The senior market is composed of people who are 65 years or older. Seniors generally live on fixed incomes, from their pension or sustenance by relatives, and thus have a rather inflexible spending power. Most seniors usually go to family-oriented eating places such as lunch buffets because they offer good food and services at affordable prizes. Less active seniors usually prefer smaller portions as they may have smaller appetites. When targeting seniors, it is best to make them special by offering senior promotions, or lowered rates. You can also market your restaurant as senior-friendly by emphasizing safety features such as ramps and handlebars.

The late adult market is composed of people aged 50 to 64. They are usually the ones who are experiencing the empty nest syndrome, where grownup children have left the home. This market usually has the most stable financial status as they could be in the most advanced stages in their careers. At this point, price usually doesn’t matter. This is the age when people start trying to really enjoy life and its pleasures. So the main concern is good food and service. When targeting this market, it is good to present your restaurant with elegance and sophistication. It would be wise to invest more on ambience and class.

The middle aged group is composed of people who are around 40 to 50 years old. This are very productive years as most executives and prominent career persons fall in this market. Money is rather plentiful and thus spent with more generosity. In this age, people are quite fond of trendy and high-end, fine dining restaurants. Many people in this market already have grandchildren and thus this is also good for family-friendly eating places which that are more formal than those frequented by the senior market.

The young adult market consists of people in their mid twenties to just before reaching middle age. This is an age of great effort for established families. The main concern here is enjoying children and keeping a good relationship with them. People belonging in this market usually look for eating places that are conducive for bonding with their children. Places that offer food fast, and with bigger quantities such as family brunch buffet restaurants which are big hits for this market. It is important to offer comfort and a laid-back ambience for this type of market.

The young market comprises of those in their early twenties and younger. This is probably the most diverse market. The main concern of people in this market is instantaneous gratification with low prices. This is the primary market for the fast food industry. A good strategy for this target market is keeping updated with the latest trends and offering food services in association to what is “cool” and “hip”.

Bill McRea is the publisher of Knowninfo a premium website dedicated to providing Information, Marketing Strategies and several great informational eBooks like How to Start a Successful Restaurant Business. Visit our site daily for updated information, and unique products.

Conventional financing for restaurants, meaning loan issued directly by the funding banks, without any guarantee by the SBA or other such institutions, are getting very conservative. Loan to values are hover at 55% on refinances and 60% on purchases. Debt coverage ratios have tightened as well from a 1.25 to a 1.3 and with some banks a 1.4. Meaning that for every $1 of proposed mortgage debt the borrower would still have $.40 left over after all expenses and proposed mortgage have been paid.

In addition, the cap rates have really been taking a beating with conventional sources. For example, I recently spoke to a bank loan officer that said they are putting on a minimum 10% capitalization rate on all restaurants regardless of the market.

The solution is to think non conventional for either purchase or refinance money. For example it’s still possible to get 85% financing on purchases on a 5 year fixed 25 year amortization loan, if you work through the right sources.

One loan program that deserves mention is the SBA 7a loan as it was designed for niche building types like restaurants, motels, etc. They can go as low as a 1.1 debt coverage ratio, and business projection can be used to supplement cash flow if it’s too low to meet the guidelines. Which in a cash business like restaurants, where most owners understate there income is very important.

CMBS sources are still out there though on a limited basis. For example, a 30 year fixed rate mortgage at 80% financing is still available. Primary benefit of course is that the borrower doesn’t have to worry about their rate fluctuating.

Author: Jeff Rauth
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Excise Tax

Manners are about making other people feel comfortable and behavior that is seen as disrespectful, discourteous or abrasive is usually unintentional.

Here are some basics to get through a dinner with an investor.

• Pick a mid-level restaurant with good food. Select a restaurant that has a variety of choices on the menu including a vegetarian selection.
• Make a reservation. If the restaurant you pick doesn’t take reservations, pick another restaurant.
• Dress to match the dress of your guests. If they are wearing suits, wear a suit. If they are wearing jackets, wear a jacket. Err on the conservative side. Regardless of the dress, be neat, clean shaven, and wear unwrinkled clothing.
• If the guests are coming in their own car, make sure they have good directions. Arrive a little early – always make sure you arrive before your guest.
• Allow your guests to select their own seats, but encourage your team to sit between the guests to facilitate better conversation. If you have two people who are better conversationalists, have them sit on opposite sides of the table to keep conversation flowing. Arrange this before you arrive at the restaurant.
• If you are expected to pick the wine, be prepared. If you are not a wine connoisseur, call the restaurant ahead of time and ask to speak to the sommelier. He or she should be able to give you some good mid-range wines in both white and red.
• When you site down, remember that your bread plate is on the left and your drinks are on your right. During the meal, use your flatware from the outside in. Put your napkin in your lap. If you would like bread, salt and pepper, butter, etc., as for it to be passed, don’t reach over someone for it.
• When selecting your meal, pick one that is easy to eat and does not have a tendency to leave distracting bits of food in your teeth. Take a bite of food and put your flatware down before chewing and swallowing. Don’t talk with any food in your mouth.
• Don’t drink too much.
• Some business talk at the table is okay, but don’t let it overwhelm the conversation. Stay off of topics that may be sensitive, sex, politics and religion are good ones to avoid. A good way to avoid saying something stupid is just to ask a lot of questions and let your guests do all the talking.
• If none of your guests order coffee or dessert, then you should not either. If they do, then at least one or more of your team should do the same. This can be tricky because they may not want to order first. In this case, you should judge how you think they feel and follow that instinct.
• Pay. They are your guests, you are expected to pay.

In general, good business etiquette is about making people feel comfortable and valued. If you provide a nice meal with good conversation, then you have succeeded even if you accidentally use the wrong fork.

Author: C. Worrall
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Import duty tariff

The problem is that most people who wish to put up a restaurant business thought that their main problem would be the capital. What they don’t know is that there are many people out there with the right amount of capital who want to put up a restaurant business as well and still, they can’t simply do everything right.

Why? It is because they lack the most important thing in running a business, a restaurant business for that matter. What most entrepreneurs don’t know is that they need a reliable business plan and software to help facilitate their restaurant needs.

The main focus of having restaurant business plan software is to help restaurant entrepreneurs spot a concrete restaurant business plan that they can operate without the help of their human resources.

Hence, for people who aren’t aware of it, restaurant business plan software can give you the following benefits:

1. It could give you a well-defined checklist

The checklist may include marketing promotions, important legal requirements, etc.

2. Tips and strategies

Restaurant business plan software could provide you with reliable tips and strategies in running a restaurant business.

3. Reliable financial tracking

You can have cold-blooded “cost control” procedures through restaurant business plan software. This software can give you different ways on how to analyze every in and out of your money.

4. Staff improvement

With the restaurant business plan software, you can be taught on how to guide, select, and train your staff for effective management and operation of the business.

5. