Quote:
Originally Posted by kr4l
Something you need to ask yourself is, what is around your location? Residential? Commercial businesses? What's your clientele? Competition?
Is your business mainly based Monday - Friday sales or just weekends? Lunch time? Dinner? After dinner? whats the minimum you need to make a day to stay afloat? Food cost? Labour cost? Fixed costs? Rent?
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These are all very important points that should be taken into consideration. I do retail consulting (from a locational and development standpoint) and there are many many variables that can provide you success or failure for your business.
What are the demographics of the area? How is it growing over the next five years? What are the culinary preferences of the potential clientele and are you able to meet them? Is there a lot of current competition? How far out is your primary trade area that you will try to capture from? Is it a 1km radius? Or is this a destination that will pull people from around Richmond?
From a location standpoint... is the leased space easily accessible? Is there a critical mass of commercial space around the cafe? Many businesses fail when they are isolated from other commercial uses. Does it have good visibility from the street in both directions? Is there a lot of pedestrian traffic or is it mainly vehicles? Parking is a huge issue for many cafes/restaurants, do you have enough? People will avoid certain places if they can't park.
On the other hand, if you create a destination that everyone loves to go to and is unique, then many of these questions can get thrown out the window because people will make the effort to go. But these types of places are rare.
Just some things to think about other than the coffee you are serving.