Products for restaurant startup, management, and growth. Restaurant business plan template with financials, operations spreadsheets and manuals and back office software.
This is arguably the most important part of any start-up venture. It is an exercise in focusing your ideas for the business and taking a comprehensive view of all the factors involved in its success.

The business plan has two major sections:

  1. A body of text describing the various aspects of the venture
  2. A set of financial statements

The first part takes focused time and effort and is best done by the principals themselves. We recommend that you give it a try. The financials are best done with the help of an expert, as they involve complex legal and accounting principles. This is where Virtual Restaurant can make life easier and save you money!

To assist you, we have included a free outline and a demo sample that illustrates most of the considerations necessary for a good plan. It was inspired by the book The Successful Business Plan: Secrets & Strategies by Rhonda M. Abrams, which I suggest you buy for your project.

Business Plan Outline - A useful guide for building your plan. In itself a valuable exercise in focusing your ideas and resources.

Sample Business Plan - A demo I have put together to illustrate a completed document.

Virtual Restaurant does not, at the present time, write the text or narrative portion of the business plan for clients. We feel that this is a part of the project best executed by the prospective restaurant owner. Please feel free to use the outline and sample freely to help you create your own.

Financial or pro forma statements. These are a set of  reports that show how you will obtain startup funds, how they will be spent, and a projection of your sales and revenue for the first year of operation.

This portion of the business plan is every bit as important as the narrative and perhaps even more so. If this part is done thoroughly and honestly, it serves as a valuable and very accurate tool for predicting financial success (or failure) in the critical first year of operation. Many projects have not moved forward after a careful analysis using this tool. 

For this part of the project, we do not recommend that you do it on your own or even with the help of inexpensive "shrink-wrapped" software. When I opened my restaurants, I used very expensive accountants and lawyers to build my financials, and if you do not buy the package that I am selling, I suggest should do the same. It will probably cost around $3,000. But with an initial investment of over $100,000 and in an industry that has an over 80% startup failure within the first year (that's right!), why take a chance with sloppy financial planning?

For $250 (and that includes an hour of my consulting time to be used as you wish), you will be able to generate a set of reports that will have bankers, private investors, management groups and even venture capitalists smiling with surprise and approval. And most importantly, it will tell you, very accurately, if you business will be a success.

 

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