Buying a Cafe

The benefits of owning a café and what to look for when purchasing

There are so many benefits to owning a café, with some of the main points being that it can be a family affair that you can all get involved in! It also allows you to look at the hours you would like to work. You have the options as to whether you want to open really early to capture the early risers, or just cater to lunch and afternoon crowd. A cafe can also offer a great lifestyle change which allows you to connect with regular clientele and the public whilst putting your own spin on the way you wish to run things.

So, what are some things to look out for when purchasing a café? Firstly, you want to make sure your café is in a busy area that is easily accessible and will benefit well from foot traffic. Although you will have your regular customers that might be willing to go out of their way to come and enjoy what you have on offer, you don’t want to rely fully on their loyalty alone. You want to make sure that you are in a good position to benefit from general foot traffic, and tourists that are visiting the area, to see and utilise your café.

If you find a café that you think is suitable, it is also advisable to visit this café numerous times at different times of the weeks and day to get a feel for when it is busy and if it is suffering any unexpected down days. Also, do a good check of the business reviews online, this will not only give you a good idea of how much work you have ahead of you if the business has received numerous bad reviews, based on the way it is currently being run (which in turn may make the price more negotiable), but there might be some other little gems that you can pick up by reading these reviews… such as any issues with smells, noise, location etc.

It always pays to do your due diligent research! Is there any new developments or roads going in around the area that could have an impact on the business? So many people get caught out when purchasing a business on good will, but fail  to do the correct checks.

Other important factors to take into account would be whether there would be easy improvements that could be made that would help to increase the current profits. Does the interior need an upgrade, could they have a better food line or is the service too slow? It is also imperative to look at whether there is a good long-term lease locked in place, and is the current agreement going to leave you enough room to make a good profit even in the down times? If the lease is coming to an end and there are too many uncertainty’s you might want to seriously reconsider! Also, take note of the age and state of the equipment that is part of the contract and whether the current owner/s have built a good relationship with, and have been settling debts with local suppliers.

If all of these factors check out, then it could be happy days ahead of owning your own business that you can make the family apart of whilst making a healthy profit for years to come if it is run well and with love!

Check out our current Cafe's For Sale