I’m a freshman in college – and at my campus I’m thinking of starting a cafe/restaurant – not anything big – but a place where ppl can enjoy coffee & tea, snacks, etc. – I’m interested in making profit out of this to pay for college.
Thing is I’m not exactly sure how to put my idea into action – how exactly do you start a small restaurant? Can anyone give me specific steps or point me in the right direction?
Are there any websites?
Firstly, if you have no experience in the restaurant business, I’d advise that you work in restaurants for the next six months or so doing everything from bussing tables and washing dishes to waiting tables and cooking if they’ll allow you back there and if you have the skills. This will give you some of the work experience that you’ll need to understand and run a restaurant profitably.
If this is your first business venture, I would strongly recommend that you talk to a business counselor before you do anything especially spend money. I’d call the local office of SCORE (go to http://www.score.org and input your zip code to find the chapter nearest you), the advice is FREE. Ask for someone who has a background in restaurants and they’ll try their best to match you with the right counselor.
The counselor at SCORE will most likely advise you to write a business plan which is very good advice because it will force you to dig out all of the start up details and the costs of starting a restaurant and force you to also understand all of the aspects of this business including the customers you’ll concentrate on (your market ) and how you’ll get them to find out and want to come to your fabulous restaurant.
The location of the restaurant is important but doesn’t make it successful. To prove that all you have to do is walk down a street in your town where there are several nice restaurants all in a row and you’ll find one or two that are empty while the others are very busy. It has to do with menu, ambiance, and your reputation at the beginning and over time.
You also have to have food handling licenses, the right zoning, the right city and county licenses and permits and you have to be skilled at negotiating with your landlord about who’ll stand the cost of the build-out or the changes to the premises to make it ready for your look and feel.
You also have to worry about the normal business planning and management issues related to starting up any business.
Take a look and read some of the articles at:
http://www.ychange.com/small-business-consulting-articles.html
especially the ones about a business plan and starting a business. Also try their Blog and their Bulletin Board.
Hope this helped.
October 25th, 2009 at 10:07 am
Firstly, if you have no experience in the restaurant business, I’d advise that you work in restaurants for the next six months or so doing everything from bussing tables and washing dishes to waiting tables and cooking if they’ll allow you back there and if you have the skills. This will give you some of the work experience that you’ll need to understand and run a restaurant profitably.
If this is your first business venture, I would strongly recommend that you talk to a business counselor before you do anything especially spend money. I’d call the local office of SCORE (go to http://www.score.org and input your zip code to find the chapter nearest you), the advice is FREE. Ask for someone who has a background in restaurants and they’ll try their best to match you with the right counselor.
The counselor at SCORE will most likely advise you to write a business plan which is very good advice because it will force you to dig out all of the start up details and the costs of starting a restaurant and force you to also understand all of the aspects of this business including the customers you’ll concentrate on (your market ) and how you’ll get them to find out and want to come to your fabulous restaurant.
The location of the restaurant is important but doesn’t make it successful. To prove that all you have to do is walk down a street in your town where there are several nice restaurants all in a row and you’ll find one or two that are empty while the others are very busy. It has to do with menu, ambiance, and your reputation at the beginning and over time.
You also have to have food handling licenses, the right zoning, the right city and county licenses and permits and you have to be skilled at negotiating with your landlord about who’ll stand the cost of the build-out or the changes to the premises to make it ready for your look and feel.
You also have to worry about the normal business planning and management issues related to starting up any business.
Take a look and read some of the articles at:
http://www.ychange.com/small-business-consulting-articles.html
especially the ones about a business plan and starting a business. Also try their Blog and their Bulletin Board.
Hope this helped.
References :
October 25th, 2009 at 10:21 am
i think this link will be useful for you
http://workathomedataentrysites.blogspot.com/
.
References :
October 25th, 2009 at 11:10 am
A restaurant may sound like a good idea to start while your going to college, but I promise you it is not! The restaurant business is one of the hardest, most demanding, and riskiest businesses out there.
65 % of restaurants fail within the first year and 90% within the first three. The capital required makes it seem like a solid investment, but it is often far understated.
Not only will a restaurant cost you a minimum of $100,000 or so the expenses do not stop there as you will have ongoing expenses for labor, product, licensing and fixed costs.
You can expect to live and breath the restaurant too. A normal restauranture, especially a new one, can expect to be working and keeping things going at the restaurant a minimum of 80 hours per week (a little hard to do while in school).
Take your time and do what most college students do and work in the best paying job you can get while in school; waiting tables! The cash is great, the hours flexible, and the knowledge needed if you are serious about opening a restaurant some day.
If you want to learn more check out http://www.foodandbeverageunderground.com and If I can do anything to help further drop me a line on the contact page of the site. In any case good luck!
References :
http://www.foodandbeverageunderground.com