How to predict the amount of sales

[Red_Stafford]

Hi all, as you may or may not know from reading my other THREAD that I am trying to get together plans to open my own coffee shop, I was wondering how I could predict how many customers/sales I will generate on a daily basis so I can draw up a financial forcast over 3-5 years, without this information I wont have a chance of getting any funding from any protention investers will I ?

[Peter Bowen]

It's pretty hard to do but I would suggest that having a look at other similar places in the area you want to operate in will give you a feel for the trade.

You might want to take your budget and menu and work out what you're making from an average sale and try work out how many of these sales you need to make in a month in order to break even

Cheers

Pete

[Red_Stafford]

Are questionaires helpfull if we were to stand near the area we wanted to open and ask the public various questions, but what questions would we ask does anyone have any ideas on this ?

[JamesS]

Originally Posted by Red_Stafford

Are questionaires helpfull if we were to stand near the area we wanted to open and ask the public various questions, but what questions would we ask does anyone have any ideas on this ?

Could be very helpful.

Things like "Do you often stop by a coffee shop" "If so how often" "Do you have any allegiance to any brand of coffee shop" "Other than a coffee, what else would you like to consume at a coffee shop "Would you go to a coffee shop to: Read a book, catch up with friends, watch tv ..."

Etc etc etc.

Personally I rarely stop by a coffee shop, no one can make a coffee or tea the way I like it :P

Within six months if you turnover £10,000 a month, in a further six months how much more realistically can you generate a month? The shop will only be a certain size, so once a single shop has been seen to reach its maximum potential, do you plan to open up a chain of coffee shops? If you do plan to open further locations, assuming they all do well, your growth and turnover will be a nice upwards curve.

Unless a similar shop owner tells you outright what he or she turns over in a month, your best bet will be to set a target of break even or 10% over and above whatever your break even point is.

[Red_Stafford]

Originally Posted by JamesS

Could be very helpful.

Things like "Do you often stop by a coffee shop" "If so how often" "Do you have any allegiance to any brand of coffee shop" "Other than a coffee, what else would you like to consume at a coffee shop "Would you go to a coffee shop to: Read a book, catch up with friends, watch tv ..."

Etc etc etc.

Personally I rarely stop by a coffee shop, no one can make a coffee or tea the way I like it :P

Within six months if you turnover £10,000 a month, in a further six months how much more realistically can you generate a month? The shop will only be a certain size, so once a single shop has been seen to reach its maximum potential, do you plan to open up a chain of coffee shops? If you do plan to open further locations, assuming they all do well, your growth and turnover will be a nice upwards curve.

Unless a similar shop owner tells you outright what he or she turns over in a month, your best bet will be to set a target of break even or 10% over and above whatever your break even point is.

My partner currently manages a coffee shop, so she cashes up etc so she could probably tell me the turnover of the coffee shop she works at.

The long term plan is to open more than one shop, ideally after the first 12 months or so once everything is in place and we all know what we are doing I would like to open a new coffee shop every year, is this thinking to far ahead and thinking with a bit too much abition ?

[JamesS]

Originally Posted by Red_Stafford

My partner currently manages a coffee shop, so she cashes up etc so she could probably tell me the turnover of the coffee shop she works at.

The long term plan is to open more than one shop, ideally after the first 12 months or so once everything is in place and we all know what we are doing I would like to open a new coffee shop every year, is this thinking to far ahead and thinking with a bit too much abition ?

Think big, not small