Business Plan for a Restaurant

You'll need a business plan if you want to get financing for your restaurant from either your bank, credit union, a private investor and really should have one for help from a family member or friend. We hope you've already read our Top Best and Worst Reasons to Open a Restaurant before you begin your business plan.


Follow along as we guide you to our business plan outline to make the best plan possible for you to explain your dreams, goals and how you plan to implement your ideas of a successful restaurant. A thorough and complete business plan will not only help your lenders to understand your desires but, will also be a helpful tool for yourself once you are an up and running restaurant. You'll be able to create your policies and procedures, menus, labor costs, advertising budget and much more simply by using your existing business plan.

Read Restaurant Name Ideas to help you choose the right name for your business and include it in your business plan. 

We'll explain each of the steps for creating your business plan and our suggested areas that should be included here and then we'll go on to help you in further detail how to create each section of your plan.

DO NOT COPY SOMEONE ELSE'S BUSINESS PLAN! Be yourself, be creative and use this as a guide to help you make the best restaurant business plan to reach your objective.

Outline for Business Plan

1.  Executive Summary
       Early History
       Current History
       Management Team
2. Company Analysis
        Profile
        Past Accomplishments
        Awards and Accolades
        Key employees
        Unique Qualifications
3.   Industry Analysis
        Market Size
        Trends
4.   Customer Analysis
        Customer Identification
        Customer Demographics
        Advertising
5.   Competitive Analysis
        Direct and Indirect Competition
6.    Marketing Plan
        Products
        Promotions and Partnerships
        Future Growth
7.    Operations
8.    Financial Plan
          Projections
          History
          Projected Design
          Projected Costs
          Assets and Liabilities
          Projected Debt Repayment Plan
        
Writing your restaurant business plan steps 1 - 4 

Writing your restaurant business plan steps 5 - 8 

Assets and Liabilities for your restaurant business plan 

You may also want to include some of this information in your business plan - show how you plan to make money in the restaurant you wish to open: 

Making Money in the Restaurant