For first-time owners

Everything it takes to open a coffee shop, in the right order.

Most people open a cafe on enthusiasm and a spreadsheet, and find out what they missed after they have signed a lease. CoffeeCamp is the whole path written down: eleven phases from first tasting to first year of trading, with the numbers, the paperwork and the awkward questions in the order you actually hit them.

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11Phases

80Steps

600+Prompts

7Built-in tools

50US states covered

The course

Eleven phases, concept to open doors

Each step is a short lesson, then work you actually do: prompts you answer, numbers you enter, decisions you commit to. Everything you write saves into a document you can print or hand to a lender.

PHASE 1Concept & brandLearn coffee properly, study real shops, then define what you are building and who it is for.

PHASE 2Business & financialsStartup budget, break-even, pricing, funding, and the SBA business plan a lender expects.

PHASE 3Location & leaseSite criteria, foot traffic, zoning, and a lease that will not bury you.

PHASE 4Compliance & licensingFederal, state, county and city, generated for your exact jurisdiction.

PHASE 5Equipment & supplyEspresso, grinders, water, refrigeration, POS, and who to buy each from.

PHASE 6Menu & pricingA tight menu, costed per item, with recipe cards and real margins.

PHASE 7Hiring & trainingRoles, pay, interviews, a barista training program, and the handbook.

PHASE 8Systems & opsOpening and closing routines, inventory, food safety logs, cash handling.

PHASE 9Pre-launch marketingSignage, Google Business, social, partnerships, and a soft launch.

PHASE 10LaunchFinal inspections, certificate of occupancy, and an hour-by-hour opening day.

PHASE 11Run & growThe daily cadence, the numbers to watch weekly, and when a second site makes sense.

The tools

Calculators, not just reading

The parts of this that sink people are arithmetic problems, so they are built as tools you fill in rather than advice you nod along to.

Startup cost builder

Twenty-six line items across build-out, equipment, fit-out and opening stock, each with a typical range so you can sanity-check a quote. Add contingency and months of runway and it gives you the number to take to a lender. The biggest variable, whether the space was a food business before you, is called out where it matters.

Startup budget26 line items

Leasehold improvements$125,000

Espresso machine, 2-group$16,500

Refrigeration & ice$11,500

Contingency at 18%$47,475

4 months runway$72,000

Capital you need to raise$383,225

Break-even150 tickets a day

Revenue a month$38,220

Gross profit per ticket$4.84

Profit at 70% of plan-$3,513

Rent11.8%

Labor36.6%

Prime64.6%

Break-even calculator

Nine inputs give you the ticket count you must hit every day to stop losing money, a stress test at 70% of plan, and three colour-coded ratios. Rent above 15% of sales and prime cost above 70% are the two that quietly kill cafes, so they turn red before you sign anything.

Daypart traffic counter

Stand where your door would be, count everyone who passes for fifteen minutes, and enter the raw number. It scales that to daily footfall, applies a capture rate, and tells you what the street can actually support and how much of it arrives before 11am. Free to do, and almost nobody does it.

Weekday traffic58% before 11am

7-99-1111-11-33-5

People past the door1,440

At 1.5% capture22 tickets · $151

Compliance Navigator

Pick your state, county and city and get a tailored checklist with fees, timelines and official links.

SBA business plan builder

The official SBA sections as guided prompts, collecting into a printable plan as you answer.

Menu & sales mix builder

Price your menu, set the mix, and see the transactions a day your target revenue actually needs.

Competitor map

Map every coffee option near your site, track which you have visited, and record what each is bad at.

Vision board

Drag in photos, palettes and notes. It becomes the brief you hand a designer.

Ask anything

Search the whole curriculum in plain English and jump straight to the passage that answers you.

Honestly

Who this is for, and who it isn't

Worth your money if

You are seriously considering opening your first cafe and have not signed anything yet.
You want the unglamorous parts, the permits and the prime cost, not aesthetic inspiration.
You would rather find out the numbers do not work now than after a ten-year lease.
You are in the US, where the compliance and funding material is written for your rules.

Not worth it if

You already run a cafe. Most of this you learned the hard way already.
You want someone to tell you it will work. This will mostly tell you where it might not.
You are looking for legal, tax or financial advice. This points you at the right questions and the official sources, and tells you when to hire a professional.