7 Consecutive Steps to Write a Restaurant Business Plan 

Do you want to start a restaurant business? Have you assembled all of the resources to launch a restaurant business? Don’t forget to write an absolute restaurant business plan! The fundamental duty before starting any business is to write a proper business plan. In this regard, you need to create a complete restaurant business plan. Otherwise, you do not achieve your desired goal. Worry about writing a perfect restaurant business plan?

Regarding the situation, this article will be the lighter of the darkness by providing the way of creating your business plan. So, I would like to provide 7 essential steps to write a beneficial restaurant business plan that will help to boost up your restaurant and increase sustainability. As a result, you can attain your desired success quickly and advantageously.        

Why Do You Need a Restaurant Business Plan?

Do you know the definition of planning? Absolutely YES!!! Proper planning can help to define your upcoming journey according to some essential matrices. Without having any plan, our life becomes aimless and meaningless and will sink into the ocean.

In this context, I have remembered a proverb,

 “A man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder.”   

If it is considered for business purposes, you will need to prepare a well-defined business plan. Otherwise, your business does not get the right favor and it may fail within a couple of days definitely. So, a restaurant business plan is a framework and the most crucial helping hand to start and continue any restaurant business successfully. 

Moreover, a standardized business plan can provide a visual and paper-based outlook of your restaurant business that can be able to mitigate risks by saving your time and worth. Also, it will assist you to realize the overall cost such as the annual budget, initial capital, projected sales, and others. To identify the net profit, you need to analyze these factors and build a precise restaurant business plan.          

Success Story: An Example Is Far Better Than Thousand Words Explanation!!!

Sometimes some little mistakes will be a massive obstacle to our upcoming journey. As a business consultant, I have to deal with different types of business owners or entrepreneurs and the problems which they are facing. I also provide advice on various types of cases of business owners to improve their business structure. 

Recently, I talked with a restaurant owner and he shared with me the entire journey of his restaurant business. He told me that the starting of his restaurant business was not smooth and he also did not have any professional experience. 

Day by day, he has invested more and more capital but did not get any outcome from his business. As he had not any professional experience, he did not know the effectiveness of the business plan.

According to a statistic, 

“The National Restaurant Association recognized that the failure rate of the restaurant industry is around 30%, and 90% of restaurants fail within the first years.” Source     

What Is The Mystery Behind the Success of the Restaurant Business? 

Since he did not follow any restaurant business plan, he had not organized his business according to the plan, and he stumbled every step in his business. At that moment, he was frustrated and did not understand the lackings but he tried to find out the leakage point of his business. To overcome his situation, he consulted with me and told me everything. 

I just asked him a simple question, did he write his restaurant business plan? He answered me, “NO”. After hearing his answer, I was really surprised and realized his problems. After that, I suggested to him to write a proper restaurant business plan, and back to the field with full potential and resources. He started everything again in a new way according to my suggestion. 

Now, he is a successful restaurant business owner and overcomes his situation by creating a complete business plan that was the basement of any business. Not only did he face such problems, but many more new entrepreneurs also started businesses without creating a business plan. In the end, they can't survive in the market and fall into failure.

How to Write a Restaurant Business Plan?

According to the types of restaurants, your restaurant business plan will vary. So, the restaurant business plan is not a constant thing rather it will be variable based on the type of your restaurant business. 

Before starting any business, you need to be clear about the 5w’s and 1h which will be the pillar of your business. Similarly, it would need to be considered for the restaurant business. Therefore, you need to think about these questions to build the foundation of your restaurant business. 

• Who will benefit from your restaurant business? 
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of your restaurant business?
• Where will be the perfect place to start your restaurant business?
• When will be a suitable time to launch your restaurant?  
• Why do you want to launch a restaurant business?
• How do you start your new restaurant business?

After that, you have to write a complete restaurant business plan to accumulate all of the answers in a single document. Here, I will provide the keystone to create a restaurant business plan.

