9 Tips To Writing A Restaurant Business Plan For Long-Term Success
Are you planning to start a restaurant? If yes, then it’s crucial to understand that setting up a restaurant is quite the task and requires meticulous planning and preparation. For instance, you need to know exactly what you plan to serve to your guest, where would you raise the fund from or even what should be the ideal location of your restaurant. Put simply, as the owner of the restaurant, you need to create a well-researched restaurant business plan to ensure long-term success. Here, find all the important factors or aspects that you need to include in your restaurant business plan to avoid the many pitfalls and risks associated with opening a restaurant.
- Choose a Concept: One of the first steps to opening a restaurant is to choose a concept. However, selecting a restaurant business concept is directly related to the capital or funds you may have or are willing to invest in your restaurant. After you’ve selected a concept for your restaurant, you need to think of the cuisine or theme for your restaurant. Make sure that the interiors, including the furniture, lighting and overall ambience is in line with your restaurant’s theme.
- Raising Funds or Investment Money: Planning a restaurant is one thing and raising funds or the money for establishing one is quite another. Thus, when it comes to gathering funds for your restaurant, you need to take the restaurant theme, size, location, interiors and other important aspects into consideration. Also, there are multiple ways in which you can raise funds for your restaurant. For instance, you could opt for self-funding i.e. use your own money to open a restaurant or opt for a bank loan or even VC funding to set up your restaurant. However, it’s important to know that finding investors for launching your restaurant. Investors will typically want to know your restaurant’s growth potential, scalability and quality. To sum up, you must take all the above mentioned factors into consideration to create a successful restaurant business plan.
- Take All Your Restaurant Expenses into Account: Before you launch your restaurant, you must take all your restaurant expenses into consideration. This requires you to calculate the food costs, rent, interior costs, license, kitchen equipments, point of sale and marketing costs. As far as the cost of food is concerned, it must be close to 30-40 percent of the menu that you may have created for your guests. Apart from this, you should also consider your overhead expenses that include the costs pertaining to interiors, rent as well as kitchen equipments. In addition to this, you must also take your restaurant license into consideration. It’s important to note that the fee for your license will vary based on the type of restaurant you are planning to establish. Last but not the least you will have to keep 1-2 percent of your funds aside for marketing purpose. Make a note of all the above mentioned points while preparing your restaurant business plan.
- Select the Location: When it comes to setting up your restaurant, it’s important that you take your restaurant’s location into consideration. This would entirely depend on the size of your restaurant and the kind of dinning arrangement you intend to provide to your guests. It is equally important to assess your competition and select a location that is apt for your restaurant business. Other crucial factors that you need to take into account include accessibility and visibility. Make sure you pick a location that is easy to access and is also clearly visible. Also obtain a NOC or No Objection Certificate from neighbors for smooth and hassle-free operations. In a nutshell, you must have an adequate plan for choosing the best location for your restaurant.
- License for Initiating the Restaurant: License is another important factor that you need to take into consideration when it comes to creating your restaurant business plan. Before the launch of your restaurant, you must acquire appropriate licenses via the local authorities and government to run your restaurant business without any interruption. It is important to note that the license cost will vary in accordance with your restaurant’s size.
- Manpower for your Restaurant: To run your restaurant you will require the right people or staff. Hence, at the time of designing your restaurant business plan, consider the number of employees you will need to manage and operate your restaurant on a daily basis. Typically, you will need to hire a restaurant manager, store manager, receptionist, housekeeping staff, service staff and kitchen staff among other staff members to run your restaurant business successfully. Last but not the least you will need a chef to provide your guests with the best tasting food items. Make a note of all of the above listed plans carefully while preparing your restaurant business plan to ensure success in the long run.
- Designing the Menu: The menu that you will be offering your guests is another important aspect of your restaurant business plan. Typically, you must create a smart menu that also takes the food expenses into consideration. Also, focus on designing a menu that consists of items that are easy or quick to prepare. You should also identify items that attracts your customers and increases your sales.
- Vendor and Supplier Arrangement: In addition to the menu, you will also have to make suitable arrangements for the vendors and suppliers for running your restaurant business smoothly. Identify a minimum of 2-3 vendors in every single category and compare their prices to ensure smooth and consistent supply of ingredients on a consistent basis. Ideally, you should keep 2-3 days of stock in your store to ensure uninterrupted supply.
- Investing in the Right Technology: In the wake of the present digital scenario, you must take adequate steps to install the right technologies and equipments within your restaurant. Right from installing the latest Point of Sale (POS) to setting up a website, you must invest in the right set of online tools and technologies to run and manage your restaurant efficiently.
Conclusion
Launching your restaurant business can be quite a daunting task, since it involves a lot of planning and attention to detail. This is exactly why you need to create the right restaurant business plan that enables you to implement your ideas, plans and strategies for long-term growth and success