Category Archives: Business Plan

I’ve had my first taste of an overwhelming baking schedule and I’m pretty much pooped. Being insanely congested from seasonal allergies doesn’t really help, but I guess its best to learn while you are at your worst.

Since Thursday, I have worked on a birthday gathering, local teachers’ breakfast, a cookie/blondie tray for the local cycling group, and a batch of decorated sugar cookies for a bridal shower. Its a lot, and all promotional so I didn’t get a fee for this work, but it was a good test for a.) whether or not I could do it and b.) if I would still like baking afterwards. Good news is that I still love to bake and I did it! I learned more, however, and staying true to the subject of my blog, I’d like to share that with you:

Lesson 1. Plan, plan, plan! I have to be thankful for some modern marvels in technology. I was fortunate enough to have a program called Bento from Apple on my computer to use to organize my projects, including the event details, and the baking materials needed for each event. I definitely recommend it, if you can get it and have an Apple computer. If neither of those are options for you, being organized and planning well in advance are certainly obvious tactics, but crucial to make it through a busy time. Make ahead and freeze any dough that can be frozen and keep recipes as simple as possible. My experience this week has proven that patience can be tried if you make things too complicated.

Lesson 2. Learn your limits. For the bridal shower event, I thought I could decorate a sugar cookie exactly the way it looked in the picture the client sent to me. Of course, I was wrong. I was ambitious and I did think I could do it, but I couldn’t, and so I have learned my limits. I’m not an artist. I can be creative and work with a client to get them the treats they need, but now, I can say “no” when someone gives me a picture to duplicate in cookie form. I completely encourage trying and trying things until you get it right, but this is not one of those cases. Know what you can and can’t do and don’t make any false promises; it will bite you in the behind later.

All in all, it was a great week and weekend. I’m now giving my mixer a break, but will be back at it for a party this coming weekend. In the meantime, here are some photos from each event!

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I have a new motto: Failure means you’re learning.

I have been in process with a specific potential location over the last few weeks. I was asked to keep it confidential for various reasons and some things I still can’t disclose. Nevertheless, this morning, I learned that someone else beat me to the punch.

So back to the real estate drawing board. I have to say and I am bummed. It was a corner space in the middle of a small town with about four churches within one mile of the place. Seriously, perfect for breakfast, lunch, and the average fresh croissant and cappuccino. BUT! I can’t be discouraged; it just didn’t work out and wasn’t meant to be.

Lesson learned: Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.

While situations were progressing I decided to back myself up. I started the blog, accepted a catering event, and considered alternatives if things didn’t go through. What would I do? Fortunately, I thought about it and will be calling my realtor after getting back from France. Giving up is not an option for me and this process will likely offer a few learning opportunities, but never failures.

If you feel like you are failing, you aren’t, you are learning. Take everything that doesn’t go your way as an opportunity to do something different, or better! The restaurant business is intense and you need to be strong enough to be intense along with it.

Good luck, and keep at it!

This element of the business plan is the best place to begin. This is where you can really put on paper your vision, dreams, and goals and lay the ground work for the rest of the plan. This is where you start getting excited…where I start getting excited So what do you write?

You are starting your own business, so you must have some creativity. Tap into this a write a story. The very first words a potential investor reads in your business plan should grab their attention. The key, is making them want to read more, and ultimately, your entire plan. This section should be about two, or so, paragraphs. Short and sweet. Here is what I have prepared:

Local area residents have seen it before. It’s the place they met with friends, brought their kids to enjoy a special treat, or for local middle and high schoolers to hang out after school. Calming, green walls were adorned with elaborate golden frames holding the hand-painted images of fruit on a tree, or simply as transcribed from still life. The deli case is filled with delectable desserts, irresistible to customers young and old, choosing from the fluffy carrot cake with orange cream cheese icing or the oversized cupcakes topped with chocolate ganache. On a steamy summer day, one couldn’t pass up the refreshing Lemon Freeze Smoothie, blended with rainbow sherbet and homemade lemonade, and a splash of strawberry syrup. The menu favorite, Tomato & Mozzarella Paninni, satisfied the taste buds of hundreds. Each dish was accompanied by a glass of freshly brewed iced tea and completed with a creamy, hand-steamed cappuccino. Whatever the joy, customers will find it at the The Café.

