Introduction
An important thing to note about the hospitality and tourism industry is the fact that it is one of the most versatile sectors which is subject to change based on the environment in which it is founded. This is based on the fact that unlike many other industries across the world, the hospitality industry is highly affected by changes as a result of the internal and external factors that influence and affect its existence; this is based on the fact that the industry is characterized by highly perishable products and services, this means that it is mainly based on the customers’ perception towards a destination and the quality of services (food, beverages, accommodation, and other services and activities). Bearing this in mind, it is important for all the stakeholders, especially the ones involved with ensuring quality and effective service delivery of products and services to the customers, to ensure that highly professional, diverse and satisfactory services and products are offered to them; this is the main way of ensuring the satisfaction of customers which will lead to repeat purchasing behavior which over time creates loyalty to specific products and services (Dwyer & Tanner, 2009, p. 63).
Bearing this in mind, it is important for every new investor in the hospitality and tourism market to ensure that a thorough study is carried out in their specific area of investment which will go a long way in ensuring that the right measures are put in place as well as implementation of the most appropriate strategic measures employed in the investment.
Overview
This business seeks to carry out a marketing strategy as well as a feasibility study for the restaurant’s establishment in Brooklyn, New York. It will look at the reception the restaurant will get from the potential and target customers in the region based on assessing past performance of restaurants in the same area. This will be achieved through formulating a business structure as well as the services it will be offering which in this case include the activities that will be taking place at the restaurant. This research study will also address the strength, weaknesses and opportunities as well as the threats that the restaurant is likely to face in this new market. This will play a major role in formulating a strategic plan that will be used by the restaurant in not only ensuring that it is able to penetrate the market, but also establish a customer base through its unique services that will set it apart from other restaurants. This will be achieved through conducting of a market analysis which is also conducted in this feasibility study, as well as the strategies of marketing to adopt for the restaurant. Lastly, this feasibility study and business plan looks at the restaurant’s human resource management, as well as the restaurant’s financial and risk analysis.
Business Profile
Based on the nature of the region as well as the activities that go on in Brooklyn New York, one of the most profitable and promising ventures that an investor can major in is a restaurants, that is, a foods and drinks’ provision facility. This is what Caprise Restaurant and Caterers seeks to achieve; the restaurant will be established as a fast food place especially based on the fact that this is the most profitable small-scale business in the city because many people prefer to have their meals and snacks served in an informal setting whereby they can have it as fast as possible and head to work. Caprise Restaurant and Caterers plans to establish a fast food restaurant that will be service-oriented. This restaurant will be serving an approximated number of 45 people per sitting. It will be located in Downtown, Brooklyn as this is the region whereby market for fast food restaurants is best performing based on the employment of most people in this region. However, it will also be offering delivery catering services to customers for example in their places of work and offices especially based on the fact that some employees are not in a position to leave their offices especially during the day (Jones, 2010, p. 94).
Business Structure and Organization
It is important for every organization regardless of whether it is a profit making business entity or a non-profit organization to have a well designed and established business structure as this will play a major role in ensuring that all the set goals and objectives are achieved, and through the right channels and departments. From an organizational perspective, the restaurant will have twenty employees. Five employees will be serving at the managerial level with one chief executive officer. The restaurant will have one overall supervisor who will be supervising both the food and beverage service and the food production departments of the restaurant. There will be three chefs with one executive chef, six waiters and one head waiter as well as one cleaner. The restaurant will also have five employees who will be serving in the outside catering department as well as one messenger, one driver and an overall manager to the restaurant. The overall manager will have the role of ensuring that all the departments in the restaurants are all well coordinated especially in demand and supply of raw material as well as overseeing the restaurant’s delivery of food and beverage products especially to the clients working in other areas (Lawrence, 2011, p. 83).
It is also important to note the fact that the restaurant will require a human resource management department and this role will be played by the management team comprising of five employees. This department will make sure that the employees’ issues are effectively addressed especially in matters of motivation and remuneration which includes the working terms and conditions. This organization is important because it will ensure that both the internal and external settings of the restaurant are effectively organized and coordinated (Jones, 2010, p. 68).
The company will be offering its services the whole day; specifically breakfast, ten o’clock snacks, lunch-hour light meals, four o’clock snacks, and supper light snacks. Bearing this in mind, therefore, this means that the restaurant will be operating between 7:30 am and 9pm in the evening. The main reason behind this time schedule is the fact that the main target market of the restaurant is employees working during the day from early in the morning to the evening.
