Many people dream of starting up a restaurant or other type of food business. There are several reasons for this. Sometimes it is a simple as wanting to share your favourite recipes. For others there is a genuine love for cooking, and doing it for a living, is a dream. People take many different paths to get to the point of investing in a food business, but very few of these new businesses survive for more than a couple of years. Before you put your dream into motion, here are a few areas to consider for improving your chances of success.
- Test Your Concept: Like many things, sometimes our own ideas are not as innovative or clever as we might think. The main obstacle you will face is the truth. People will always support your dreams verbally, but not necessarily financially. Find a way to test your ideas, that people are likely to give an honest answer to, like a focus group. You can test recipes, concepts, and markets in this manner.
- Make a Business Plan: Just being able to make the world’s best tacos won’t keep you from bankruptcy if you haven’t worked out all the details. A good business plan is the foundation of every successful business. Making a business plan will help you discover hidden problems. Like the real costs of payroll outsourcing in Indonesia, licensing, taxes, rent and equipment. It is difficult to have too much planning.
- Find a Location: The restaurant business is heavily dependent on location, and the manufacturing industry is less so. Outside of convenience and access, your location will be the source of most of your overhead and fixed costs. Finding a cheap location may have other drawbacks. You need to consider licensing and regulations. And If you are serving food, you should try to be where people want to be already. Unless you are a famous chef, it is unlikely people will go out of their way to find you.
- Research Equipment: Food industry equipment is the best there is, and it comes with a high price tag because it is usually built very well and made to last for decades. Even Chef quality knives and cookware can be extremely expensive, and that is a cost that will reduce your profits for many years. The same is true for manufacturing. Industrial grade machinery doesn’t come cheap. Make sure you know all the costs before you make any commitments.
- Find the Right Team: Restaurants require full teams, servers, dishwashers, cooking staff and management. Not only do you need to have the right people for the job, but you need to be able to afford all those salaries.
There are more things to consider, but the items on this list are a good preview to see if your vision for the food industry is realistic. Careful planning, and good advice are the safest path to investing in a food business, You need to be able to operate for at least a year without turning a profit, and it is better if you have enough financial security to do it for two.