Starting our cafe in Melbourne (not CBD thank goodness) - Advice appreciated!

[do-ob]

Hi guys,

Long time lurker/reader, first time really posting!

My colleagues and I have finally scraped together close to six figure capital to start up our cafe. We're aware this is on the lower side, so we have to keep to a tight budget any way we can. We have collectively ~6 years in coffee, and specialty is what we love and want to do for ourselves. Will start out primarily as takeaway coffee with kitchen-less food setup, with the possibility to expand into kitchen later (ie. allocation of water/gas/elec + floorspace).

Would heartily welcome any advice, especially on the more difficult stuff. (Roasters, bean choice, equip, branding we've got down, of course
Some of the things we're looking at:

- water quality in Maribyrnong - esp in relation to extracting compounds & filtration type
- any permits (we're aware of trade waste, facades, food safety) and how to approach them
- how to identify and cost plumbing/electrical requirements
- leasing vs purchase of hydra/strada-level machine - what's best for startup/initial cashflow. and how many providers are there for leasing in Melb?
- self fitout: best places to source for cheap fitouts? (we will empty interior to a shell and work the tenancy)

- And of course, any pearls of wisdom you can only get from actually having done it!

Thanks, any comments appreciated!
John

[kbc]

I can't help with your questions but wish you luck. Great place for a cafe

[askthecoffeeguy]

Sorry to say but you need to know the answers to these questions yourself before you go into business, and if you're planning on roasting yourselves I would focus on saving your capital to allow for unforeseen expenses and to cover the prospect of running at a financial loss for the first one to two years of trade, before parting with that extra cash

[do-ob]

Thanks. We ask more to verify what we've worked on, and to see if there's anything we've missed. There's a lot of good knowledge out there. Don't worry, I don't think anyone would be as irresponsible as to not plan!

For us, roasting will be much further down the track