How To Open a Coffee Shop in a Small Town

Open a coffee shop in a small town.

Small Town Coffee Shop Business

How To Open a Coffee Shop in a Small Town

Opening a coffee shop can be an exciting opportunity to get into a profitable, fun, and community-centered business.

But what if you live in a small town?

Does it make sense to open a coffee shop in a smaller market? Can your coffee shop still be profitable?

To be sure, there are coffee lovers everywhere. As a result, from big cities to small towns, you’re going to find thriving coffee shops turning a profit.

While many people love great coffee in your town, we do recommend that you take a good look at the local demographics to determine if your coffee business will be financially sustainable.

There is no question that smaller towns are often under-served in a variety of capacities. From the availability of technology to healthy food choices, people living in small towns often miss out on the diverse options easily found in larger metropolitan areas.

And yet, sometimes, that’s the whole charm of living in a small town!

Small Towns May Provide Opportunities For Growth

The good news is the opportunity for your coffee shop business to thrive. Depending on some factors we’ll discuss below, opening a coffee shop or setting up a drive-thru coffee stand in a small town can lead to healthy profits.

Starting a coffee shop in a small town has inherent benefits compared to opening a new coffee shop in a big city or sprawling suburb. We’ll mention a few of them below. And to be fair, we’ll also mention some drawbacks that you’ll also want to consider.

Ultimately, however, the biggest factor of success is your ability to research, plan, and spend your money wisely during this whole process.

Our goal is to help you consider the important steps to starting a coffee shop to reduce your costs, time, and headaches.

Small Town Coffee Businesses

Benefits of Opening a Coffee Shop in a Small Town

 Serving Coffee to An Under-served Market

Can you imagine waking up in the morning with limited choices of great-tasting coffee?

If you live in a small town and feel this way, chances are your neighbors are feeling it too!

Opening a coffee shop in a small town means you’ll be serving coffee to your friends and neighbors, that often have limited choices to start with. This demand could lead to a solid customer base and potentially healthy profits.

Lower Coffee Shop Startup Costs

Opening a coffee shop in a small town might be more affordable than the costs of opening up a coffee business in a large city.

Things like your coffee shop lease payments (rent), utilities, and taxes may all cost less than larger cities. Additionally, contractors, plumbers, and other specialists you may need may also charge less in a small town than in a larger city.

While some coffee shop startup costs you can’t avoid, you’ll most likely spend less money opening up your coffee shop.

Unavoidable costs include buying coffee equipment: an espresso machine, coffee grinders, scales, pitchers, coffee brewers, ice-makers, and refrigerators.

Unless you’re able to pick up a well-maintained used piece of coffee equipment, you’ll be paying what any other coffee shop owner will have to pay (though you might pay less in taxes!).

Less Competition

Smaller towns tend to compete less than large cities and suburbs, appealing to a new coffee shop owner.

However, before you move forward with opening your coffee shop, you will want to assess coffee business competitors and how they could impact your sales.

Still, it can be assumed that you will probably face less competition in smaller towns. Less competition means you’ll enjoy a better share of the market-based interest in buying coffee.

Building Your Coffee Brand

If you have dreams of starting more than one coffee shop, you may have an easier time building your coffee brand in a smaller town.

The less noise that comes with less populated places really provides a fertile ground for growing your coffee brand in your community.

You will find it especially important to deliver high customer service and quality coffee to develop your coffee shop branding on the flip side.

Open a coffee shop in a small town.

Disadvantages of Opening a Coffee Shop in a Small Town

Finding Good Baristas

Baristas will be an important factor in the success and profitability of your coffee shop. While you will work many hours at your coffee shop, you will eventually want to hire a small staff of employees.

Finding great baristas can be a challenge anywhere. However, this is especially true in a small town. 

As a coffee shop owner, you will want honest, reliable, and personable people working for you. This shortlist of requirements isn’t always easy to find.

Once you find the right baristas, you will want to invest in their barista training. Barista training boosts morale, reduces waste, and provides your customers with a better product and overall experience. Fortunately, there are good online barista training courses available.

