“People are getting healthier from a younger age, this means good things for the juicing industry” Andrew McFarlane, Juice Consultant

Why many juice companies fail and why many other juice bars succeed. Andrew McFarlane, owner of the Start A Juice Bar agency has spent nearly the last decade mastering the ins and outs of it. The Zumex team is very proud to share this interesting interview at Cold Press & JuiceTech. We are sure that it will help you to resolve many of your questions, especially if your entrepreneurial spirit is directed at opening a business within the world of Cold Press juices.

How did you get started in the Juicing Industry?

For me, juicing was a personal passion. I started juicing quite young. I noticed how impactful it was on my health and found that I was always talking about it or sharing juice with other people.

At this time, I was doing a lot of acting, so I didn’t have much thought around starting a business. Eventually as I transitioned out of that career path, I felt really called to expose the power of juicing and a healthy lifestyle with more people.

At this point I decided to take some of the money that I made from my career as an actor to launch a mobile juice truck.

I had always been somewhat of an entrepreneur, but this was like graduating into another paradigm of that. I had not had employees before this with any business, I was always functioning as a solo-preneur as some call it.

That being said, launching this juice business has a lot of lessons for me. I didn’t really understand how important so many of the details were when it came to executing on this business successfully.

There were a handful of moments, where I actually thought we were going to go out of business. Thankfully, I learned some really hard (and expensive) lessons quickly.

Eventually the truck we had started doing really well, and and about a year later we decided to open our first brick and mortar store. Going from a truck to a store also had it’s own challenges. To keep a very long story short, this store also started to find a lot of success.

It was at this stage that individuals started approaching me for consultation work. They noticed that we had figured something out that was working since our store was always busy. This is how we started our consulting agency nearly a decade ago.

What are some of the most common mistakes first time juice bar owners make?

I have noticed that a lot of people who get into this industry do it because they have a real passion for health. This is great. I was the same way. But often times this is their first business and so they do not have the same kind of approach to business as most serial entrepreneurs.

Often times, they do not understand the importance of marketing, or operational systems, or staying on top of their numbers. Most first time entrepreneurs don’t realize that they are developing a business that might have a lot of moving parts and that it is important to really look at this business, as a business as well as a passion project.

It may interest you: How to open a juice bar: 8 simple steps

The other more common mistake I see clients make is, they don’t understand the proper sequence for their business development. Sometimes I see clients who start to build out their space before they have created their menu. This is a mistake because your menu is going to dictate your equipment and your equipment is going to have a strong relationship to the design of your space.

“Sometimes I see clients who start to build out their space before they have created their menu”

What do you think the future of the juice industry is?

This is an interesting question. No one really knows the future, but there are a lot of trends that are pointing to the fact that people are getting healthier.

According to FONA, a market insight and research company, the overall juicing market secured a 2.3 billion revenue stream, with Cold-Pressed juices accounting for more than $100 million of that revenue.

Humanity has been chronically ill for a long time, and people are starting to realize that it is a response to what they have been eating and drinking regularly.

I was actually speaking to my cousin who goes to high school in San Fransisco and she told me that her entire high school is vegan. Market analysis are great, but when I hear something like this, I know things are changing. That people are getting healthier from a younger age, this means good things for the juicing industry.

What are some of the most common questions client ask you about this industry?

Most clients are curios of how much money they can make. That is a reasonable question and also a tricky one. It always depends on where you are located and how many stores you decide to open. If you are someone who’s goals are to open multiple stores, then your income could be very significant.

On average we see our clients break even in the first year based on their initial investment. Once again this will vary, but for an investment of one to two hundred thousand, you business can do well assuming you managing your expenses right and know how to get customers in the door.

The next question I get most often is, how much will it cost. This is also one of those things that will really vary based on the specifics of a given situation. This is like asking, how much does it cost to build a house? The answer to that is, it depends…if you are building a small house in the middle of nowhere it will cost a lot less than if you are building a mansion in Beverly Hills.

With a juice bar it is not different. We have had clients invest up to half a million. That is usually a rare case, but it does happen. As an average, our clients in the U.S. invest between $100,000 -$250,000.

This is an average, There are so many variables that will dictate the investment. Your lease terms, the condition of the space, the side of the space, your equipment, and so on.

Considering this is a very important part of launching this business, we really recommend people do a good amount of research before they start investing money in their project.

“We really recommend people do a good amount of research before they start investing money in their project”

What kind of person would make a great juice bar owner?

The perfect juice bar owner is someone who has a passion for health, loves people and understands the importance of running a business with mature systems.

Since a lot of people do not start with experience, and it can take time to really learn the best ways to run this kind of business, its worth considering hiring a consulting group to mentor you and support you in the process. Feel free to reach out to our agency, we would be happy to discuss how we can support you in this process.

About

Andrew McFarlane is the founder of the Start A Juice Bar agency. If you would like to have him and his agency support you in launching your juice bar you can speak to him directly at Andrew@startajuicebar.com.