Foodbites Chews into the Restaurant Biz

I intend to Create a restaurant

I started by having an idea, that idea was to create a place where I would love to go to work everyday. I thought that I could start small and work my way up to better things. I thought about a hot-dog cart, a mobile food wagon, or maybe a coffee truck. As I went through my daily life trying to make enough to live on my ideas started to change-I decided that I wanted to create a restaurant where people could go to get a good meal, for a reasonable price. I wanted to appeal to the locals, not just the tourists.

My initial intention in creating this site was to talk about and get people excited about what I was doing, not really to tell people what to do to create their own business. But through paying attention to what people are doing while here, I have discovered that many of the people visiting my page are looking for information about opening a restaurant or a small business. So I decided that that was the best way to describe what I am doing and to help me focas on the creation of my own business, and hopefully it will help you in whatever your endeavor is.

Good luck in all you do

You are looking to own your own business, to go beyond what others think you can do. Well you have come to the right place to find out how to understand many of the things that plague new business owners, or even prospective business owners.

First step--get an idea.
My idea is to own a Restaurant.

Second step--Is it what you really want to do?
Do you have the perseverance to follow through and get your baby walking on its own? Remember, having a business is like having a child, for a long time you cannot just leave it to its own devices. You must nurture and push your business to get it to mature and mainly take care of itself.

Third step--Create a plan.
All businesses need a plan, it tells you whether you are on track to do what you want to do, it is generally called a business plan. A business plan is a road map, it tells you and your backers what you are doing, how you are doing it, and whether you are doing it well. It gives you goals and tells you how much you are planning to spend.

One of the business maxims is "Location, location, location"--these are supposed to be the three most important factors in business success. But is this true for all businesses? NO!
I have seen several businesses have excellent locations and they died within a short period of time. Why? Because the service was not what was needed by the buying public. In the food industry it means that you missed the mark reading your clientele, or you could not wait long enough for word of mouth to reach enough people, or your food sucked and no one came to your restaurant.

Let me give you and example of location being the deciding factor in whether a guest frequents one establishment over another.
Three restaurants, all have good food, decent prices, and good service. Restaurant A(orange) is located on the main road at a corner with a traffic light. Restaurant B (pink) is located on the main road in the middle of the block. The main road in front of both of these restaurants has a median strip. Restaurant C (purple) is located ½ mile off of the main road and there is no median strip in front of this restaurant. Which of these restaurants is most likely to draw the most guests?

Restaurant A would get the most guests. The main reason, because it is located in an extremely accessible location; it is no better or worse than either of the other two restaurants. The moral-All things being equal, location is the deciding factor.

Yes, location really matters, when everything is equal between restaurants. What about when things are not equal? Quality, Time, Price, Service, and Atmosphere also have significant impacts upon the viability of a location. In this section, I look at Quality as a factor in restaurant viability

What is Quality? It means different things to different people, so for our purposes, I will define it as consistently good flavor and the best or near best ingredients. "Best or near best" does not mean "grade A fancy" or any of those commercial terms to define good looking foods, I mean actually taking the time to ensure that the ingredients that you are purchasing are the best available at the time of purchase.

Using the same three restaurants as in the last section,lets explore what quality does to a restaurant's business. Restaurant A has a hit or miss approach to quality, sometimes it is really good, other times, not so much. Restaurant B has a constantly good quality with few complaints. Restaurant C has consistently excellent food, with almost no complaints. So who has the most business?
If you answered A, B, or C--you would be right.

WAIT, a Darn Minute, you said...!! Yes, I said that quality was a major factor, Location, and Time also come into play in this senerio. Over time, restaurant C would put both restaurant A, and B out of business,but can they last that long. OK, lets look at this. If all other things are equal, Quality makes a big difference, but remember about location, location comes before quality, why, because the easier it is to get to, the more people that are likely to come. Now in this instance, restaurant A has the best location but the worst food, people would initially go to restaurant A, but some would go to restaurant B, and a few would go to restaurant C. As people found out that the food at Restaurant A was not all that good, the business to restaurant B and C would increase and eventually put restaurant A out of business. Now it will take much longer for restaurant C to put restaurant B out of business because of location, but as more people found out about the great food at restaurant C, more would go to see for themselves, thereby decreasing business for restaurant B. The longer restaurant C was able to hold out the better it would do.

