Running an Internet cafe is not as simple as just offering Internet service to your customers. You must set yourself apart from the competitors by picking 1-2 niches to help your Internet cafe to increase revenue and differentiate your product and services portfolio.

Here are 4 Internet cafe niches to consider.

  • Offer a cafe in the Internet cafe!
  • Build a computer and laptop equipment kiosk in the Internet cafe.
  • Hire a computer technician (or two) to fix customer’s computers at the Internet cafe.
  • Turn your Internet cafe’s empty rooms into a revenue-boosting venture.

Before we get into the different niches, let’s discuss the importance of continually examining the needs of your customers before choosing 1 or 2 niches for your Internet cafe.

Examine Customer Need to Find Your Internet Cafe Niche(s)

Get creative and offer what works best for your Internet cafe and loyal customers. The best way to find out which niche(s) are best for your business is to examine customer needs when they come into your establishment.

Ask your employees what the customers have asked for throughout the day. If you see a need coming up multiple times, chances are that if you develop that as your niche that your company will benefit from it!

Offer a Cafe in the Internet Cafe!

Are more customers staying for longer hours to get homework done (if in general school or college) or if they work online, but have no computer at home? Consider offering vending machines and/or an actual cafe with sandwiches, pastries, coffee, and other drinks available for sale.

For a drink machine, you can pick a Pepsi vending machine or a Coke vending machine for the cafe. You usually do not see the brands have a vending machine side by side, so you must support one brand or the other.

While you can offer fountain drinks at the cafe counter, a vending machine cuts down on employees’ time in getting the order ready unless they have to make a specialty coffee or iced drink.

Consider adding these offerings to your cafe menu:

      • Take-home coffee products. Set these up in the middle of your cafe on a display, so customers are tempted to want to buy some to take home with them.
        • Ground coffee in a bag in your chosen brand offering.
        • Ground coffee in a can.
        • Coffee beans in a bag.
        • Coffee mugs with various designs and sayings
      • Take-home refrigerated creamers. Put these in a cooler next to the take-home coffee products display,
        • Dairy-based creamer
        • Non-dairy creamer
      • Coffee drinks. Make all coffee drinks ready to order using the specialty barista machinery.
        • Drip coffee.
        • Cappuccinos.
        • Lattes.
        • Espresso.
      • Specialty frozen drinks
        • Frozen coffee drinks in a variety of flavors
        • fruit-based frozen drinks in a variety of flavors
        • Frozen seasonal drinks
      • Pastries. Make all the pastries early in the morning before the first shift starts or a day ahead of time so that they are stocked mostly for the day.
        • Cake pops
        • Cupcakes
        • Shaped and traditional cookies
        • Seasonal shapes (pumpkin sugar cookie for fall or a flower sugar cookie for spring as examples)
        • Oatmeal raisin
        • Chocolate chip
        • Traditional sugar cookie
        • Snickerdoodle
        • Etc
      • Danishes
        • Strawberry
        • Blueberry
        • Peach
        • Etc

Build a Computer and Laptop

Equipment Kiosk in the Internet Cafe

Do customers constantly ask if you have a computer and laptop equipment for sale?

Open a computer and laptop equipment kiosk to sell products such as:

        • Extra computer cables.
        • USB drives.
        • Headphones.
        • Earbuds.
        • Speakers.
        • Laptop skins for popular laptop models.
        • Standard size laptop bags.
        • Computer virus cleaning software.
        • Popular computer software games on CDs.

Tips for Running a Computer Equipment Kiosk at Your Internet Cafe

Be sure to follow these tips if you decide to open up a computer equipment kiosk for your Internet cafe.

        • Have a cashier always monitoring the kiosk at all times to reduce product theft.
        • Order minimally, but just enough to be able to meet customer demand.
        • Do not order on computer and laptop equipment, especially if you do not have enough storage space to accommodate the overstock.
        • Make your main stock on only what customers usually ask you for the most.
        • Do not try to add too many extras that your customers may want least, which will cause the stock to just sit there and barely be purchased.

