Coffee Van Question....

Greg41

I agree with the others. Go solo. then you have FREEDOM . In my opinion with a franchise you are still not your own boss. My setup is different where as i operate from a pantec trailer Which reduced the costs even further. I now operate from a permanent position in a park next to a highway. sure starting off looking for sites and events to go to can be daunting as some areas are saturated so marketing research is very important. Thats another thing. what are your intentions re: where you will go. Businesses, shows , sporting events. with shows and events commitees have to be applied to then They vote on whether they'll let you in.(some committees can be funny). With a franchise you would want to hope the coffee is consistenly fresh also. I went through 3 different brands before i decided on the coffee i liked and a supplier i could rely on. but at least i had the FREEDOM to choose. anyway hope that helps a little. Good luck with your venture. Its still an inexpensive way to start a business as far as a lot of other businesses are concerned.

blanyon

Sounds like you have already made your decision. Good luck, hope you end up enjoying yourself.

JC

Gypsy, I am where you were a few months ago (researching - questioning - praying for answers from the coffee gods). Can you let me know how things have gone for you? You wouldn't by any chance have a list of licences/permits etc that are required from either councils, dept fair trading, health inspectors etc. I too looked into franchises and going it alone. My major concern is the first few months (developing the client base). I found an interesting web site that custom builds coffee vans at a much cheaper price that most competitors. Have a look and let me know what you think. (quality - unknown). www.customcoffeevans.com My goal is to set up my own van, working it weekends to begin with and when business gets better, go part time (ie 4 days a week) in the day job. Income to be supplimented by the coffee van. As business grows, reduce days in the 9-5 grind until fully out of the office job, controlling my own future. YEAHHHH. Look forward to hearing from you.

blanyon

Sounds like you have a lot of work to do. Here's a bit of info to help you along. 1. Councils are the health inspectors and they basically give you permission to operate, can't remember exactly what they call their permit but essentially you have to tick the boxes on their sheet. 2. Fair trading, they just register your business name so no biggie there. 3. Franchises my opinion on them is detail elsewhere in this forum but I am not a fan (opinion only). 4. Custom coffee vans seem like a good company, have spoken to them and they seem good. If I had my time over when I was building my van I probably would have used them (lineball decision). As for your business plan of starting slowly weekend work is a separate part of the coffee van world (sports, events etc) depending on your town/suburb it may not translate into weekday work. Also the idea of finding customers who want coffee one day a week at work is interesting, coffee drinkers are creatures of habit and need their fix everyday so I would wonder if that would work. You also have a large amount of capital invested in your van so I would suggest that you put it to work asap. All that said you know your situation and customer base better than I so good luck with your research.

floatncoffee

How is it all going Gypsy?? ive got to know

josiecrimmins

hey floatncoffee, Wow thanks for the advise about the money. I am a teacher and have always dreamed of running my own little coffee joint. wow an old horse van sounds great. how is it going? I was thinking of going around to schools to teachers. I have a few contacts. God I wish I could be handy to build a van. I am just starting to get my head around the idea of actually taking the risk to do it. I was thinking near railway station on one side- anyway early days- so you know anyone handy to build a van or look at that other site

blanyon

Sorry forget the teachers, they all want coffee at the same time so you can only hit up one or two schools a day, you need to extend your reach of businesses.

floatncoffee

i had a quick look at the custom coffee van site.... they dont mention any of the machinery or appliances they use??? strange in short, if your generator or deepcycle batt pack/inverter breaks down,,, income stops!! if your machine runs out of steam or pump over heats,,,income stops!!! in my mind they are two of the most important factors im guessing there starting price of $49,000 is with cheap equipment.. price with better equipment goes up from there?? i mean if they use say Honda or Onan/kubota generators then you would plaster that all over the site.. if you call them ask what machines are being used

[deleted]

Is there any problem pulling up on roadside and selling coffees? Also what about at car parks at places like the beach and sending a runner along to take orders?

blanyon

The pulling up on roadside thing differs from one local govt area to the next so depends is the answer, as for a runner I have always struggled to justify another wage coming out of the van but it depends on your situation, I have seen it work but not for me.