I am interested in opening a cyber cafe/ internet coffee shop, in Idaho Falls and am looking for some feedback from the area residents.
The cafe would be geared mainly toward the traveling business and the Tech students in the area, however some other activities and events are also planned for the clients, as in a small performance stage (open mic talent), meeting/conference rooms for group events and a variety of coffee, tea and other choice beverages. Some news and magazine choices are also going to be available in various media as well as TV/monitors displaying news and weather.
We are in the first steps of gathering information on the prospects of clients, location, and potential expense budgeting and would like any and all feedback from locals in the Idaho Falls area. You can contact me at seanbigham@yahoo.com for any other information.
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{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
I personally don’t see it being a big money maker in this town. Those people that don’t currently have internet access at work or home will go to either ISU (if their a student) the library, bookstore in the mall or any number of places around the city that have free wifi, such as Smittys, Dads Travel Ctr.etc etc. I don’t see anyone paying for access when you can get it for free all over the city.
That’s just my opinion though. Perhaps others have a different point of view they can offer.
What CR67 said. Given the proliferation of free wi fi all over town cyber cafes are kind of pointless. Especially since your going to be competing with places like Hastings and Barnes and Nobles who will be able to completely dominate your business in terms of fringe offerings like books, TV’s, magazines, coffee, etc. Not to mention that many restaurants are now offering free wi fi as well.
Well dont forget all those access points….people dont secure…
Cyber Cafés are going the way of the typesetter and lamplighter. I can’t think of a decent coffee house or restaurant that don’t offer free internet.
The Villa has it all plus a nice conference room that can be reserved for free. But what the heck, if thats what your dream is follow it. Whats the worst that can happen? Nobody’s going to chop of your hands if it fails.
But…..if you opened up a little daycare next door and had hot hunks serving mochas, I’d bring in a crowd!
I don’t know what kind of demographic you are trying to appeal to, but think that just about every one who posts on IF today is a grumpy home owning forty something with a religious aversion to coffee. I think it would be really nice to have somewhere to hang out with other students in the evenings. The villa kicks me out every day at 4PM because they close at four. So whats a person to do if they want a cup of coffee and some free web after 4? Starbucks is so trendy it makes me gag and they charge for their internet, the restaurants are full of screaming children and the library won’t let me take drinks in. It would also be great to have somewhere to go to to socialize with other bookish 20somethings. At most of the bars around here a person is liable to get stomped on by a hillbilly. The only business in town anything like what you are proposing is Dancing Dogs, which is awesome but it is kinda out in the middle of nowhere. It would be great to have a coffee shop around that had a jazz band a few times a week and maybe even some poetry readings. When you open, I promise I will come glug lattes and facebook, as long as your are open after four.
Sorry Mark, I think you’re a little off with your demographic comment *sips my luscious latte*.
Mmmmm….
Didn’t Dancing Dogs open a second location?
I just checked the Dancing Dogs website, and if they did open a new one they didn’t go out of their way to mention it. Hope that latte is still luscious.
Couldn’t be more off Mark – but good luck to you anyway finding that perfect escape. The fact is, if you’re a college student, you’ve chosen a very non-traditional campus setting (be it EITC or ISU) in a very non-college town. A place like this would work out in a college-oriented, downtown, or across from campus location. Isn’t the average age of college students her 30+? Most students already have jobs and families and not endless time to hang out and socialize with other students.
I investigated opening one of these about 5 years ago. It wasn’t a great idea then and I think it’s worse now. It’s hard to get around the fact that most people have computers at home now, the library offers free computer labs (sure no coffee but free and available), the non-traditional campus issues, and ISU offers computer labs for their students. Cyber cafes still thrive in countries where computers are still expensive, not here where we have $400 budget computers everywhere.
The cyber part is always the benefit to these cafes, not the main event. You need to deal with filters or teenagers will be playing youporn.com in your cafe. The money maker is still the coffee, in which case selling beans wholesale becomes your real cash cow. Not what you would think at first when you envision a cyber cafe.
You would be stuck with bums and customers too poor to have home computers, which then they don’t buy much of your food. Visit the public library’s computer lab any evening and see what your clientele will be. Breath in that stench, and think about trying to make a living off of those people.
If your dream is to work long hours for a community-styled business then follow your dream. If it’s to create a realistically profitable business, keep looking. This is another great business idea that could work other places but never in Idaho Falls. Sorry.
At first thought it seemed like this cyber cafe was a great idea to me. I love coffeehouses and hanging out at them. I like Dancing Dogs but their location and only being open 2 days a week really suck.
After reading Mark’s comment about the clientele he wants this new coffeehouse to attract I realize that I would be out of place. I’m in my early 50s and own my home. So even though I like coffee, lattes, jazz, poetry readings, and use Facebook I wouldn’t be young enough or hip enough to hang with him and his crowd at their kinds of places.
thanks for the input, yet I am still looking at the prospect of the cafe. Adding the options of a conference room(s), local live talent nights, even hosting a gamers night and events. The clients will be as diverse as the internet, and the various providers that I have talked with have been able to address the ‘filter’ issues. I even have approached the issue of a BBS server to add to the internet services available to the local businesses for advertising and promotional. It is boiling down to location and cost, and we are hoping for the end of this year or early next year for actual opening the doors.
Again thanks for your input.
Keep us updated, and best of luck!
Great idea! Hope you open it downtown! The entertainment idea should go hand in hand but don’t get carried away with it. There’s nothing worse than wanting to go in someplace for a quiet drink and a little conversation and finding out just when your drink arrives there’s a two-hour trivia quiz going on (Red Lion). Have amateur comedy nights or poetry readings, some local bands trying to get their name out there, and I think you’d begin drawing a crowd. Just don’t forget there will be the occasional lunkhead like me who will sometimes want to observe and will sometimes want a little peace and quiet to peruse the internet and will need a quiet corner. I’ve lived in other places where the downtowns are full of cafes such as the one you’re suggesting and are doing well. Put a few tables outdoors in good weather. Go get ‘em, best of luck. It’s the small entrepreneurs who are going to carry us through our economic woes.
