The business side of things – create a business plan for your restaurant

This article is part of our “Open a Restaurant” series – our guide for anyone interested in opening a restaurant. In this article we will look at how to develop a business plan for a restaurant.

A business plan for your restaurant will bring you face to face with the reality of running a foodservice business long before you have welcomed your first customer. At this stage you’ll take your intangible brand and solidify it with hard facts and numbers. You will translate your idea into a language understood by investors, and in so doing, you will realize what you need to do next. A business plan will also reveal potential pitfalls and thereby reduce your level of risk.

A good business plan for your restaurant is well structured and not too long. It should include:

A business plan for your restaurant should include your concept, your vision and values,  your  offering, a market analysis, key activities, key resources, customer segments,  sales channels, revenue information, costs and partners. Lastly, write an Executive Summary for your business plan. That is the first thing potential investors will look at. The summary should be concise and show off core strengths without the use of clichés and empty claims.

Think funding

Your business plan will have estimates on your total start-up cost and the amount needed to keep your restaurant functioning on a day-to-day basis. You should also have a budget that predicts the first year’s revenues and expenses to know how much you will need to stay in business. This total represents your funding needs.

Funding can come from a variety of sources, such as your own savings, joining up with one or more partners, attracting investors or visiting a bank’s loan officer. Regardless of your strategy – even if it is your own money – make sure to have sound financial projections at hand.

Red tape, licenses and permits

Everyone serving or selling food to the general public has a responsibility to ensure that the food is safe to eat. It’s important that you find out what requirements apply in your area in terms of food and alcohol licensing, health codes, fire safety, permits for outdoor tables, and tax laws. In general, you will have to consider EU directives such as the General Food Law Regulation, as well as national laws and local variances.

Many aspects of a foodservice operation are strictly regulated and subject to inspection. If you fail to meet regulations, you may face fines or getting shut down by authorities. You must also provide a safe environment in which your employees can work, and your guests can dine. Check with your local government to learn what applies specifically where you plan to base your business.

Appliances and technology in your business plan for your restaurant

Another crucial business aspect for any foodservice entrepreneur is securing a reliable source of equipment and ingredients at reasonable prices. Reach out to several different food wholesalers for the best quality-price mix considering your concept. At this stage, don’t forget your restaurant technology arsenal.

Ordinary consumers have developed faster than the industry, and you need to  keep this in mind before you turn up the heat on your oven. How will you handle reservations, loyalty programs, online ordering and payments, self-service solutions, mobile pay, and take-out or deliveries?

The right technology should also help your business management and day-to-day operations. Your waiting staffmight use a mobile device to take customer orders and payments, which are instantly made available to kitchen and bar staff via displays so food and drink preparations can begin before the server has even left the table. The information is simultaneously passed on to the checkout system and put together into aggregated sales data to your office. The same workflow goes for the payment part, when a guest want’s to pay, you don’t have to go and get the bill and the payment terminal, but use the same device you took the order and finalize the payments.

Smart investments in digital systems will lead to faster and more personalized customer service and simultaneously allow you to focus more on managerial decisions and less on routine .

Trivec’s one-stop restaurant management platform

A system that automates much of your managerial tasks will be beneficial to any foodservice owner.  Trivec offers a comprehensive platform that incorporates and streamlines all your business operations for effective management. Trivec’s POS system will give you automated reports and can be tailored to your specific needs while integrating with your existing systems such as for staffing, accounting, loyalty, CRM, reservations, analytics, and inventory.

If you want to stay up to date on sales and inventory while simultaneously minimizing waste and increasing your profit, check out Trivec’s automated beverage systems that integrates with your POS system. You should also consider an Automatic Bottle Control system designed to ensure that spirits are served in the correct quantities.