So, you want to open a coffee shop, but you’re not sure where to start.
Or maybe you just need some guidance to make sure you’re on the right track.
Or, maybe you’re just tired of googling “how to open a coffee shop” with nothing helpful in return.
No matter the reason, you’ve come to the right place.
Here’s how to open a coffee shop in eight, easy-to-follow steps.
Let’s get started!
How to Open a Coffee Shop in 8 Steps
Step 1: Define your vision and concept
The first step in opening a coffee shop is defining what you want your coffee shop to look and feel like — A.K.A. your coffee shop’s vision and concept.
Figure out your answers to questions like:
- What will your coffee shop’s vibe be?
- What makes your coffee shop unique?
- What do you want your coffee shop to look like?
- How will you show your personality through your coffee shop?
- How do you want people to feel when they step into your coffee shop?
- Will your coffee shop be more of a social spot or a quiet place to work?
Your answers to these questions will help inform the other seven steps in the process, especially when it comes time to write your coffee shop business plan.
Step 2: Choose your location wisely
Now that you have a clear vision of your soon-to-be-opened coffee shop, you need to start thinking about where you’ll open your coffee shop’s doors.
There are several things to keep in mind when you’re picking a coffee shop location:
- How much space do you need to function?
- Where does your target audience spend most of their time?
- Will you be staying in the city you live in, or moving elsewhere?
There are (unfortunately) a ton of location-based constraints that you may need to figure out in this step, too.
For example, your dream location’s real estate market might be slow, or incredibly expensive, or simply non-existent. This is why it’s so important to stay flexible and adaptable at this stage. Having an open, functional coffee shop in your second-choice location is way better than never opening your doors in the first place!
Plus, your coffee shop’s location doesn’t have to be permanent, either. You can always open another location, upgrade your current spot, or do a combo of the two further down the line.
Step 3: Figure out your costs
At this point in the “how to open a coffee shop” checklist, it’s time to talk money.
Now’s the time to figure out everything you need to about finances, including:
- What you need to pay for (i.e., equipment investments)
- How you’re going to pay for it (i.e., bootstrapping, investors)
- How you plan to actually make your money (i.e. profit margins)
- How much money you need to make to stay open (i.e., projected revenue)
All of this information gets tied nicely into your coffee shop business plan in the next step, too. You’ll use your answers to these questions as “proof” that your coffee shop can make money, while helping you understand how you’ll do it, too.
Luckily, the information you lay out in this step doesn’t have to be one-and-done.
If things change as you go through the rest of the steps— which they always do — you can come back to this step, adjust your estimates, add new costs, update old ones, and revisit your projections. It’s really more of an ongoing step!
Step 4: Write a business plan
After you’ve figured out your coffee shop’s vision and concept, picked a spot to open, and figured out your finances, it’s time to make it “official” by writing a business plan.
A coffee shop business plan is a detailed, written document outlining (and explaining) every part of your business, from the high-level concept and vision you just defined to the more nitty-gritty things like your marketing, financial, and operations plans.
Your coffee shop business plan is a blueprint for how to run your business, how to make decisions that align with your goals, and what success looks like in the short- and long-term. It’s also a key part of funding applications and investor proposals!
Step 5: Get your legal stuff in order
The fifth step in opening a coffee shop is all about the “less exciting but important” stuff: getting your permits, licenses, and legal docs in order.
The specific permits and licenses your coffee shop needs will depend on your business’s details and the state you’re operating in, but here are a few common ones that most coffee shops will need to look into.
- A sign permit
- A business license
- A building health permit
- A retail food service license
- A food handler’s permit for each employee
No matter how confident you feel with the permit and license processes in your state, it’s a good idea to get support and/or a final check from a lawyer, consultant, or other regulatory professional.
All it takes is one missed permit or license to keep your coffee shop from opening on schedule — and nobody wants that!
Step 6: Build your brand and marketing foundation
Step six in our “how to open a coffee shop” checklist brings creativity back into the picture, because it’s time to build out your coffee shop’s brand and marketing foundation.
