Buying an exiting cafe

So you've decided to open a cafe. Are you taking over an existing venue or starting from scratch? Both options have their pluses and minuses. If you would like to take over an existing cafe whoever you buy it from will be wont to talk it up. If it is currently successful the price will reflect that; if it is not there will be all sorst of excuses as to why. An owner will have all sorts of reasons for selling but you can bet that he won't say that business has been going bad. He will tell you that the books only tell you part of the story, of that I'm sure. Of course, there is cash in the business but in these days of credit cards cash is not what it was. He will most likely tell you that he has charged many more expenses to the business than the cafe has spent from groceries to feed the family, internet, telephone, perhaps even car. All that sounds good and it may or may not be true but as regards you, the purchaser, is concerned it is irrelevant, You can only work on what is in his books.  The rule of thumb is a cafe is worth five times the net profit. Rent cannot be more than a fifth of turnover. Don't look at projections - graphs showing sales going through the roof in the future are all well and good, but are you buying a business or a fairytale?
Ask the owner how much coffee he sells a week then check the invoices from his coffee supplier. Well, you are not going to say to his face that you don't trust him. He may not even know. When you work in a plce and are busy all the time it may seem to you that you are making more coffee than you actually are. In any case, if he is using less than 7kg a week of beans then he doesnt have a business he has a hobby, a lifestyle that might be fun and all, but there's no money there. There's no money to be made in food as a general observation. Money is in coffee and alcohol, if the cafe has a liquor licence.
All this calls into question your motives. Have you asked yourself why you want to open a cafe? Have you realised you may not break even until the third year? Are you prepared to have no time off, no holidays, no life. Anyway I stray. of course, you have otherwise you wouldnt have got this far.