Andrew's last point is really, really important.
Of the 4-5 cat cafes that that I knew of in our area in the last 10 years, all of them have since gone out of business. I'm sure there are others that have been successful, but coffee shop restauranting is a tough business to begin with. The model that it sounded like the majority of these locations had was to charge for time with the cats. It's an extra money maker but seems like it reduces your client base, and since they weren't successful, that might be something to avoid. All of that is anecdotal though, so definitely doing research on successful business models would be a good idea.
Partnering with a shelter/rescue sounds like a great idea, I'd say make sure they're supplying you with food/litter for the cats as you'll already have plenty of costs of running the business.
In general it seems like some of the difficulties would be:
You need to be a successful tenant, paying for the cost of your building or lease
You need to be a successful coffee shop owner, managing your inventory, staffing, coffee & food options, pricing, etc.
If you want to add alcohol, that's a whole new dynamic with alcohol licensing which may or may not be available, liability insurance, potentially needing licensed servers depending on your local rules.
You'll also need to manage getting the word out about your business, and direct competition with other coffee sources. It also looks like there's at least 3-4 other cat cafe in the Denver area (although none in the north east part). You may also want to try stopping in there and see what their setup is like.
You also need to be able to take care of the cats and balance the health department requirements.
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Jeff Okazaki
Humane Society of Jefferson County
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