Restaurant Consultants

Restaurant Business Plan Problems

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 04:43:00 +0000

There are many reasons why restaurant business plans wind up failing. Here's a scenario that you want to avoid and do:

This is About Me, Never Mind the Problem
In this kind of plan, the restaurant operator is hung up with the elegance of his technology. The plan begins not with the identification of a customer problem to resolve, but with a detailed explanation of how the technology works, why it is cutting-edge or state-of-the-art, and how it is better, faster and cheaper than current solutions in the restaurant industry.

A me first plan sends a clear signal that the writer’s priorities are warped. What matters more than great technology or a great idea is the problem or pain that the new solution or technology resolves.

Best Approach
A better way to go is that a restaurant business plan starts with a clearly defined problem—something that’s really troubling or compelling—supported by evidence from marketing research, testimonials, letters of intent, or whatever, that the pain is. If you can convince your readers that this problem is real, they’ll be hooked. We're referring to your investors or Angel investors.

Synergy Restaurant Consultants have been helping clients for over 20 years, reach out and tell us about your restaurant business plan troubles, we can help, call or contact us for a free consultation.

United Plates of America

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:35:00 +0000

There could be a new show coming out from NBC. Synergy Restaurant Consultants enabled Magical Elves, the producers of the Emmy Award Winning "Top Chef" to successfully pitch the next great restaurant competition show to NBC.

"United Plates of America" will offer the greatest prize in reality show history: a chance to open a four restaurant chain across America.

The contestant's will compete before a panel of real investors who will fund the chain of start up restaurants with their own money. As the competitors chase their culinary dream, home viewers will also be fully engaged with interactive elements online at NBC.com.

Magical Elves COO Ross Jacobson explained, "As the producers of Top Chef, we know the food world quite well, but the inner-workings of how restaurants open and how restaurants are operated was a bit more foreign to us.

Synergy delivered precisely the analysis we needed well within the aggressive timeline we had set. As a result, we were able to take a very well thought out restaurant feasibility plan to NBC that had a very detailed breakdown of the costs associated with the endeavor as well as a timeline for us to work from. In the end, NBC ordered the project to series and the work Synergy Consultants did for us was invaluable.

Why Use Restaurant Consultants?

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:18:00 +0000

Statistics shows that 60 to 70% of restaurant establishment utilizes consultants. Restaurant Consultants like Synergy specializes in helping overworked restaurants, food, address aspects of their programs that they might not have the time or skill set to deal with on their own.

For the same amount of money that a less-experienced staff hire might cost, a restaurant consultant is likely to bring in a higher level of expertise. "When you work for one company you are a prisoner of that culture."

Synergy Consultants works with a number of companies so they benefit from the best practices of all of them. Dean Small, Managing Partner of Synergy equates it to "using a lawyer or an accountant. The better you are at using those people the more success you will have."

This is usually a better arrangement in more ways than one, that consultants aren't part of the restaurant staffs with which they work. "If you are unhappy, it's easier to get rid of a consultant than an employee."

Restaurant Consultants offer innovative ideas, practical advice and cost-effective approaches honed from many years of experience in the restaurant industry. Simply put, "consultants help clients prevent making more mistakes than necessary," saids Dean Small.

Synergy Restaurant Consultants focuses on "everything from troubleshooting recommendations up through conceptualizing. They can help design, staff and manage a restaurant.

That's why so many establishments are turning to consultants for expertise when creating new concepts, solving problems and striving to increase sales. So what are you waiting for? Push the Red Button!

Commercial Kitchen Layouts

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:46:00 +0000

There are many factors involving your restaurant business plan. One thing that should be address are some factors about commercial kitchen layouts. (design) Here are some advices that we like to share:

Have Adequate Delivery Area Don't underestimate your requirement for a large storeroom and off-loading subject for dry wares, cool or frozen matter.
Setup your food preparation suitably The "prep" or preparation vicinity should ideally be group between your mass food storage and the cooking workstation.
Food ritual should be large enough to thwart container-necks. Many time architects and inexperienced owners don't allocate for enough extent in the food workstation which causes back-ups, dropped trays and plates, and ugliest of all cold food!

Of course there are more to it than this, Synergy Restaurant Consultants can show you the whole process of coming up with your ideal commercial kitchen design.

What's This Social Media?

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 22:28:00 +0000

Many restaurant establishments are asking how do you use social media? But the question is "what are you trying to convey to the customer?" Using social media is like using any tool that you have at your marketing disposal.

You have to actually have to…

* create a plan
* have knowledge of the tools
* create something of value (restaurant operations, making money, business plan)
* Build something meaningful

Otherwise, you have not created anything of any significance.

You’re making noise if no one is listening.

With social media, your tool is information and communication. You are working to get people to hear you. Your goal is to become meaningful within the media.

Your’e looking to communicate with people who are interested in the information that you are promoting.

