Costs...

[olsone1818]

Hello -

I am working on a business plan and had a couple of questions. I hope some of you veterans can help shed some light?

1) How accurate is this potential sales mix? We are located in the Pacific Northwest.
50.0% - Coffee Beverages
25.0% - Non-Coffee Beverages
10.0% - Food
10.0% - Bakery
3.0% - Bottled Drinks & Misc
3.0% - Whole Bean Sales

2) I know it varies depending on where you live...but, what are the avg. month costs of utilities. Right now I have budgeted $1,600 a month. How is that?

3) What is the monthly cost of Insurance?

4) And lastly, what kind of growth rate % were people seeing in their first couple years of business?

Thank you everyone in advance for your help! It's nice to have the support of a group like this!

 

[caffe biscotto]

Erik,

John P replied to your similar question last week, here is the link:
http://www.coffeeforums.com/viewtopic.p ... ght=#31234

Now, while some will recommend that you stick to what you know best, coffee, I would like to add that sometimes it's better to diversify. If you're able to manage diversity that is. Offer something unique to your area.

There's a local 200 acre vegetable farm here that would have been put out of business a long time ago by the newer super markets that moved into the area.
They began to add things to their farm that would attract a larger customer base. In addition to their produce, they started raising free range chickens, started a fully operational bakery (which I helped to get off the ground), and put more emphasis into their greenhouse by adding a larger variety of flowers.

Regarding your questions, you could try a "search" in the forum, using keywords such as:
utilities -
insurance -
cogs -
growth rate -
% coffee sales -

Good luck and Welcome to Coffeeforums!