Top Food and Restaurant Franchise Opportunities for Sale
Choosing Your Concept
Decide what of type of restaurant you want to start. There are three primary categories: quick service (fast food restaurants), midscale (Offering full meals, but with prices perceived as providing a good value) and upscale (full table service focusing on the quality of cuisine and ambience)
Ethnic restaurants range from quick-service to upscale and these include:
Chinese, Italian, Mexican, Caribbean, English, French, German, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Mediterranean, Thai and Vietnamese and more.
Tools for choosing your concept:
Demographic survey - This will help you to pinpoint a market that is appropriate for a concept. This would be obtaining information concerning:
Ages of customers, Ethnic groups, Occupations, Income levels, Size of your market (how many will be interested in your product or service), Geographic region (where your customers are located), Interests , What products and services does the market need?, Is your concept something these people will use
Some web sites for finding demographic information are:
US Census Bureau
FedStats
Claritas
CyberAtlas.com
PopNet (uk population)
United States Bureau of Labor Statistics
Demographics Now www.demographicsnow.com
Demography and Population Studies WWW Virtual Library demography.anu.edu.au/VirtualLibrary
Target Market Analysis - This will show who your main projected customer is.
Market analysis software
Conducting A Market Analysis
The Center For Economic Development
The business Research Lab
Claritas Marketing
Competitive analysis - This will help you understand who your competition will be. You should compare your menu prices with your potential market competitors. Simply perform some market research by visiting these competitors and taking note of their menu prices. Use this competitive pricing analysis as a test of reasonableness to determine whether your menu and prices are in line.
The search for information on your competition should begin by finding their names and locations. Online directories such as www.superpages.com and www.qwestdex.com can help you find competitors in your area. Just choose the category that your business is in and the number of miles around a city you'd like to search. Visiting the competitors' web sites will help you decide what marketing strategy would be best for you.
The type of concept you will choose will determine the following
areas in your restaurant planning.
- Your equipment needs.
- Your type of table top items, such as flatware, plate ware, napkins and linens
- Storage, cooler and freezer size
- Employee Uniforms - How to choose employee uniforms
- How large of a building you will need.
- How many employees you will need to hire.
- Your parking lot size.
- What type of signs and type of advertising needed.