1. Executive Summary 
2. Business Overview 
3. Market Research 
4. SWOT Analysis 
5. Marketing strategy 
6. Technology Adoption 
7. Budget Analysis                

A Step-by-step Guide to Write a Restaurant Business Plan
In the previous section, I have explained the fundamental aspects that should be considered before starting a restaurant business. In this regard, you have to be clear about how you can start your restaurant business, and according to this consequence, the concept of writing a restaurant business plan has arrived.  

But if you do not have any idea to write an effective restaurant business plan, you can take a look at this article to get some ideas for creating a restaurant business plan. This article highlights some key matrices that will be essential to construct a restaurant business plan.

1. Make a Concise Executive Summary

The first and foremost step for creating a restaurant business plan is to write an executive summary. An executive summary holds the entire idea and the introduction of your business. Keep in mind, your business plan should be clear and concise that will represent a written layout of your business.

An executive summary will act as an elevator pitch for grabbing the attention of potential investors and banks. Thus, your executive summary can help to catch the reader's attention, then they will read every single point of your restaurant business.  

Essential Elements to Write an Executive Summary 

To write a well-defined executive summary, you should include the following content in your executive summary. 

• Writes an executive summary that will be between 1 and 4 pages long
• Highlights the overall concept of your restaurant  
• Defines the mission and vision statement of your restaurant
• Gives a pragmatic timeline to open our restaurant
• Specify your target location and building space 
• Expose your market analysis briefly 
• Mark out the uniqueness of your restaurant 
• Point out the core strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats
• Clearly mention your expected cost, financial budget, business goal, and so on. 

Finally, a complete executive summary will help to recognize the authenticity of your business. An executive summary helps to collect the fund by showing the legal document and information of your restaurant business. So, the goal of an executive summary is to raise the funds by reaching out to the investors and banks.             

2. Write a Complete Business Overview

The second significant step for creating a restaurant business plan is to write your business overview. In your business overview, you should introduce your restaurant. So, the business overview will start with the name of your restaurant. Also, you need to define the location where you want to launch your restaurant, contacts, and other relevant information. 

Moreover, you have to start your business overview with the elevator pitch and you should focus on the basic points of your restaurant business. You have to make your business overview more straightforward, clear, and succinct. Always remember, you should include that information about your business which the reader wants to know. Otherwise, it will be bored to preview for the readers.

Some Required Elements to Write a Business Overview

To write the perfect business overview, you need to include the following elements in your restaurant business overview that will express your passion and make a proofread of your restaurant business. 

Basic Information of Your Restaurant

In your restaurant business overview, you should clearly mention the name of your restaurant, the location where you want to launch your restaurant, as well as the business structure of your restaurant. 

• Restaurant’s Name
• Restaurant’s Location, and 
• Business Structure 

Explain about Ownership & Management Team

You need to clearly explain the ownership and management team of your restaurant business. Thus, the business overview should include the name, roles, and responsibilities of the management team. So, you have to design your business structure or hierarchy     

Define Mission & Vision Statement

To express your passion, you need to strongly define your mission and vision statement. According to the purpose of your business, you need to write a mission and vision statement. Based on the future goal you have to define your vision statement.      

Express about the Service of Your Restaurant

In your restaurant business overview, you have to clearly define the services which you will provide at your restaurant. So, it helps to realize the types of your restaurant as well as which types of service you will provide to your customers. 

Design the Menu of Your Restaurant

To write a restaurant business overview, menu designing is one of the critical parts and you must have to include it in this section. A money-making menu can play an incredible role to enhance your restaurant business revenue. So, you need to design a short but evocative restaurant menu and brief it in your business overview.  

Explain the Future Goals of Your Restaurant

To survive any business, you have to think about your future and you need to set your future goals. So, you have to clearly mention the vision and future plan of your restaurant business. These will help to catch the attention of the potential investors, as a result, you can raise the funds for your restaurant business.  

