About a year ago, I wrote about the state of the internet cafe business in the Philippines and why it’s a seemingly losing battle. A couple of days ago, I mentioned that I started venturing into the Internet Cafe with a friend. I got emails asking why I thought the net cafe is still a viable business and here’s my take.
Again, I’ll refer you to the points I highlighted in my previous entry — location. If you believe that you have the right location then you’ll have a higher probability to succeed or even just getting back your investment in a short time.
Your goal here is to be able to recover enough of the initial capital in order to re-invest in upgrading your workstations in 2 or 3 years. Otherwise, you get left behind with older and slower PCs that you’ll lose customers (esp. gamers) to nearby competitors that offer better ones for the same rates.
The major driving force with my decision to going into the internet cafe business is different though. What I am looking into are parallel businesses that I can put on top of the net cafe business without incurring additional or too much overhead.
That way, all I need is for the revenues of the net cafe to at least cover rent, bills and wages. Whatever profits I am expecting will come from other side businesses.
What are possible side businesses that one can add on top of an internet cafe? Well, some of them are already being offered in most shops:
- Gaming cards for pay-for-play games (Level-Up, e-Games).
- Cellphone reloading for Smart, Globe and Sun Cellular.
- Photocopying, printing, scanning and CD/DVD burning services.
- Food and drinks.
- Photo-ID and photo printing.
- Custom cellphone uploads (ringtones, wallpapers, games, apps).
You can also offer outsourced services:
- Computer sales and repair services.
- Encoding/typing services.
- Digital Photo services (better than webcam quality Friendster photos).
- Card Design/Printing (calling cards, invites, certificates, custom greeting cards, etc.)
- Video conversion/authoring.
- Cellphone and electronics repair services.
If you add revenues from all these sources, they could be a significant amount on the returns. Of course, you only select the ones that your manpower can handle and your location. The rest can be outsourced. The ideas here are more applicable if you’re located in subdivisions or villages. You can look into totally unrelated combinations too — like a laundry shop and a net cafe, a video rental, a used book store, a car wash service or a 24-hour grocery.
The idea is to share the burden on the rent and bills which usually takes up majority of the operational costs.
The best location for internet business is in the U-belt.. Most of the internet shops there are full.. Most of them had 100+ pcs.. Anyway, good luck to your business.
sa amin may net cafe/water refilling station
maganda sana net cafe/vulcanizing shop. hahaha. or net cafe/barber shop or parlor. hehehe.
I’m opening Internet Cafe in Caloocan by May 1st, anybody out there have a suggestion where to buy computer parts.
I myself own a computer shop before. I closed it because I am always thinking that my business is not different from selling illegal items (pirated softwares).
99 percent of software in the Philippines are pirated. How do you explain that Filipinos?
It is still a good business, mine is now on its 3rd year and it has not slowed down. You just need a lot of patience to learn new things so that you wont have to rely solely on your technician when your computer breaks down.
On Topic: “Is there hope in the Net Cafe Business?”
The answer is definitely YES.
In the near future, Net Cafe biz will not be slowing down.
It only takes a good business plan and a heart of a true entrepreneur to put aside all foreseen “problems” and “complex” things with regards to this type of business.
thanks for the message. now i know that lcd’s consume less electricity if im not mistaken right? actually i’ve just started a small internet cafe and i think its a good news.
God bless!
SIR,
I’m on this kind of business and you’re right.. added income tlg ang typing jobs..load (lod central) eloads, printing and scanning…
can you pls help me to find seminars para matuto ng pag print ng photos,editing( ung mga naka higlights ng yellow) …at sources n rin kung san nkkbili ng mga materials…
maraming salamat sa info ha…mas lalao ko nga naisip n ituloy ang pg photo printings dhil email mo….it reallly help me…..t5hank You again And God bless you always….
I used to be in internet cafe biz. I and my friends started it in 1998 in Iligan, i left the partnership a year later. Then my friends closed it in around 2001.
My friend and I are planning to put up a 5-desktop Internet cafe near a significantly populated university. This helps. Thanks Yuga!
offer DIY courses. I have one in mind but I don’t have the fund to set up this business.
my comment is caught by anti spam plugin. please take a look at it.
i don’t like this news, it is like a bad news i am not sure. well, hope that this business won’t die.
by the way, i will be honest with you. i am here to promote the seo contest on my blog. if you have comments and suggestion, negative or positive, i will highly appreciate it. Thank you.
For me, it’s nice if you have the right location and you own the place because you can save up on rent.
If you live in a subdivision or a village, and there is no internet cafe nearby, you can put up one so that the people there won’t go out of their way just to use the internet.
In Taiwan, only teenagers go to net cafe and they’re playing on-line game, that’s all. Adults tend to use internet at places like starbucks although it’s payable but people think this makes them more “elegant” lol~
whaha…
LOLZ @ BrianB..
what a brilliant idea, private rooms can also be a big plus.
:D
But anyways, thanks for the suggestions Yuga, my GF’s net cafe is struggling right now because of the rising competition and she’s asking me what to do. So Ill suggest these as options.
Well, I think the best will be is to offer what are not available in your competitor that will give you the edge.
Good luck to your new venture, Sir Yuga.
^ naughty, naughty. what about a specialized service catering to students, addressing their needs on how to do research, how to do reports, etc.
You forgot massage. A net cafe with a spa above it would do just nicely. A lot of girls “use” netcafes to “stay in touch” with their foreign honeys. And some of them wouldn’t be satisfied with chatting, if you know what I mean (wink, wink) :)
I have been thinking of doing almost exactly like this. I wanted to start my own desktop publishing/editorial services company but I realized it is not that easy to get big and regular clients. Internet cafes, on the other hand, are like sure success if –as what Yuga said up there — you have the right location. I am still seriously considering venturing into this kind of setup.
Good luck to your new business, Yuga.