Starting a successful gastronomic business is possible, with preparation and a lot of effort you can come out on top.

A business plan will help you create a solid strategy for success and will make it easier for you to find a capitalist partner that invest in your project Or start on your own with a solid strategy.

According to CANIRAC data, only 20% of restaurants in Mexico remain open and operating after 2 years of opening, these results are mainly due to the lack of a business plan, control problems or deficit in restaurant management.

There are tools that ffacilitate control and administration of your restaurant as Soft Restaurant®, however, for the strategy issue if or if it is necessary to create your business plan.

In this article we share the main points to consider to create your business planning before opening your restaurant.

What is a restaurant business plan?

The business plan contains all the vital information to know if your gastronomic project is viable, this plan is a written document that will allow you to know your current situation and where you want to go. This will help you mark the right path to achieve the success of your project.

Your plan will also be the cover letter to find investors, government support or bank loans to start your business, if you still do not have one, start writing your plan taking into account the following points:

Executive summary "your gastronomic business idea"

Write the reasons why you want to start a gastronomic project, detail your experience in the culinary field and the needs you perceive from the market, this background will be useful to write the mission, vision, values ​​and objectives of your current or future restaurant, no It is necessary to detail in this section since it is a summary of your project, later you will be able to expose each section with ease.

Your concept

This is the most important part in case you are looking for investors, you must include the description of the products that you are going to offer and the theme that the restaurant will have when it begins to operate, the services that will make your restaurant different, its attributes and characteristics to have. clear your value offer.

In the description of your dishes, emphasize the star products that will be differentiators in your restaurant, even if you do not have a chef for the menu design, you can include an estimate of the costs and preparation times of each dish.

Organizational structure

It is important to attach a human resources section estimating the collaborators that your business needs and the organization chart that you will have, take the opportunity to describe the job profiles and delimit the responsibilities of each collaborator, estimate the salaries and compensation they will have since these data are important to make a projection of costs that you will have in your first year of operation.

Market study for your restaurant

A market study helps to identify and study customers in a specific area, in order to estimate the number of visits or purchases they can make, the data that you are interested in knowing are:

• What age and gender are they?
• What is their purchasing power and where do they live?
• What do you like to do or what do you do?

It is important to have this data to identify the market potential regarding your business and will additionally be the basis for formulating your attraction strategies.

How to do a market study?

Currently there are professionals who offer their services to study and analyze the market of your restaurant, if you do it on your own, we recommend that you study what businesses are in the area of ​​your premises, if there are schools, work centers, shopping malls and even other restaurants.

Check at different times how many people visit the area, take the average time they spend in the place, estimate their ages and the reasons why they spend in the area. Do they leave work? They live nearby? Visit a particular store? Investigate other data that will help you estimate the influx and types of clients of the place to create a target audience and determine if the type of business you will open is the right one for that type of clients.

Marketing strategy for your restaurant

How are you going to reach your future guests?

In this section it is necessary to share your strategies to attract customers to your restaurant, you can take advantage of the marketing channels in which you have experience (social networks, professional contacts, media) and choose a strategy that includes both traditional and digital marketing to publicize your restaurant's offer.

Consider implementing a fidelazation program Through discount cards, this will help you measure the success of your marketing campaign and create a loyalty system in your restaurant that will be a magnet for new customers.

Branding for your restaurant

The visual part is important to specify your gastronomic project, the choice of the correct colors will help create the ideal atmosphere for the type of service offered by your restaurant, attach your brand, the logo, slogan, corporate colors and various designs such as the menu , a preview of how the place would look with your colors and logos helps reinforce your business plan.

Watch our webinar on branding for restaurants.

Financial study for your restaurant

How much are you willing to invest? To finalize your business plan it is necessary to project your income and probable expenses of at least 6 months, these will serve to know an estimate of your profits and the recovery time of your investment.

Income budgets, determine the sales you hope to achieve in the next 6 months and justify that income with your market study, you can estimate your income with similar restaurants in other sites or competing restaurants in the area.

Expense budgets, These include 2 types of costs:

• FIXED COSTS They are identified by being independent charges to your production, for example: the payment of services such as internet, telephone, the rent of the premises, payment of salary to staff, among others.

• VARIABLE COST It is identified by being directly related to your production, for example: how much does it cost you to produce your products in terms of raw materials, labor as costs of special events and indirect costs such as repairs.

Utility estimate, utility is the topic that will mark the success or failure of your business plan, to get this data it is necessary to subtract the costs from your income each month, you can use the following table.

To know the recovery time of your investment, you only need to subtract your profit for each month from your initial investment until it reaches zero.

Are you ready to start your business on your own or look for investors to join your project?

It is important to start your gastronomic project on the right foot with your business plan in order.

Consider these 5 procedures you need to operate a restaurant and remember to add to your fixed costs the salary corresponding to your job as owner or director.

Now you are ready to start a restaurant.

We invite you to sign up for our WOW experience webinar at your restaurant.