What is the cost of opening a coffee shop?

Almost every day, many students or strangers ask the same question through e-mail, private messages, text messages and other channels: how much does it cost to open a small cafe? In fact, this question can not be explained in a few words, and the answer in a few words can only be deceiving people. The reason is very simple: for cafes of the same area, nearly 100 factors, such as city, business district, floor, positioning, theme, style, decoration, decoration, equipment, production, business model, personnel size, need for hardware transformation, rent payment form, surrounding competition situation, store maintenance period and so on, are closely related to the initial investment. For example, at present, in most third-tier cities and more than 50% of second-tier cities, the rent of a small and medium-sized shop is calculated and paid on an annual basis. Tens of thousands or tens of thousands of rents a year are very common, whether it is the lessor or the lessee. There is hardly much green efficiency concept yet. However, for first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the rent for opening a coffee shop is usually calculated according to N yuan per square meter per day, and in some business circles, this N word is even a shocking double digit, and no matter what the limit of the carrying capacity of this form of coffee shop is, at least shop owners are very concerned about the concept of ping ping efficiency, and every cafe operator must strive for it. Of course, even for the same city of Beijing, this problem is absolutely difficult to put into a word, we will not elaborate on it.

Today, a student who learned that he was about to go back to his hometown to open a shop chatted that most of the information about opening a store that could be searched on the Internet was vague or there were "malicious traps." as the only organization in China that focuses on the establishment of coffee shops, it is necessary to give friendly tips to netizens. We suspect that there are two reasons why the online information is "untrue" (the word "untrue" was learned from teacher Ma Weidu): 1) those who provide helpful information follow others and reprint more than the original. Very few people really have practical experience in opening a shop. Those cafe operators are so busy with their business that they have little free time to answer questions for free. Even if the occasional store owner comes out to say a few kind words, it can only be based on the data of one of his own stores, which will inevitably be distorted-after all, without the front-line practice of dozens or even hundreds of cafes, what you can see is not the whole picture of the coffee shop industry. 2) the initial investment has a lot to do with the break-even point and the rate of return on investment, which makes it possible to dig a pit to make a trap.

In the Gospel of Matthew of the New Testament, it is said: "whoever has it will be added to him so that he may be superfluous, and what he does not have will be taken away." We call it the Matthew effect. Opening a coffee shop is very consistent with this rule. The basic view of our Pulan Coffee College is that it takes capital to open a coffee shop, the thicker the cost, the better, the greater the probability of success, the higher the rate of return. Of course, this capital is not only real capital, but mainly includes four aspects:

First, real capital reserves (of course, money is the most important). For the time being, among the trainees who participated in the training or consultation of opening a shop, we have not found that "we can't open the pot even if we eat", so capital has become the least problem factor. We will have a special discussion on the actual capital investment another day, and we will press the table here.

Second, the time, energy and painstaking efforts of the operators. This is no less important than the first point. for those who hope not to give up their current jobs and invest in opening a shop in their spare time, you are doing a wonderful thing of "having both fish and bear's paw". But in the end, there are few who succeed. We believe that a substantial increase in risk is inevitable, a decline in the sense of satisfaction and achievement is also inevitable, and it is even more necessary to do some practical institutional design. (counterexample: there are some small or micro cafes that are making a profit in Beijing and Shanghai. the boss goes to work every day or even often goes abroad, relying entirely on friends and netizens to work and give freely, which looks very abnormal. But the operation is also interesting and unboiled, and people have to admire the boss's personal charm and social skills. Can you learn it?)

Third, the ability of operation and management and the business literacy of operators. Bar and kitchen skills training such as coffee is very important for the establishment and operation of coffee shops, but it is not a matter of success or failure, or it is difficult to include the key success factors in the start-up period of coffee shops. For most shop owners who have a strong spiritual world, looking for a new lifestyle, but lack business literacy, participating in store training or receiving systematic tutoring is the only way to greatly improve the success rate of starting a business and avoid losing all their investments. although we ourselves mention this point is somewhat suspected of advertising.

Fourth, all other resources that can be mobilized, integrated and incorporated into the cafe project. Let's say a few words on the fourth point. Many resources exist explicitly and lay a solid foundation for cafes to build a mixed business model, and some resources exist recessively, but they are more powerful and even directly related to the rate of return. These complex factors directly lead to many cafes with good profitability and amazing return on investment, but laymen simply do not see why, especially in such coffee shops as hidden dragons and crouching tigers in the capital. The secret lies in the fact that there are fewer cafes that seem to be lively, popular and reputable, but operators have been struggling to find breakthroughs and new opportunities.