Business Description
Readster is a small literary café, the first of its kind in Queenstown. The main idea is to combine two activities which people enjoy: eating and receiving information. Thus, along with cuisine, Readster will offer its customers a variety of sources of information, starting from books and magazines, and ending up with scientific journals. To put it in a different way, Readster will be a public library where visitors can order themselves meals. Various literary activities will be taking place in Readster from time to time, most likely on a scheduled (regular) basis. Among such activities, poetry and prose readings, literary contests, discussions and workshops, live music, and many others are planned.
Vision and Target Clientele
Readster’s target clientele includes people aged 15-40, well-educated (with a humanitarian mindset), and creative. As for the pricing policy, customers will not have to pay for each single order. Instead, they will pay for the time they spend in the café. Coffee, cakes, biscuits, and WiFi are included in this price. For other food the customers will have to pay. However, our loyalty program for regular customers will allow them to include more dishes in the price of time they spend at Readster.
Readster creates an atmosphere of simple coziness, so that nothing distracts customers from reading books while snacking, reading their works aloud, and so on. Therefore, there will be no loud music playing inside (only quiet and easy-listening music, such as minimal house or lounge); TV screens will also be absent. The interior will be set in a minimalistic key, with the use of pastel colors and design items.
Mission and Goals
Readster will become a new center for the writers of Queenstown, as well as for the creative youth. It will be not just a café, but a place for so-called literary get-togethers; the idea is to recreate and cultivate the spirit of the spontaneous literary clubs of 60’s, when open-minded people gathered in a random place, read each other their texts, discussed them, criticized them, or worked together on literary projects. Therefore, Roadster’s mission is to shape out and organize the literary core of Queenstown.
Business Strategies
In its establishment in Queenstown, Readster will rely on:
- innovative pricing policy;
- loyalty programs for regular customers;
- unique atmosphere of literary get-togethers;
- favorable location in the city center;
- intense advertising campaign;
- absence of competition from the local market.
Funding Requirements and Financial Planning
In order to establish Readster, both the owner’s savings and a bank loan will be needed.
Expenditure
The projected expenditure is as follows.
Fixed and sunk costs (in $)
Building rent and sunk costs: 200,000
Capital expenditure: 210,000
License and registration: 4,000
Consulting services: 85,000
Web domain registration: 2,000
Equipment: 25,000
Promotion: 54,000
Personnel: 250,000
Total Expenses: 830,000
Income Projections and Explanation
The number of visitors of Readster in year one is anticipated to equal approximately 1000 people; this index is expected to increase to 2500 in year two, and 5000 in year three. Daily sales are expected to be $2000 in year one; $5500 in year two, and $12000 in year three.
The revenue derived from Readster café will be $2000 x 360 days = $720,000 in year one; $5500 x 360 days = $1,980,000 in year two; $12,000 x 360 days = $4,320,000 in year three. Deducting all the expenditures, in year three the net amount will be 4,320,000 – 830,00 = $3,490,000.
Future Prospects
After a year of functioning in Queenstown as a single literary cafeteria, in the following three years Readster will be extended (if the business pays off) to the nearby towns; in five years the first Readster café will be opened in New York City, where it will be expected to compete with other literary cafes offering similar services.
