If you can, do a feasibility study first.
My sister went into the same business. She opened up an internet cafe in one of the malls in Q.C. only to close it after two years.
Internet cafe is capital intensive business. You'll need to factor in alot of things to realize profit/at least recoup your investments.
These are based on my sister's store's setup:
Initial investments:
10 Dell workstations (latest specs)
1 Network/file server
1 Router
1 Mbps (at least) DSL connections (BayanDSL)
1 Hp color printer
1 HP laser printer (b&w)
1 Photocopier (Bought brand new from Kyocera)
Misc. - includes head phones, pc mic, webcam, speakers, etc.
Store repairs/improvements
You'll also need to secure the ff.:
1. Business permit (and all pertinent documentations from city hall)
2. Tax-related requirements
Recurring Costs:
1. Operating Expense (OPEX) - includes staff salary, electricity, rent (if applicable), DSL fee, etc.
2. If you plan to lease a photocopier (eg. Fujitsu), they charge additional per number of pages photocopied.
3. Business Permit
Risks:
1. Cut-throat competetion. Hundreds of other internet cafes are just around the corner. Netopia being the biggest competition.
2. OPEX tends to go up esp. in the case of electricity, staff salaray, PC maintenance/upgrades, etc.
3. Based on #1, you cannot price your services more than the market average or you'll lose your business faster than you've put it together.
4. Based on #2, you'll need to impute all your OPEX to your pricing but with consideration to #3.
5. Target market. Ensure that at least for now, your target market is not yet saturated. If significant number of internet cafes are already operating in your target market, then it doesn't make sense to put up a new one.
6. Depreciation. PCs and other tech gadgets deprecieate a big deal quickly.
IMO, any business na madaling pasukan is not a good business. Business like this, una-unahan lang. Sa umpisa malaki ang kita. But with more and more competitors, you're share of the pie tends to get smaller. Eventually, paliit ng paliit ang kita nyong lahat.
Just my 2 cents. Good luck on your venture!
