KENCO MANAGEMENT COMPANY
Kenco has a reputation of educating
their customers to the process of restaurant business
planning; site potentials, financial planning,
flow and equipment design and venture statements. Only
the well-educated new restaurant owners can be
financially successful in todays driven market
place.
The
following pages will give a prospective new food
service futurist an idea of the amount of work
that will go into just planning your new venture
on paper in the shape of a venture statement and
business plan. All the sections of this outline
need to be fully explored and defined before step
two (looking for an actual location) can be considered.
If
you have any questions or comments, please feel
free to e-mail us and someone on our staff will
get back to you.
If
you are in the market for a business consultant,
we ask that you familiarize yourself with this
section and contact us as an educated consumer
rather than a restaurant dreamer. We at Kenco
look for ways that our customers can be successful,
not how they can lose their hard-earned money.
Keys to success in business
Nobody really understands America's fascination
with the restaurant industry. The fact is though
that 113`d of all meals eaten in the United States,
are eaten out. (*N.R.A. 1993)
The high percentage of people eating out is mainly
due to:
1)-business meetings
2)-avoid cooking
3)-entertainment
4)-Travel
As of 1993, the national restaurant association
suggests that there are
737,000 food locations in the United States, and
that 43% of all consumer food dollars are spent
on eating out. These numbers have of course grown
since 1993.
Most people who like to cook are fascinated by
the restaurant industry. This accounts for the
very high mortality rate in this industry.
Going into food and beverage means more than having
a great idea, and some money to spend. You must
have a good sound business plan, a mission statement,
and some working experience so that it can function
in a stable work environment. Without the right
tools, if you do happen to get off the ground,
your chances of survival are very slim at best.
Every new business venture has got to begin with
a significant business plan or mission statement.
Without a business plan there is no telling what
direction your venture is destine to travel. A
business plan entails understanding not only the
purpose of your mission, but who will take you
there, and more importantly how. Every individual
in the business plan should have a clear and specific
understanding of what the goals of the mission
are. Lack of understanding will cause individuals
within the venture to work independently from the
rest of the group causing the group, and possibly
the venture to stall, and eventually collapse.
The best way to shortcut these potential problems
is to write out a clear and well-defined analysis
of your intentions from the very beginning. Independent
variables can change during the growth of a venture,
but the main purpose of the venture should be well
defined and followed by the entire group.
Some of the most relevant questions
related to a smooth business start up are as follows:
What is the major intention of your venture?
What is the secondary intention?
Will the major intention support the cost of doing
business?
Who will direct the company through executive power?
Who will head up operations in this new business?
Who will be the comptroller of the operation?
Do all the partners understand and agree with their
current mission statement?
Do all partners have a clear understanding of their
responsibilities in this venture, and do they agree
with its intent?
Has the group capitalized themselves well enough
to make success a reality?
Is there a time schedule in place so that all areas
of concern stay on task?
Are the BI-LAWS attached to the venture?
1. Management-employee relations
2. Customer service
3. Working condition rules, and BI-laws
4. Dress codes
5. Ethics codes
6. Quality control standards
7. Finance and expense rules
8. Exclusive rights agreements
Have you listed stages in which your venture intends
to grow?
Is there a back up plan to trouble shoot potential
and foreseeable set backs?
"Being unprepared only puts an individual
in a position to react to a crises, rather than
avoid the crises through careful planning"
When opening a food and beverage type operation
a mission plan may be outlined by defining the
following:
1. concept and development
a. type of restaurant
1. Fast food
2. Sit-down
3. carry out
4. meat or dairy
5. strip mall or single outlet
6. layout of kitchen and seating
7. Design or theme of restaurant
b. food concept
1. type of food to be sold
2. recipes of all food to be produced
3. presentation of foods
4. menu design
c. cost of restaurant
1. build out ( electrical, plumbing, and carpentry)
2. interior design
3. cost of aesthetics or memorabilia
4. cost of fixtures and equipment
5. all signage costs
6. permit costs
2. Restaurant plan( mission statement)
a. business plan
1. budget build out
2. budget legal, accounting, and all permits
3. budget equipment and fixtures
4. budget inventory
5. budget working capital
6. equate cost of doing business through food cost,
payroll,
and overhead
3. marketing plan
a. research and development
1. evaluate your market shares ( competition)
2. evaluate the type of service you will be providing
3. what will be unique about your business
4. how do you see yourself as being perceived by
the
general public
b. marketing
1. type of advertising ( how to get the word out)
2. type of gimmicks to get people to come back
3. specialties of the house (what will you be known
for
4. meet and greet concepts
5. contests, giveaways, freebees
4. Build out
a. Interior build out ( walls, floors, lighting,
and all fixed
assets) includes bathrooms vestibule and hood
b. Equipment and fixture installation (all seating,
work
areas, coolers, cooking equipment etc... )
Infrastructure
The infrastructure of your new business should
be broken down to
specific areas.
Executive branch-
oversees all aspects of the business
1. Finance
2. Payroll
3. purchasing
4. customer service
5. employee relations
6. quality control
7. research and development
8. shipping and receiving
9. accounts payable, and receivables
Operations branch -
in control of operations
1. hiring and firing
2. purchasing
3. marketing, and development
4. new product resources
5. sales force
Comptroller- controls
the finances of the operation.
1. payroll
2. accounts payable and receivable
3. shipping and receiving
4. taxes ( state, federal, & payroll)
5. inventory control
6. project spending
7. advertising expenses
8. bookkeeping
Office or facility manager-controls
the site environment
1. receptionist
2. customer relations
3. record keeping
4. filing
5. secretarial force
Marketing department-
the main purpose of a marketing
department is to build a strong, respectable, and
reliable
reputation to go along with the rest of your business
approach.
Marketing is a major concern to any business infrastructure,
and
may end up being one of your ventures greatest
assets.
It is not an accident that some businesses become
very successful and grow, while other ventures
with the same potential, and quality products fail
almost form the beginning. Think of business as
a dwelling (home). If you were to build two identical
homes, one on a concrete slab foundation and one
on merrily a bed of sand. Which of these homes
could you feel conformable investing in? While
this may sound like a wild exaggeration to most
people, it in fact is the way that 80% of the business
community in this country operates on a daily basis.
Eight out of ten businesses in this country fail
within the first four years of their inception.
The cause of these failed ventures is primarily
linked to the lack of good solid business planning,
and in 65% of cases, no business planning at all.
So, building a house on a bed of sand is not so
wild after all.
