Thinking of Opening a Restaurant, part three.

BUSNESS PLAN

A Business Plan has Two Main Functions

First your business on paper, start-up costs, annual budget and projected sales. A business plan can be time consuming to complete,  but it will give you a clear picture of how to make your restaurant succeed. As it is a plan it is not solid facts and some of it will be guess work. But the guess work will be biased on research. And if you find a problem  in the early stages, you can make the necessary changes without spending any money.

Second the other big reason for creating a business plan is to convince a bank to give you funding. You need to show that you have thought this business idea through and you know what you are doing. You need to have the necessary numbers to back up the argument that your restaurant is a viable business opportunity.

Creating a business plan involves research, writing, and editing. While a business plan doesn’t guarantee automatic success, it is a handy blueprint of where you’re starting and where you want to go. Creating a restaurant business plan you need to show the bank you have a clear and concise plan for getting your restaurant up and running. Also you will learn about all the different restaurants as well as your local competition and the local market. As you research information for your restaurant business plan, you may encounter problems you hadn’t considered previously, such as licensing, environmental health issues, planning consent.

All business plans are tailored to the individual business but they are also all the same .Here  is a brief breakdown of what you need to do.

First your Executive Summary. This is an overview of your entire business plan, an introduction.  You want to give a potential investor the basics of your business idea. What is the style of your  restaurant, the name, the location. Explain why you are well suited for this restaurant venture, previous cooking experience, any experience in the restaurant business. You need to sell them the idea that you are perfect person for this new restaurant business.

Second the Company Description .So in your Executive Summary you sell the idea here you back it up with facts. The location, name and style of restaurant you want to create. Here is the detailed information to explain your local competition, population, and other information you have gathered during your research. To back up your Company Description you will need a marketing Strategies

Three Marketing Strategies. This breaks down into three main areas Target Market, Competition and Marketing. Your Target Market is who are you going to be serve. Will it be OAPs on lunch time, and lades that shop. Or single professionals, families with young children. Explain your customer base and where you see them coming from, why they are going to come to you and not your competitors. As for competition who are they. Find out as much as you can about your competition, including their menu, hours and prices. Established restaurants will have a loyal customer base, and luring customers away is not always easy. And that will take you to Marketing. How are you going to promote your restaurant. What methods do you plan to use, how are you going to target your customers. Give specifics on how you plan to advertise.

Four your Products and Services. Here you need to state your hours you are open and how many employees you plan to hire, and the benefits of your establishment for customers. Your convenient location good parking and easy access. You are looking for a USP or unique selling point that gives you competitive edge.

Five Management & Ownership. What is your roll who is doing what who owns what.

Then the big one, six Funding .Everything that you have done so far means nothing if this does not add up. You need to have solid figures that will work when tested. Best and worst case scenarios. You need to know the cost of the plan, list the projected growth. Include a profit and loss statement that projects how much are you going to spend vs. how much you are going to make. Have a break even analysis, balance sheets and industry data. Acknowledge possible risks show that you have a plan to deal with them.

Evan if you do not need funding you still need a plan so just do this even if it is to see if you want to own a restaurant.