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

Most people start thinking about starting their own business sooner or later. Everyone chooses his own direction depending on the possibilities, interests, desires and finances, of course. Some people prefer the coffee business, which is much more than just selling coffee to customers. Let's analyze this company, its capabilities, pros and cons, etc.

First you have to decide which branch of the coffee business you are going to be involved in: It could be a coffee shop, an online coffee shop, a restaurant, or anything else that is coffee related or has nothing to do with coffee. Of course, your business must be primarily coffee oriented, otherwise you should not be reading the following information which is outlined below.

Second, but no less important than deciding which direction to take, is finding a good spot. Yes, this is the real key to a successful business. You will not always be able to prepare good food or drink, but in a good place you will not lack customers. A good location should be located in a crowded area with heavy foot traffic and large buildings with a large number of people working, studying and living there. A big plus is a place with good car parking - the drivers will all be your customers.

Third, do not forget about design. Some people do not notice the surroundings and visit such places just to drink a cup of natural bean coffee, chat with friends and relax. But let's face it: one of the main reasons for us to visit the place is its design. I will not deny - I go to a certain restaurant, mainly because I love their style, and I am not going to change them to any other place in the world.

However, a simple design will not save you from bankruptcy when your establishment has poor service. So you need to hire a good manager who will train your staff to be polite, quick and inconspicuous, or train them yourself.

Good cuisine is another important reason why most people visit some places more than others. When I told you about my favorite restaurant, I didn't talk about the most important reason why I still visit this place. The answer to this lies in its great food and drink. A simple design is not enough for regular customers. They eat and drink while talking - why they like it, I don't know, but I guess it's our human nature.

So, now you already know some basic principles and are ready to start your own coffee business. Don't be discouraged when it doesn't start successfully from the start. Be patient and work hard - and one day you will reap the fruits of your labor.

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:

The 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 - related products, most often various desserts.

To diversify the menu, add items 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 is very good if in the first month you can go to zero, but in the future, with the expansion of the assortment and promotion of the outlet 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.

Coffeemania has swept the entire planet. Many people prefer this particular tonic and fragrant drink, forgetting about the usual teas, cocoa and other hot drinks.

In this regard, selling coffee is now very profitable. How can you build your business on the second most popular consumer product? Consider the most promising options for coffee business.

So, in order for anyone to have the opportunity to buy or sell coffee, the raw material itself is necessary. That is, whole or ground coffee beans, as well as their soluble equivalent.

Do not forget about those who like the taste of coffee, but for some reason they cannot afford to drink this drink (allergies, hypertension, increased nervous excitability, etc.). For them, you can offer coffee substitutes.

Most often, these are dried and crushed parts of any plants: chicory, dandelions, oak, baobab, rye, barley, beets. This is a separate segment of the coffee market, because the demand for this product is directly related to its ability to imitate the taste of coffee beans.

Engaging in the sale of coffee raw materials, that is, directly selling coffee as such, is perhaps one thing. Because everyone needs beans or coffee powder: coffee drinks sellers, home-made coffee lovers, and coffee machine owners.

The sale of coffee can be organized even via the Internet. Including offering people a subscription to a monthly purchase of various unusual varieties of coffee.

After all, in fact, the coffee assortment is very rich and varied. Ideally, you need your own online store.

The next most popular today is selling through. Here, in general, everything is extremely simple.

It is enough to purchase or rent an automatic device for the retail sale of hot drinks. It can be selling only coffee or an integrated option: (cocoa, hot chocolate, jelly, powdered milk, etc.).

Next, you need to look for a room with high traffic (hypermarket, office building, educational institution) and agree with the administration on the lease of a small plot of it. Believe me, a hot coffee drink (especially in the cold season and in the morning) is in great demand.

Putting such machines right on the street is unsafe, and not cost-effective. A person still wants to sit somewhere or at least hide from prying eyes in order to calmly drink coffee.

Agree, it is not very pleasant to do it directly on the street. Especially in cold windy winters.

If you settled on coffee machines, then at least equip some tables with chairs next to them.

Thus, you will simultaneously show concern for customers, increasing their loyalty to you. And increase your sales volumes, because it is the lack of convenience that deters many from buying coffee from street machines.

Maintenance of coffee machines consists in the daily replenishment of water, coffee raw materials and other consumables. With good sales per day, the most popular types of coffee drink are almost completely consumed.