Does your communication make people:

* think
* laugh
* reflect
* take action
* share it
* comment on it
* engage in conversation?

If you are just:

* building followers on Twitter
* picking up friends on Facebook
* posting to bookmarking sites
* commenting on blogs

and so on without a clear goal toward building a relationship, you are just wasting time and effort. Basically this type of non-productive communication makes a mess and is not an effective way of using social media.

Just call it advertising, not social media marketing.

Social media is a tool like a home remodeler. You can build a castle, or you can build a dog house.

What are you building with your efforts within the social media space? A mess, or a masterpiece?

Or, in social media terms, are you creating relationships that can last a lifetime and credibility in the marketplace? When you’re helping restaurant establishment make money, you’re building that key relationship.

You are known by your content and context. It is up to you to create, communicate and converse. Special thanks to David Bullock on this subject!

Restaurant Concepts

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 17:07:00 +0000

Opening a restaurant is a difficult task, and investment. There should be a checklist to follow, but before implementing your checklist. Deciding on what type of restaurant (or concept) should come to mind.

Questions to ask on deciding what type of restaurant to open is important in the initial steps.

What kind of restaurant would I love to eat in everyday? The concept you choose should be something you love, since you'll be giving your time, money and sweat into this endeavor.
What kind of restaurant does my area need? Every cities/town has restaurants, and the best way to beat the competition is to offer something a little bit different from the rest.

Case Study Sample
These things that we're talking about is also called restaurant concepts. Here's an example, Josef McKay, He's a pastry chef who wanted to open a bar that felt like people were eating in his kitchen at home. He recently opened Room 8 Dessert in Chicago, where he assembles desserts right in front of his customers while his mixologist serves up cocktails. For him, its a huge success!

Concept Considerations
If you're set on opening a lunch place where locals can order your mom's spicy steak season sandwiches, then obtaining a liquor license probably doesn't make sense. Neither do white tablecloths. You probably will offer a limited menu of sandwiches, maybe some soups and a salad. You won't need a huge kitchen with an army of chefs. You'll need a line cook or two and a prep cook. You'll probably want to offer those delicious sandwiches for take out. Depending on your area, you may need to offer delivery. If you're catering to the downtown office crowd, you probably want to be closed at night and on the weekends.

The more formal the concept, the more complex the menu and the more people you'll need to hire. If you plan to start your restaurant on a shoestring, keep the concept simple and small to save money.

Synergy Consultants here to help
I know too many things to consider, thats why Synergy Restaurant Consultants is here to help you. Give us a holler or push the big red button and we'll get back to you.

Easy Restaurant Business Plan Steps

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:21:00 +0000

Here are some steps to opening a restaurant, some may be quick or require some more thinking. You should already have these steps documented in your restaurant business plan. This is just part of a bigger list.

Clarify your concept and put all the proposed details--from decor to dessert choices--in writing. If you can't write about them, they need more thought.
Prepare for a plethora of paperwork, including byzantine building codes with regulations covering everything from kitchen exhaust systems to interior finish requirements.
Find an ideal location. Do a demographic study of the surrounding area. Research the amount of foot traffic and the availability of easy parking. Then negotiate a lease you can afford.
Plan your menu early in the game. Kitchen layout and equipment purchases depend on it. Reduce your equipment costs either by purchasing used equipment or leasing new.

Opening a restaurant does require many things and be sure to have it well thought out and put the steps into a business plan. If you need help on a certain task or question about restaurant start ups, give us a shout or push the big red button.

How To Find Specific Keywords in Google Analytics

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:45:00 +0000

Nowadays, most businesses use Google Analytics to track their traffic. But one problem with GA is that it doesn't show you exactly what people are bidding on (search query). Thanks to Michael Harrison Analytics and Optimization Specialist, and Jim Newsome of Omega. They have provided us webmasters with a great filter and script to see what people are really searching for when they click on the ad or your organic listing.

For example, if a visitor searches for “restaurant start ups” and you have an ad configured for the keywords “restaurant consultants” as a Broad Match in Google AdWords, then this search will show your ad. But in your GA reports, the keywords for this search will be reported as “restaurant consultations“. While this gives you good data on your Bid Term, it doesn’t help you refine your keyword triggers because the reports don’t show the actual Search Term.

There are 2 ways to do this, in this article we will go over filtering discussed by Jim Newsome. Jim's method takes the existing Google Analytics Campaign Term field, where keyword data is stored, and replaced it with "Bid Term (Search+Term)".

Getting to the meat of this, If you use this Override Bid Term filter then the same search will show “restaurant consultants, (restaurant+start+ups)” in any Google Analytics report that shows keywords (e.g. Marketing Optimisation -> Search Engine Marketing -> Overall Keyword Conversion) or any time you cross-segment against keywords.