3. Conduct Factual Market Research

Without conducting proper market research, you can not sustain the current market. If it is considered for the restaurant business, then it would be 10 times more competitive. Thus, there is no alternative option to start any restaurant business, you must do an effective market analysis.

In this regard, the market research of the restaurant business plan is divided into these three consecutive steps that make your analysis more effective and fruitful.

Customer Segmentation: Categorize the Customers Based on Buyers Persona

This one is another significant area to create a complete restaurant business plan. Customer is the heart of your business and you can conduct everything to serve your customers properly. Thus, you need to identify your target audience and segment them based on several factors to provide the best service.

For example, if your target customer is school-going students, you need to open your restaurant in student-centric areas. Also, if your target customer is corporate people, then you can open your restaurant in the corporate area.   

Thus, it is so crucial to identify your target customers and you have to require a clear idea for whom you will serve, and what will be the food habit of your targeted customers. 

In this regard, you have to consider the following factors to conduct customer segmentation.

• Buyer persona analysis 
• Customer’s demographic statistics 
• Customer’s age, gender, and income  
• Customer’s food habits or behavior, and so on. 

Identify Your Restaurant’s Location Based on Target Market  

To start any restaurant business, the biggest challenge is to find out the perfect location. Location is one of the crucial factors to start any restaurant business. According to your target customer, you can choose the location, or based on the location, you can define your target customers. 

Moreover, a restaurant’s business profit largely depends on a perfect location. So, you need to conduct an effective analysis to identify the suitable location where you will launch your restaurant.

In this regard, you need to ensure the following criteria that will assist you to choose the perfect location for your restaurant.

• An easily accessible and visible place so that everyone can see and go.
• A parking place can create a good impression for your customers.  
• Choose a Google-map friendly location 
• Consider the suppliers or vendors and if possible choose their nearest location.

However, you must provide the demographic statistics and description of your chosen location in your restaurant business plan.        

Analyze Competitors to Find Out the Trump Card of Your Restaurant Business

Without researching your competitor, you can not fulfill your customer’s demand. Thus, it will be one of the prime concerns to start a restaurant business. In this regard, you need to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your competitor's and in accordance with them, you can conduct your competitor analysis and write it clearly in your business plan. 

Thus, you need to identify your competitors and list down them to evaluate and find out your opportunities. In this regard, you can analyze the following aspects to complete your competitor analysis. 

• Market segmentation 
• Top-selling items 
• Marketing and promotional strategies 
• Serving capacity, technology, operational hours, and manpower 
• Growth rate, and so on.                                                         

4. Perform Constructive SWOT Analysis

To write an effective restaurant business plan, you have to conduct a SWOT analysis that will represent the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your business. In your business plan, you need to elaborately explain such kinds of things that will help you to identify the internal and external factors of your restaurant business. 

Through the SWOT analysis, you can identify not only the strengths and opportunities but also realize the weaknesses and threats of your restaurant. So, it can provide deep insights into your restaurant business. To conduct an effective SWOT analysis, you can consider the following factors. 

Strength

• Service quality 
• Perfect location 
• Profitable menu design 
• Resource 
• Capabilities 
• Good food quality 
• Sufficient assets 
• Marketing
• Awareness 
• Distribution    

Weakness

• Lack of financial concerns 
• Vulnerabilities 
• Mismanagement  
• Unhygienic working environment 
• Irregular cash flow
• Employee dissatisfaction 
• Inadequate employee  

Opportunity

• Business developments 
• Market developments 
• Improvise the menu 
• Influencer marketing 
• Follow upcoming trends, festivals, and events  

Threat

• Market demand
• Inflation 
• Competition 
• Economical breakdown 

5. Develop Coherent Marketing Strategy

The success of your restaurant business is around 90% depends on your marketing strategy. By applying an effective marketing strategy, you can easily reach out to your target customers. In your restaurant business plan, you have to provide the details of your marketing strategy that will help to conduct your marketing campaign in an organized way. 