As for the coffee business, they are either less popular or require more organizational and financial arrangements. Therefore, it is easiest to sell coffee today in these two ways.

In terms of investment: a new vending machine for selling hot drinks costs at least about 200,000 rubles. And 1 kg of coffee at retail can be purchased at a cost of 800 rubles (wholesale, of course, cheaper)

90% of people are sure that opening coffee to go is easy. On the one hand, they are right. The only clarification is that it is simple and easy to open coffee to go only if you know how to do it correctly. Despite the fact that in appearance the coffee to go format seems simple, like any other business, ignorance of the subtleties and nuances can turn a profitable and promising business idea into a loss-making enterprise that works to zero and sucks out the last pennies.

To avoid such a situation, you need to know where to start and what stages of the business should be given utmost attention.

For example, you need to start by defining the target audience for coffee to go. By asking yourself who will buy your coffee, you will be able to adjust the design, strategy and concept of your small business to the needs and requests, interests and desires of specific people - your future customers.

The target audience of coffee to go is mainly young people from 18 to 24 years old. In 70% of cases, they are girls.

Students, young professionals, lower-level managers - these are your potential customers. They appreciate low prices, friendly service, efficiency and social activity. Of course, older people should not be discounted either, there are coffee-to-go fans among people over 50. But to be honest, answer yourself the question, how many of these fans will walk past your coffee to go every day and how many of them will consider buying?

But it is precisely the number of people passing by, coupled with their “quality” (belonging to the target audience) that is the key to the success of the coffee to go point. Finding a place like this is half the battle for coffee to go.

However, do not forget about another important fact for the coffee to go business. This is the taste and quality of the coffee itself. If you prepare delicious invigorating drinks, then they will come back to you, they will recommend you to friends and acquaintances. So you can ensure that spontaneous purchases will be reduced, and the number of regular customers will increase.

We will talk about all these subtleties and other important little things further.

Investment size

Opening a take-away coffee shop can be considered a business with little investment. According to the experience of entrepreneurs who have opened their own take-away coffee points, you can meet 200 thousand rubles, and the upper limit of the starting capital is unlikely to exceed 400 thousand rubles.

This difference in initial capital is explained by the wide opportunities to save.

Of course, the amount of funds needed to start will largely depend on several large expenses, without which it is simply impossible to open a coffee point with you. The first is rent, which we'll talk about a little later. Secondly, the equipment.

Takeaway coffee machines

If the flow of customers depends on the choice of the rental place, then the ability of the point to quickly and efficiently serve this flow will depend on the equipment on which you will prepare coffee.

Professional coffee machine and grinder - the main means of preparing and selling coffee to go.

It makes no sense to put a home or even a super-automatic coffee machine on the point of coffee to go. Firstly, such equipment will not be able to provide the required quality of the product, and secondly, it is not designed for continuous and uninterrupted operation. And if the coffee machine breaks down, you will no longer sell a single cup of coffee. Remember, the miser pays twice: time spent, money lost.

That is why many entrepreneurs are trying to buy high-quality, foreign equipment, the cost of which can be 150, and 250 thousand rubles, or more. If you don’t have that kind of money, but working on professional equipment is still a priority for you, equipment rental or the purchase of used coffee machines comes to the rescue.

Usually, coffee equipment for rent (even free of charge) is provided by coffee bean suppliers, subject to the purchase of a certain amount of coffee from them. At the same time, they also advise on the selection of the necessary list of equipment depending on the expected scope of work (for example, one- or two-chamber coffee machines) and provide maintenance and repair of equipment. However, even in the case of free rent, many companies require a security deposit - from 20 to 50 thousand rubles.

As for used equipment, it will take no more than 100 thousand rubles to buy it.

What else will you have to spend on?

You will also have to spend money on a sales stand or the design of a rented kiosk. Naturally, when designing the appearance of a coffee to go point, you need to pay attention to the fact that it attracts attention and attracts glances. The appearance should cause a reflex desire to drink coffee or tea. The name on the sign should not subtly hint that an invigorating drink is being poured here, but shout about it so that a person at first glance understands that you are offering coffee, and not selling donuts or SIM cards...

Returning to the investments required to open a coffee-to-go business, it is also worth mentioning all sorts of little things, which are nevertheless important for comfortable work without failures and overlaps.

Purchase of consumables for the preparation of a variety of coffee drinks - milk, toppings and syrups; additional assortment - snacks, sweets and snacks; purchase of disposable cups, lids, spoons; purchase of bar equipment.

