Venture Concept

The opportunity for this business, starting a community focused coffee shop on Johns Island, is exceptional. The need for this business is very large at the present time. There is a 15-30 minute drive area to the West, South, & North that has over 100,000 people in it. There are no coffee shops within this area. The only source of coffee that the residents and the 50,000 visitors per year have is McDonald's and a gas station. This need has been accelerated by a very quickly developed real estate marketing, thousands of new residents, and very restrictive commercial laws. The area has resisted commercial zoning and infrastructure development, reducing the interest of businesses from coming in and targeting the market. The real estate for commercial businesses is scarce, causing higher rent rates. There are currently no competitors in this market in the industry, and there will be a window of 3-5 years before the zoning is shifted enough to attract more competitors of a national level.

This is a service-based business. The factors that will determine our success will be the quality of the coffee, affordable pricing, the timeliness from order to serving, the environment inside of the location, and our corporate responsibility practices. At the current time, the only competitors are McDonald's and two gas stations. They are very different than the model I am exploring. They have weaknesses of very bad quality product and an experience that is not as enjoyable as ours will be. They lack in customer service and visual appeal. They are also not involved in supporting the local community at all.

Our innovation will come from creating a unique environment that is conducive for meetings and local community gatherings and involvement. The coffee we have will be slightly less than Starbucks but will have better pricing and be locally sourced. You cannot get this combination within 1 hour of our location. The combination of a unique product, great pricing, and local community support will create a business model that most of the local culture will embrace.

Our most important resource will be our environment. There are many options to get a cup of coffee. There are no options to get a cup of coffee that is premium quality in a location that has great customer service and you enjoy sitting in. Creating an environment that welcomes and asks for the community to spend time in the location sharing coffee, conversations, and memories together.

The next steps to pursue this venture would be to seek a business loan for the equipment and rent of the first location. We would then need to secure a location, start on marketing, and sourcing our employees.

The future for me if I were to pursue this venture would be to secure a great general manager that shares my vision and to closely participate in the growth of the business. Over the next 5 years we would seek to grow powerful relationships with our community and customers, developing the business into a $500,000 per year revenue business. We would likely hold onto the business until we were offered a large enough buyout or until national companies enter the market and take an excess of the market share.