Moreover, you can apply both online and offline marketing strategies. After launching your restaurant, you need to design your marketing plan and start to apply your marketing strategies that will help to boost your sale and enhance the popularity of your restaurant. 

Online Marketing Strategy for Restaurant Business

In this current technology-dependent world, most people are engaged with the internet. For that reason, online marketing is one of the most fruitful ways to promote your business. Also, it helps for branding and promoting your restaurant that will assist to reach out to the customers and ensure maximum ROI.      

Integrate a Dynamic Website & Make It SEO Friendly 

Website and SEO is one of the significant ways to conduct online marketing for your restaurant business. A complete website can enhance the brand awareness of your restaurant business. Also, it will help to increase online visibility as well as to build a good impression on the customers. 

But keep in mind, your website should be responsive, attractive, and informative that will hold the overall aspects of your restaurant. Remember, you have to optimize your website according to the SEO rules. Otherwise, the customers can not find your website in the Google SERPs, and ultimately all of your attempts will be failed. So, it is parallelly significant to integrate a dynamic website and make it SEO friendly.    

Create a Brand Awareness through Blogging 

Blogging is one of the best ways to promote your services that will increase the online presence of your business. Also, it can help to enhance your digital reputation and SEO ranking. A blog can be able to provide your customer’s queries, as a result, it can enrich your brand awareness. So, it can play a vital role to conduct online marketing for your restaurant business.  

Catch the Customer’s Attention through Social Platforms

Social platforms are the most crucial field to grab the attention of your customers. Nowadays, more than 3.6 billion people are engaged with various social platforms. So, you can reach out to a massive amount of customers through this process. In this regard, you can share some posts to promote your offers and discount. The most popular social platforms are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, and so on. So, you can promote your restaurant through such kinds of social platforms.  

Nurture Your Targeted Customer through Email Marketing

Email marketing is another effective way to promote the service of your restaurant. It is one of the reliable forms of marketing and you can easily catch the customer’s loyalty. Moreover, this marketing process helps to engage with your customer. As a result, you can enhance the customer's intention for going to your restaurant through email marketing. So, you can easily nurture your customers by applying email marketing strategies.  

Offline Marketing Strategy for Restaurant Business

Offline marketing is another profitable marketing strategy to promote your restaurant business. There are numerous ways to conduct offline marketing such as, 

• Promote your food items by an influencer
• Magazine, Television, and Newspaper Advertising 
• Billboard 
• Sponsorship  
• Participate in Events, and so on.      

6. List Down All Required Technologies

In your restaurant business plan, you have to list down which technologies you will adopt for your restaurant business. Adopting new technologies can enhance the working efficiency of your restaurant and increase the customer’s experience as well. 

There are numerous technologies are being invented day by day which will give extra mileage to your restaurant business. The most prominent and significant technology in restaurants are: 

• Restaurant POS Software 
• QR Code Ordering System 
• Self Ordering Kiosks
• Kitchen Display System (KDS) 
• Kitchen Order Ticket ( KOT) 
• Online Ordering System 
• Third-party Delivery Management, and so on. 

Also, there are some extensive technologies in restaurants that will provide smooth operations and effective management. So, you have to note down the required technologies in your restaurant business plan which will need to cover up your restaurant business.      

7. Estimate Overall Budget through Financial Analysis

For starting and managing any business, financial support is one of the basic needs. Without estimating the budget previously, your business may not last long. A predefined budget can help you to estimate costs and save your assets from misspending. Thus, you need to address the financial side of your business. 

According to the market research, projected income, and actual expenses, you have to estimate the overall budget. Moreover, these matrices can assist you to predict the estimated revenue and capital expenditure budget.

To prepare your restaurant’s financial budget, you have to be concerned about the following factors. 