This step involves a lot of creative decision-making, starting with branding.
You’ll need to determine each of the unique elements that make up your coffee shop’s brand, from your logo and colors to your voice and personality. And, considering there are over 85,800 coffee shops in the US right now, you’ll also need to spend some time thinking about how to make your branding stand out (which our “Coffee Shop Branding” blog can help with!).
This step is also a great opportunity to explore how your branding applies to other parts of your coffee shop, too. You’ll want to figure out your answers to branding-focused questions like:
- Will you create any merchandise with your branding/logo?
- How will you apply your branding to your coffee shop’s social media accounts?
- What’s the best way to apply your branding to things like take-out cups and mugs?
→ For more details on building your brand, check out our blog “Coffee Shop Branding: 5 Ways to Stand Out!”
Step 7: Design your space and hire your team
By step seven, you’ve got all the “big things” crossed off the list, like your location, start-up costs, permits, and branding. Now, it’s time to design your space and fill out your team.
The first thing to start with here is the floor plan.
Your coffee shop’s floor plan should identify all of the most important parts of your building, laying out front- and back-of-house areas with measurements. Once the floor plan is done — and you’ve got exact measurements to work with — you can start filling out the rest of the space with furniture, appliances, and decor.
Next up is the hiring process.
If you want your coffee shop to make your customers feel seen, heard, and willing to become regulars, then hiring the right team is a non-negotiable. The best way to kickstart this process is by writing strong, engaging job descriptions, tailored to attract your ideal employee. From there, pick out the top applicants and start the coffee shop-specific interview process, making sure they’ve got the skills you need and the energy you want.
Step 8: Do a soft launch before your grand opening
The final step in opening your coffee shop is to host a trial run before the big day, also called a “soft launch” or “soft opening.”
The reason we recommend soft launches is simple: practice makes perfect.
Soft launches give your staff a chance to make sure things are running smoothly and to identify bumps in the road that’ll need to be fixed before the official launch. You can also get invaluable feedback from soft launches, allowing you to fix, change, or adjust things before your doors are officially open.
A soft launch also gives you a chance to iron out any bugs or glitches in your tech before “real” money is exchanged. That way, you know for a fact that your POS software and payment processors are running in tip-top shape before your coffee shop opens for real.
How Much Money Do I Need to Open a Coffee Shop?
How much money you need to get your coffee shop up and running depends on the features of your specific coffee shop.
Everything from location size and building type to local real estate prices and specialty products can impact how much things will cost you, so unfortunately, there’s no hard-and-fast dollar amount that we can give you.
But, that said…
Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea conducted a study in April 2025, interviewing independent coffee shops to see how much they spent to get things off the ground — and here’s what they found.
- Coffee shops with dine-in seating only: $100K – $350K
- Coffee shops with a drive-thru only: $100K – $250K
- Coffee shops with dine-in and drive-thru: $120K – $400K
So, based on Crimson Cup’s research, we can estimate that it takes anywhere from $100,000 to $400,000 to open up a coffee shop, but again, that all depends on your coffee shop’s features.
How Profitable is it to Open a Coffee Shop?
Much like the previous section, the answer here is “it depends.”
Tons of factors can impact how profitable (or not profitable) opening a coffee shop is, like:
- Your volume of foot traffic
- Your customer retention rate
- The pricing strategy you’re using
- How successful your marketing is
- Whether your branding helps you stand out
- How well you’ve implemented menu engineering
→ For more tips on increasing coffee shop profits, check out our blog “How Much Do Coffee Shops Make?”
Wrap Up
As you start making your way through our “how to open a coffee shop” checklist, you might find yourself a little stuck at step #4: writing a business plan.
What questions need to be answered in an Executive Summary? How do you do a Market Analysis? And what do you need to write out your Menu and Services section?
Luckily, our Coffee Shop Business Plan Template was designed to help you answer all of these questions with an easy-to-fill-in template that you can customize to your coffee shop’s needs, wants, and goals.
You got this!
