Restaurant Plans
The business I would like to start is a restaurant that targets people from the Caribbean. To reach this target audience, it should focus on offering cuisine and atmosphere that are popular among this demographic. It should also focus on preferentially hiring staff who are themselves from the Caribbean. The restaurant will have to start small, but there is always the potential for expansion, either through targeting a broader demographic or opening new locations.
What does my network think?
When starting a business, it is crucial to understand the needs and desires of its potential customers. Acquiring such information can be challenging and expensive, especially for one’s first business venture (Dizik, 2013). However, social networks can be leveraged to gather such feedback at a significantly lower price point than hiring an analytics company (Dizik, 2013). Thus, a notable part of preliminary research is analyzing social networks to seek out potential customers’ preferences and discover a niche that a restaurant can fill. First, this would involve browsing local gastronomic and Caribbean communities to discover any trends in their choices that are relevant to designing a new establishment. Once this information is available, it will be possible to ask these potential customers about their preferences directly or market to them.
How will I find my customers?
This is a critical question for opening a local business. People might not be willing to travel far to a restaurant when they are likely to have closer options. Thus, determining neighborhoods with a high proportion of the target demographic is necessary to choose a location for the restaurant. To find suitable locations, I will have to search census data; however, it might not be sufficiently accurate. Therefore, a further search can be conducted to find existing businesses that target a similar demographic. Finally, this search process can be combined with the social network analysis discussed above to discover if there is demand for a new restaurant in an area where one is not yet available.
Reference
Dizik, A. (2013). 10 questions to ask before determining your target market. Entrepreneur. Web.