By the way, there is an option to save on the purchase of consumables - for example, disposable tableware, if you can cooperate with other coffee-to-go owners who buy non-branded cups.

Step-by-step instruction

Having calculated the required amount of investment in the coffee to go business, it's time to take action.

For starters, legalize the business. It would be best to register yourself as an individual entrepreneur and submit an application to the tax office about choosing a UTII taxation system. This tax will allow you to pay less due to the lack of employees and the small rented area on which activities are carried out. Taking into account the minimum required area of ​​a coffee-to-go outlet of several square meters, you will pay an average tax of about 3,000 rubles. In addition, for individual entrepreneurs on UTII, a cash register is not required, which means that you can issue a check only on demand using a conventional CPM (check printing machine).

The OKVED code for the coffee to go business is 55.30 “Activities of restaurants and cafes”.

Despite this OKVED, you do not need to obtain any permits, since there is no full-fledged kitchen, which means that there is nothing for the supervisory authorities to check. All that is required of you is to notify Rospotrebnadzor of the start of activities. It is worth waiting for checks from the SES only if complaints appear. If you're lucky, you won't have your first audition meeting until three years later.

Attention to the workplace

You should also take care of ordering a sales rack in advance. It will take at least two weeks to design and manufacture. Provided that you already have a selected rental location.

The very process of installing a counter, bar or kiosk equipment can also cause difficulties and problems that will entail the postponement of the date of the planned opening.

In advance, for example, you need to take care of proper energy supply. If it is not there, you will have to call an electrician and conduct an additional line, which will need to be agreed with the landlord. Therefore, all issues related to electricity, heating or water supply must be resolved at the stage of signing the lease. At the same time, the contract itself should not be concluded for a long time: your expectations about traffic may be erroneous and in practice the pedestrian flow will not be converted into buyers and customers...

From coffee to cookies: how to choose a supplier?

Naturally, in parallel, you need to look for suppliers of consumables and raw materials.

And first of all, it is necessary to decide on the supplier of coffee beans. If your customers don't like your coffee, all is lost. Delicious coffee is one of the main components of the success of the coffee to go business. There are a huge number of varieties of coffee that suppliers can offer. Both your own taste and the advice of the suppliers themselves, and analysis of competitors will help you navigate the choice.

If you buy your own coffee equipment, you will not be dependent on a particular coffee supplier and the range of varieties offered can be much wider.

Find out if your chosen variety is suitable for classic coffee drinks, as it is on the usual espresso, latte, cappuccino, americano and mochachino that you will specialize. The volume of the initial purchase will depend on the conditions under which you sign a contract with the supplier, whether you will rent equipment, etc. No need to be afraid of numbers of 10 kg or more.

A small 200 ml cup of coffee takes 9 g of coffee, and 18 g for a 400 ml cup.

Thus, the purchased 10 kg of coffee will go to just over 1100 small cups of coffee. At the same time, a working point of coffee with you in a passable place sells much more per month.

In addition to the coffee card, it is necessary to draw up a menu and a list of additional assortment. Will you sell various chocolates and sweets, or maybe ready-made sandwiches or even pastries?

If the answer to this question is yes, you should look for profitable suppliers or partners who could provide you with the required amount of products, usually not too much. You can buy chocolates or oatmeal cookies at wholesale markets and bases, as well as at stores such as Metro, Lenta and Auchan.

Of course, coffee as a drink will remain the main component for a coffee to go point, and various sweets and “snacks” are needed more likely only to increase the average check and customer convenience. You can hardly make money on chocolates or pastries. Still, the margin on the resale of someone else's products is small.

In general, the volume of additional assortment does not exceed 5-7% of the turnover.

The assortment of snacks and additions to coffee will change - some positions will disappear, others will be added. It is definitely necessary to experiment with the assortment, but only when the work of the outlet stabilizes and the changes do not entail a sharp decline in revenue.

Barista for coffee to go

An important factor in the success of the take-away coffee shop is the professionalism and competence of the barista. This person should not only prepare delicious coffee, but also properly serve customers, communicate with them, be able to resell, thereby increasing the average bill. With the search and hiring of such a person, certain difficulties may arise both at the launch stage and at the first time of working coffee with you.

