How to start a café: a complete guide

Dreaming of opening your own café? Here is a practical step by step guide to the essentials: your concept and budget, registration, licences, food safety and HSE, premises and staffing. This is how you get safely from idea to opening day and keep control once you are running.

1. Start with a clear concept and a realistic budget

A café rarely succeeds on coffee alone. Decide early on your concept, target customers and price level. Are you going for specialty coffee and pastries, weekday lunches for office workers, or a neighbourhood café with long opening hours? Your concept drives everything from the menu to where you should be located.

Build a budget that survives the first few months. Account for rent, deposit, equipment, ingredients, wages and unexpected costs. Many people underestimate how long it takes to build a loyal customer base, so plan for a start-up period where revenue is lower than you hope.

2. Choose a business structure and register the company

Most café owners set up a limited company to keep personal finances separate from the business, though a sole proprietorship can work for a very small start. Register the company with the relevant business register and get your organisation number before you apply for licences or sign contracts.

Sort out VAT, accounting and a compliant point-of-sale system early. A cash register that meets local requirements is mandatory once you sell food and drink to guests.

3. Get the licences your café needs

To serve food you generally need a serving licence from your local authority, and to serve beer, wine or spirits you also need an alcohol licence. Licensing often requires that the responsible manager passes a knowledge test, so the process takes time. Apply well before your planned opening.

If you want the full picture of what must be in place before you open, see our guide on how to start a restaurant, which covers the same licensing and compliance steps that apply to a café.

4. Put food safety and internal control in place

Anyone who prepares and serves food must run an internal control system for food safety. That means written routines that keep food safe from the moment you receive goods until they are served. In practice this covers goods receipt, temperature control in fridges and freezers, cooling, cleaning, personal hygiene and labelling of allergens.

You also need to document that the routines are actually followed. The World Health Organization highlights safe temperatures, clean practices and avoiding cross-contamination as core food safety principles. A digital system makes this easier: instead of binders and loose sheets, you keep checklists, temperature logs and deviations on your phone. Runwell is built as a food safety system for hospitality businesses, so your kitchen has up-to-date documentation ready when inspectors arrive.

5. Do not forget HSE and workplace internal control

As soon as you have employees you are an employer and must run systematic health, safety and environment (HSE) work. That means mapping risks in the kitchen and service area, putting measures in place, training staff and documenting everything. Fire safety is a key part: escape routes, working extinguishers and fire instructions every employee knows.

For a small café this does not have to be heavy. The point is that your routines are in order and that you can show them if a labour inspector visits.

6. Find the right premises and plan the layout

Your premises shape much of your profitability. Weigh up location, foot traffic, rent and how much rebuilding is needed. A kitchen must meet requirements for hygiene, ventilation and drainage, and zones for clean and unclean handling should be well thought through.

Map your workflow before you buy equipment. A café with good flow between the till, the barista station and the kitchen saves both time and frustration during the rush.

7. Staffing, training and good routines from day one

Guests remember the service. Hire people who fit your concept and make sure they get proper training from the start. New team members should learn hygiene, allergen handling, till routines and how you handle deviations.

Standardise your routines so quality stays the same no matter who is working. Opening and closing checklists, clear tasks and simple internal communication keep the team aligned and stop things from slipping through the cracks.

8. Keep control once the café is running

Once the doors open, the real work begins: keeping structure in a busy day. Many cafés lose the overview because internal control, training, tasks and communication are scattered across paper, email and memory.

An all-in-one system brings this together in one place. You get food safety, HSE, checklists, training and chat in the same solution, and management can quickly see whether routines are being followed. That is especially useful if you plan to open more cafés and need control across locations. With a clear concept, the right licences, tidy food safety routines and good habits, you have a solid foundation, and you can spend your energy on what really matters: great coffee, good food and happy guests.