A prime example of this is a restaurant called Catfish Charlie's in Gulfport, MS, they serve only one thing for their meals, catfish, hush puppies, cole slaw, and french fries, there are no other choices for your meal. The restaurant is located out in the boonies in north Gulfport and there are few signs to direct you there, but it does a booming business. Why? It has the best food of its kind anywhere around. They do one thing and they do it right. The restaurant has to seat at least 500 people, and it really is that good.

So let us look at another senerio, switch the quality of restaurant B and C. Restaurant B has consistently excellent food, with almost no complaints. Restaurant C has consistently good quality with few complaints. Restaurant A is the same, a hit or miss approach to quality, sometimes it is really good, other times, not so much. So who has the most business now?
if you answered A or B again you would be right.

In this instance, C would have a much harder time getting patrons, and would most likely close very shortly after opening due to its location. Their quality is not good enough to overcome the detriment of location. Restaurant A would again begin strong, but would quickly loose business to restaurant B. Restaurant A's quality negating the possibility of long term viability. in short Quality in combination with Location is the determining factor of longterm viability.

In our last senerio, restaurant A has consistently good quality with few complaints, and the restaurant with consistently excellent food, and almost no complaints is located at either B or C. The restaurant with a hit or miss approach to quality; sometimes it is really good, other times, not so much; has no real affect on the outcome. Again the restaurant in location A would get an immense initial customer base, and would most likely survive a long time, simply because of its location. In either B or C, depending on their ability to hang on, the restaurant with excellent
food would eventually do well, but their location would determine how long it would take. In position B it would take much less time and, depending on other factors, could put the decent restaurant in position A out of business.

Each location has its value and the ability to provide for a restaurant, the final breakdown is as follows;

The hit or miss restaurant will always close, the only thing is when. In the best location they stand a chance of operating for a time at least, but unless other factors come in to play, they will most certainly close.

The consistently good quality with few complaints restaurant would actually do pretty decently if it was able to secure the best location. Unless it was in position B it stands no chance against the excellent restaurant.

The consistently excellent restaurant would do well in any location, but must be able to wait for the chance to shine if it is not located in position A.

OK So what does price have to do with location? Price is affected by location, the better the location the higher the price can be, the worse the location the lower the price has to be. Simply put, all other factors being equal, price can save a business in a horrible location.
So how do you set price? Price equals Time plus Cost plus Labor equals Value. I just heard a large question mark pop into your head, let me break it down for you.
COST= the actual price necessary for you to buy the raw materials as well as the overhead.
TIME= how much time was required to make the product.
LABOR= how much did you pay someone to create/serve/cleanup the production of the item
VALUE= the perceived cost of a product in the eyes of your consumer

Lets create a hamburger.
What do you need to make a basic hamburger?
INGREDIENT-------- COST ----------# SERVINGS ---------COST/SERVING
Hamburger ---------$2.60/lb---------------- 4 --------------------$.6500
tomato---------------$ .45/ea---------------- 8-------------------- $.0550
lettuce---------------$ .85/ea--------------- 20 --------------------$.0425
salt------------------ $ . 79/ea --------------200------------------- $.0040
pepper -------------$1.10/ea-------------- 200 -------------------$.0055
pickle --------------$2.95/ea ---------------185 -------------------$.0159
onion --------------$ .85/ea -----------------12 --------------------$.0708
catchup----------- $1.95/ea ---------------235 -------------------$.0082
mustard -----------$1.03/ea ---------------165 -------------------$.0062
mayonnaise ------$2.95/ea ---------------204 -------------------$.0145
bun----------------- $2.00/ea----------------8----------------------$.2500
total cost to make one hamburger $ 1.12 in ingredients
add a little for spoilage, $1.15, looks pretty good doesn't it --well we are not done

Time is a factor in cost. How much time does it take to prep the ingredients? How much time does it take to cook? How much time do you have invested in making the product? Lets look at this hamburger again. We have 3 ingredients that must be prepped prior to cooking, the hamburger, the tomato, the lettuce. we will assume that the pickles are already sliced and the buns are ready to go.

