Mobile Coffee Franchise

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raskolnikov

raskolnikov

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Apr 1, 2002
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I am thinking of having a career change and launching into my own business. I am quite interested in a mobile coffee franchise, the one on this website in particular:

http://www.espressotogo.com.au/

Anyone had any experience or got any advice on this sort of business?
 
Noddy Holder said:
I am thinking of having a career change and launching into my own business. I am quite interested in a mobile coffee franchise, the one on this website in particular:

http://www.espressotogo.com.au/

Anyone had any experience or got any advice on this sort of business?
Click to expand...

One of my best friends owns two mobile coffee carts and has been doing it for 3 years. My advice is

1. Location spot and plan before you invest a cent into the franchise. You should know where your going, how much rent is required, how many people move through the area over a given day etc before any plans are made. This is essential to the success or failure of your business

2. Organise cake/warm pies type of food menu. You can make a killing selling these if you are organised enough with it and are getting a good deal

3. As far as location spotting goes I recommend high traffic but most importantly LONG wait areas. In Perth we have quite a few coffee carts put up in hospitals, licensing centres and the like and IMO they are the most long term successful options. You may think a shopping centre would be a good place but it isnt. People dont stop at a poxy stand to have coffee with a shitload of groceries in hand.

4. Do it with more then one person. By yourself its just too time consuming you will find.

My advice would be to scope out the local hospital and set up in a area where they do big and long day clinics where people come through, have a long waiting period and need something to do while they sit in that area to wait. Otherwise a licensing centre or possibly a university. A place with high traffic flow and long waiting periods. Try and find some weekend work too to get you by early on. Things such as auctions, sporting events ie. netball/big football ovals are also other places worth a try.

P.S Make a nice tasting coffee too btw
 
Seen these parked at a few VFL grounds while games are on and they seem to be pretty busy, not sure what you would do during the week though. I know they say to go to workplaces and offices but im a bit sceptical about how many coffee's you would sell in a morning tea break considering time constraints with break times, reckon if you parked at a busy train station early enough in the mornings you would do a bit better.
 

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Simple advice:

- Go into a branch of any of the Big 4 banks and ask the local business banker if "Espressotogo" is an accredited franchise within their lending policies

If yes, ask them for a print out their sector policies for you so you can compare the financials provided by the master franchise against those of the bank (the banks will be accurate)

If the Big 4 are willing to support someone to get involved in one of these franchises you know they are worth getting involved in.
 
Location is everyone - if you find a good one, you can basically have a monopoly on it.

My brother and I once did music lessons at a conservatoriam when we were younger. We'd spend 2-3 hours there once a week. Because it was an hour from home, mum would just wait and read the paper or whatever. There were hundreds of kids like us. One day, a mobile coffee guy realised the potential and went and parked outside in the carpark. Had about 50 mums every night there buying coffee of him. He had a day job and did this just for 3-4 hours a night and made a packet.

Find your spot - good places are where people go, but you can't buy (good) coffee. Ive seen a few do very well outside KFCs and stuff. Or down by the beach at 6am for all the surfies once they finish having a paddle.
 
bulldogrob said:
Read this


http://numberonenetworker.com/2010/12/01/mobile-coffee-van-franchise-are-they-worth-it/
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That dude could also just be luring people into the "marketting" ploy by saying in his blog about the Coffee Van knowing people would google it with that exact question, "Are coffee vans worth it". (judging by it being 2nd on Google search he's doing it well).

So basically a fake blog set up to get people to go to the marketting site (earning him $ or reputation whatever by redirecting people to this site.

All basically "Internet Marketting". Thats the problem with half the blogs out there, purely set up for internet marketting to make money, hence talking about topics not always factual but to try get people to view them.


So really he probably never owned a coffee van and just put together a peice that would get clicks from Google to link them on :)
 
Noddy Holder said:
I am thinking of having a career change and launching into my own business. I am quite interested in a mobile coffee franchise, the one on this website in particular:

http://www.espressotogo.com.au/

Anyone had any experience or got any advice on this sort of business?
Click to expand...
Did you go ahead with the purchase?
 
tassiedog said:
Did you go ahead with the purchase?
Click to expand...

I looked into but decided at this stage it's too risky a venture financially. I would still really like to do it sometime in the future.
 
Lakey91 said:
Do you really need to 'franchise' this thing though?

Not sure brand name and so forth is worth anything.

Might be able to set up your own gig cheaper.
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Good Point.

I'm hardly a business expert but I would hazard a guess that when you purchase a franchise, you purchase the brand and everything that comes with it (good and negative)

If you can somehow fill a consumer need using a point of difference or superior product then you can create your own brand in a better position to control that and of course less expenses.
 
As I said on the thread I just posted I currently have one of my houses up for sale. Once I sell it I might invest the money into this business. Good point about the franchise. I'll have a look into it.
 

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Lakey91 said:
Do you really need to 'franchise' this thing though?

Not sure brand name and so forth is worth anything.

Might be able to set up your own gig cheaper.
Click to expand...
This all the way.

Take it from someone who was a franchisee of the largest franchise corporation in Oz - don't do it!

Too many restrictions and not much freedom in how you wanted to run the business. I also felt that the fees were too high for what you got.

Probably my biggest learning from the experience was not having enough confidence in myself to start and run the business myself, as I felt I needed the structure and framework of an established franchise to leverage their branding and give me leg up in attracting customers.
I was wrong to under estimate myself.
 
For coffee:

The thing about coffee is all about how good the coffee/barista is. If you're a gun coffee maker then you will do well. If you're shit, then you won't.

My suggestion:

1. Make sure you make a good coffee. Real good.
2. Scout for location. Also crucial. I'd look at South Bank, Docklands, and where where there are office buildings because you should be looking at these people being your clientele.

Rather than having a cart, rent out a small space at the bottom of an office building (an area not much bigger than a cart). You don't want clientele who want to sit down, or hold business meetings, you want those people who work in those offices to buy your coffee every single day because you make the best coffee in the vicinity.

You won't be able to franchise this because the brand is you in person. People aren't buying the coffee because of your stores names, they are buying it because you personally make it.


But, if franchise is your thing: look into Charlie Lovett's. I know the owner and he's got a heap of franchises set up in Sydney and plans to have 400 Australia wide.
 
Talking to our coffee van person its not all cream and cheese.

She needs council permits for the different areas she works in.

The councils restrict her right to just set up her van anywhere. I believe minimum 100m from a permanent coffee shop.

She is lucky she grabs free water from our place of work and dumps her rubbish in our skips (and gets away with it).

Takes forever to get a coffee from her so she looses business as people cannot wait.

If her van gets damaged in an accident she is off the road earning zero dollars.

She has two vans and hires staff to operate the second. This is good if you can find a reliable staff member who will work, not smash the van AND make a decent enough coffee. Not always possible to find such a person.

On the other hand she has connections in the industry I work in and luckily there is alot of temporary work around the city so she moves around from site to site. As long as she maintains her contacts to know where the crews are working she is fine.

At $4 for basically a cup of hot water it might be a good business....then again it might not.
 
I am considering purchasing a mobile coffee van (not a franchise - they just supply the vans kitted out and give training on the equipment.)

The vans are the ones used in The Apprentice (look a little like the style of Smartcars but bigger and sell coffee out of the side door.

My question is this: Has anyone tried this before? Does anyone do this for a living at the moment? I currently own vending machines and I am looking for something that I can do in addition and this seems like a great little business.

Can anyone give me any advice or comments please?

Thanks


coffee franchise
 

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