I answered a "how" we provide coffee question here a while back: http://www.quora.com/Coworking/Whats-the-best-way-of-providing-coffee-in-my-new-coworking-space/answer/Alex-Hillman?srid=xym&st=ns
We've since added a new Chemex pourover, and an espresso machine that gets daily use, but not a lot. But as I mention in my Quora post, it's the beans that are worth spending the money on. Almost daily we get comments about how great our coffee is, even the stuff that just comes out of the commercial drip setup. It comes down to 1) a decent water filter + 2) the best local, fresh roasted beans you can buy, ground to use. We picked up a commercial coffee grinder like the ones you see in a grocery store last year after killing a bunch of consumer burr grinders and it's been awesome. But back to your question about budgeting for coffee, we spent $5600 in 2012 on beans and related supplies, up from $3500 in 2011. That's $110/week on average. I hesitate to crunch that number down to the individual day or even person, because it would not be representative of anything worth making decisions based upon. But I'd also urge you to rethink your strategy about comparing your membership costs to cups of coffee at Starbucks. You're selling something that Starbucks can't offer (and I'm not talking about the space), so price fixing against them (and worse, below them) for the sake of marketing sounds like a decision that you'll regret before long. Think about the value you're offering. It should be a LOT more than the coffee. Why price yourself below coffee costs? Furthermore, anyone drinking 10 cups of coffee in a day is likely to be a short term member, given the likelihood that their heart explodes from over-caffeination ;) Bottom line takeaways: 1) Buy the best coffee you can afford. Buy fresh, local beans. Grind every pot fresh. Your members will thank you, and tell their friends. 2) Price on value, not on your "competition". Starbucks probably isn't your competition. -Alex -- /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Feb 7, 2013, at 3:50 AM, Tom Lewis <t...@coworkingbath.co.uk> wrote: > Sorry for the double post but looking through your cost figures reminded me > of something. One of the scary big numbers on our business plan is for > coffee (and tea, hey we're Brits!)- could you give us an idea of how much > coffee people drink per day on average (I could ask you for your total spend, > but from what I remember the cost of coffee differs a fair bit over there)? > > As an aside, one of my key principles in attracting people to want to join > the space we're building is the promise that no membership will ever cost > more per hour than a cup of coffee from Starbucks (and who wants to work > there?). So even at the drop in/associate level at £20/day or £49/month for > 28 hours), it's still no more than £2 an hour for membership > > Still, the coffee cost does worry me, and I used to sell coffee for a living, > though that was low end vending machine instant so not much use in these > calculations! > > On Tuesday, 5 February 2013 16:31:25 UTC, Alex Hillman wrote: > I spent some time last night summarizing some figures from our 2012 P&L along > with some insights and interpretations related to the numbers that people > might find valuable for doing their own analysis & projections. > > For reference, 2012 was Indy Hall's 5th full year of operation, and included > the 3rd major expansion of our workspace. > > Enjoy! > > http://dangerouslyawesome.com/2013/02/indy-hall-2012-reviewing-our-coworking-community-by-the-numbers/ > > -Alex > > -- > /ah > indyhall.org > coworking in philadelphia > > > > > > > -- > /ah > indyhall.org > coworking in philadelphia > > > -- > Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Coworking" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > -- Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
