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Back to the home page and map, from TryOwning · Coffee shop · Lesson 6
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Coffee shop · 14 min

Surviving year one

Opening day is the start of the hardest year. Sales start low, the rent and the crew start in full, and the cash you set aside has to last until the regulars find you. Here's how owners get through it.

MENUESPRESSOLATTETEA
Ticket 01 · The guess

How many close in year one?

Think of all the restaurants, cafés, bars and hotels with employees that opened in the US in the year to March 2015. What share had closed a year later?

40%
0%50%
Words to know

Spot something wrong?

Tell us what looks off. No name or email needed.

What kind of problem?

0 / 1000

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Sources and every number (1)

Sources

  • Business Employment Dynamics: Establishment age and survival data, Table 7, Survival of private sector establishments by opening year (total private and by industry, through March 2025) · U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025

Every number

  • 88.2%bls.gov ·2025 · Share of the places that opened in the year to March 2015 still open a year later, in March 2016. BLS survival table for accommodation and food services (restaurants, cafés, bars and hotels with employees, counted by location).
  • 11.8%bls.gov ·2025 · Worked out: the share that had closed within a year, a hundred minus the share still open in March 2016. BLS survival table for accommodation and food services (restaurants, cafés, bars and hotels with employees, counted by location).
  1. Lessons›
  2. Industries›
  3. Coffee shop
  • ·Before this: The spot and the cups a day
  • ·Free guide: How coffee shops make money
Skip to the lesson
Back to the home page and map, from TryOwning · Coffee shop · Lesson 6
Part 1 of 3Part 1 of 3, 0 done

Coffee shop · 14 min

Surviving year one

Opening day is the start of the hardest year. Sales start low, the rent and the crew start in full, and the cash you set aside has to last until the regulars find you. Here's how owners get through it.

MENUESPRESSOLATTETEA
Ticket 01 · The guess

How many close in year one?

Think of all the restaurants, cafés, bars and hotels with employees that opened in the US in the year to March 2015. What share had closed a year later?

40%
0%50%
Words to know

Spot something wrong?

Tell us what looks off. No name or email needed.

What kind of problem?

0 / 1000

We'll also send this page, the lesson, ticket 1, so we can find it. Nothing else. Privacy

·
Sources and every number (1)

Sources

  • Business Employment Dynamics: Establishment age and survival data, Table 7, Survival of private sector establishments by opening year (total private and by industry, through March 2025) · U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025

Every number

  • 88.2%bls.gov ·2025 · Share of the places that opened in the year to March 2015 still open a year later, in March 2016. BLS survival table for accommodation and food services (restaurants, cafés, bars and hotels with employees, counted by location).
  • 11.8%bls.gov ·2025 · Worked out: the share that had closed within a year, a hundred minus the share still open in March 2016. BLS survival table for accommodation and food services (restaurants, cafés, bars and hotels with employees, counted by location).
  1. Lessons›
  2. Industries›
  3. Coffee shop
  • ·Before this: The spot and the cups a day
  • ·Free guide: How coffee shops make money