How do you make money out of a Netcafe?

zenith

Y'know, are any of them profitable, or what?

What are the key things that you need to make them work?

Also, anybody interested in opening one?

Stephen

You should talk to Shadow and meglome on these boards - both run successful netcafés.

azezil

Working a resonably successful netcafé here, what we have:

All workers are part-time, thus crappy wages.

No manager, everything is looked after by the staff.

Resonably good netconnection.

Variety of different services: e.g. net connection, office applications, coffee, printing, fax, cd rw, scanner, lan parties on request.

Layout and appearance, this is important if there are any other netcafé's near by. We sometimes get people in compareing prices, we're slightly dearer but tourists quite often say ours' looks better!

We don't have an admin either, anything that goes wrong is dealth with by some of the employees, usually myself or one other guy.

Hire college students doing computer courses, they should be able to handle most of the technical stuff, thats what they do here anyway

Typedef

Interested, yes, very, in fact I have done some research into this sort of thing before, the main thing that put me off was that in the Dublin 1 area I was looking at the cheapest lease quoted to me was 42 k (Irish punts) for one year with the most expensive being 100k, which is quite alot of money to expect 15-20 internet machines to finance, never mind pay for the hardware, electircity etc.

I even gave thought to the overall topology of what a network of this nature would entail. Typically 22 machines 2 = linux servers which have isdn or adsl modems and supply dhcp ip's to the 10 internet machines on their network, perhaps then one machine that has visibility to both networks to clock up hours used etc from log files read from the server or simply just for entertainment of couter staff, so in total 23 machines, 2 modems, lots of ethernet cable, perhaps the ability to buy some coffee or at least to buy a soft drink. With all of the foreign nationals in the city centre with the right location you could really rake in some cash on such a venture I would expect, as most would not bring a laptop or similar and even if they did would have to get phone lines installed into their apartments/flats which if you are only staying in a coutry for 6 months as most foreign students or if you have simply just arrived and have no money to buy a pc, sufficive to say that the market is there.

All it really requires is money from a Bank to finance it, the IDA is a dead loss, it won't fund indegonous industry, certainly not an internet cafe, if you were foreign perhaps, but in reality if you are Irish one would have to find 'someway' to front the cash themselves.
Typedef

Draco

The internet cafe in Maynooth makes most of it's money on the back of ECDL classes it runs.

azezil

THe present management doesn't do any training courses, but the last guy used offer several courses, absolutley crap n charged around 80 quid for em.

Real basic introduction to comps, internet and email. And people payed for that ****! If any asked me i showed them for free, it only takes like 2 mins :rolleyes: (azezil training techniques: get it first time or have a chicken implated in your anis!)

manonthemoon

As far as i can tell, as well as the rent, the other big expense is the PC's. Is it necessary to buy all the PC's are can they be rented.

If so what is the outlay

Like, The cost of buying say 20 PC's vs. the renatl of 20 20 PC's?

I'm very interested as I am from a town down south with a very high refugee population

Any idea anyone

Thanks

Typedef

Originally posted by manonthemoon
As far as i can tell, as well as the rent, the other big expense is the PC's. Is it necessary to buy all the PC's are can they be rented.

If so what is the outlay

Like, The cost of buying say 20 PC's vs. the renatl of 20 20 PC's?

I'm very interested as I am from a town down south with a very high refugee population

Any idea anyone

Thanks

I'll tell for a hefty consultation fee.
Typedef

azezil

if ya built them yourself u'd save a bundle.

the fnj

Location, location, location!

ayatollah

Originally posted by azezil

(azezil training techniques: get it first time or have a chicken implated in your anis!)

is that like prison slange?!?!

manonthemoon

OK then?

Can Pc's be rented?

How much?

Bard

A friend of mine that I used to work with running a net café now sells his business plan to others who are interested in setting up just such a business.

Thing is ... *I* am interested in setting up just such a business, but not even slightly interested in paying the extortionate fee he's asking for the copy of the business plan.

I need to do market research, get funding and get a business plan together, but all this is money and time consuming and I can't do it alone.

Right now it's just an idea that has germinated in my brain. I'd love to be able to go somewhere with it.

Victor

Originally posted by manonthemoon
Can Pc's be rented?

You could probably get a machine for cost price + 20% over 3 years. Say about €400-500 per year. But then you have to factor in your bulk discount (not sure what you would get).