When opening their first coffee-to-go outlet, entrepreneurs often personally stand behind the counter and serve their first customers, working 12-hour days without days off and lunch. But such work on two fronts quickly drains. In any case, an entrepreneur will need a shift or a full-time employee. At the same time, hiring a professional barista is not always possible. Basically, young people who do not have the slightest idea of ​​​​how to properly prepare coffee respond to the vacancy of a barista at a coffee point with them. She is attracted by flexible hours, hourly pay, etc.

Careless young coffee baristas bring their friends to work so they don't get bored. And instead of working, they arrange a farce.

A feature of working with the staff of the coffee point to go is a large turnover of staff - which will stop only when you hire the right person - friendly, honest, hardworking and responsible, who, moreover, will quickly master the art of making delicious and high-quality coffee. Agree, such people, especially young ones, are rare today ...

Therefore, the future owner of coffee to go at first will have the task of finding and training a reliable person who can replace you at the counter. Subsequently, if you do not stop at opening one point of coffee with you, the need for employees will increase. Therefore, it is necessary to immediately determine the stages of selection and training of employees, as well as develop a shift schedule, a system of motivation and control.

One of the barista motivation options is bonuses or bonuses for overfulfillment of the sales plan and the absence of comments (a percentage of the total revenue or a percentage of each coffee sold in excess of the plan).

But even the motivation system does not insure against unscrupulous workers who do not go to their shift, arrange a booth at the point, or simply treat work superficially. The owner of coffee to go is faced with the acute issue of control of an employee or shift.

Alternatively, you can install a surveillance camera at the coffee-to-go point and thus monitor the employee online.

Regardless of which option you choose to work with the staff - a stick or a carrot - when opening a coffee point with you, be prepared that at any moment you will be forced to personally stand at the counter and work as a barista.

If you are planning to open a take-away coffee point, be aware that all your profits will depend primarily on the location. At the same time, choosing the right location for a coffee to go point can be one big problem.

A couple of years ago, when no one heard anything about coffee to go, landlords, especially large shopping and business centers, did not understand how coffee could be prepared on three square meters and refused to rent. Today, almost all the tidbits in more or less large shopping centers and business centers have long been occupied.

However, the rental market is quite competitive and involves a change of tenants. It's just a matter of price. If you have found a tasty place, but it is occupied, you should start negotiations with the owner or the rental department, find out the rental rate and offer to pay more, or convince that your coffee shop can generate additional traffic and attract a certain audience.

By the way, you can open a coffee point with you not only in megacities, where the lifestyle pushes people to do everything on the run, including drinking coffee, but also in small towns. Moreover, it is even easier to find a profitable place for coffee to go in a small town - there are fewer points with high pedestrian traffic in small towns, which means that the probability of choosing an unsuccessful place is reduced.

However, it is still quite easy to make a mistake with the choice of a rental place for a coffee point with you. It often happens that a location seems to have high traffic, but its quality can only be assessed by starting to work. For example, it may turn out that there is simply no target audience among the traffic passing by. Or the point itself is not located in the flow of people, as it should, but “around the corner”.

When considering locations for coffee to go, you don’t need to limit yourself to rental options in shopping or business centers.

An advantageous place can be, for example, in a construction hypermarket.

Of course, the most profitable is rent in shopping and entertainment centers. Business centers are also promising, but they are more susceptible to the impact of economic changes and can be empty in two or three months, leaving a point of coffee with you without a single customer. Take-away coffee points do not always take root at public transport stops and in underground passages, which, it would seem, are characterized by high pedestrian traffic. Another conversation is if you can rent a kiosk in the "glass" format near universities, on the main pedestrian streets of the city or in the business center.

Remember, the economic performance of the coffee to go point will largely depend on the place of rent and the rent. For example, the influence of the season on the amount of profit received will depend on the place of rent. If you rent a kiosk near the university, expect a drop in sales during the holidays. Any other street kiosk will also depend on weather conditions. Rain or frost does not contribute to the desire to linger on the street to order even a warming coffee. Therefore, when considering places like locations, consider and plan your expenses in advance so as not to go into the red.

Opening checklist

Is it profitable to open

If you think that by opening a coffee point with you, you will make a profit of hundreds of thousands of rubles, we are in a hurry to disappoint you. The average monthly profit of one point rarely exceeds 100 thousand rubles and on average varies from 40 to 80 thousand. In the first month of work, you are unlikely to be able to go even to zero. Nevertheless, with the coincidence of positive factors and tireless work both on the assortment and on promotion, even one point can reach a profit of 140 thousand rubles.

