History of the Gulf Restaurant Business and the Current Position - Essay Example

Business Plan Business Plan Template CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY HISTORY OF THE BUSINESS AND THE CURRENT POSITION ABOUT ME THE PRODUCT & SERVICE BUSINESS STRATEGY THE MARKET PROBLEMS & FIXES (RISKS & MITIGATIONS) FINANCIALS (Spreadsheet) BIBLIOGRAPHY Executive Summary The city of Manchester provides a strategic position for establishing fast food restaurants as is observable from the increasing new franchises opening the city centre. The increased population of students and working people in the town constitutes an extensive market for the success of a restaurant establishment. This opportunity, combined with the increased foreign population from the Middle East coming to Manchester for business, working or studying reasons presents a chance for the establishment of restaurant with a difference (Market Growth Potential, 2012, p 80). Gulf restaurant incorporates services of highly qualified and proficient staff from the Middle East to facilitate the preparation of products and services. The management team consists of my partner and me as joint directors of the business. He will head the finance and human resource department while I manage the marketing, sales and operational activities. Since we are the sole owners, we provide the entire capital for investing in the business. We both bring in our exceptional expertise, in the various fields of academic qualification for the success of the business. The mission statement of Gulf restaurant is a fair profit margin and a rewarding place for employees and customers. The objective is to become leading fast food franchise, serving high quality food products to the esteemed customers. Within the forecast, the business expects to begin slowly, but catch up as it matures. The expected sales will range, with expectations of between $300 to $1000 at the start, and $800 to $3000 when the business gains grounds in the market. The profit margins are marginal as they represent the mission of the business venture. To tackle the desires of the market, we feature in a calculated business strategy for facilitating services to the customers, which will help the business achieve its objectives. History of the Business And the Current Position Gulf restaurant is an idea conceived from my visit to the Arabic gulf, particularly when I visited The United Arabs Emirates in the past two years. In the city of Dubai, there are several western and European restaurants, offering ready restaurant services including cuisines, desserts and main dishes among other recipes on their menu (Albukhitan & Helmy, 2013, p 461). To my dismay on arriving to this place, the tourist, business people alongside all other people of different colours, flocked various restaurants all requesting for the local foods of the Arabic origin. This caught my attention, creating an interest to establish the secret to the success of western restaurants in the Arabic Gulf. Luckily, a close relative operates one such restaurant; hence, I went to her for advice on the secret of succeeding in the restaurant business in the United Arabs Emirates. It was then I realised that the Arabic recipes offered the best and delicious food recipes that always leave the customers satisfied yet willing to eat an extra plate. Therefore, I decided to establish my own restaurant, offering these Arabic food recipes in my hometown, the city of Manchester. I posed the proposal to a close friend who got the interest and we decided to establish a partnership. This is since, running a partnership business will allow us to share costs, resources and contribute in skills. The name of the restaurant will be Gulf restaurant, and it will be at the centre hub of the city, along oxford road. The restaurant will be one of its kinds in the city, bringing a new flair and list of foods in the menu for customers to explore. About Me Tell us about your experiences, ambitions and hopes with regards to the business. Personally, conceiving the idea when I visited the United Arabs Emirates was not a coincidence; rather, it was from experience. We visited a restaurant, ordered food only to realise it had pepper, thus, uneatable for a person who does not take pepper. Nonetheless, there are several recipes without pepper, thus, along with my partner, we intent to establish a paradise of Arabic food in Europe, to grow from a single store restaurant to a chain of restaurants within Manchester and the entire European countries network. Therefore, intend to establish the restaurant and manage its growth to success. What is your educational background? relevant training and have you any certificates that could assist in this business idea I am a marketing student; I have several skills that can foster the success of the business idea into reality. This restaurant will be a test of effectiveness of skills learnt from school. Moreover, I happened to attend a catering camp, where I learnt several skills in catering, and as such, I can make some delicacies for customers to enjoy. If you have other team members helping you, tell us about what they do. Will your staff have the right skills, experiences