A full cafe build-out runs $120,000 and quietly sinks new coffee shops before the espresso ever does. Start instead with a mobile cart or kiosk for under $8,000.
The build-out, the lease, the plumbing, the seating, the espresso bar, is not what makes coffee profitable. Rent and construction eat the margin long before the drinks do. A cart at events, office parks, and farmers markets skips all of it and lets you build a regular base of customers before you ever sign a lease.
The anchor cost is the espresso machine, and used is the move. A solid used two-group commercial machine runs three to eight thousand dollars against twenty thousand or more new, and it pulls the same shot. Pair it with a good grinder, because a great machine with a cheap grinder makes bad espresso, and the grinder is where beginners try to save and should not.
Know your cost per cup. Between beans, milk, a cup, a lid, and a sleeve, a drink costs you roughly sixty to ninety cents to make. Price off that number, not off what the shop down the street charges, and you will actually keep the difference. Most new owners never calculate it and quietly lose money on their most popular drink.
Build the commuter and regular base first. The cart teaches you your morning rush, your best location, and your real daily volume, all things a lease locks in before you know any of them.
The rest, the cart-versus-kiosk math, the used-equipment list, and cost-per-cup pricing, is in the full plan:
See the full coffee shop business plan →
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