mine small so I don’t have employees, but I therefore do all the organising, shopping, book keeping and baking myself. I’m pretty quick at it now, but it took a lot of time in the early stages. I do enjoy it, I have lovely regular customers. But it’s not necessarily the easy life people think it is. Costs are nearly three times what they were when I started.

No way

Ok. My husband has owned several hospitality businesses, including a coffee shop.
Basically it only worked for him because he has years of experience, as a chef, a waiter, a restaurant manager and an operations manager.
He can do everything himself, and did, aside from one kitchen helper. He stayed under the VAT threshold, bakes, cooks and can serve customers faster than anyone I’ve ever seen.
It’s exhausting, and it has an impact on family life. He never wanted to take holidays, or any time off. He was up at 5 am and at work by 6.30. Closed fairly early but then there’s prep, cleaning, paperwork.
He knows the ins and outs of permits and rates, and bought equipment second hand.
Anyone trying to do this business without all of that knowledge and skill is going to lose their shirt.
He’s doing something else now, thank God!

Opening a coffee shop was my childhood dream but when I properly looked in to it because clear that it is not a business that can easily be combined with family life. Peak periods of early mornings, weekend sand bank holidays were all times I wanted to be present for the kids and not working. And no matter how a worked the numbers it always ended up with my needing to be at least on call for busy periods which is not something I wanted to commit to.
A child in my son's class has parents who run a coffee shop. They cant afford staff so it's just throw of them working all hours under the sun and the kids is pretty much either in school, at the coffee shop or playing in the park behind the shop. Very little family time and not the kind of life I want either for myself or for my kids.

I’d be sourcing someone that makes homemade cakes, many bakers will make for cafes - plus you could use 2/3 differsources. That way you don’t have to employee anyone at added expense of NI and PAYE

I read an article after covid
A man was sleeping in his coffee shop, because he could not afford to travel to & from home. He was doing the baking himself. The electricity costs had gone sky high; costs of ingredients had increased. He was weeks away from closing his business.

Your job paying 70k seems well paid & much less hassle, so I would stick with that.

Even Pizza Hut are struggling, a well known brand

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gj7g8931no

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c7787gp5xmvo

Been there, done that and survived to tell the tale! No way would I do it now! We sold our business at the start of the COL crisis when consumer habits were just starting to change. The people who bought the business were convinced that with a few tweaks they could keep it profitable (they approached us to sell - we were just going to close it down). They went bust within a year. The lease was taken over by another business who have also failed - too few customers willing to pay 'independent' prices and the price of gas and electricity is way higher than for domestic customers. The average profit for a cafe is currently 5 - 7% and if you can get over 10% it's amazing. It takes about 3 years to get into profit if the business can survive that long..... I prefer to support independent cafes and restaurants but as they don't have the financial backing that the chains have (very few of which are profitable but they have huge loans keeping them afloat) they are going under at an alarming rate. Customers don't have enough spare cash, independents can't compete on price with chains, and it's bloody expensive to run a hospitality business.

Do you have the capital to fund for at least the first year?

Is your area business friendly? Also, how's the foot traffic where you're looking at? How's parking?

Do you have a viable business plan and have you gone over it with a professional? What salary are you going to pay your employees and yourself, when do you expect to turn a profit?

How's the cost of commercial equipment, licenses, insurance, and permits where you are? If you're providing food like cakes and baked goods, will you be installing commercial baking equipment on site or buying from bakers who bake in commercial kitchens, not a home job.

Are you prepared to spend most of your time there and not at home?

Have you worked in the food service industry for any length of time? Do you have contacts in the industry?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx29e2g3zwyo

Near where I live they are building another huge chain drive through only coffee place

I literally could not imagine a worse time, economically speaking, to start such a venture. There is a very good reason why there are empty shops available.

Sorry OP

What happens if you are ill ?

What happens if you want holidays ?

Your staff will need the above too