How to Start a Juice Bar — Ultimate guide

Start my own juice bar

Up and running plan if you want to start a business.

People are searching for hydration and nutrition no matter the season. In summer people look for cleansing, freshness, minerals, and antioxidants to make them feel relieved from a sultry, while in winter would rather choose vitamins to burst the energy and immune system, as well as detox.

Juice cleansing would serve both purposes. Your business idea requires planning to become a worthy competitor on the market.

Here you will find 10 steps to make it all work:

First: Choose your Juice Bar type

A concept of a juice bar implies a small heaven-on-Earth place providing cold-pressed juices and several food items. When considering a type, think about the location to function both in summer and winter. The small cafe (permanent) and street food (mobile) are the options to choose from.

A mobile truck is a perfect match for summer, being supplied with electricity for refrigerators and juicers. If you choose a mobile cart, you will not be bothered with utilities and monthly rent, and you can always change location if the current location doesn’t work out.

If you are interested in demand all year round, think of choosing a permanent location for a business to start.

Start Planning

Second: Develop a business plan

Small business development implies a proper strategy and a juice bar business plan. This will be especially in need if you are going to draw investor funds or loans.

You are able to create a plan yourself, just mind the essential parts of a business plan:

• Market research
• Development perspectives
• Investment prediction as well as monthly spending
• Profit and money return calculation.

Proper planning can be reached by following a juice bar financial model designed specifically for this type of entrepreneurship. It is what distinguishes you from others, uniqueness, its reflection is the basis of your competitive advantage. Financial models can be a year in advance, as well as monthly, weekly, and daily.

This is a kind of control over the business activities, which allows us to understand the effectiveness, correlate the real indicators with the planned ones and, if necessary, take prompt measures to correct the situation, redistribute efforts to achieve an optimal result. Additionally, they give you the chance to follow seasonality trends and assumptions.

Third: Build a marketing strategy

A juice bar marketing strategy may be difficult to implement as it has to do with the spontaneous needs of people.

Still, there are a few things you can do:

• Choose the name that stands out
• Work on the logo, to look catchy on the staff’s uniform, cups, packages, and counter
• Design the vivid sign
• Make your menu unique
• Start an Instagram account for the promotion
• Establish special deals and loyalty program

Here are some marketing ideas which might be interesting for you:

• Packaging matters! Make it unique and branded to draw customer’s attention.
• Offer a kids’ menu, to expand the target audience.
• Work on keeping the menu organic and diverse
• One juice bar is good. Try opening more around the city.

Find a Right Location & Menu

Forth: Decide on a Juice Bar location

On the very first step, you chose the type of your juice bar, so now we can decide on the location itself. Easier to find — likely to come back. The decision fully depends on your expectations as well as the target audience for your juice bar, as freshly pressed juices may not be affordable.

How about a kiosk in a shopping mall drawing customers after the spree? An airport is worth considering as well, as there are not many options for healthy drinks or food, and a bright juice bar is a perfect rescue. After all, starting a juice bar at a local gym to speed up the recovery for athletes is a good idea.

It has to be located in high foot traffic to bring high revenue and be competitive. Do the research and gather information about your direct competitors to make your product specific and demanding.

Sharing a target audience leads to profit decreasing, customer loss, and failure as a result. Why fight for your place in the sun, if you can choose a unique alcove for your first business and draw your own target audience?

To keep things running, we have to develop brand recognition and there is nothing better for it than taking part in local food and music festivals, fairs, and charity events. This way you will count on a stable income, so initial investments and the quality of your juice bar services are the things to keep working on.

Fifth: Set up the perfect juice bar menu

Once you have prepared your juice bar core(type and location), it is time to layer your unique idea. Fresh juices and smoothies are highly predictable and expected menu items. Expand the range with a good-quality coffee, variety of tea, fresh lemonade, adding creative product combinations. And voila, you are a trend-setter in the world of juices and run a successful franchise in no time!

Menu variety directly depends on the location you choose. Vegetable salads, nutritious courses or even hot soup are perfect options, if you choose an airport or business center. While frozen yogurts, ice-creams and fruit sorbets are suitable for shopping malls or mobile carts, if you choose it as your type of a juice bar.

To keep your menu in demand, ask your customers what is missing from the menu, or maybe there is something they want to try. Easy, but effective way to keep your business on the top chart among competitors.