This amount of profit from one point of coffee to go is explained by the fact that despite the fact that the cost of a cup of coffee is 30-40% of the price, its profitability is only about 20%. Most of the proceeds are eaten up by rent, which, in turn, is the key to greater profits - a vicious circle.

To recoup the rent and the cost of consumables, the coffee shop needs to sell 30 to 60 cups of coffee per day. Only after this amount, each next sold cup of coffee will bring 60-70% of net profit.

Another thing is when you open not one point, but several at once or gradually open points one after another. In this case, you can achieve a good profit, several times higher than the mark of 100 thousand, with 3-4 points and a good manager. Moreover, coffee-to-go outlets located in different places will balance the total revenue, compensating for sales dips in one of the outlets. For example, a peak in coffee-to-go sales in a shopping mall over the weekend will offset the zero revenue of an outlet in a business center.

In any case, when opening a coffee to go business, you need to understand that, on the one hand, coffee to go as a product is characterized by one-time, spontaneous or even reflex purchases, but, as many owners of such a business say, it is regular customers who provide stable revenue.

It is possible to earn the trust and loyalty of customers with the help of many factors, such as friendly service, various bonus programs (for example, when buying a cup of cappuccino in 400 ml oatmeal cookies as a gift), promotions (“The sixth coffee as a gift”), activity in social networks and etc.

And if you want to become the owner of a profitable coffee-to-go business and make even one of your outlets profitable, you need to do more than just prepare delicious and high-quality coffee in the right place. Now in the conditions of intense competition, when coffee is pouring from every door with you, you need to rely on service and marketing, work with the menu and assortment. If you love this business with all your heart and put your strength and soul into it, you will succeed!

Hot drinks always sell well, no matter what season it is - summer or winter. By organizing this business now, you get excellent prospects for the future and the opportunity to constantly make a profit and develop your business.

Selling coffee as a business involves making huge profits. In ordinary coffee houses in Moscow, the cost of 30 ml of espresso is 90 rubles. Despite the fact that this drink is the lowest marginal, coffee shops have 300% of net profit from it.

If the drink is diluted with milk or water, then the profit from one cup increases to 1000% and sometimes even more. At the same time, prices for this drink are rising, but no one in this industry still complains about the lack of customers, so it is quite logical to say that business ideas for small businesses that involve the sale of hot coffee promise great prospects. Coffee is the best example of proper pricing.

The nuances of the business of selling coffee

When trying to start making money selling coffee, remember that you need to start with a low-margin product, the price of which should be the average market. The cost of one cup of espresso at 20 rubles looks quite true, taking into account all the additional costs. It is easy to see that coffee houses make excellent money even on one espresso, despite the fact that their visitors sometimes sit at the same table for several hours, drinking just one cup of hot drink. There are not very many such customers, but they still exist, and in order to increase profits, coffee shops use cross selling. In fact, this is a tool that is used almost everywhere, including ordinary stores, and thanks to it, the establishment significantly increases its profits by selling related products. It works as follows: the client makes an order for coffee, and the waiter offers him a delicious pie or cupcake for a drink. 80% of customers agree, thereby increasing the average bill. Do you have related offers for clients? If not, be sure to develop them.

Cross-selling is, of course, effective, but there are other tools in coffee shops that allow you to increase the net profit from the sale of one drink several times more. The fact is that real professionals work here to install different price levels for goods, which practically do not differ from each other in terms of cost. For example, the price of an espresso is 90 rubles; americano - 140 rubles. The only difference between these drinks is the amount of water (in Americano it is 150 grams more). A cappuccino in this case costs 200 rubles, but it differs only in the amount of milk in the amount of 15 rubles.

At the same time, price increases are usually accompanied by a change in the entire menu. New offers, main dishes are added. As for cappuccino, espresso and americano, these drinks always remain on the menu, because. are the most popular, but their cost increases slightly at this moment - against the backdrop of changes, the price increase is imperceptible. Sometimes coffee houses try to get additional income by reducing the quality of coffee (in this case, the profit from one cup can even be 1200%). This is achieved in different ways: you can buy cheap beans, you can simply not add coffee to a drink, use tea leaves a second time, etc. This cannot be done, since such actions are fraught with the loss of customers and negative feedback from them. As a result, selling coffee as a business will not bring the profits that you could receive without compromising on quality.

Although there is a lot of competition in this business, this idea deserves a try. Consider this market in your city and determine where the coffee shop will be advantageously located.