Cafe in North Sydney - Business Plan Example

Business Plan: Cafe in North Sydney Introduction: The idea for the café lies in the fact that eating out is a trend that is on the rise. Breakfast and lunch are popular, as workers and business owners often choose not to ‘brown bag’ meals (Chang, 2006). There are those that would chose healthy, low-fat food, but popularity of fast food joints and cafes across the world are proof of the fact that people are ambivalent about it and continue to choose high-fat food that looks great and tastes greater. Beside this, there is a market for cafes that would serve fresh beverages or the quick bite. A café comparatively easy on the pocket would find favor with the quick and on he move crowd that characterizes Sydney. Executive Summary: I am presenting the following business plan for your approval. Thousands of people visit the area every day for a variety of reasons: for business, to work, shop, or just sightsee. The proposed location is at the corner of Belgrave Street, available at good rent and an excellent spot for a restaurant. I am requesting a loan of $30,000 for 5 years. This loan, along with my own investment of $10,000, will enable me to purchase equipment, renovate the location, stock up, and establish a working capital reserve. In the report, I have outlined the basic description the business, the marketing, the operations and the financial plans (Ford et al., 2007). The report will also outline the kind of customer base the café will try to attract, the future and growth prospects and style of functioning and competitive strategy. The financial investment in its employees will be one of the greatest differentiators between the competition in existence and the Daily Kaffe. Description of Business: The location and inner dynamics The Daily Kaffe and its presentation would be based on an image of healthy, nutritious coffee and food in an striking and fresh ambiance. The café will also look to be a place where local talent can find exhibition. The signage would be prominent enough to be attract the customer. The Café will be located at on the corner Belgrave Street, and will seat 40 patrons at a time. The site consists of a dining room, 45x45 square feet, a kitchen, 15x15 square feet, two bathrooms, and a storage room in the back. Due to the diligent searching out of bargain (but quality) equipment, the cost will be $20,000. The Café will serve basic breakfast, lunch, and high tea with emphasis on healthy, tasty food. Menu items for breakfast will range from $1.99 - 4.99. Lunch items will range from $2.50 - 5.99. See the attached menu for details. Hours of operation will be 6:30 a.m. - 7:30 p.m. it will operate six days a week, and 8:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. on Sundays. The café will employ a head cook, and additional staff of a part-time back-up cook and two waiters. Experienced staff has already been located. The positives of the location are: 1. Traffic of 40,000+ on store side. 2. Visible from roadway. 3. Established crowd pullers in area. The customers- Appendix-1 The clientele that is being targeted for the café is a mix of business owners and workers, local residents, and tourists. The advantage of the location is the fact that the Cammarey Golf Course, Green Park and Primrose Park are in proximity. The café would thus be able to attract the early morning and afternoon traffic of walkers and leisure consumers, looking to eat out at a cozy café. Most of them work early in the morning, so the café will open at 6:30. This group would also be the base clientele. There are well over 2,500,000 commuters in the metropolitan area, as well as visitors, vacationers, and others. The basic rationale is that many would be repeat customers and hopefully loyalists. There are those that chose to visit Sydney in the summer for relaxation time. The Competition Analysis: The Competitor Matrix below shows the Café in comparison to its competitors: Seating Meals Pricing and Hours The Blue Stone Lobby Café 25 People Breakfast/Lunch 6:30-2:30 Café Mia 30 people Coffee/Donuts/cakes and Soups 7:00-4:00 Voodoo Espresso Café 20 people Donuts and Sandwiches 7:00-9:00 Café Vicino 35 3 Meals a Day 8:00-10:00 The competition in existence is basically a range of places that offer the same thing with different names. It is this particular gap that the venture will capitalize on by ensuring the investments in labor and theme is visible and attractive. The idea in dealing with the competition would be to offer the customer service that is fast and friendly. Ideally, the café would look to attract college students as the part timers and professionals as the supervisors. Second, the menu would be the stronghold; it would be focused mainly on freshly baked and cooked foods with little artificial preservatives. This is essential in order to build a base. The marketing strategy would also play a big part here. The Marketing Strategy: SWOT Analysis Strengths 1. The Menu- variety and taste 2. The Location, which is strategic in attracting the numbers 3. The ambience, which is inviting and cozy without being claustrophobic 4. The art and the local talent on display Weaknesses 1. Shortage of liquid money 2. Not enough experience in running a café 3. Long period of promotion required Opportunities 1. Market amenable to experimentation and new ideas 2. Excellent in-house chef and great equipment Threats 1. The competition-well established and too many 2. Economic climate not really feasible to starting new venture 3. Not a lot of disposable income in hand for consumers Importance: Marketing is an important part of the success or the failure that the café would see in the proximate months. Ideally, there should be a big budget available for marketing, but the required renovations along with the payment of staff and equipment leaves little liquid cash for a marketing junket. The SWOT analysis shows that there is a tendency among the target audience to ignore traditional modes of marketing techniques. It would therefore be required that the marketing plan be focused on capturing unconventional methods to grab consumer attention. It is essential for this purpose to build a reputation around the food and art it will offer by heavily promoting itself through local, radio advertising. A strong emphasis will be laid on keeping customers through our food and building an environment through which the customer feels relaxed. The theme of the café is English Morning and related breakfast and food. The evening tea would appeal to many a palette. Strategy: The best way to outline a strategy would be to outline the 4 Ps- Product, Price, promotion and Place (Kotler, 2006). First, one needs to outline the basic focus of the marketing campaign. As has