I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to start a espresso machine and grinder business. I have the opportunity to occupy a small space in an Italian import shop and was wondering how to go about selling maybe a few choice machines and grinders and some odds and ends. What I am most curious about is how to acquire the machines from the companies. I have never owned a business before so any help that you guys can supply would be greatly appreciated. I just want to start a small shop because where I live there really is no one in the area where you can go and look at the equipment and try before you buy.

You are looking at a very tough business. Your competition will be:

1. For lower end semi-automatics and for consumer super-automatics: all the major chain and big box stores, all of whom also have an on-line presence.

2. For higher-end consumer machines: the well-established on-line retailers, who also bench test their machines before delivery and provide expert post-sale advice.

3. For commercial machines: wholesale roasters who loan free machines to their customers; full service vendors who have a staff of service technicians; and the on-line retailers.

Add to that you are selling what is basically expensive kitchen equipment in an economically depressed region. I wouldn't encourage you.

Sourcing espresso gear is easy, just look up "Host Milano" (and there's a heap of other Italian stuff on show as well); this is a Host year. Does require a trip to Milan in October. Selling is pretty simple too, a website and a keen price, a bit of carefully concealed spam on internet forums and there you go.

Service and backup in the long run? Aye, there's the rub.


Alan

Yeah traveling to italy would be nice right now but it's not in the budget. That seems a little more that what I wanted to do. I live in a very large area with no espresso shop or high-end retailer and can't help but think I could do alright by having a few machines and grinders to choose from and some of the more popular items that go along with repair and modding such as burrs, hoppers, and tampers. I am just sorta looking to get my feet wet since I believe that alot of people in my area would like to by their stuff from a local shop and skip the shipping costs. I am not looking to be chris coffee I just sorta wanna carve a small niche out for myself in an area that I think would benefit from it.

Ah, but that trip to Milano would be a business expense!

Yes that it would but coming up with that much cash at this point is not a possibility.

Bluegrod wrote:I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to start a espresso machine and grinder business. I have the opportunity to occupy a small space in an Italian import shop and was wondering how to go about selling maybe a few choice machines and grinders and some odds and ends. What I am most curious about is how to acquire the machines from the companies. I have never owned a business before so any help that you guys can supply would be greatly appreciated. I just want to start a small shop because where I live there really is no one in the area where you can go and look at the equipment and try before you buy.

1. If you've never owned a business before, let me ASSURE you that you need more investment capital than you think, more working capital than you think, and you will make less money than you think.
2. You are in a bad location: Albany (where Chris' Coffee is located) is only a few hours away; Manalapan (where 1st-Line is based) is a little farther, but certainly drivable. And of course, you are very close to Rochester (the home of WLL).
3. Why import? Why not just distribute?
4. There is (virtually) no place anywhere where you can "try before you buy" a wide variety of machines -- certainly not like walking into the showroom at (e.g.) Chris' Coffee Service.
5. Marshall is quite right: the economy sucks right now, and even in good times, most new small businesses fail.

There is more, but I don't want to seem too pessimistic . . .

You're not being pessimistic, you're giving your opinion. As far as the places you listed go Chris coffee is over 4 hours away and why not have something close to home that they can go to and as far as WLL they don't allow you to go to a showroom and see the goods in person. I was thinking of maybe just having a machine or two up and running and maybe a grinder or two so people can have an idea how big these are or see them in action in person. I understand what your saying but I thought a small area devoted to this would do okay. Can you honestly say you would pay extra for parts when you could drive 20 minutes and pick them up for yourself.

Bluegrod wrote:Can you honestly say you would pay extra for parts when you could drive 20 minutes and pick them up for yourself.

Customers have to know what part they need before they buy it, which usually requires expert advice. Will they go to your shop for that advice or go to an online vendor? Be prepared to do a lot of marketing and promotion, so they know where to find you and what you offer.

Greg,

I live in California. Four hours is NOTHING!

Seriously, my wife and kids drove nearly 40 miles roundtrip out to the barn this morning to go riding. Then, we'll drive 40+ miles up to Carneros for a friend's July 4th barbecue, and another 25+ miles to St. Helena for dinner and fireworks at another friend's house, and then we'll drive another 60 miles to come home . . .

Bluegrod wrote:I was thinking of maybe just having a machine or two up and running and maybe a grinder or two so people can have an idea how big these are or see them in action in person.

That's fine, but what if the one or two you have up and running aren't the ones I'm interested in? I don't mean you don't carry them -- I wouldn't expect you to have a Silvia for me to try if you didn't carry them -- but what about the machines you do carry?

Now, that said, if you do drive to Chris' Coffee (straight shot down I-90; easy except in a winter blizzard), you have many more than merely one or two machines and/or grinders up and running. I wouldn't expect Chris to have (e.g.) a Vibiemme for me to "play with," anymore than I would expect Jim at 1st-Line to have an Expobar Brewtus or a Cimbali Max Hybrid.

But what if you have "a machine or two" and you also sell Machine No. 3, and that's the one I'm interested in?

Bluegrod wrote:Can you honestly say you would pay extra for parts when you could drive 20 minutes and pick them up for yourself.

Keep in mind I'm in California. I have repeatedly ordered machines, grinders, baskets, parts, cleaning supplies, and more from four vendors: Chris' Coffee in New York, 1st-Line in New Jersey, Espresso Parts in Washington, and Stefano's Espresso Care in Oregon. By doing so, I avoid sales tax (now at 9.75% where I live), and the shipping is free -- at least from Chris' Coffee and 1st-Line. So . . . if I could drive 20 minutes, I'd be paying nearly 10% more! I'll order online, thank you.

And that means that your competition in business is not limited to the stores down the street or down the interstate, but all across the country!

Also, you are now talking parts, not machines and grinders (not just machines and grinders?). Are you planning on providing parts and service? Just parts? You going to be able to advise your customers which part they need, and how it works, needs to be installed, etc.?

Again, Greg, I'm not trying to pick on you. Honest! But you need to have a solid business plan if you have any hope of success. And the best way to make sure that plan is solid (IMHO) is to have someone else critique it! The person/people who created the plan cannot see its weaknesses as easily as someone else.

Cheers,
Jason

Jason

I appreciate your insight and you raise several good points. My purpose of putting this out there is to get responses like that so that I can more accurately judge if I have a decent idea or not and if so then I will develop a plan to present to the owner. I would have to say that life in CA is a little different there. I can't see alot of people driving all the way across the state for machines I just think you guys have a different mindset out there and it's just a question of geographic location as to what people consider a long road trip or not. And, your right I can't have every machine made for people to look at that is why I was thinking of just the most popular items that people seem to buy on a regular basis. Chris coffee does have to charge sales tax here and shipping is only free over 50 dollars and I would like to stock alot of stuff that falls under that range so that people here could get it now without waiting.

Jim

To answer your question this shop does sell food but also all kinds of imported wares ranging anywhere from cookies to utensils. They do sell coffee stuff now but in a conversation with the owner he has gotten several requests for higher quality machines and grinders along with higher quality accessories such as knockboxes. tampers, filter baskets and portafilter handles and stuff like that which he doesn't sell as does not know where to send anyone hence my idea of putting the parts and machines there.


As far as service work that is something I need to explore and see what my options are. I have a good working knowledge of home based machines which is where I would put my concentration on but, I would imagine there are alot of issues that can be handled with a house call. Like I said this may be a crazy idea but I would like to offer a small service to people who would otherwise have to go online to get parts and I would like to offer a little customer service which in this day and age is rare. When I have to get parts from chris coffee I love dealing with them. That company is very customer oriented and will bend over backwards to help you no matter what your question is. I just want a very small version of that. I am not looking to make a living at this. This is just something I would like to do on the side to maybe earn a little extra cash and most importantly help people with what I consider to be an art form

Bluegrod wrote:As far as service work that is something I need to explore and see what my options are. I have a good working knowledge of home based machines which is where I would put my concentration on but, I would imagine there are alot of issues that can be handled with a house call. Like I said this may be a crazy idea but I would lke to offer a small service to people who would otherwise have to go online to get parts and I would like to offer a little customer service which in this day and age is rare. When I have to get parts from chris coffee I love dealing with them. That company is very customer oriented and will bend over backwards to help you no matter what your question is. I just want a very small version of that. I am not looking to make a living at this. This is just something I would like to do on the side to maybe earn a little extra cash and most importantly help people with what I consider to be an art form

I think that you will find that (sorry to heap more negativity on you), selling espresso parts to consumers is meant for people with the patience of a saint, who value their time at near-zero. It will be a frustrating and unrewarding business. You will spend an hour or more of hand-holding time for every $5 you make in profit. I'm probably being generous.

I would leave it to the big vendors, who either refuse to take phone calls for parts or have enough experience to understand what the customer means when he says, "You know, the round plastic thingy, that's over by the metal part under the tube. What kind of machine is it? It's a, you know, the one they used to sell at Target that makes lattes."

Well I must say that the responses that I have gotten here have really shocked me. Now don't get me wrong I would rather have people tell me the truth rather than blow smoke up someplace but I guess I was thinking this would be a really great idea. I think part of my problem is that I am looking at it from my perspective and what I think would work but it seems the general consensus is that people really do like to order from people they can't see. I do realize the nightmares that starting something like this may cause but I truly felt a small service type company would really work but it seems that the people that have been responding have been around this for alot longer than I have and have a much firmer grasp on how this field is. I guess people like chris really need to feel lucky as that they have a wonderful customer base and a wonderful reputation amongst people like us.

If you're willing to invest space and money as an experiment and understand that you might get nothing in return except a bunch of spare parts and it's your dream, you'll find the answer soon enough, but if you need it to make money to pay the rent, there are probably a lot better ways to make money.

I don't know if I would go so far as to say it's a dream but I really do love this hobby and if I can share any knowledge I have or help someone just starting out with some good advice and make a few bucks at the same time then that would be great.

Greetings,

Before you go into this venture be sure you have enough money set aside to live on for the next two or three years.

Cliff

HB wrote:I would e-mail Sebastian at Great Infusions. What he's done is similar to what you propose and can provide firsthand knowledge of the pitfalls.

As a customer of Great Infusions I can safely say that their business has survived and succeeded because of Internet sales and regular commercial customers. He also does a lot of equipment repairs. Something the OP is not currently equipped to do.