and/or qualifications to run the business effectively? My partner, David Lu, has academic qualifications in the field of Human Resource Management and has several certificates in accounts. Thus, he will bring his expertise in these fields to the business, allowing us to combine the skills for the future success of our restaurant business. The staff will incorporate chefs with skills experience in Arabic food preparations. The service and delivery people will incorporate local people who we will train on techniques and skills of giving Arabic service. With these combinations of skills and experience, the business will become a force to reckon in the marketplace. The Product and Service The restaurant will specialise entirely on food and beverage services, particularly fast foods since the city centre consists of busy people; thus, they would not want to spend much time in a restaurant. The menu will include appetizers, desserts, main dishes, salads and soups. It will also have some beverage category to address the needs of the customers. The beverage will include coffee, tea and drinks such as fresh juice alongside other products. The cuisines will feature items such as vegetables, dairy and grains products, such including ingredients such as cucumbers, eggplant, zucchini, dates, wheat, yogurt, butter, cream and beef. There will be no pork as it is a prohibited food according to Arab Muslim beliefs (Albukhitan & Helmy, 2013, p 461). The services will feature a menu of products such as Hummus, Manakeesh, grilled Halloumi, Falafel, Fattoush, Umm Ali and Shanklish among other recipes. The menu will contain detailed explanation of the names to ensure customers ask for what they know. There will be the incorporation of few western foods as an alternative for those who prefer such. Business Strategy What is your strategy for the first year? The key objective of this business is to establish presence as a local restaurant with fast food outlets and gain substantial market share. The mission of the restaurant is to become the leading fast food franchise serving high-quality food and a great value. What are your objectives and goals to deliver this strategy? The business will open daily from six in the morning to nine in the evening. The restaurant will also provide freshly prepared food to maintain quality capitalizing on the community around the business. After the first six months of operation, there will be an evaluation of milestones made and incorporates emerging business trends that align with the objectives of the business. This will allow the business to capture the market share as projected in the strategy. The aspect of maintaining manageable employee count in the first year is also strategic to establishing the foundation for the business to grow. How are you going to meet these objectives? Therefore, to succeed, the key lies in creating an inimitable, innovative and compelling menu that will distinguish Gulf restaurant from the others. Secondly, the business intends to sell products of the highest quality, maintaining excellent service level while controlling the costs at all time. Thus, the business will implement a conservative approach policy for growth (Miller & Washington, 2013, p 510). To achieve this level of success as we envision, the business will incorporate unique blending of the local recipes with a fusion of the Arabic recipes as a signature move. Additionally, we will recruit and establish friendly staff; in addition to partnerships with the supporting merchandise suppliers that support our vision on quality. What is your strategy for the next 2 to 5 years? In the future, we also have a vision of expanding into other outlets in the future to grow the business. What are your objectives and goals to deliver this strategy? The business will stabilise within the first two years. Therefore, we will establish a saving project from the business for furthering the business operation. There will be a feasibility study and evaluation of business success after every six months to facilitate projection plans for the future. This will give the leadership the foundation for establishing the expansion plans. Additionally, we will also expand the menu to incorporate foods from other cultures within a five-year period and depending on the demand. How are you going to meet these objectives? To meet this projected expansion of the business into other outlets, the business will re-invest a considerable share of the profits, to constitute capital for establishing the other outlets of expansion. Moreover, the business at a later stage, may consider introducing other partners to share in the expansion costs, to facilitate the transition of the restaurant into a chain of restaurants in the country. Explain the typical process for selling and delivering the service/product, when you get paid for it in advance. Innovativeness in serving and packaging is the leading practices to achieving our goals of quality services and customer satisfaction; hence, gaining the market share as projected. The restaurant will offer services for serving in the premises as well as take-away services. Moreover, it will also have delivery services, where we will employ delivery people. The transactions of payment include paying cash on delivery. When paid in advance, the customer will get the expected service as they deserve. However, after we initiate technology in the business, services such as credit cards and others will be acceptable. The Market Market Research The consumer expenditure in England remains on a rising trend over the past few years. The city of Manchester remains the leading centre for the growing establishments of fast foods and fancy restaurant franchises (Eating Out Review- UK, 2013, p 23). How do you know that there is a demand for your product/service? There is a towering population of citizens that readily flock the existing restaurants in search of something to eat. The market needs more services and a break from the monotonous western menu. Thus, there is a ready market and demand for the services of Gulf restaurant. What type of customers will be buying your product/service? The target market for this business entails people along the classes of age, family, gender and income. It will appeal to the young people, who are single and enrolled in college or high school, as well as, the young working people of up to 50 years of age. The restaurant will also appeal to families as it provides an opportunity for families to explore foreign foods locally. The local people will constitute the larger percentage of customers with expected customers from the outskirts of the town also visiting the restaurant. The people of European origin will form the larger base of customers since they are more in the area. However, those people from the Middle East will also constitute a significant customer base once they learn of a restaurant offering their home food services. How big is the potential market for your product/service The restaurant will service the entire Manchester town centre, which is the centre of activity in England. . Moreover, it will also appeal to medium income people lower income bracket included, as it will offer affordable products and services. The young people whether working or learning will constitute a larger percentage of the market. The vast population of the city provides potential for the business to explore the market. Who will you be competing with? The competition will mainly be from the local rising fast food franchises that already established their presence in the market. These competitors are offering services at remarkably low prices, considering their supplies are local and readily available. However, the notable weaknesses in their establishments include that they do not incorporate dietary menu and their quality of service is low. What will you do better/worse than your competitors With proper marketing skills and quality food services, the business will flourish beating all the competition accordingly. Moreover, we will entire on the strengths of the business and capitalise on the weaknesses of the competitors to ensure success of Gulf restaurant. Do you have or have you thought about having a network of suppliers that will deliver your product or service? The supplies of the business will come from the links that I establish from United Arabs Emirates; since, the business invests extensively on Arabic food products. The network for supplies will incorporate the relative in UAE who owns a restaurant there, among other suppliers from the region . SWOT Analysis STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES The most notable strength is that, as a new restaurant, customers will flock initially to taste its services, a factor that will allow us to capitalise on retaining them. Secondly, the organisation structure, in which the two owners will be direct managers, bringing their skills to work, will build the business success opportunity. Additionally, since the restaurant offers a diversity and variety of products, this is strength as it eliminates the monotonous competition in the market with those restaurants offering traditional western services. Moreover, the promotional activities as the business opens will facilitate advantage to the restaurant, as it will encourage customers to come. Moreover, the pricing on the menu will ensure that we deliver quality at affordable pricing; thus, customers stick to the restaurant. The restaurant will face limitations such including, the foreign labour that we will source to do the cooking. They will require guidance to acclimatise to the western cultures. Secondly, the costs of getting supplies due to factors such as transport costs and acquisition of such products from the United Arab Emirates. Moreover, as we start, we may have to rely on manual record-keeping system for stocks and sales, which will influence the working of the restaurant. OPPORTUNITIES THREATS The opportunities for the business include that, being a new entity; it provides alternative food products, creating diversity. Secondly, the food products it offers apply high dietary standards; hence, confers with the trends of healthier eating, giving it an advantage over competitors. Moreover, with time, the business will incorporate delivery services and capitalise on the afternoon traffic, as these are opportunities for the business