Now before an entrepreneur who wants to open an institution, there is a choice: to open a cafeteria from scratch, buy a ready-made business or open a cafe franchise. The easier way is to buy a ready-made institution or franchise, but this option will be more expensive than opening an institution from scratch. Let’s break down the pros and cons of all options for opening.
Opening a cafe from scratch
To open a cafe from scratch, you need to think out every detail: from the interior of the institution, ending with the number of staff that you will need. Start by writing a cafe business plan and estimate your starting capital to open a cafe, so you can calculate the risks and payback on the cafe.
Starting a business from scratch is always difficult, especially if you are a novice entrepreneur, so it is worth creating a cafe opening plan first, studying the market, competitors and target audience to understand if it is profitable to open your cafe.
After writing a business plan, look for space, it largely depends on the success of the cafe. If the place will be a good traffic, and profits will be more.
Buying a ready-made business
For the novice entrepreneur, buying a ready-made cafe is not a bad option. But if you have no experience in the restaurant business, you need to be careful with the choice of proposals. First of all, study the location of the establishment and the reviews about it. Often you can find options for cafes that did not pay off and the owner put them up for sale. If you decide to buy such a business, you need to change something in it: the concept, the interior or the format. In our separate article, we told in more detail about buying a ready-made restaurant business.
Opening a cafe franchise
Another option to start a restaurant business is to buy a franchise (Wikipedia). This is now one of the most popular ways to start a business. In fact, you start it from scratch, but you have a plan of action and guidance from the franchisor.
When opening a cafe franchise, you should understand that it will not be cheap. In the beginning you need to spend money on the purchase of the franchise rights, then on rent and renovation of the premises.
A big advantage of buying a franchise is that the franchisor will give you an exact list of equipment that you will need to work, as well as giving you a list of suppliers of products. To start such a business is easier than from scratch, but the individuality in it will be less, most likely, you will not be able to translate their desires in the concept, because all establishments franchise must be in the same style.
How to open a cafeteria from scratch if you are an idea person and want to realize your ambitions? You should hire a consulting company and build the project yourself from scratch. With the right strategy and enough investment is assured success, everything will be easy and fun. On the downside: often aspiring restaurateurs try to do everything on their own, and then there are obstacles and frustrations along the way.
Buying a ready-made business: A ready-made successful business is not for sale. You have about a 0.001% chance of buying a ready-made business that can be called a business. If you manage to buy a successful restaurant project – bingo! If you were sold a cat in a poke – I’m sorry, the suffering is exactly as much as enough money. Then you either try to sell it as a business or close.
Franchise: A franchise is for those who like the system and want to optimize their time, money, and minimize risk. Essentially the same consulting, just an already invented brand, not a new one. On the plus side, you just have to do what it says and not make anything up. On the downside: all franchises are focused on the middle mass-market segment and do not usually bring the owner inner pleasure, always want to do something his own way, add something, change or fix it.