Posted by Carl on July 27, 1999 at 15:23:24 :
In Reply to: Carl, still have some questions and comments... posted by Brenda on July 22, 1999 at 10:26:16 :
You need a business plan. Be conservative with your additional sales you expect to generate. Do a mock financial statement with all your labor and estimated food costs, smallwares, overhead such as rent, equipment depreciation or lease, utilities, taxes, additional phone line, etc etc... dont leave anything out. Subtract the new costs from your worse case sales senario.
If there is anything left, DO IT. If there is not anything left, then there is no point to setting yourself up for failure.
How others do it? Many take a chance with no business plan. 90% of them fail the first year. Those who do a realistic business plan have a much higher rate of success, but many still fail.
It is always best to run the model first before sinking your money into it. That way you have no surprises or heartaches that you didnt at least consider "might" happen.
Carl
CaterGreat@aol.com
: Hi Carl, Just read my first "how to open a rest. book", I feel discouraged. You were right, I wasn't asking the right questions. As far as the business part goes, my friend and future partner knows most of it also my husband works for a large oil company and deals in 200m deals all the time. This would be small scale as far as he is concerned (of course he knows nothing about the food business).
: All I know is food, I love to cook, try different things, I love a challenge, I love to see people enjoy my food at the events I cater and I am a very hard worker who is driven to be the best. Could this possibly work. Afterall, look at all the people that come over from other countries, I'm sure they don't know any more about a business than I do and they succeed (sometimes I guess). At least I do have the catering business up and running (10 years now). Have a large customer base to draw upon for a tea room.
: We are thinking of attending a tea seminar/counsulting this September. I feel like running a business like this just isn't the same as a restaurant that is open from breakfast through dinner. We only plan on possibly seating 50, maybe 2 waitress, two cooks (us), and a cleanup person. Comments appreciated.