growth. Further, it also has an opportunity for expansion as it will be among very few of such restaurants in the city. The threats to the business include that the local established restaurants would bring stiff competition, especially considering that they offer known services while mine are foreign. Moreover, the increasing number of restaurant businesses presents a threat as they create options for customers to dine. The high pricing of products and services due to increased economy will also limit the growth of restaurant. Moreover, being a foreign restaurant, policies on food product importation and labour force will influence my business since we will source labour and supplies from the United Arab Emirates. The Financials How will you advertise, market and generally communicate your business? What is your budget for this? The marketing programs that the business will employ include the notable word-of-mouth in the restaurant, spread by our esteemed customers (Pride & Ferrell, 2010, p 76). Marketing.. We will also incorporate low budget marketing on the local media such as services of newspapers and radio. Others will include wall posters and notably, the grand opening promotion on which we intent to capitalise on marketing the business. We will produce brochures for further advertising, as well as, internet services such as social network platforms including face book and tweeter among others (Richard & Kelli, 2013, p 112). The sales strategy will also include promotional sales. The projected budget for this process totals to about $10,000. Personel Plan year 1 year 2 year 3 managers $0 $50,000 $100,000 cashier $0 $0 $100,000 cooks $100,000 $ 140,000 $195,000 delivery person $40,000 $55,000 $70,000 total people 7 10 15 total payroll $150,000 $245,000 $465,000 START-UP COSTS start-up expenses $20,000 start-up assets $15, 000 costs for setting the space $15,000 liabilities and licences $$15,000 miscelleniuos $7,000 total costs $72,000 CAPITAL CONTRIBUTION David Lu $80,000 Eric Yam $125,000 total capital $205,000 Break Even Analysis Monthly recurent costs $55,000 monthly Revenue expected $30,000 Estimated Monthly Fixed Cost after Revenue $25,000 ESTIMATED PROFIT AND LOSS MARGINS expenses year 1 year 2 year 3 direct cost of sales $60,000 $80,000 $100,000 Pay Roll $150,000 $245,000 $465,000 Marketing promotion $10,000 $10,000 $10,000 Utilities $3,000 $2,000 $5000 Tax incured $0 $0 $0 Depreceation $0 $0 $0 Net Profit $170,000 $425,000 $750,000 Net Profit after sales and expenses $-53,000 $85,000 $135,000 The capital for starting the business will amount to around $ 200,000. Currently, my uncle provided me with $75000 while I have savings of another $ 50,000 to invest. My partner agreed to provide $ 80,000; thus, we meet the projected start up costs. The managers will not receive pay for the first year. Additionally, my partner volunteered to serve as the cashier for the first and second year of business. The net profit after sales and expenses for the first year may present a loss to the business. However, from the second year, the business expects to start making a considerable margin profit. Problems and Fixes Risks & Mitigation RISKS MITIGATION The risks to the business include the high start up costs, considering that we have limited capital to finance the business until it picks To mitigate this risk, the business will initiate few staff as it starts, in which my partner and I will be service people; thus, we will only employ the chefs. Moreover, we will initiate the business on a low budget and grow as we proceed. Another risk is the chances of the market accepting the products, considering that we are offering Arabic food services at mainly. To mitigate this risk, we will work towards breaking the cultural barrier by providing explanatory messages on the various foods on the menu. This will give customers confidence to try something new from the restaurant. Moreover, the business runs the risk of acquisition of supplies considering that we will import most supplies. Although we are exempt from taxes, the factor remains the costs of transport and quality of products. I will coordinate with the relative in Dubai who owns a restaurant there to help me in acquiring supplies. Bibliography Albukhitan, S, & Helmy, T 2013, ‘Automatic Ontology-based Annotation of Food, Nutrition and Health Arabic Web Content’, Procedia Computer Science, 19, p. 461, Supplemental Index, EBSCOhost, viewed 27 March 2014. ‘Eating Out Review- UK- June 2013’ 2013, Mintel Oxygen Reports EBSCOhost, viewed 27 March 2014. ‘Market growth potential’ 2012, Restaurant, Food & Beverage Market Research Handbook, pp, 79-87. Hospitality & Tourism Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 27 March 2014. Miller, R, & Washington, K 2013, ‘Distinguished Restaurants’, Restaurants, Food & Beverage Market Research Handbook, pp. 508-520. Hospitality & Tourism Complete EBSCOhost, viewed 27 March 2014. Pride, W. M., & Ferrell, O. C. (2010). Marketing. Australia, South Western Cengage Learning. Richard K., m, & Kelli, W 2013, Restaurant, Food & Beverages Market Research Hadnbook 2013 [N.P.]: Richard K. Miller & Associates, Discovery eBooks, EBSCOhost, viewed 27 March 2014. Read More