Working as a shopfitter...you can build a pretty decent cafe for...

Working as a shopfitter...you can build a pretty decent cafe for $100k-$150k if you don't go stupid or over the top on your fixtures and fittings.
If you do it at as a stand alone you don't have to pay any franchise fees or admin fees either and you can buy your ingredients from where ever and from who ever you want at a more competitive price. You can tweak your menu and offerings at a moments notice if you find some things work better than others and visa versa. Staying in business in a competitive market requires flexibility and mobility in.....sometimes it needs to be fast paced change and franchise systems donot allow for this.
I virtually live in shopping centres and I can tell you from experience the busiest coffee places and cafe's are the ones that generally don't belong to a franchise group. They are stand alones with very gun ho & switched on operators. I see it every day.