Suggestions for New Management

[Zazzgirl]

We are looking for a partner to run a previous tenants coffeeshop in our building soon.

Good location, small/med size space- about 1000 SF in toto, good neighborhood support, great traffic count. Bad management, lack of bus experience and undercapitalization, lack of personal attention seem to have been the downfall of the previous person. It was a small time operation as far as coffee equipment was concerned- very inexpensive machines. Food wise-They did some cold sandwiches and salads & store bought pastries. Not too imaginative and not requiring much specialized equipment.

Any suggestions for locating good potential operators/partners and structuring some sort of plan for running the operations? We are committed to serving this neighborhood with a coffeeshop/cafe in this space but we have other business interests that we must attend to personally. Any advice appreciated.

Thanks!!
Zazzgirl

 

[Zazzgirl]

We are looking for a partner to run a previous tenants coffeeshop in our building soon.

Any suggestions for locating good potential operators/partners and structuring some sort of plan for running the operations? We are committed to serving this neighborhood with a coffeeshop/cafe

Thanks!!
Zazzgirl

BTW- We are in St Louis, MO

 

[dant]

If it were me, I would visit other cafes in your area, find one that you really like and then see if they would be interested in partnering with you in your space.

Maybe it sounds obvious but you can tell if a place is well managed on the basis of the experience you have as a customer--if the employees are friendly, if the space is clean, if the shop opens on time, if the pastries are fresh, the drinks are good and the shop has a good vibe than you know the back office is most likely in order.

What do you mean when you say "partner" with someone? I like a landlord/tenant relationship that functions as a partnership. Landlords will get more rent if their tenant is doing well so it is in their interest to do what they can to assist their tenants. But if you don't have experience running a cafe you may want to let someone with expertise take care of the cafe operations. Your partnership could consist of charging a rent based on gross sales--that would be a true partnership even if you were not part of the running of the cafe.

Just some random thoughts...

-Dan

 

[Zazzgirl]

Coffee shop partnership/management

Thanks for the input-
We did that initially last year before our previous tenent opened and it is certainly worth doing again. We are open to several different scenarios, and one based entirely on a part of the gross is one that we are considering.