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What does it take to have a cafe business


Jusnel
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As per topic. 

I'm exploring cafe business as viable business? All along, I love to work with food and always felt happy if a customer enjoys the food.

It may not be a full menu.  Even a cafe that serves pastry and drinks will be nice too.

What are the things I need to know.

How to spot a good location.   Look for buy overs.

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What does it take?

I would say customers. Location as long as there's ample place to park.

My opinion is when it comes to cafe you need to stand out in some way. My makan kaki and I often hunt for cafes when we meet up for lunch. You gotto have some kinda of target audience. We would often see reviews on what is good at a cafe. For some the kopi is good but the food sucks. Some have good food but kopi sorta meh. This is important to us cos after a good meal a good cup of kopi makes it even more satisfying. Can talk cock chit chat at the same time. This is the kinda hangout we will look out for.

We also know some cafes who will get bloggers and influencers to create a lot of hype. It will be a one time visit if we realised it doesnt live up to the hype.

We have also seen a fair share of cafes that are there and gone when we want to return visit. That's the thing about running a cafe. You cannot have a fixed menu and not improve on it. Food and drinks got to change regularly so that ppl dont get bored. You gotto to have new stuff for ppl to try, eg. food or drinks that's outside your typical menu on a special weekday/weekend. I call it "specials". LoL...

I must say it's not easy cos there are quite a number of good cafes out there. 

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It takes money to start, and more money to sustain. 

Unfortunately the statistics is against cafes. Most new ones won't be around after 2 years.  There are exceptions of course, but I would say probability of success is less than 50%.

 

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1 hour ago, Jusnel said:

As per topic. 

I'm exploring cafe business as viable business? All along, I love to work with food and always felt happy if a customer enjoys the food.

It may not be a full menu.  Even a cafe that serves pastry and drinks will be nice too.

What are the things I need to know.

How to spot a good location.   Look for buy overs.

You will need to be prepared to lose your entire capital and more.

F&B is cut throat enough as it is. 

Cafe is the worst. 1 customer can occupy one table with one small coffee for hours on end. 

Somemore you are looking at a bare bones menu that won't encourage return customers. 

Have you considered pop up stalls or pasar malam? 

Edited by noobcarbuyer
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I would say a lot of factors affecting cafe business. One of them is location.

There are some who open shop at industrial buildings/area. The pitfalls are limited customers and limited opening hours cos at most you can serve is lunch and tea break. Dinner time I think boh lang will visit. On the other hand rental may be cheaper than some places designated for F&B outlets.

Most challenging I think will be what F&B industry is facing now...manpower crunch. Hiring ppl is tough.

I agree with Volvobrick. Trying to breakeven might be the toughest challenge and it might take a while.

Edited by Watwheels
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Location is the most important...

Try not to scrimp on this part..

U can wave good bye to your weekends and social life..

Most importantly, u got to be hands on in your business as dun expect other people to earn money for you ...

Lastly, Sex life surely habis.. 

tio boh @Angcheek @BanCoe

Edited by Freeder
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Btw I actually do have a degree in Marketing although

I am a massage the rapist to professional models.

And I even came up with the idea for SIA to merge Scoot and Tiger

and I posted the idea on MCF and Scoot did merge with Tiger after that.

:grin:

So all my ideas really got Marketing Theory behind it. 

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2 minutes ago, Freeder said:

Location is the most important...

Try not to scrimp on this part..

U can wave good bye to your weekends and social life..

Most importantly, u got to be hands on in your business as dun expect other people to earn money for you ...

Yes must be very hands on with the staff to make sure they provide full customer satisfaction.

:grin:

image.png.1bdc24ea3b2caa5b263381b785ddd778.png

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1 hour ago, Watwheels said:

What does it take?

I would say customers. Location as long as there's ample place to park.

My opinion is when it comes to cafe you need to stand out in some way. My makan kaki and I often hunt for cafes when we meet up for lunch. You gotto have some kinda of target audience. We would often see reviews on what is good at a cafe. For some the kopi is good but the food sucks. Some have good food but kopi sorta meh. This is important to us cos after a good meal a good cup of kopi makes it even more satisfying. Can talk cock chit chat at the same time. This is the kinda hangout we will look out for.

We also know some cafes who will get bloggers and influencers to create a lot of hype. It will be a one time visit if we realised it doesnt live up to the hype.

We have also seen a fair share of cafes that are there and gone when we want to return visit. That's the thing about running a cafe. You cannot have a fixed menu and not improve on it. Food and drinks got to change regularly so that ppl dont get bored. You gotto to have new stuff for ppl to try, eg. food or drinks that's outside your typical menu on a special weekday/weekend. I call it "specials". LoL...

I must say it's not easy cos there are quite a number of good cafes out there. 

Thanks everyone for the inputs. 

For the longest time, i always wanted to run a cafe.  Pitfalls are there. I agree that manpower is the main problem. Got money to hire, but no one want to do. 

Got to find innovative way around this problem.

 

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35 minutes ago, Freeder said:

Location is the most important...

Try not to scrimp on this part..

U can wave good bye to your weekends and social life..

Most importantly, u got to be hands on in your business as dun expect other people to earn money for you ...

Lastly, Sex life surely habis.. 

tio boh @Angcheek @BanCoe

Yes location very important...not necessary the expansive area . Just got to see the neighbour. 

YOLO like cafe ... but 1 drink sit whole day 😁 Got XMM best 

@BanCoecan sit opening till closing .. BanCoe has  die hard habit ... or rather habit to die hard ... 😂 

 

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4 hours ago, Angcheek said:

Yes location very important...not necessary the expansive area . Just got to see the neighbour. 

YOLO like cafe ... but 1 drink sit whole day 😁 Got XMM best 

@BanCoecan sit opening till closing .. BanCoe has  die hard habit ... or rather habit to die hard ... 😂 

 

I only table wiper in kopitiam my boss is @Freeder wat can I say ??......... but konsult @Carbon82 for best bakes 

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8 hours ago, Angcheek said:

Yes location very important...not necessary the expansive area . Just got to see the neighbour. 

YOLO like cafe ... but 1 drink sit whole day 😁 Got XMM best 

@BanCoecan sit opening till closing .. BanCoe has  die hard habit ... or rather habit to die hard ... 😂 

 

Think can open a NO concept cafe ..

No hands , No panties , No Bra & etc..

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