Total Capital

You need to clearly mention the total capital in your business plan. Total capital expresses the amount of how much assets you have for starting your restaurant business. It will assist you to develop your entire financial chart and you can easily allocate the funds to fixed expenses, operating expenses, marketing, and others.   

Expenses

You need to clarify the estimated expenses in your business plan that will help to predict the capital expenses and operating expenses. 

Capital Expenses 

Capital expenses are mainly the long-term investment and those types of costs that are fixed in nature. Moreover, it defines the cost which you will invest to purchase the required equipment for your restaurant. For example, interior designing cost, equipment & machinery purchasing cost, chairs, tables, utensils, cutlery, crockeries, and so on.   

 Operating Expenses

You need to bear those types of costs to run and operate your restaurant successfully which is called operating expenses. For example, salary, depreciation on equipment, electricity, rent, and so on.     

Cost Projection

You need to mention the cost projection of your financial statement in your restaurant plan. It will help you to observe and predict the overall cost for developing, implementing, and maintaining your restaurant business.  

Cash Flow Statement

A cash flow statement is one of the crucial factors in creating a complete business plan for your restaurant. Moreover, the cash flow statement defines the total inflow and outflow of cash in your business. This section highlights how much capital you have and the source of it. Also, you have to clarify the sector where you will invest your capital.    

Revenue Projection

In your business plan, you can compose the overall aspects of your restaurant business. In this regard, you can easily predict how much money your restaurant will generate over a certain period. So, you can estimate your revenue projection by analyzing the data of spending and selling.   

Income Statement

Another significant matrix to write a business plan for your restaurant is to highlight the income statement. It helps to predict your profit or loss according to your predicted income and expenditures for a certain period.      

Forecasted Balance Sheet

The balance sheet is the summarized chart that can provide your restaurant’s assets, liabilities, and equity. It is one of the core financial statements that will assist you to evaluate your business. So, when you write a business plan for your restaurant, you need to forecast a balance sheet in your restaurant business plan.

Growth Rate of Restaurant Industry

The Growth Rate of Restaurant Industry Revenue Is Around 20.84%

There is huge scope to earn a massive amount of revenue from the restaurant business. You have already been informed about the revenue of the restaurant industry. But do you know the root of such a kind of success???

A proper business plan is a foundation to start a restaurant business. Thus, you need to write a complete business plan to see the remarkable success of your business. Also, you need to follow each and every step of your restaurant business plan. Most significantly, you have to integrate the required technology in your restaurant business. Otherwise, you can not cope up with the lasted trend.

According to a statistic, 

“Around 80% of the restaurants are using technology in the USA to increase their sales and business productivity.” Source   

So, you can change your career by opening a restaurant business but you need to write a business plan first. A perfect plan can ensure a smooth future for your restaurant business.

DON’T MISS IT!!!

Grab the Elegant Opportunity by Writing a Sophisticated Restaurant Business Plan 

Your restaurant business can reach out to the desired position with the combination of a proper business plan and technological attachment. If the restaurant business plan is a pillar, then the integration of technology will be the brick. Since the world is more technology-dependent day by day, a complete business plan and technological integration are complements of each other.

In this regard, you can take a look at Bhojon - Restaurant Management System, which can be able to fulfill some significant technological requirements. Moreover, this restaurant management software can assist to operate the overall activities of your restaurant. 

So, you need to purchase separately to manage any individual aspect of your restaurant. You will get an all-in-one solution by purchasing this restaurant software.

Ending Thoughts

A business is not only a place to work rather it contains a lot of emotions and dreams of all entrepreneurs. When you want to launch a restaurant business, you must write a restaurant business plan. Without a proper business plan, you can not succeed in your business. 

Also, most entrepreneurs do not understand how they will start their restaurant business. If you face such kinds of difficulties, you will get all of these solutions in this article. So, this article provides a complete restaurant business plan that will be effective to start a restaurant business.

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• 5 Easiest Steps to Create a Dynamic Restaurant Website & App