The Food Business, and What I Have to Offer

[abhb]

Hey YE,

It's been a while since I last posted about working on my own Subway venture. Since then, I have been more inclined to look at creating my own restaurant/franchise. I have no pracitical experience in running a restaurant or even working in one for that matter. I have done alot of research and priced out equipment, property, and city/state requirements. My main worry now is operating the store efficently, due to the fact it will be a learning process I feel I really need a mentor. Someone who could guide me through the setup process of a restaurant and basically provide the tips and tricks of the industry that an average customer would never think about.

Now my question to YE user is does this really matter? I mean all business require you to go through a learning process where you will be less efficent. Is it a essential need though in restaurants to do it right from the start? I feel it is, just because so many restaurants fail early on (within the first 3 years 70% fail). Thoughts and opinions would be appreciated.

Also, I think my menu will cause for some non desireable misconceptions. For one, the food I intend to serve is Middle Eastern Persian food which obviously may correlate to negative stereotypes that Americans have right now. Marketing folks what do you think? Is it a reasonable assumption that I will be misconcieved as a negative stereotype that could potentially hurt sales?

Moving to pricing and food cost inflation. How often do restaurants actually change their price? I feel that changing prices often will put off your customer base and hurt overall satisfaction and brand loyalty. With that said, how can I not constantly change prices with the food prices being so volatile. I actually feel sorry for restaurant procurement managers with our current economy the way it is. For example, the cost of ground beef at least for a smaller order (50lbs or less) costs me 2 dollars/lb last fall. Now the going rate is 3.50+ per lb. How do restaurants respond to these price hikes efficently and not break the bank? I've heard stories of places like In-n-out Burgers actually loosing money on their burger sales at times due to the price of tomatoes. The cost of tomatoes has risen to such a level that they were not even to break even on their highest selling product. Again these are stories however, and any opinion or insight would be helpful to me at this point.

I will have a business plan ready by june and I have already planned my marketing and promotional events at local swapmeets and sporting events. Any makreting tips and comments would be appreciated as well. I still ponder wether a website will be worth while at the start of opening. With things like Yelp I feel you really wouldnt benefit from a website at the start.

I will hold off for some responses before going into more detail but thank you for reading so far!

[Parvaze]

You can probably avoid some of the negativity by calling it Mediterranean rather than Persian or Middle Eastern food. Where you are located will also have a significant impact in how your food is perceived.

Beyond those things though, I would suggest that you give some thought to actually working in a restaurant, even if only for a short time. Given the very high failure rate in this industry I would think it would behove you to see for yourself what it takes to run a restaurant and make sure this is something you really, really want to do. Good luck!

Best