Business plan - Need some help

[JohnDoe]

Dear Forum members

I am planning to start a coffee shop, and I am writing my business plan at the moment. I believe that I can make the coffee shop profitable, because there are no direct competitors in the shopping centre where I am planning the establishment.

However; I am totally new to this. I’ve never run a coffee shop before; I just love coffee.

I therefore have some basic questions to which I am hoping you knowledgeable forum members could provide me with some answers. I’ve been searching the Internet before writing these questions, but I have not found all the answers.

1. Localization. The coffee shop will be located in a large shopping centre where there is a constant flow of customers throughout the day. I am living in Scandinavia, and here are some basic statistics about the shopping centre:

a. 4,8 to 5 million visitors each year
b. Sales in 2009 were 298 million dollars
c. 112 shops
d. 4, 5 percent of the total sales were within food and drinks

The centre is open from 09-09, and we are hoping to get a separate entrance, so that we will be able to run the shop until 11, and also on Sundays.

Based on this – and you experiences with coffee shops - do you have any estimate related to how many customers will enter the shop each day? Are there any formulas to calculate this approximately?

2. Raw material, i.e. coffee and tea. Do you have any idea related to in which amounts, and how often I will have to order this? What will I need as a staring inventory? What are normal prices? I will have a wide assortment of espresso based drinks, regular coffee, tea and maybe some coffee that the customers can buy and take home for preparation on their own.

3. A third concern of mine is the equipment I will need. I’ve compiled this list so far:

Spoons,
Tea Machine
Ice Maker
Steel Mugs
Tampere = ???
Storage Refrigerator
Under Counter Refrigerator
Freezer
Waffle Irons
Dish Washer
Compartment Sink
Hand Sink
Cooling Bench
Cash Register eller
Point of Sale System
Signs for the shop
Radio System
Credit Card Machine
Uniforms
Barista-/Espresso Machine
Semi Automatic or
Automatic or
Super Automatic
Other Coffee Machines
Manual Grinder Other Coffee
Manual Grinder Espresso
Bulk Coffee Grinder
Coffee Maker Drip

Am I missing a lot essential stuff here?

Thanks.

 

[ElPugDiablo]

1) How may of those 4,8 to 5 million visitors will walk pass your front door? Once you know that than try to figure out what percentage of this demographic will stop in and make a purchase? You can find that out by visiting similar shopping centers and count how many people walk by a similar coffee shop and how many people go in and make a purchase.

Once you know 1, 2 and 3 is easy to figure out.

 

[Mr Shave]

Traffic-
I can't speak for malls in Scandinavia, but in the US the anchor stores (big department stores) are the sales and traffic drivers for the mall. Do you know what stores you will be next to?
I would take a location next to an anchor store, opposed to a store in the middle of the mall with an outside entrance.

Raw materials-
Have you picked a roaster yet? What are their minimums? How long will it take you to get the product? Are you going to be selling retail coffee and tea?

 

[TonyDiCorpo]

I 2nd with ElPug...you need to know your anticipated customer pattern in order to plan a pro-forma. A good way to to do this is to actually go and watch the traffic as it passes your (future) door. Count, write and repeat. You should do this at all hour peak intervals: 6a-930a (peak morning), 10a-2p (lunch) and 4p-8p (evening commute into event and entertainment seekers). Then you will know what hours you should be open and how to plan your shifts, menu, prep times and pars.

 

[JimmyBlanner]

It is good to start a shop of cofee,i appreciate you for this and i encourage as well,i would like to suggest you to use promotional cups of your business name and market your business via other promotional products as well such as pens,usb,bags e.t.c.