To increase chances, control all that you can control. You increase your chances by partnering with others who are really good at all the things that you are not – you don’t want a big overlap of skills, so they don’t need to be good at what you’re best at. One person needs to hold a little more water than anyone else, and they better be right for that role. Have a competent finance person (you’ll likely have to be prepared to wear many of these hats yourself).
Most people do not have a true calling for founding and keeping a profitable business long term, even though they can appreciate the idea. There are many people with the required level of interest (often due to having day jobs they hate) without the required underlying reason that is strong enough to consistently drive them. A rocket scientist will likely be a failure as an entrepreneur and vice versa.
So by far the safest prediction for others to give you is that it won’t work. And do you know what? The odds are in their favor. It’s good to be (and realize that) you are wrong on a daily basis on one thing or another. It’s good to get to a point where you are right most of the time though or it means you’re repeating mistakes.
The truth is that your business sounds like a luxury for times when a lot of people are looking for ways to cut expenses. Another truth is, that the right person/people would take that into account and could absolutely make it work, and add another valuable facet to our community.
Are you that kind of person?
What about Bella Vita Coffeehouse? They are open on Sundays, serve homemade food, have FREE wifi and REAL parking! I loved the Villa but when you have to walk 3 blocks for a cup of joe, that seems pointless.
Where is the Bella Vita?
Before you commit to leasing a large space with conference rooms, call around to local hotels and find out how much and fast you can rent a conference room for a day. I think you’ll find it’s not a business you want to compete in.
Go for it! You have the right innovation and creativity. Your going to offer a place to a guy from dubois to sit and have some entertainment and still be able to bring my laptop and do some other work while I kill time in Idaho Falls. Believe me you have a market, just make sure you bring simple and cheap benefits into your marketing plan. People want comfort and benefits that are cheap when they visit. ex…..User group meeting center for PC application builders would be a plus, as well as equities traders and some wine while we trade and talk about our strategies. Pick a good location that offers hardwood floors, fake leather seats, simple tall round tables to just stand and talk or google, and of course wine and beer. Get a unique desert or beverage that can only be gotten at your place too. Even if you have to import it…
Yeah, I have to agree with most of what I’ve read.
If you’re going to open a cafe, make it with GREAT coffee and good foor, comfy seats and rel;axed surroundings….AT an affordable price. THAT is what should bring your business in, and if yo ucan make a go of it then more power to ya.
If you wanted to install some wi-fi on the cheap it would be a great addition that not too many others offers, but for it to be your main or even A main drawing point, I think you’re sunk before you you start.
Two very good entrepreneur friends of mine opened one about 3 years ago in Walla Walla, a VERY good college town. They were closed in less than 18 months.
Technology has killed the idea. There is no longer a need.
My $.02,
DJ
Bella Vita is at Snake River Landing, kind of across from/near the pier. My girlfriends and I get together there all the time.
Dancing Dogs is now open every day of the week. On the week days from 6am to 2pm, Saturday 10am to 9pm (with the jam packed open mike night) and Sunday (with live acustic music and brunch) from 10am to 2pm. The only coffee shop in town that fresh roasts their own beans!
But who feels like driving to Ririe for a cup of coffee? Ok, so it’s not that far, but still, they’re not located in the most convienent spot in town.
Let us remember…convenience is a relative term.
Dancing Dogs is but a crisp little 3.4 mile walk from my front door. I don’t know that it could be more convenient.
my point is their location is not that convenient for many of us. Especially with the economy the way it is, most people have trimmed the fat so to speak and gotten rid of their daily 4 dollar cup of coffee rituals from the local barristas and opted for making their own. Which by the way is just as good and at a fraction of the cost. Plus we don’t have to drive anywhere to get it.
Oh…I quite agree.
Please don’t think I was being snippy at you. I have long held this feeling of sadness for those in what I call the “Lemming Gang’, who blindly hop on board the latest fad and pay astronomical amounts before they learned as you (and many others)have during this financial debacle….IT’S FLAVORED WATER!
I have what I call my “Starbuck’s List”…this is a list of things that I have vowed never to partake of, experience, or insinuate into my life. A few, I have fallen to. I now own a cell phone (for almost 15 months), I have watched an episode of American Idol (though I shant ever again), and I do own a few Polo shirts with the little horseys on the breast.
But I never saw one second of Conan on The Tonight Show (though I did enjoy him at 11:30 and will miss him), I will never be affiliated with ANY political party, and I shall never pay more than $1.50 for a cup of coffee.
And I wish good luck to anyone who starts up a business here in IF in the near future and I hope anyone who does will announce it here so I can support their efforts.
Sounds like Dancing Dogs is trying to promote more than just a 3.00 cup of coffee, but more of an experience. I don’t stop every day for coffee, I make it at home, but every few months I splurge on a fancy coffee, just cuz.
Just like anything, if you do it all the time, it isn’t a treat any more.
Not sure what watching Conan has to do with buying a 3-4 dollar cup of coffee. Personally, I think NBC screwed this guy over by giving him the tonight show and than forcing him out altogether when things didn’t work out as planned.
I made the long journey out to Dancing Dogs after their writeup in the paper and they were closed and nobody was around when I got there. The parking lot at the store where they supposedly sell beans looked like it had never been plowed all this year. I couldn’t see a sign that said when anyone would be there. That’s not the first wasted trip I’ve made out there but it will be the last one.