Hamburger prep might include adding the salt and pepper to the meat prior to portioning, and then portioning the meat and flattening it into a patty. Lets make 50LB of meat, that takes about 35 minutes to prep and you now have 200 portions. you need enough tomato slices to go on all of those burgers--even if you don't actually use all of them. that means you need 25 tomatoes sliced. By hand that will probably take about 10 to 15 minutes to cut all of them up, with a slicer that might take 5. Finally we get to lettuce, there you have a choice of leaf, sliced, or shredded. you need 10 heads processed to make enough for 200 burgers, lets say that that takes 15 minutes. in addition to this prep you have a little prep for the other items, like putting them in containers that are better suited to serving and things like that. so lets say that it takes another 10 minutes for that. you now have an hour and 10 minutes invested in this product. Oh, Almost forgot, it takes about 5 minutes to cook each patty. 1 hour 10 min to 200 items- not too bad, but we cannot add in the cooking time because there might be several items cooking at the same time so therefore they would only take a minute or so. The time cost of cooking one hamburger is 15 to 20 seconds. which when translated into labor costs is not much, most likely another quarter.(or two)

Labor is one of the biggest factors in any business. First, it isn't fixed. Second, you have multiple people handling a product, each person making a different level of pay. So, what do we have to do to create a labor cost for the burger. Well, that is simple and complicated all at the same time:
first---- take each person that you employ and figure a full work week for them and add it together. (that would be 40 yours at what ever rate of pay they make.)
second--- take that figure and multiply it time 1.25 to allow for overtime caused by call ins. if you have a larger number of call ins increase this to 1.5.
third--- add up all of the hours per week that you are open
fourth--- divide the total amount paid per week by the total amount of hours open and you get an approximate amount you need to average in profit to pay your labor cost per hour.

Next you get to pay your utilities and other monthly bills, and figure them into the equation. Always figure your bills higher than you think they will be so that you have a cushion in case they jump up in price. (15% should be enough) So add all of those figures together and divide that by the number of hours you are open per month and figure that to be a 30 day month.

finally, you need to project how many burgers you are going to sell per hour/day/month, this allows you to set your final price. Now does the price fit the demand, and do you have a superior product so that its perceived value is higher, then the price can be higher, but remember if you raise the price too high then people will not buy it anymore.

sorry still working on things

There is one more restaurant that we have to look at when talking about location. The Captive audience location. What does that mean? It is a location that people are already at and usually don't want to leave

I live in the Kissimmee area of Florida and after being here for 5 years I have noticed that there are 4 types of restaurants here:
>>> Fast food
>>> Buffet
>>> Expensive family style
>>> Gourmet/formal
The fast food and the buffet style are designed for the locals--the food is cheap both in cost and in value
The expensive family style and the gourmet/formal are for the tourists--the price is really high and the food is expensive.
I don't know about you, but when I go into a place to eat, I like to have a reasonable variety, great taste, friendly servers, and decent prices. Most of the places here that are affordable have forgettable food-that means that you really don't have a desire to revisit that place to have another helping. And like most people who live here I can not afford to eat at high cost family and gourmet/formal restaurants.

I want to change that! I LOVE FOOD, I love for it to TASTE GOOD, and I want to share that love with others. To do that, I have created an online store at Blujay.com. Anything that is bought at that store will go toward the creation of my restaurant.