SWOT Analysis
A SWOT analysis is important for every profit making entity based on a number of reasons. One of the biggest reasons, however, is the fact that it assists the organization’s stakeholders and specifically the management team to design and formulate a policy that they will adopt and implement especially in their activities to ensure that their company or organization remains relevant in the market and it is also able to compete with its competitors in the market, maintaining an upper hand in its services and products’ delivery. Brooklyn for example is one of the few cities across the United States and especially in New York State that do not have a formal culture in most of its activities including the employment opportunities and sectors.
Strengths
The greatest strength that this restaurant will be focusing on is the fact that unlike many other fast food restaurants that mainly focus on indoors services, Caprise Restaurant and Caterers will be offering both indoor and outdoor services to its customers. This will mean that it can deliver food and beverage services to the customers who might not be in a position to leave their offices especially during the day. This will not only play a major role in ensuring that Caprise gets more customers, but also boost the employees’ skills especially in service and also in ensuring that the customers are served in the comfort of their working places. Every customer looks forward to getting served in the most convenient area possible, and this is one of the major areas that Caprise Restaurant and Caterers will capitalize on.
Secondly, the restaurant will be mainly focusing on the middle income and low income earners. According to the United States Census Bureau 2010 report, over 56% of the employment opportunities in Brooklyn are casual. This therefore means that a large percentage of the employment opportunities and consequently the workers in the city are low to middle income earners, and this is the market segment that Caprise Restaurant and Caterers will target especially in terms of food and beverage pricing. This will give it an upper hand in ensuring that it has the highest possible number of customers.
Weaknesses
The major weakness especially in service delivery in this region is the fact that there are many other fast food restaurants in Brooklyn especially in downtown Brooklyn. Each restaurant has its own identified service market and based on this, most of the findings from the research study conducted might be misleading. At the same time, based on past customer behavior, many low income and middle level income earners already have their own established areas of shopping, which in this case includes their eating out places; and therefore getting customers and creating a customer base might be challenging. At the same time, based on the fact that the restaurant will be employing people who have worked in other hotels before to avoid training costs, the different cultures from the different restaurants they will come from might dilute the Caprise Culture that out restaurant seeks to establish.
Opportunities
One of the greatest opportunities that the restaurant has is the fact that they seek to establish both indoor restaurant and an outside catering service all under the same restaurant. This will be an indirect way of marketing the restaurant especially when delivering the services with the Caprise-customized van.
Threats
The major threat that the restaurant faces is the fact that in the past eight years, research in the catering industry has shown that there has been a 59 per cent increase in the number of outside catering firms in the Brooklyn region that seek to cater in various activities such as weddings, parties as well as food delivery in working places. As a result, they might highly compete with Caprise Restaurant’s outside catering department especially bearing in mind that they have specialized in outside catering.
Market Analysis
From an analysis of the Brooklyn downtown’s catering market, a number of changes have been noted and should be highly considered especially when establishing the restaurant. To start with, the past eight years have shown a lot of improvement and development in the outside catering industry especially in Brooklyn and as a result, the restaurant will have to ensure that it offers quality services to the customers which will in fact be in a position to compete with the other catering firms in the region. Secondly, Brooklyn covers an extensive area of 70.6 square miles and for this reason it is important for Caprise to identify the region it will be offering its services, which in this case will be downtown Brooklyn, both in its restaurant as well as catering services.
From the region’s research study, it is also important to note that Brooklyn has been associated with a casual lifestyle and this is depicted in both the employment opportunities as well as the residents’ lifestyle. This is something that the restaurant should consider especially in its food and beverage delivery especially in the selection of themes as well as the foods to offer to the clients. Brooklyn had a population of 410,000 people, by December 2010, and about 50% of the borough residents either work outside the city or in its downtown regions. 62% of the city’s residents are low and middle income earners, with the highest number falling in the middle income category. Lastly, from a legal perspective, Brooklyn has relatively high levels of violence, which however do not affect the taxing charges imposed on local investors. However, a 9% higher tax level is imposed on external and foreign investors and it is therefore advisable to register the restaurant as a local investor (Gerald, 2001, p. 152).
