How to Write a Restaurant Business Plan

By: Ronald C. Manalastas

Writing a restaurant business plan, whether for a proposed or existing venture, represents the daunting task of researching, organizing, and integrating loose information into a compelling business blueprint. How you develop the plan assumes critical importance because it can make or break your financial interest.
A restaurant business plan is a resource document that reflects your strategic intent or vision as a business owner, manager, or entrepreneur. It details how you intend to achieve that vision after understanding the external context of the business and determining your internal capacity to effectively address opportunities and threats, face competition, and mitigate risks. How then do you write a restaurant business plan in a manner that creates value to all business stakeholders? The following is a basic tutorial in writing a restaurant business plan:

I. Assess the nature and scope of information requirement

Before writing, you must ascertain with particularity what information you will need to progressively proceed with the completion of the plan. Here, you have to establish what kind of information is available in-house or from your own database and what must be researched from primary and secondary sources. You must determine if you need to conduct interviews or surveys and formulate questionnaires to support the process.

Once the types and sources of information are identified, you can prioritize a research timetable and start with the research work. The research exercise is a vital component in planning. If your research design is faulty or non-responsive to your data needs, the quality of your written work is just as good as the information you have put into it. As a writing mentor had said, you cannot write well if you do not think well, or research well.

II. Write your business