Starting a bike Cafe... maybe...

[Andy in Germany]

To serve food you'll need certification from local trading standards, and qualifications for the staff or at least chef. Food hygiene inspections etc. All of these cost annually. There's a lot of hidden costs on food - not just ingredients, but wastage, power for ovens kettles etc. Decor cleaning, Alcohol license?

That's why the business plan includes a manager with catering qualifications: I can help, and I'll certainly get the hygiene certificate so I can assist at busy times, but I certainly wouldn't be able to run the place.

We don't need a licence to sell alcohol in Germany. I don't know if the organisation will want that: there are arguments for and against it.

2nd hand bike intake - how do you ensure your customers have legitimately acquired them?

Same as where I work now: we don't. We can only take bikes as donations; we can't buy them off the public, so there's no reason for someone to nick a bike and give it to us. Maybe if it's a high-end bike we'll check with the police system, but otherwise there's no point.

Ideally - cafe would be open late, until at least dusk, and early to catch morning commuters before normal work hours. That a lot of or long employee shifts.

Clients, that is people who are sent to us by the job centre for the purposes of getting them back into work, can work a maximum of 30 hours a week; 6 hours a day if we open Monday to Friday. German cafés often open in the morning and over midday rather than evenings; I'll be suggesting that we rent the café space in the evening, possibly with a client who needs a bit more of a challenge manning the bar.

Publicize it! People need to know it's there, and when it's open, what it does serve and what it doesn't, and then you have to stick to it, because uncertainty is even worse.

I expect we'll get a fair bit of free publicity because of the nature of the enterprise: Germans are pretty cool about that sort of thing. We have the additional wrinkle that on a good day all the clients may turn up, or none of them, so we have to have an opening schedule that we can manage with one or two clients, maybe none at all. I'm writing the business plan assuming we have about five clients in the café and 5 in the bike workshop, with a very low-key setup as we get established, and then build (with publicity) from there.

 

[biggs682]

Currently working on the numbers for the bike shop side of the business. I'm basing these on experience in the workshops I've worked in, please let me know if you think these numbers are plausible. I'm particularly interested in hearing from people like @biggs682 who have some experience in this area.

Sale price of a bike: ca.150,00 € - 300,00 €

Breakdown:

Consumer price for all new parts fitted to bike, plus:
Flat rate for repair work: 80€
Flat rate for used parts: 15€
Flat rate for cleaning supplies, lube, grease et c: 5€ (we use a lot of that with used bikes, also disposable gloves)

Currently, we sell as many bikes as we can repair in a week, usually within a day of repair. Capacity at my current location is 3-5 bikes completed in a week.

Therefore, my projections are:

Low end:
3 Bikes per week, at 200 € per bike = 600 € /week, 2400€ per month x 11 months = 26 200 € per year.

Realistic:
5 Bikes per week, at 200€ per bike = 1000€ / week. x 4 = 4000 € per month x 11 months = 44 000 € per year.

Notes:

• I'm working on the "Low end" Assumption that we have 5 clients, each repairing 1 bike per week, and dismantling one for parts.
• I'm aiming for a maximum of 8 clients in the workshop, so their capacity will possibly increase, but mine probably won't.
• Also assumed is that I can check one bike per day.
• Clients are paid a small amount by the Job Centre. The work is a form of therapy so we sell the bikes to help cover our costs, not to make a profit.

Any thoughts?

I always use to base my prices on cost of bike including fuel and my time for collection of bike plus cost of parts used and time spent doing repairs at a nominal amount of £10 pr hour .

And then check other listings for prices on similar bikes .

It was never about making a living for me it was more covering my costs for doing something I enjoyed.

I never factored in insurance, rent , services IE electric etc etc .

But if your selling quicker than you can get them ready I would think that you might be underpriced.

Our local recycling centre charge £25+ for a bike that is totally unusable

 

[kynikos]

Yes - I think that, to be successful, it really needs a broad offering. Cycle Heaven in York seem to have it right. (Can you get sponsored for an investigatory trip? )

 

[Jameshow]

If you had a courtyard style set up with tables in the middle?

one container / log cabin for the bike repairs another for the cafe, another for toilets?

What about bike hire too?