Coffee Shop Feasibility Study in Ohio

Many Ohio coffee shops, small loans

For SBA lending to coffee shops and snack bars Ohio stands 4 of 53 among states, with 383 approvals and $81.8 million from FY2017 to FY2026, yet the class takes a slightly smaller part of Ohio's SBA lending than of the national book, a location quotient of 0.89x. The loans are small. The median is $100,000, only 0.42x the coffee-shop median nationwide, with the central half of Ohio approvals in a band from $30,000 to $283,000. The small ticket is best read as an Ohio lending pattern to verify rather than a finding about coffee shops alone. Among Ohio's classes, coffee shops and snack bars place 8 of 39.

Franchise share and one dominant lender

Franchise concepts account for 42.0% of these loans, a high share that means many Ohio borrowers buy into a system with its own operating record. The Huntington National Bank holds 231 of the 7(a) loans, $31.5 million in all, against 21 for KeyBank National Association and 11 for U.S. Bank, National Association. SBA 504 is nearly absent at 6 loans against 377 under SBA 7(a). Franklin County with 71 loans and Cuyahoga with 63 dominate, with Hamilton at 22. Lending rose to 66 loans and $19.0 million in FY2025 before FY2026 fell back to 23.

Floors and feasibility

Cancellation claimed at least 14.3% of the coffee approvals from FY2017 to FY2024, and 17.0% if loans still undisbursed are counted. Of the 132 loans in the FY2017 to FY2021 charge-off cohort, 5.3% are charged off to date and 2.3% went bad within five years, both floors. For a lender, the combination of small loans and a 42.0% franchise share argues for checking each franchisor's record in Ohio rather than the brand's national averages. A feasibility study for a coffee shop in Ohio has to count morning traffic and the drive-through stack the site can actually hold, map the chains and independents within a few minutes' drive, cost the fit-out and equipment the loan must cover, and show debt service coverage on ticket counts the location can support in its first year. When there is real estate, the appraisal may value it as general retail, so the study should not rely on the business to lift the property's value.

The class carries no coding limitation; the code reflects the business type on each loan record, and both floors can rise.