This data now allows you to fine-tune your PPC campaigns by getting greater detail from your GA reports. In the example above, if the ‘restaurant+start+ups‘search is a frequent one, you might consider creating an Exact Match advert that takes visitors to a dedicated Restaurant start ups landing page. Or replacing the Broad Match ‘restaurant consulting‘ term with a more precise ‘restaurant consultants Chicago‘ Exact Match to increase your clickthrough rate.

1) Create two filters as per the images here:

The Field A regular expression is: (\?|&)(q|p)=([^&]*)

In English, this means:

Look for character immediately following a ? or & (i.e. a URL variable), that is named q or p, and extract the value of this variable.

2) Create a new profile for your existing site. This keeps the detailed keyword data in a separate profile. You can apply this filter to your main profile(s) if you prefer, but a separate profile allows for continuity and top level reporting in your main profile with keyword detail available as required.

3) Apply the two filters to the new profile, in the order Override Bid Term 1 *then* Override Bid Term 2

You can now view detailed Search Term data from any GA report that shows keyword information. Please let us know any feedback via the blog comments. Another thing, in this article we talk about getting the data from your PPC campaign, you can utilize this for organic as well. Thanks to Jim and this fine hack!

Cooking Party

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:27:00 +0000

Synergy Restaurant Consultants in Chicago get many questions about ideas to kick start their restaurants. Here's a few ways of marketing your restaurant presences. Plan and set up a "Cooking Party". You want to set it up to what your customer wants. For example, set up for these themes

Mexican Fiesta
Japanese Sushi
Low Carb
Seafood Carnival
Grilled Steak Seasoning Prep

View these events as an educational and interactive event. It is a perfect way to engage with your customers.

Food Demo

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:14:00 +0000

Here's another way of branding and spreading the word about your restaurant establishments. Obviously, its one of the many options.

Food Demonstrations

Next time there is an event happening locally in your area, why not take part and have a food demonstration. Make them take notice, serve food. Stock up on literatures to pass out, the smell alone will drive them straight to your booth. Here are some other events to partake in:

Grand Opentings
Restaurant Shows
Trade Shows
Open Houses
Healthy Lifestyles Expos
Any Product Show

Think outside the box! Its all about getting attention! You do it from any source to get in front of eyeballs. If you'd like to know more about what we (Synergy Consultants) can do for you in the restaurant start ups, or just restaurant consulting in general, contact us by calling or push the big blue button on top right.

Optimizing Restaurant Web Page For Success

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:49:00 +0000

Synergy Consultants get many questions about "what we do", as consultants. Questions such as online marketing, restaurant start ups, and improving their execution.

For the sake of this restaurant consulting example we'll talk about online marketing. How do we set up our website for success? So before we even talk about web design or onsite optimization, or the coolest looking logo.

We need to know and/or find out the most important questions about your business, in our example we get many questions about "restaurant start ups".

Here is what we did:
-Before you even put any content down on the main page, be sure to have all take action buttons visibly available on your web page.

-Regarding your home page, you don't have to show that you can do a thousands things. You're only addressing the most common question, this is your bread and butter questions.

-Give them some answers with recommendations.

Once you have everything in place, be sure to implement the coding for "Google analytics for conversions." In other words, you should be tracking your entry page and exit page.

How do we know if this structure will help you make money?, we don't, thats why it must be tracked, tested, and make modifications on your site for conversions. Following these best practices tips for online success, you will have a jump on your competitor. If you need extra help, push the big blue button on the top right.

Basic Restaurant Marketing in Tough Times

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 03:49:00 +0000

Restaurant Marketing in tough times during a low economic is challenging when you're on a low budget. Its a question that we as a restaurant consultant get asked right now. What's important to know is you control how you want to market your restaurant. Here are some basics if you're looking to get some exposure the free way:

Online Marketing - use the internet, get on the popular social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin. Create a profile and start conversations, engage, create some buzz noise about what you offer.
Feedback - You can do this online and offline as customers comes in. Pass out a feedback form, and ask some specific questions about what you can do to make it better for them, of course for a price or maybe free that can make you money in the long run.
Specials - Announce via word of mouth (twitter) about your specials and discounts on certain dishes.

These are just the basics, but don't overlook these simple advices. Within these basics are the advance application of marketing 101 for online and offline marketing. Here's an example and steps:

Create a profile twitter, locate and join local groups in your geographic areas.
At the restaurant, let your customer know that you're on twitter.
Back to twitter, on certain days or random, announce any specials or discounts on a certain day, or time of day.
At the same time you can collect feedback from customers.
Engage
Engage
Think Outside the Box, Have a mascot stand outside with a big sign that saids "SPECIALS" go to http://twitter.com/steak_seasoning to find out about the specials!

Last thing to think about is track everything that you do to market, just like as if you were tracking your returns from tv, and radio commercials. Want to hear more push the big blue button in the top right!