New Restaurant advice

lemonhead77

Hi all, im hoping to start a good long thread here and looking for some good feedback on the proposed opening of a new restaurant in the Dublin area. One of the problems that im having at the moment is trying to calculate how many "bums on seats" that a restaurant of 2000sqf can manage.
The restaurant unit is in a new satellite town in Dublin, it is a complete shell with full PP for all day restaurant/cafe. The unit is on the main st with great frontage and will have a huge passing trade in the coming years. There is also a planned office building 300 yards to be completed in 2009. The area will have around 8000 people living the immediate area by 2010.
I have been in the catering industry for the last 11 years, im by no means jumping into this project with blinkers on, I know the huge pitfalls that come with opening a new food venture, i have been involved with start ups before.
The theme of the restaurant/cafe is still to be fully decided, but the aim is to have some very simple dishes done well throughout the whole day, hopefully open up early in the morning doing some breakfast items and coffees, continued through to lunch with a lunch menu, and on to dinner with the same, gourmet pizzas or something. All the while you may be able to come in and relax on a couch or at a table order a coffee and muffin, open up your laptop and catch up on some work. (Thats the general idea we are thinking so far)
On a shell unit of 2000sqf im predicting that we will probably have around 1000sqf to maximize profits ie:bums on seats. Without having everybody on top of each other, how many seats do you think we should be aiming for?? What do you think the average spend of each person do you think we should be aiming for??
No key money, fit out probably will be around 150,000 - 200,000.
RENT, this is the killer, they are currently looking for 80,000 which i think is absolute extortion, but this is deffo negotiable, what do you think the rent should be given all the above and with the current market.

Hopefully we will be able to get an interesting thread going here, please post any more questions you ma have for me

ImDave

The best way to approach preparing financial projections for a business is to compare your business with the most similar businesses you can find out there. That’s one of the things a bank does when analysing the financial forecasts of a business proposal. There will always be variations between your business and the next, but try to find one in a similar type location, with similar traffic flow through. If you want to calculate rough gross profit margins, download the accounts of a similar restaurant and work it out from that. You will obviously want to maximise your return from available floor space, without overcrowding it. Seating layout will play an integral role here.

Bandara

Sick business to be taking a risk at in a new satellite town, I was involved in opening a high class resturant two years ago, lost €700k in year one. And the team invloved were extremely experienced.

Thankfully now its absolutely flying, but you better make sure you have a lot of cash behind you and are not relying on the customers to come rolling in door for the first 6 months.

Jessica84

lemonhead77,

maybe it is a good way to promote your restaurant on my site.

We are now looking for coupon suppliers for promotion.

Only 30 euro validation fee is needed!
1) You provide coupons on CouponMaster for customers printing.
2) Customers print your coupons on CouponMaster then visit you.

We will give you more customers to frequent you, by uploading coupons, showcasing your excellent services.

drop me a PM if interested.

Cheers!

Bandara

Jessica84 wrote: »

lemonhead77,

maybe it is a good way to promote your restaurant on my site.

We are now looking for coupon suppliers for promotion.

Only 30 euro validation fee is needed!
1) You provide coupons on CouponMaster for customers printing.
2) Customers print your coupons on CouponMaster then visit you.

We will give you more customers to frequent you, by uploading coupons, showcasing your excellent services.

drop me a PM if interested.

Cheers!

Jessica would you please stop the self promotions and sales pitch. This site is for people to help and get help on the various topics related to business.

You freeloading and trying to sign up people at every opportunity is destroying the integrity of the site and is quite underhanded.

If you wish to advertise I'd imagine the mods would only be too happy to speak to you about a banner ad.

You have already PM'd several days ago me without any introduction to attempt to get me to sign up to your site. I would be safe in presuming you have done the same to others.

Please stop, this is not the buy and sell.

Thank you.

AlphaMale 3OO

Hammertime wrote: »

Jessica would you please stop the self promotions and sales pitch. This site is for people to help and get help on the various topics related to business.

You freeloading and trying to sign up people at every opportunity is destroying the integrity of the site and is quite underhanded.

If you wish to advertise I'd imagine the mods would only be too happy to speak to you about a banner ad.

You have already PM'd several days ago me without any introduction to attempt to get me to sign up to your site. I would be safe in presuming you have done the same to others.

Please stop, this is not the buy and sell.

Thank you.

Relax. :cool: Go off and have a kitkat.