I am looking to serve food that most people love to eat but don' have the time to make, I will also be taking suggestions, and recipes-so much of the menu is up to you, the diners.
Some of the items that we are looking to put on the menu are:

Savory pot roast dinner
Studded with rosemary and time this roast gets seared on the grill prior to being slowly braised in its own juices. Once cooked, to falling apart perfection, it is allowed to rest before being plated up and then topped with a drizzle of gravy and served with roasted new potatoes and glazed carrots

Succulent roast turkey dinner
Cooking the turkey on a rotisserie causes the juices to stay inside and be distributed evenly, making this the moistest turkey you have probably ever eaten. Served with stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole and cranberry sauce

Simply Delicious Grilled chicken breast dinner
Marinated overnight in fresh garlic, kosher salt, and olive oil, before being grilled to order.served with a Fresh green salad (your choice of dressings)and a Fresh steamed vegie-medley.

Grilled chicken Caesar wrap
An excellent Tomato basil wrap containing Romaine lettuce, carrot shreds, freshly grilled simply delicious chicken breast, Caesar dressing, and asiago, or parmesan cheese. Served with your choice of chips.

Grilled chicken Caesar salad
Our simply delicious Chicken breast tops a light and fluffy romaine lettuce dressed ever so lightly with Caesar, freshly made garlic-parmesan croutons, and Asiago or Parmesan cheese finish up this hearty delight

Dandy Flank steak Dinner
Our Flank steaks are marinated overnight in fresh garlic, balsamic vinegar, and kosher salt and then grilled to med-well perfection. It is served with a baked potato and a small side salad.

Flank steak Caesar wrap
An excellent Tomato basil wrap containing Romaine lettuce, carrot shreds, freshly grilled Dandy Flank steak, Caesar dressing, and asiago, or parmesan cheese. Served with your choice of chips.

Flank steak Caesar salad
Our Dandy Flank Steak tops a light and fluffy romaine lettuce dressed ever so lightly with Caesar, freshly made garlic-parmesan croutons, and Asiago or Parmesan cheese finish up this hearty delight

Tuna melt

Grilled pimiento cheese sandwich

Red beans and rice

Spaghetti with a tomato meat sauce
vegetarian Lasagna

meat Lasagna

>>more items to come :)
you can contact me to add more to the menu.
or go vote on new menu items on my other lens

MY Voting Food Lens

I created this lens and my store to make the money necessary to open a restaurant. I am tired of working for companies that only care about how much money their workers can make for them. They tend to raise the prices on the popular items in order to make more money and strip the guest of as much money as possible. This means that people, who make less money, are not able to afford to eat properly. People wonder why the populace eats fast food and gets fatter-sometimes people eat it because they want it-most of the time it is because they cannot afford to eat better.

YES, I want to make more money, who doesn't, but I don't need to fleece the public nor do I need to work people to death on little pay in order to do it. Our prices will not be the lowest in town, or even the general area, but we will keep them as low as possible. Our quality will be maintained as high-if it necessary to raise the prices a little to cover the cost-I would rather do that than lower the quality. Our employees will share in the profitability of the restaurant, that means that the better the restaurant does, the better the employees do. It also means that they have an interest in making your dining experience better.

As much as we possibly can, all our food products will be made in house, and local providers will make up the bulk of our raw products. We will be going with cloth napkins and table cloths, because they are better for the environment. Our takeout items will be put in either biodegradable or recyclable containers. Healthier choices will be provided, but we will not abandon the food that people love-no matter how unhealthy they are. We think you want and need choices, not someone to tell you what or how to eat.

Visit my store

http://Dragonfiregrillen.blujay.com

Dragon Fire Grill is the name,
Great food is the game.
Money is what we need,
It will allow us to feed,
to those in the know,
come on lets go.
Visit my other lens to see
What we give for free.
then come on back,
help us keep on track.
buy something from me,
and then you will see,
that I really do want to,
do right by you

Greetings from sunny Kissimmee.

My give your opinion lens
I want your opinion about the food that I will serve in my restaurant-so go on by and vote your conscience.