After the initial decription, the following components are included in a little more detail:

I won’t give away the whole plan just yet. But stay tuned for the next section (my fav.) the marketing plan!

Let’s get back on track here. Ultimately, this blog will feature my steps along the way of opening a restaurant. Will it be called 38 Miles from Manhattan? I’m not sure. I think that will have to come later. In the meantime, I’ve been researching and pulling together a business plan to entice some potential investors. I’ve looked at a few business start up books, and have been perusing the web for the massive amount of information it holds, and came to the conclusion that this document should consist of about 8 simple sections. Here is a good place to start:

I’ll go through each one of these elements over the next few weeks, so if something didn’t make sense, don’t worry. I’ll add some resources too. And comments, counterpoints, ideas, and suggestions are welcome. Thanks for joining me on this adventure!

Anything and everything we do stems from an idea. Usually it is based on something we love or at least somethig we do well. My passion is food. I love the smell of fresh cilantro, the texture of a well cooked filet of salmon, and simply putting a bunch of random things in a bowl and creating something sweet and delicious. You may like to compute food costs and stare a spreadsheets all day….. well, nobody is perfect.

The point here is that everything stems from an idea. The trick is, if you open your own restaurant, your idea needs to be profitable, not just good. It’s not what your idea is about but rather what you do with it or how it is executed that will make you successful in the long run.

My idea is this: over this past weekend, I decided that my stengths lie in serving breakfast, lunch, and select bakery items. So I’ll work toward planning some sort of cafe, maybe offering coffee and teas. The idea.

Now is when the beloved business plan comes into play. Or, ultimately, research. Lots and lots of research to make sure your idea is simply not just an idea. Here’s an example. Let’s say I start researching and planning out my cafe. I soon find out there are two delis, a Starbucks, a full service bakery, and a breakfast shop in the area. Great idea!! Open a cafe? What, am I crazy?!

Clearly, a nice idea, but it won’t make much money. There is too much going on in the area that is too close to my possible concept. Here’s the take home: what can you do to stand out? and always ask yourself “so, what?” And it might be a good idea to take a trip to this place that every town has that stores lots of books. Its called a library, and it can be a wonderful friend.

After a long night of crunching numbers and computing spreadsheets, accompanied by multiple cups of coffee, I came to a certain realization. I am absolutely crazy. What am I doing?? Up until 2 or 3 am working on making numbers add up? WRONG! If you are at all like me, you might have a full time job, a family, a significant other, life, etc etc. How on earth can a person juggle regular life and a restaurant start up?? (in case you didn’t know, it’s a ton of work.)

It’s like this:

1. Be realistic. Come on now. Opening in one month?? Quit your job, family, real life, and everything in between. Not gonna happen. If you want it to happen fast give yourself at least 12 solid weeks, with help. If you’re completely on your own 6 months can do just fine. Customers will be able to tell you rushed it and you’ll be so out of it that you probably won’t even care.

2. Do a little every day. I am actually spending my lunch hour in the library every day during the week. If I feel like working more when I get home, I will, otherwise I at least got something in. When you are passionate about something, it’s amazing what you can do in 45-60 minutes.

3. Set goals, but more importantly, boundaries. Know when to quit if you are up late at night frantically balancing spreadsheets. You are asking for failure if you’re burnt out by the time you open. And going back to point 1, be realistic when setting goals. This especially goes for figuring out how much money you’ll be making. Did you really just add in $150,000 for your yearly salary? Come on. Just take what you need and reap benefits later.

I’m no guru, but I’m here. I’m in it. I’m doing this. I do have a full time job and a boyfriend that I live with and pets and friends and responsibilities. And I’m opening a restaurant. Spreadsheets til 2am…that sucked.

Learn from my wrongdoings (and lucky moments) and take ‘er easy.