# New Coffee Shop start up Belfast



## daveschwartz (Aug 10, 2015)

Hi all, Im exploring starting an artisan coffee shop in Belfast (city centre location) good quality, fairtrade coffee with good ambience and great service. I love coffee and will be taking a barista course.

I am taking help from a business adviser about financials, etc. I wanted to know:

1. what kind of footfall I can expect in a typical good quality coffee shop per day (so i can work out costs,etc.). Would most coffee shops sell 150 cups a day? 200? 250 or more.

2. how much (on average) should I expect to pay a barista?

3. how badly will I be hit if I only open 6 days a week (keeping in mind it will be a city centre premises)?

4. best opening times? 8-5? 8-6? what about 1 day a week late opening with live music?

5. (Most important) will this take over my life? i.e I have a young family and do want to spend time with them too, its important to me. Any advice from parents of young children greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Dave


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## coffeebean (Jan 26, 2010)

Hi Dave,

Do you have a premises in mind and is it currently a café or a coffee shop? Footfall is something you would have to go and physically look at for whatever location you are thinking of using. Also, the amount of coffee that you sell would be dependent on whether or not you would be offering take out as well as drink in. Depending on where you are - early morning, lunchtime and hometime are going to be your busiest periods though once people get to know your opening times they tend to come back around the same time every day (most people are creatures of habit and if they get a coffee on the way to work every day, they will keep coming back)

Being a musician myself, I think opening 1 day a week late for live music is a superb idea. Also, this would offset the day off and so you wouldn't be hit too badly if you closed one day a week.

It will take over your life if you let it but the trick is not to!! If you are closing one day a week, use that time to do something with your family - do your paperwork etc when the kids have gone to bed.

Hope this helps a bit! Good luck with it and keep us posted how it progresses! Also, if you need any equipment for the coffee shop, I can do you a very good deal as a Forum member.

Andy


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## Colio07 (Mar 9, 2015)

Hi Dave,

I'm afraid I can't provide any personal insight into your questions, as I have no experience owning or running a cafe. That said, you might be interested in a Tamper Tantrum presentation given by Pete Dore Smith, the man behind the successful (and highly respected) Kaffeine coffee shops in London. It's a good talk about "how to successfully open and run a coffee shop as a business" from someone who has done it right. He's got a young family as well, so a number of parallels.

http://www.tampertantrum.com/peter-dore-smith-tamper-tantrum-birmingham-2014/

Do check it out - think you'd find it useful. In any case, best of luck and let us know how you get on!

Matthew


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