Advice on selling coffee shop business or finding a partner
Hi everyone,
I have a small community speciality coffee shop in London. The weekly takings are around £1300 based on a very minimal menu (coffee/matcha/cookies). It’s mainly grab and go type orders and operates with 1 staff a day with me supporting with admin stuff (stock purchasing, rota, payments etc).
The shop has been running for around 9 months and I have put in about 80k to date consisting of 65k of upfront refurb and equipment and around 15k additional costs since opening.
The prices are low, there has been no social media or other marketing and there is growth potential of menu items (eg we can do toasties and other products both food and coffee related to increase income whilst still being a 1 person a day shop).
The weekly takings can grow to £1500 simply by increasing existing product prices (eg moving a latte from £3.20 to £3.80 to align with the quality and competitor prices). It can grow even further if we do toasties, although appreciate there is cost of sales here but focus will be on minimal wastage.
The problem I have is that I am relying on the place being staff run, as I don’t have the time to be involved all day behind the counter. If it was owner run, I calculated there will be approx £30k profit per year. But as a staff run business, it is (without the growth ideas being executed) operating at around £15k loss per year.
I’m looking for advice about what to do with the place. I don’t have the appetite to work there to reduce staff costs. If I sell, what could I get? How could I find a partner that would work there yet still be able to extract some profit myself? Could I sell the lease with a premium and then structure it so they pay me over 10 years instead of a lump sum?
Just a bit… stuck…