RESTAURANT DEVELOPMENT
Restaurant development is fluid and multi-dimensional versus
linear and progressively restrictive. Most restaurants don't do it
this way.
"Typical" approach:
- Concept Vision
- Site Selection
- Raise Capital
- Design
- Menu
- Construction
- Hiring
- Open
- Fix everthing you skipped (if you have enough money)
"Profit Structure" approach:
"if you can't plan it, you can't do it".
Concept Development - planning
should be front loaded. The success of the business depends
on an accurate and thoughtful profit structure. A solid restaurant consultant will
develop the concept by developing the menu early in the process,
allowing for change as you resolve variables. If handmade
tortillas sound great but are operationally unrealistic, you must
alter the concept and the menu. You should never fall in love
with a location or sign a lease until the concept if fully
articultaed. The experienced consultant will look at
potential locations and tailor the concept to the neighborhood or
choose a different neighborhood. They will consider service
expectations, local wages, transportation and parking for
employees, vehicle traffic patterns. They will evaluate
technology needs, inventory velocity and competition. A
restaurant Start Up that signs a
lease without a fully articulated profit structure, business flow
and menu is a roll of the dice at best. Once the concept is
thoroughly articulated and works on paper, it can intelligently
seek capital for the project. From Site Selection to Opening Day
the concept must remain flexible to re-visit any element of the
original plan when subsequent phases yield concept-changing
variables. A restaurant consultant that fails do heed this risks
wasting a lot of time and money.