Getting Your Coffee Inventory

Coffee beans. Oat milk. Fresh muffins. Every part of your coffee shop menu will need to come easy, convenient, and affordable.

Depending on your specific location, you’ll have to diligently plan on getting your supplies and inventory on time every day.

Depending on the distance between you and your suppliers, your inventory may be susceptible to anything along the supply chain, leaving you vulnerable.

To prepare for your inventory, develop your coffee menu early. Once you have a good plan for your coffee shop menu board, start developing relationships with coffee roasters, bakeries, or any other vendor that might supply you with wholesale items. We recommend that you read How to Choose a Wholesale Coffee Roaster.

Your Customer Base May Be Too Small

Starting a coffee shop in a small town might be a good option. However, for some of you aspiring coffee shop owners, your hometown might be too small.

Despite your best intentions, if your town isn’t big enough to sustain a full-time coffee business, it may need to generate revenue from tourists or other commuters passing through. While your town may be too small, it may perhaps garner enough traffic to generate revenue that ushers you into profitability. Strategically placed road signs and advertisements may be helpful.

Developing a budget, understanding your break-even point, and determining your estimated sales will help you decide whether you’ll be able to open your coffee shop business.

If you find out that your customer base is too small, you can consider starting a coffee truck business to work part-time or drive to a place with more potential customers.

Open a coffee shop in a small town

How to Open Your Coffee Shop in a Small Town

Finding The Best Location

The physical location of your coffee shop will always play an important part in your success. Yet, this is especially true for those wanting to open a coffee shop in a small town.

Placing your coffee business at a specific location (street, intersection, etc.) to maximize your town’s daily traffic will be vital. Choosing the right location for your coffee shop will be one of the earliest and most important decisions you'll make.

Balancing factors such as competition, price, and build-out costs will all factor into your thinking. If you start your search early and you are diligent, you will have a better chance of finding the perfect coffee shop location for your business.

Determine Your Coffee Business Concept

Serving a small market base means adjusting your menu right. It also means providing the type of coffee business that matters to your neighborhood.

You will need to determine your coffee business concept, what your menu will be, and what type of experience you’d like your customer to have.

This isn’t always easy. Your concept and menu will impact just how much you’re going to need to spend. This leads us to our next point.

Determining Your Budget

Figuring out your coffee shop startup costs and your operational costs (fixed and variable costs) will help you decide whether this town and specific location will be worth it.

After all, you want to know whether or not you will make money. Developing a coffee shop budget should not be overlooked when planning out your business.

Writing a coffee shop business plan will help you put this all together. Fortunately, we have a time-saving coffee shop business plan template that you can use.

Our Coffee Shop Startup Kit offers an editable business plan template and a coffee shop business plan guide. This template will help get all of your thoughts down.

For more information, click on your state below.

Start a Coffee Shop

Start a Drive-Thru Coffee Stand

Coffee Shop Startups

How to Start a Coffee Shop in a Small Town

Despite their size, small towns often provide ample benefits to those wanting to start a coffee business. However, choosing the right coffee business to fit your specific situation will be necessary for your profitability.

In addition to a regular brick-and-mortar coffee shop, other coffee business opportunities may provide a convenient and low-cost avenue to open in a smaller town or city.

To be sure, you will want to take the time to explore low-cost coffee business options that may appeal to your future customers. Considerations may include analyzing the current competition, studying your customer base, developing your coffee shop startup budget, and other specific factors.

We've outlined various coffee shop concepts and ideas previously, but today, we'll focus on those that may work in a smaller, less dense environment.

Let's consider a few potential coffee business options below:

Piggyback Coffee Business

Setting up your coffee business in conjunction with an existing one is called a “piggyback coffee shop” business.

We coined the term years ago as we saw creative coffee entrepreneurs partner with an already existing business to create mutually beneficial opportunities.

For example, we've seen coffee business owners set up a kiosk or cart in a general gig-economy shared workspace. Then, as people came into work, they would grab a coffee for themselves or their clients. Or there was the flower shop that invited a small coffee business to serve in their extra space.

For more information, read our recent post, How to “Piggyback” Your Coffee Shop Business.

