28 - Listener Mailbag: Estimating Daily Sales and Buying an Existing Coffee Shop

This week I open the Ristretto Time inbox and answer two listener questions I get versions of all the time.Eric in Colorado is building his coffee shop business plan and asks how to estimate tickets per day and average ticket size. I walk through my foot traffic counting method: when to count, what percentage of passersby actually walk in, what average ticket to assume for a coffee and pastry shop versus one serving lunch, and a simple daily revenue target you can reverse-engineer into customer counts.Kasim and his daughter are deciding between building a shop from scratch and buying an existing coffee business on BizBuySell. I cover the questions to ask before buying any operating café: why the owner is really selling, how to read the revenue and profit picture, the landlord relationship, what "under new ownership" does to a loyal clientele, how seller financing deals are structured, and why you shouldn't pay more than two to three times annual profit.Also in this episode: Grounds, my book on the full story of Café Chocolat, the coffee shop I opened and closed on H Street in Washington, DC, is out now on Amazon. It launched as one of the fastest selling books in the Starting a Business category. Buy it and email me at [email protected] and I'll send you my list of the 15 things I wish I knew before I started the coffee shop.If you're opening a coffee shop, writing a business plan, or weighing whether to buy an existing café, this episode is for you.