How many customers a day?

[ktanenbaum]

My husband and I are currently doing research on and assembling a business plan for opening a coffee shop-type walk-in location. I say "coffee shop-type" because we want to include sodas, energy drinks and other caffinated beverages in addition to the standard coffee and tea offerings. We have started to flesh out our plan with numbers for rent, equipment, supplies, inventory, payroll and all the rest of the "outgoing" money flow. The one thing we are missing is good way to judge how to anticipate the "incoming" money. How many people can you expect on a good day? How much will each of them spend? We are looking at setting up in a downtown location with a fair amount of foot traffic, and we want a large space that encourages sitting around chatting, studying, etc. Does anyone have any insight into the number of people required to keep a business like this going?
Thanks,
Karen

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[Java Rocks Tony]

My husband and I are currently doing research on and assembling a business plan for opening a coffee shop-type walk-in location. I say "coffee shop-type" because we want to include sodas, energy drinks and other caffinated beverages in addition to the standard coffee and tea offerings. We have started to flesh out our plan with numbers for rent, equipment, supplies, inventory, payroll and all the rest of the "outgoing" money flow. The one thing we are missing is good way to judge how to anticipate the "incoming" money. How many people can you expect on a good day? How much will each of them spend? We are looking at setting up in a downtown location with a fair amount of foot traffic, and we want a large space that encourages sitting around chatting, studying, etc. Does anyone have any insight into the number of people required to keep a business like this going?
Thanks,
Karen

i am not sure if i am going to answer this the way you may need, cause maybe I am misinterpreting your intent of ur post, but here it goes....! (sorry)

there is no adequate way I am aware of to guess how much each person will spend other than guess. that's pretty much what a pro-forma cash flow is: guesswork and estimates. u need to base them though on relevance, such as an average "daily" expected sales volume, which in turn would be based on traffic counts, u'd get from observing the proposed location. yes, observe at all times of day and evening, as thought that u might be open and u'll see what the "walk-in/walk-by" traffic would be like.

again, a "good day" as u ask, is going to be an estimate so make the good day estimate conservative for purposes of the buseness plan and pro-forma cash flow. make it as close to breaking even or just under (in the red) a tad to show u won't be profitable as a new business. then slowly increase your sales by about 2-3% monthly for the 1st 6 mos and more aggressively thereafter. show about 3 yrs projected cashflow if you are going for a biz loan. bankers love that.

i think u r on the right track but I would reccommend thinking of "people u need" as "cash flow need". don't worry about how many people u r going to get, just worry about money via sales. the easiest way to do what u want is very blatant and bare bones: u have to figure what all your expenses are, preferably monthly, and divide that by 30 (average) and that result by 7 (or how many days u plan to be opn weekly) and that is what u need to make at minimum to break even daily.

that was the easy part. now u need to get them inside and pay u to give them gourmet coffee. for the most part, the coffee and other offerings will sell itself; u just need to let them know ur there. sinage is probably just as important as location, and your name and signage needs to be coffee friendly (ie Java this, Coffee House that etc.) Make sure ur name reflects coffee, java, or coffee house. that is very important! get involved in city and club meetings, get ur name out with the shop's name and be friendly, and most of all patient.

i hope this helped some!

[Java Rocks Tony]

i should clarify that for me, on a "good Day" as I have learned, ishould have made a profit. does that make better sense?