Starting up IceCream/Coffee shop

Debt_Free_Chick

loofer wrote: »

I've seen this in use www.londonbiopackaging.com for milkshakes. 100% boidegradable cups/straws etc.
I would also like to use organic ice cream and source the milk from a local farm.

Obviously all this may come at a premium and eat away at my profit margin. I also don't think that any of the above will really be a key selling point that will increase revenue, with the market I'm aiming at. Obviously it's all a desire and depending on the premium, I may absorb the extra cost.

!!!!!! - you will absorb the cost of using premium products that customers won't pay for???? :eek: :eek:

That really is a very foolish idea - sorry

You really have to research your market and deliver what will sell; then seek to make maximum profit from it. Otherwise, you are in danger of having a very short-lived venture and probably debts too.

You need a very liberal dose of ruthlessness to go with your idealism

motorguy

foreign_correspondent wrote: »

In the current financial climate I would steer well clear - treats like Ice Cream and Coffee are the sort of frivolous, non-essential spending that people will cut out first, in my opinion.

Sorry to be a killjoy, but I think it could be a costly mistake for you.

+1

Sounds like a very expensive to set up bad idea to me.

3WayFreedom

Good luck! You can do it!

However, icecream is a fine weather trade...and certainly very few people fancy icecream when it's cold and wintery. Have you got a back up product that can see you through winter and the cold weather?

poppet

loofer wrote: »

I would also like to use organic ice cream and source the milk from a local farm.

If you want local milk I presume this means you intend to make your own ice cream?
Thats a big venture to take on but can be very profitable, especially if you then re-sell your icecream to other vendors.

I used to sell scooped ice cream in my gift shop. I didnt make it myself, bought it in big tubs from a local supplier with an excellent reputation. They supported me with advertising signage and posters etc and gave me advice on best practice for how to store and serve scooped ice cream safely.
From easter right through to september icecream cones were a great seller but in the winter sales dropped dramtically, so much so that the ice cream freezer was not earning it's shop-space and was unplugged and stored untill spring again.

Barneysmom

Loofer! Come down to Stoke and open one, in Hanley, I bet I'd be your best customer It sounds great.
Strawberry cheesecake oh my I love it!
Strawberry milkshake, the best we've got is the supermarkets I want some now! :cool:

skellysgirl

have you looked at the small milkshake shops doing well, i know we went to york last year and there was a great one which did all sweet flavours, i was quite impressed,
i have to admit i have cut down a lot on treat like this, but i also feel that i still go get them, it keeps me sane plus i like something different where a bit of thought has gone in. nothing worse than pre packed cookes and stale cake...i like real stuff

weeclick

Sounds like a good venture to me just as long as you get it right - spend plenty of time planning it, you dont want to end up as "just another cafe" you need to make yourself stand out, be the best in the business and keep it that way.

I suppose the best way to do this is to come up with a signature dish that becomes the talk of the town!

Id say maybe making your own ice cream wouldnt be a great start if you are still working full time outside of this venture (I could only imagine how long it would take to make, especially in the summer months when your at your busiest time!) Maybe the best way for this is to source a local farm that make ice cream from their own produce (have seen this done on last years Apprentice) maybe you could even have your own input by designing a new flavour and ask for exclusivity for at least a year on the ice cream! That way your promoting local businesses and creating your very own signature ice cream that should draw people to your shop (after all if its exclusively yours and you designed the flavor they cant get it elsewhere!)

I also agree though that you need to consider what to do in the colder months, so perhaps leaving it as a top class cafe is best, sell hot waffles with choice of dips in the winter, nice strawberries and ice cream in the summer! Again try and make a signature dish for winter time too!

Also if you plan on being near a university perhaps it may be worth while in seeing if your wife would open up early in the morning, catch all those hungry students heading to uni who didnt have breakfast, or even be open for students to catch up in the morning if they dont have class. I know its maybe not ideal regarding time at the start but Im confident it would be worth it, as a student up until last year I was always looking for somewhere to hang out in the morning before a lecture or inbetween lectures where I could enjoy a proper cup of coffe (not instant) and sit quietly, maybe even somewhere with wifi to catch up on work, but because there was nowhere around I ended up in the campus cafe drinking instant coffee from a machine and a sausage roll that no doubt was there from yesterday!

If I can think f anything else I'll let you know

Petree

Sounds like something that could work, depends on your market of course.

Have you worked in the food industry before? If not I suggest you do a few days working in a chain restaurant or cafe (the chains will send lots of staff on food hygiene courses before they even start work, and also you'll see how its done 'properly' e.g. records for everything and stringent stock control)

Before you even begin, you should look at what you plan to sell, the costs of buying it and sale price and work out your cost of goods/gross profit. (Big Chef v Little Chef is still on Channel 4 on demand I think and that shows the process quite well in a couple of hours) You end up with a spec for each item, McDonalds are famous for training their staff by weighing a fair % of their products everyday, there is a reason everytime you go in one its all identical, because then they know exactly what they are earning per item, 1 extra bit of lettuce x 10,000 bugers is actually quite a significant impact on the profit margins.

Ideally you need to be located somewhere with a tourist trade, local people are great, but tourists will be larger in number and spend per head especially during summer - which again fits nicely with the ice cream selling. That said the locals will be the ones to keep you ticking over in winter.

I think not opening for lunch from day 1 is an oversight, I imagine your operation to be similar to costa,nero,starbucks but more localised? If so their main revenue is the lunchtime latte and sandwich crowd, the weekends allow for a more relaxed coffee and sit down group, but its the lunchtime crowd which gets the money in the till. These places die after 3pm, with a small pickup at 5-6pm in those near the stations for commuters heading home, otherwise nothing until the next lunch rush.

Sourcing suppliers - for the main ticket items - e.g. your ice cream then you can approach some directly, for expensive but great quality produce then Loseley Dairy is fantastic. For the less strong lines then you can follow the usual routes of either a cash and carry or the supermarkets (Costco will sell Flash for £2 and nothing else, whereas Tesco will sell 'Lemon Floor Cleaner' for 58p, so its a bit of both really)

Regarding equipment, cash is king, the ideal blenders are the blendtec ones that you see in s/bucks they cost about £1000 for the base model. You can get a reasonable alternative for say £600, but it's early days and a tesco value blender might only last 6 monts but it will also only cost £20 and you can upgrade once the business is established. You could also have 2 on the go, whereas you could only afford 1 of the others IYSWIM.

Some things you can only really get from catering suppliers like proper panini presses, you can go via the catalogues, reclamation yards (just like car scrap yards but for catering equipment) or increasingly ebay!

One thing I keep seeing people buying is shakeaways, its basically a couple of scoops of ice cream, some milk and then something like after eights/mars bars/twix shoved in a blender. Sounds disgusting, but tastes nice (I just can't stomach drinking a creme egg...but thats just me!) and i've seen a few copies spring up, their website tells you about the 100's of flavours they do, and if your selling the chocolate on its own too, it's actually like having your stored stock on display. I guess the cost is about 50p and sale price is about £2, so not a bad GP.

A big failure (and a massive chunk do fail) I see is trying to be too unique, which might sound a bit odd, but how many identical coffee shops are there in your shopping centre?

I hope this helps, i've worked in the industry for years, and its great to see someone taking a chance, copy the maccy d's methods (not their food!) and you stand a good chance.

motorguy

I'd be interested to hear back from the o/p as to where they went with this idea?

Bettyboop

daz9643 wrote: »

I've heard McDonalds are having their best year ever this year as people downgrade from eating out at restaurants to fast food.

Or on the other hand people are comfort eating!