If you want to open a cafe or diner, it would be a good idea to make a business plan before anything else. Everything you do from the time you decide to start a restaurant till a few years after you open will be dependent on the guidelines you set in your business plan. It is also a formal written presentation you can present to your financiers if you need funding for your project.
If the bank’s analysts think that you have a feasible plan then they will probably give you that restaurant financing you need. If your request for a loan is rejected, then they may have seen something wrong in your guidelines that spell disaster. If your investors or financiers see that your plan will probably not lead to profit then they won’t give you the time of day. You will either have to re-do your business plan or fund your new restaurant from your own pocket.
For someone new to this kind of thing, creating a business plan may be quite a challenge. There are so many things you have to detail regarding financing, marketing, assessing competition and so forth. Yes, you can purchase a computer software to help with the layout but the content is something you have to fill in yourself. You can get help building your guidelines, pay for a ready-made one or you can do it yourself given some tips on how to make a convincing business plan.
The advantage of making your own written guidelines is that you discover many things you didn’t know before about the business you plan to get into. You will know the best way to start your restaurant, get restaurant financing and how to run it.