Make sure to predict the menu on the step of developing a business plan, as it directly influences the equipment, staff quantity and further training. For example, selling coffee beans requires buying a coffee machine and hiring a barista, while salads and desserts require showcases to draw attention.

Not doing this is one of the most common mistakes business owners make, be one step ahead by doing proper planning.

Buy Equipment & Hire Employees

Six: Purchase equipment for your juice bar

Equipment will take the largest share of your startup expenses, so it requires listing and planning. The concept of a juice bar is close to a small coffee shop or food truck, so you might prefer something compact and not requiring heavy investments.

Let’s see what is the basic equipment for opening a juice bar:

• Multifunctional juicer/food processor
• Automatic fruit and vegetable peeler
• Refrigerators
• Ice machine
• Blenders/shakers/tableware
• Showcases
• Bar counter
• Cash register
• Closet to store inventory

The quantity and diversity of the equipment fully depend on the type of your juice bar, so your list may be supplemented with several special items.

Seventh: Find the Right Employees and Hire

The step of hiring staff is as important as listing and choosing equipment, as they directly affect the average check and the revenue respectively. Even the brightest signboard, relevant menu, and delicious food will get lost if your employees are undertrained, slow, and rude. The juice bar concept requires at least 2 people to start, so make sure they are trained well to be perfect ambassadors of you and your business.

No special skills are needed when hiring a juice bar staff, as the equipment is easy to operate. So look for people with soft skills, for you to be able to explain your ideas once or twice. An employee should be able to learn fast and start working effectively as soon as possible.

Every good work needs to be appreciated, so it will be a good idea to encourage your staff and reward a worthy contribution. However, apply disciplinary measures if needed.

Calculate the cost of your juice bar

The approximate start-up cost will be $20,000, for your convenience we have established a detailed list with all the expenses for the juice bar in a shopping mall:

• Multifunctional juicer/food processor $500 — $1500 per item
• Automatic fruit and vegetable peeler $50 — $100 per item
• Refrigerator $1000 — $1500 per item
• Ice machine $2000 — $3000 per item
• Blenders/shakers $200 — $400 per item
• Hardware point of sale (tablet, credit card reader, cash drawer, printer) $1000 — $1500
• Software point of sale $20 — $60 monthly
• Tableware $500 — $1000 monthly
• Rent $1000 — $2500 monthly
• Ingredient supplement $3000 — $5000
• 2 employee salaries $7.50 — $9 per hour ($2500 — $3000)
• Total $12000 — $20000

When predicting the expenses and planning your budget keep in mind that there is always room for unpredictable occasions. Having more than 30% more money would guarantee your safety.

Nine: Financial projection and profit forecast

To get investments back as soon as possible, the income from sales should be at least double the cost of the ingredients. On average juice bar cells up to 20litres of juice per day, thus this number depends on the foot traffic around, day of the week, and season.

The production cost of 1 liter of juice is $3–4, then you sell it for $13–20, which makes a decent gap between the costs. This depends on the type of drink and the price of additional ingredients, so there is always a need to monitor wholesale prices and reliable suppliers.

So, we have:

$260 (revenue per day) − $60 (initial cost) = $200 (daily income)

$200 × 30 days = $6000 income per month.

Depending on location, prices, and assortment, a juice bar will pay off in approximately 6–12 months, taking into account the rent and salaries for the employees.

To increase daily revenue, entrepreneurs add tea, coffee, fruit desserts, sweets, etc. to increase the average check daily.

Think about both pros and cons of starting a juice bar

Ten: Think about both pros and cons of starting a juice bar

Proper location, financial planning, and marketing ideas are the core of a startup, so the success of your juice bar directly depends on these 3 points.

Pros of a juice bar:

• Rapid payback and high benefit. Statistics show that it is possible to get a full initial investment payback and reach a steady income.
• Strong demand. Juices and smoothies are a rescue in the hot summer and vitamin restoration in winter. (This has to do with a multi-seasonal juice bar).

Cons of a juice bar:

• The juice and smoothie quality directly depend on the quality of fruit and vegetables you choose, the price of those differs from season to season, which makes the cost of freshly squeezed juice higher than a regular pack one can find in a store.
• Rises in the price of ingredients, fallible suppliers, and bad location choices.