Leasing also allows you write off the cost of the machine much quicker than buying (2-3 years against 5-7). This means that if you show a accounting ('actual') profit for the first year, you can present it as a tax loss and you won't pay a huge amount of tax on it.

Typedef

Well surely one could invest in 20 p3/athy/duron-600's fairly cheaply and own them, renting will always, always be a royal pain in the butt, but I guess if you feel a burning desire to fork over money to a rack renter.......
Then location, I have one staked out, but, do I really want to leave my job and can I find the cash to make it fly, maybe I'd be better advised to start my own software development firm?

How many people feel a burning desire to loan a 22 year old 100k to open an internet cafe that caters for immigrants and people on holiday located in the city centre?

meglome

Ah yes you wouldn't believe the number of emails I have got in the last year asking how to set up a good internet cafe. Before anyone gets too carried away and thinks it's easy think again. The competition especially in Dublin is incredible and I think you really have to be on top of your game to make a crust. Personally if you are not out there already I wouldn't even bother. The simple fact is if you have to pay for equipment over 3 years that's how long you need to make a profit for and I can't see that happening for a lot of places.

Baz_

Originally posted by The FANJ
Location, location, location!

There isnt a single internet cafe in Blanchardstown, thats a catchment area of approximately 80 to 100 thousand people, with the new IT there, suitable staff wouldnt be hard to find either, with the new library opened in the centre there may even be a suitable location in the old libraries premises (in roselawn). It would be preferable to open up in the centre though if you could as the amount of business it pulls in is phenomenal (sp, im tired). Anyway I think thats an ideal location and I dont care who robs the idea, if you can make it happen, fair play.

Bard

Originally posted by Baz_


There isnt a single internet cafe in Blanchardstown,

[...]

Anyway I think thats an ideal location and I dont care who robs the idea, if you can make it happen, fair play.

Ditto with Swords, Malahide, Lucan (I think), and quite a large proportion of North Co. Dublin.

WhiteWashMan

Originally posted by Baz_


There isnt a single internet cafe in Blanchardstown, thats a catchment area of approximately 80 to 100 thousand people, with the new IT there, suitable staff wouldnt be hard to find either, with the new library opened in the centre there may even be a suitable location in the old libraries premises (in roselawn). It would be preferable to open up in the centre though if you could as the amount of business it pulls in is phenomenal (sp, im tired). Anyway I think thats an ideal location and I dont care who robs the idea, if you can make it happen, fair play.

this probably the best idea ive ever seen on thos board.
blanch is perfect for an internet cafe

i hope someone from this boad does it.
baz, you are still my bítch though, now go and make me a cup of tea please....

manonthemoon

Meglome, (or any other internet cafe owner)

I gather you run a internet cafe. Did you purchase PC's all out or rent/ lease back. If you bought say 20, how much would they cost.

Dont worry, i wont be in competition. If i was thinking of setting one up it would be down the country

You see, The way i am seeing it in my country bumpkin, the rent would not that much of an outlay, so my biggest cost would be the hardware

Ant other hints, would be much appreciated.

Thanks

No doubt, by the time i go down at the weekend, the there will be about 10 internet cafes

Stephen

What part of the country?

BuffyBot

Originally posted by WhiteWashMan


this probably the best idea ive ever seen on thos board.
blanch is perfect for an internet cafe

i hope someone from this boad does it.

IMHO:

I agree. There is a lack of access facilites in the outer urban/suburban areas of Dublin. I think that is where the € is to be made, as Dublin city centre isn't suffering from over capacity, the rent on a suitable city centre would price it way out of the reach of most start ups.

manonthemoon

Probably a town like Ardmore or Youghal

zenith

I'm thinking of Midleton, manonthemoon....

manonthemoon

Zenith,

I know in Ardmore and Youghal there is no Internet Cafe. Is there a large refugee population in Midleton. If you think about most "locals" have internet connection at home or close.

I'm thinking Rdmore/ Youghal as they also have touists in summer who may not have internet access when on holidays.

Does Midleton get many tourists?

zenith

well, I dunno if a public forum is the best place to give you my thinking on this, but:

- the county development plan says that midleton, with or without rail link, is going to be high-density blue collar: it's a dorm town for Cork now, and the student pop. is particularly high.
- also, there's no competition but the pub.
- lots of tourists visit the distillery
- it's only 13 miles from cork, with a large hinterland
- there's a fantastic property on the main street that would make a brilliant netcaf, and has enough room that you could flog sangers to the peons during the day without alienating them

That's just my thinking ...