Sales and Marketing Strategy
Sales and marketing are important to consider in management especially when establishing a new business venture (Fischer, 1993, p. 63). In this case for example, it will be important to consider the target region’s demographics as this will act as guidelines in identifying the marketing strategies to adopt. Brooklyn covers an area of 70.6 square miles; however, Brooklyn’s downtown region covers only an approximated area of 14 square miles. This is the area the restaurant seeks to establish itself both in outside catering as well as food and beverage service. Considering that this is a small fraction of the entire region, print media and the internet are the most cost effective and efficient means the restaurant seeks to use in marketing itself. These include advertisement in local magazines and newspapers especially the hospitality and catering magazines as well as the use of the internet. The restaurant will host its activities and services on the internet through an official website whereby people can learn about it. The use of blogs and social network is also important because the customers can share the restaurant’s link and this will aid in passing the information across the entire city. Lastly, indirect marketing, for example, customizing the delivery van will also be important because it will catch the people’s attention.
Marketing will also include promotions of the products and this will be achieved through offering of discounts on specific products which will attract the customers’ attention. The restaurant for example will major on ‘Thuxury Thursdays’ whereby every customer who buys a pizza every Thursday will get another one free and this will also apply on the delivered Thursday pizzas. This is the main promotional point the restaurant will focus on.
Human Resource Management
As earlier noted, the management team will also play the HR role and this will involve handling employees’ issues which include hiring, recruiting, disciplining, evaluation as well as promotion and incentive issuing of employees. A HR manager will be selected from the team to whom all the employees as well as customers’ concerns will be issued. He will in turn hand in the issues to the members who will address the issue accordingly (Kotler & Armstrong, 2009, p. 116).
At the same time, the HR department will include a number of other factors such as employees’ motivation and development for example through team building activities, sports’ day as well as personal evaluation of the employees bearing in mind that they are only twenty eight of them.
Financial Analysis
The restaurant hopes to raise US$8,000 to establish the restaurant, which will however be functional as 60 days after 60% of the finances are acquired. Based on the fact that it is a sole proprietorship business (with I the owner being the CEO); I expect to collect these funds from personal savings (US$2,000), family, well-wishers and friends, grants from organizations as well as loans from banks. With US$5,200 being found, it will be possible to establish the restaurant as I get more funds to fund other areas such as buying a van. However, I may use a hired van before purchasing one under the company’s brand name.
The management team will hire an external auditor every three months who will assess the restaurant’s performance as well as give recommendations on the areas that need to be financially addressed. He will also propose each employee’s payments. I plan to fully repay all the loans from banks and other sources such as friends after 28 months of operation.
Risk Analysis
From an analysis and conducted research, Brooklyn has had many cases of insecurity and violence especially in the downtown region where I seek to establish the restaurant for a long time. However, most of these cases take place between 9pm and 5am, and for this reason the restaurant will be operating between 7:30am and 9pm. It will also outsource security personnel especially due to money delivery to the bank at 4pm. Finally, the business will be insured and the insurance policy renewed every five years.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the hospitality industry is one of the most productive areas to invest in especially based on the fact that people will always purchase food every day. Establishing the restaurant in a highly populated region will therefore ensure high sales as well as exposure to the people who are the market for food and beverages (Kotler & Armstrong, 2008, p. 78). At the same time, bearing in mind that the catering industry is one of the most diverse yet unpredictable markets, quality services to customers based on honesty, integrity and professionalism as well as good customer relations are the key elements to establishing a stable and loyal customer base (Wilson, 2001, p. 89).
References
Dwyer, F. R. & Tanner, J. F. (2009). Business Marketing: Connecting Strategy, Relationships and Learning, 4th ed, McGraw-Hill Irwin, New York.
Gerald, V. (2007). The Business Plan: How to Win Your Investors' Confidence. Oklahoma: Springer.
Fisher, J. C. (1993). Leadership and Management of Volunteer Programs: A Guide for Volunteer Administrators (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership). New York: McGraw-Hill Press.
Jones, A. (2010). Business plan for hospitality ventures. NJ: Wiley.
Lawrence, T. (2011). Marketing in the hospitality industry. NY: McGraw-Hill.
Kotler, P. &Armstrong, G. (2009). Principles of management. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Kotler, P. & Armstrong, G. (2008). Principles of marketing. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Wilson, M. (2001). Effective Management of Volunteer Programs. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