been stated earlier, the strengths of the café that would need to highlighted vis-à-vis the existing and the well established competition. These would be the service which would necessarily need to be quick and friendly, the ambience, which is fresh, uncluttered and inviting and the menu itself, which is different and unique from the run of the mill standardized food experience being offered by the competition operating in proximity. The basic idea behind the marketing program would be to set up the name of Daily Kaffe as being distinct and unique. The idea is to sell the product as the experience of light eating, and quality food. The product is not just the menu on offer but the facilities add on values that the café would offer the customer. Second, the art being displayed would be played up as it would be an attraction separating the café from competition. Just for promotion purposes, the café can host a few events like a stand up comic, or a book reading, all of this would help get the café on the map. The café also needs to concentrate on the evening traffic coming out from offices. The best manner to get this segment’s attention would be to get pamphlets across through corporate offices, providing discounts on booking of large parties and through the choice of music. The places to be targeted need to compliment the basic strategy. The strategy used would be to target morning shows on radio, to attract the morning traffic from parks. The second strategy will be to utilize social networking websites like Twitter and Facebook, to attract the young crowd and build up a network with barely any costs. Third, a pamphlet and poster campaign in nightclubs, Jazz Bars, the park and related locations would increase visibility at very little input costs. Comment cards will be at each table and will be collected at the register. Suggestions for new or improved meals will be sought, as well as feedback on service and the dining experience. The Daily Kaffe’s strategy is to show people that there is an excellent product on offer, with a community benefit. Pricing would thus be competitive and training the production staff to be among the best in the area. By doing this we can hope to: 1. Provide a customer with a quality product at a competitive price. 2. Provide the customer with a more convenient method for obtaining their desired product. Operations: The business plan has the curriculum-vitaes attached for all the potential employees of the café at the beginning of the plan. Since I do not have any experience in the management and day to day functioning of operations of this magnitude and nature, I have engaged the services of Rosie Jenkins, who is to be the head chef, menu designer, and chief operations-in-charge. She brings with her over fifteen years experience in the restaurant business. Five of those years were spent as manager of the Top Notch Restaurant in Sydney. The Accounting and Cash Management Systems: This is to be managed by an electronic cash register that has already been purchased. This register is perfect for the requirements of tracking sales of all items and related variables, recording various operators, and for the display of the right number of change in the case of cash transactions. The sale slips to be used would be numbered and each one signed accounted for in the logbook. The Daily Kaffe will accept credit cards and a credit card machine will be purchased. Rosie Jenkins will prepare deposits and take them to the bank daily. All checks will be written and signed by Ms. Jenkins, and she will keep the restaurant books on the Quick Books software program. Ms. Bea N. Counter, CPA, will prepare tax returns and quarterly payroll and tax reports. The café will employ two full time and six part time servers. The proprietor with the advice of the chief of operations would handle the basic training and management function. Training is essential because it helps the employees understand their functions and advance the underlying theme of the café (Barney, 1991). Promotions and hikes would be decided based on appraisals. Initially, the salary structure would be conservative and modest but would grow in congruence with the fortunes of the café. The majority of personnel would be involved in the production. This would mean conversely that the numbers in the management would be low. The three functioning groups would be Production, Sales and Marketing, and General and Administrative. For purposes of this plan--and to show the details of adding senior level management--The Daily Kaffe has broken management down as a separate segment, but it is an integral part of the General and Administrative function. Finances: The financial management of the café would be under the direct control of the proprieter. The method of accounting would follow the NRA guidelines. Sources Owner’s Investment $10,000 Loan $30,000 Total Sources $40,000 Uses Expenditure Purchase of Equipment $20,000 Renovations to leasehold $ 5,000 Rent deposit $ 600 Furniture $ 1,000 Dishes/glassware/silverware $ 1,000 Cookware $ 1,000 Supplies $ 500 Compressor $ 500 Food Inventory $ 5,000 Advertising $ 1,000 Insurance $ 1,000 Worker’s Comp $ 1,400 Working Capital $ 2,000 Total Uses $40,000 Conclusion: As is evident from the above presented proposal, the pro-forma plan, the capital expenditures of facilities and equipment need to be financed. There will be minimum inventory on hand to keep the product fresh and to take advantage of price drops, when and if they should occur. The idea is to keep the place cost effective and base profits and business credit flow in the loop through the offices of cost effective measures. The projected sales report and the market segment analysis are attached, as are the resumes of the people I propose to hire along with my credentials and references. I would be ready to answer any other questions that you might have. Thanking You. Appendices: Fig. 1.1: The Targeted Market Segment Fig 1.2: Projected Sales Growth Reference: Barney J, 1991, Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage, pub, Journal of Management, Vol.17 No.1, pp99-120 Chang H, 2006, Leisure motives of eating out, pub, Journal of Business Research, Vol.59 No.12, pp1276-1278 Consumer Research for Eating Out, accessed July 14, 2009, < http://www.food.gov.uk/science/socsci/surveys/eatingoutresearch> Coffee Kiosk Business Plan, The Daily Perc, pub, Bplans.uk, accessed July 14, 2009, < http://www.bplans.co.uk/coffee_kiosk_business_plan/management_summary_fc.cfm> Ford B R, Bornstein J, Pruitt P T and Siegel E R, 2007, The Ernst and Young Business Plan Guide, pub, Wiley Books, pp5-7 Kotler P, Adam S, Brown L and Armstrong G, Principles of marketing, Edition 3rd, pub, Prentice Hall Pearson, Australia, 2006 Read More