Sell Phone Chargers, Too!

Consider selling Apple and Android phone chargers in this kiosk as well. If someone needs to use the Internet for long hours, but he or she forgets to bring their phone charger, they can pick up an extra one at the kiosk that can be used exclusively for their visits to your Internet cafe.

Still wondering what the difference between a cyber cafe and an internet cafe? Check out our article HERE!

Hire a Computer Technician (or two) to

Fix Customers’ at the Internet Cafe

Are customers coming in asking for computer repair more often than usual? Consider hiring a computer technician to help this customer base.

According to Career Technical Institute, there are 10 top skills that a computer technician should have developed over time to perform his or her job successfully. However, the 3 of the 10 key skills you should look for in the computer technician that you hire are as follows.
https://careertechnical.edu/blog/10-important-skills-for-a-computer-hardware-field-technician-to-possess/

      • How to troubleshoot computer problems and decide how to fix them.
      • Ability to communicate with their customers about what’s wrong with the computer and the steps that will be done to fix it.
      • Documenting their findings and taking notes on the issues.

Post the job for computer technician on job boards such as Monster, CareerBuilder, Indeed, or even your company’s website and social media pages like Facebook and Twitter. You can try Craigslist, but be sure to make the post look professional and official, so people do not think you are a scammer.

Once you have gone through the interview process and hired the computer technician, have him or her work part-time or full-time depending on customer demand for computer troubleshooting and repairs. Maybe start your computer technician off at about 30 hours per week. If you see that demand is still high when the tech is not present, extend his or her hours to full-time.

Turn Your Internet Cafe’s Empty

Rooms into a Revenue Boosting Venture

If you have some empty rooms in your Internet cafe that you are not using, consider renting them out to the community to use for night classes to learn hobbies such as photography, cooking, clay sculpting, gardening, and more.

If an entrepreneur needs to host a business meeting, but they do not have their company building set up yet, you can offer an empty room for rent with an hourly rate for him or her to conduct their meeting.

Offer the empty rooms for no more than 2-hour time slots, so that other groups of people have a chance to use them.

Advertise your empty rooms for rent on your website, social media, posters in your Internet cafe. Try advertising at popular entrepreneur meet-up spots throughout your community. Posting a flyer at local colleges, universities, and offices will help as well.

During the off hours where you do not have any people renting out the rooms for meetings or classes, you can offer these empty rooms for free to private tutors who are helping school age and college students learn a subject more in-depth.

 

Find Your Internet Cafe Niche Today!

If you own a small Internet cafe, pick one niche and perfect it, so you do not go beyond your means while accommodating customers. If you have a larger Internet cafe, you can consider taking one more than one niche up to 2 of them.

Try not to do 3 or more niches unless you have the staff, overhead, and extra time to invest in the business. Introduce 1 niche into the business at a time for an easy transition into a new operation. If you attempt to start 2-3 new ventures all at once in your new Internet cafe, it could be overwhelming for you and your employees as you are all learning new skills for operating a small business.

Start small, but think big! Happy entrepreneurship, business owners!

Frequently Asked Questions

What other niches can I capitalize on besides the 4 discussed here in this blog?

Try niches such as:
A gaming area with consoles. People pay for time played on a console.
Charge groups at a bit of a higher rate for more profit.
Laptop rentals When desktop computers get full, offer laptop rentals for use at the cafe to increase Internet service revenue.
If you really trust your customers, they can rent the laptop for a set nightly rate.
Offer more seating for this service.
An arcade. Offers a fun time in between Internet use.
Would be a great hangout spot for kids after school.

What are the best ways to train cafe employees?

Train cafe employees by:

Learning from other local cafes their practices.
Taking apart as the owner to teach what you know to the employees.
Hire a qualified barista to teach the art of coffee making to the other employees.
Hire a qualified baker to teach the art of baking to other employees.

To learn more on how to start your own coffee shop checkout my startup documents here

Please note: This blog post is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Please consult a legal expert to address your specific needs.