advice needed, re:opening a cafe

Ravengm · Post by **Ravengm** » Tue Sep 06, 2011 5:33 pm

Prak_Anima wrote:I'll be opening in Portland, the worst I'll have to deal with is hipsters and homeless drunks.

Also the Pearl District, so you really only have to worry about a small portion thereof.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Oct 28, 2011 5:33 am

So, I'm looking at opening a cafe locally, as a stepping stone to the Portland D&D-Character-Based cafe. I need to run the numbers and figure out how much I need, and how much I need to get of that to get a small business loan.

But also, since I'm going to do a kickstarter campaign to raise my initial capital, I need to figure out what I can offer at various levels of donations. One thing I'm thinking of offering is possibly some kind of discount card or the like, sort of like Starbucks has, automatically at the highest level (so a "Gold Card for Life" deal). Possibly usable at all businesses I eventually own or will open, but I don't know about this part, since I may well need to do this for the next business I open.

So, thoughts and ideas on Kickstarter donation thanks yous?

Edit: The cafe will, ideally, have a steampunk theme, so ideas in that vein would be great. Branded merch would be one thing I could do.

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Fri Oct 28, 2011 5:48 am

Prak_Anima wrote:But also, since I'm going to do a kickstarter campaign to raise my initial capital, I need to figure out what I can offer at various levels of donations. One thing I'm thinking of offering is possibly some kind of discount card or the like, sort of like Starbucks has, automatically at the highest level (so a "Gold Card for Life" deal). Possibly usable at all businesses I eventually own or will open, but I don't know about this part, since I may well need to do this for the next business I open.

Personally, I am not counting on your ever opening another business in your life. I would not be surprised if your cafe folds within two years and the whole experience puts you off self-employment permanently. So, if I were considering donating funds to your dream, it would make literally no difference at all whether you offered it at just the one cafe or every business you ever open. So there's no need to be overly generous.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Oct 28, 2011 7:10 am

yeah... that's the other reason I was kinda thinking of making it just the one.

tzor · Post by **tzor** » Fri Oct 28, 2011 4:44 pm

If you are doing a steam punk theme, I'd recommend looking around the antique places for one of them old enormous coffee machines they had for the hotels and bars. It doesn't have to be functional, but it's impressive as all hell.

JigokuBosatsu · Post by **JigokuBosatsu** » Fri Oct 28, 2011 6:04 pm

Prak, I didn't realize you were in PDX. That's awesome. Question, tho, why the Pearl? That seems like an automatic dickpunch to a first-time cafe owner. I would have suggested somewhere near my house(Sellwood) if it weren't already oversaturated with stuff. Which is the problem with the Pearl, too.

I'd consider somewhere in N/NE.

EDIT: Ninja'd about your theme. Which is awesome.

I have to say though, people using Kickstarter to fund their small business is fucked up. I thought it was actually prohibited, but it seems like plenty of people do it.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Oct 28, 2011 7:57 pm

I'm not actually in Portland, I lived there for a few months when I went to the Art Institute, and moved back home when I withdrew. I was thinking Pearl because it's the area I'm familiar with.

I know nothing about Kickstarter and prohibitions against using to fund small business, I just see people using it to fund their books and product ideas and such.

JigokuBosatsu · Post by **JigokuBosatsu** » Fri Oct 28, 2011 8:01 pm

It doesn't specifically say you can't... it does mention "food" as one of its creative endeavors. So I dunno. Maybe I'm being too critical.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Oct 28, 2011 8:22 pm

I just looked it over. It's actually very vague, and I would take their "no business expenses" and "projects only" things to mean "no, you can't start a kickstarter project to pay your business' electric bill."

Opening a business is technically a project with a finite, observable end, it's "opening your business."

But, yeah, I've seen kickstarter projects for getting a product line started, so, yeah.