Ross Rambles

I love coffeeshops. Some of you probably know this about me, and some of you may even have read my blog post about my love for coffeeshops.

I (like many people) have a dream of running my own coffeeshop one day, establishing a community outpost that brightens the day for the weary, and offers a welcoming environment for every type of person imaginable.

So I did as any aspiring coffeeshop empresario with an investment banking background would do on a Friday night… I built a model!

Here it is (I recommend you actually open it in Google Sheets using the link, but you can also interact with it embedded here):

I’ll dig into some analysis/key takeaways over the weekend and next week, but there are  some important caveats:

• I built this model on a Friday evening after 2 beers – it is far from perfect. I plan on building this out further, but if you have suggestions in the meantime, they are always welcome.
• This model assumes that you have the full cash balance to start this today (i.e. no debt), and doesn’t take into account any ancillary/legal fees. Taking out a loan would affect the returns materially (planning to build into the model later).

Question for you:

Can I ask you to give me feedback on the assumptions I’ve made? If anyone has actual experience working in a coffeeshop that would be amazing, but even if you haven’t, do you think it’s reasonable that the average beverage check is $4? Does it make sense that less than 1 in every 4 orders involve food? What other line items am I missing?

TGIF!

Rambler-in-Chief