A New Restaurant

If you need an example of thinking through all the details, and trying to be prepared for everything, here’s a good one.

There’s a new restaurant that opened up in the area.  It’s a little deli that has been doing a nice business.  Unfortunately his air conditioning unit broke down in mid August during a 90 degree heat wave.  His solution: pray for cooler weather.

When he was putting together his business plan he didn’t budget anything for emergencies.

I hope things turn out alright for him, but it could cost him some business while he saves to get the air conditioning fixed.  Customers aren’t going to want to sit and eat in a restaurant that is sweltering inside.  It may not affect his take out business, but you can bet he’ll lose some sit down customers.

Part of working through the business plan process is to make sure you are prepared to handle situations like this.  Something always goes wrong.  It may be something small, or it may be a blown air conditioning unit, but it will happen eventually.  You may get lucky and it doesn’t hit you until after you’re turning a profit, but do you want to count on luck for your restaurants survival?

Be prepared!