Drive-thru Coffee Stand

A drive-thru coffee stand can serve customers in a small town and commuters who are simply passing through.

If the vehicle traffic numbers are promising, you might consider opening a drive-thru coffee stand in a location that serves locals and regional commuters.

We've previously written extensively about drive-thru coffee stands. For more information, check out our article, How to Start a Drive-Thru Coffee Stand.

Mobile Coffee Business

A mobile coffee business in a small town can offer significant benefits, including long-term savings, flexibility, and adaptability.

For example, you may consider serving customers at your weekend farmer's market, little league baseball game, or church picnic. You may be able to drive to the next town over and serve customers there.

Whether you have a mobile coffee business, drive-thru coffee stand, or kiosk, you'll want to check whether you need a commissary for your coffee business.

For further information, read our post, Does Your Coffee Business Need a Commissary?

Additional Questions

What are the requirements to open up a coffee shop?

While opening a coffee shop in your small town may vary from the next, you'll still have some basic requirements to address before opening your doors.

First, you must legally operate your business in your state, county, and city. You will most likely need to form a business structure, such as a limited liability company.

Additionally, you will need to find a good coffee shop location, sign a property lease, and build out your coffee shop. You'll need to get the local health department's and buildings' approval to do this correctly.

Consider reading our post, Requirements to Open a Coffee Shop, for a more thorough review.

How much money can I make as a coffee shop owner in a small town?

You can own a profitable small-town coffee shop if you plan and manage it well. But how profitable can your coffee shop be?

For starters, your coffee shop revenue will depend on the number of sales you get and the amount of your costs.

Your job as a coffee shop owner is to increase your sales as much as possible while managing your costs. Of course, a lot of other factors matter to profitability.

We've written several posts to address some of these factors:

How much does a coffee shop owner make?

Improve Your Coffee Shop Profits

How To Save Your Coffee Business

How to Hire Amazing Baristas?

Are You Ready To Get Started?

Unlock Your Dream Coffee Shop Business with Our Exclusive Coffee Shop Startups Kit!

Ready to transform your passion for coffee into a thriving business? Look no further! Our Coffee Shop Startups Kit is your key to brewing success. Here's why you can't miss this opportunity:

35-Lecture Coffee Shop Business Course: Our kit provides a comprehensive A-to-Z lecture series that covers what you should know and how to plan your coffee business. No more guesswork – follow our proven roadmap for success.

Comprehensive Coffee Shop Business Guide: Our kit includes a detailed, step-by-step guide that takes you from creating your concept to your grand opening.

Expert Interviews and Insights: Benefit from insider tips and industry secrets that successful coffee shop owners and experts share during one-on-one interviews. Learn from the best to stay ahead of the competition.

 Business Essentials: We provide business plan templates, checklists, and resources to streamline your startup process. From permits to menu planning, we've got you covered.

Cost-effective Solutions: Save time and money with our expert advice and budgeting tips. Maximize your ROI and minimize headaches.

 Adaptable to Any Setting: Our kit is designed to suit various locations and customer demographics, whether you're eyeing a trendy urban spot or a cozy corner in a suburban neighborhood.

Includes Exclusive BONUS Material!

👉 Order Now and Begin Your Journey!

Don't let the complexities of starting a coffee shop overwhelm you. Our Coffee Shop Startups Kit is your ticket to entrepreneurial success. Take the first step towards owning a profitable and fulfilling coffee business today.

Join the thousands of successful coffee entrepreneurs who started with a dream and a great plan. Your journey to coffee shop greatness begins right here!

Comprehensive. Proven. Affordable.

The Complete Coffee Shop Startup Kit

(Instantly Delivered To You)

Complete Coffee Shop Kit Sales Graphic

Coffee Shop Startups

Based in Seattle, Washington, USA, Coffee Shop Startups is dedicated to providing you with the most relevant information on how to start a coffee shop business successfully. Over the last 11 years, we've helped thousands of aspiring coffee business owners worldwide. We harness the experience, wisdom, and knowledge of many successful coffee shop owners to help you increase your chances of success and profits. We support business owners who want to start a coffee business by providing them with valuable information on starting their coffee business successfully.