Opening a Restaurant or Other Food Business Starter Kit: How to Prepare a Restaurant Business Plan & Feasibility Study: With Companion CD-ROM [Paperback]

Sharon Fullen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 30, 2004

Restaurants are one of the most frequently started small businesses, yet have one of the highest failure rates. Survivors need a powerful strategic advantage: a sound business plan and feasibility study prior to opening. A new study from The Ohio State University has found the restaurant industry failure rate between 1996 and 1999 to be between 57-61 percent over three years. DonÂ’t be a statistic on the wrong side, plan now for success with this new book & CD-ROM package.

A business plan precisely defines your business, identifies your goals, and serves as your firm's resume. The basic components include a current and pro forma balance sheet, an income statement, and a cash flow analysis. It helps you allocate resources properly, handle unforeseen complications, and make good business decisions. Because it provides specific and organized information about your company and how you will repay borrowed money, a good business plan is a crucial part of any loan application. Additionally, it informs personnel, suppliers, and others about your operations and goals. Despite the critical importance of a business plan, many entrepreneurs drag their feet when it comes to preparing a written document. They argue that their marketplace changes too fast for a business plan to be useful or that they just don't have enough time. But just as a builder won't begin construction without a blueprint, eager business owners shouldn't rush into new ventures without a business plan.

The CD-ROM will cover the following subjects: Elements of a Business Plan, cover sheet , statement of purpose, the business, description of the restaurant, marketing, competition, operating procedures, personnel, business insurance, financial data, loan applications, capital equipment and supply list, balance sheet, breakeven analysis, pro-forma income projections (profit & loss statements), three-year summary, detail by month, first year, detail by quarters, second and third years, assumptions upon which projections were based, pro-forma cash flow, supporting documents for franchised businesses, a copy of franchise contract and all, supporting documents provided by the franchisor, copy of proposed lease or purchase agreement for building space, copy of licenses and other legal documents, copy of resumes of all principals, copies of letters of intent from suppliers, etc.

A new study from The Ohio State University has found the restaurant industry failure rate between 1996 and 1999 to be between 57-61 percent over three years. Don't be a statistic on the wrong side, plan now for success with this new book and CD-ROM package.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Publishing Group Inc. (December 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0910627363
• ISBN-13: 978-0910627368
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #242,178 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #33 in Books > Business & Investing > Small Business & Entrepreneurship > Business Plans
  • #35 in Books > Business & Investing > Small Business & Entrepreneurship > Hospitality Businesses

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How to turn your restaurant idea into a solid plan, January 14, 2006

By 

DeAnna Knippling "Word Nerd" (Colorado Springs, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Opening a Restaurant or Other Food Business Starter Kit: How to Prepare a Restaurant Business Plan & Feasibility Study: With Companion CD-ROM (Paperback)

Often people who start a restaurant are creative people who are excellent at visualizing their ideas and sadly lacking in skills that help them realize the practical details, forgetting that without expertise in the practical details, their ideas will never get past their home kitchens. Opening a Restaurant is a detailed plan on how to organize your restaurant ideas into something that will a) help you sell your ideas to loan officers and other investors, and b) clarify your vision to help you avoid the pitfalls that drag down most new restaurants within their first year of opening.

What this book will do is teach you how to build a business plan--the document that any institutional lender or investor will want to see before deciding to plunk down money on your hip, new concept. The book is totally specific to the restaurant/food service industry, and weeds out what you need to know from other business-plan instruction manuals, listing many questions that it would be helpful for a new business-owner (or the owner of an existing business planning to make modifications or reassess existing strategies/trends). The book also details how to put together feasibility analysis (both for your restaurant as a whole and for specific project), a marketing plan, how to gather facts and make valid estimates from them, and how to make your plan look professional.

There are two drawbacks to this book. Despite the excellent advice that it gives, the structure can be very confusing at times. For example, throughout the book, Fuller tells you to come up with estimates and answers to questions, but doesn't tell you how to make the estimate or find out the answers to the questions until almost the end of the book. The other drawback is that the formatting and editing of the book leave something to be desired--the information you need could be located in any of several different places. If you have time to read the entire book before starting, this is an excellent book, but looking for a specific answer to a quick question may require more time than you'd like to use. On the up side, there's a good guide to online resources.

Overall, a great little book for clarifying your ideas about your restaurant and putting together a restaurant-specific business plan; I just wish it were organized a little better.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great information, May 11, 2006

By 

Brandi M. Seals (Fayetteville, AR United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Opening a Restaurant or Other Food Business Starter Kit: How to Prepare a Restaurant Business Plan & Feasibility Study: With Companion CD-ROM (Paperback)

I absolutely loved this book. Not only did author Sharon Fullen tell readers exactly what they will need to do to write a business plan, she went out of her way to provide excellent examples, detailed descriptions, amble resources for finding additional and more specific information and much more.

I don't think I've read such a complete book before on writing a business plan. The author describes what key things must go in a business plan, how to write the plan yourself or hire someone to do it, doing market research, and cash analysis. I loved her attention to detail. Any question I came up with was answered within the 284-paged book.

It's a great resource for anyone looking to write a business plan. Fullen emphasizes making sure you know what you want the business to be and to make sure you do the background research to see if it is feasible.

The book also comes complete with a CD-ROM that provides example business plans and other business documents like resumes, letters of intent, balance sheets and more.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Holding Success in Your Hand!, May 24, 2006

By 

Book Woman (Southeast) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Opening a Restaurant or Other Food Business Starter Kit: How to Prepare a Restaurant Business Plan & Feasibility Study: With Companion CD-ROM (Paperback)

While this resource guide by Sharon Fullen may not deal with the most glamorous aspect of opening a new restaurant or other food business, it certainly discusses the most import: the business plan. The entire book and accompanying CD-ROM handles basic business preparation with aplomb. Starting with What is a Business Plan? and ending with an entire chapter devoted to an example of a sample business plan, Fullen leaves no stone unturned. She highlights business plan writing strategies, pinpoints problem areas that are often stumbling blocks to success, intersperses invaluable information on writing a feasibility analysis and deftly assists the reader with ideas on how to implement and understand successful marketing strategies. One section that should not be skipped discusses Getting Your Plan Published, offering tips on standing above the competition when presenting your business plan. The CD-ROM is an extra bonus that affords you the luxury of having printable examples and a portable way to use and share your new-found information. Opening a Restaurant or Other Food Preparation Starter Kit is a must-have resource for any aspiring restaurant owner; a resourceful guide that offers sound advice, concrete examples and hidden nuggets of valuable information that only serve to solidify a sound start to the opening of your new restaurant.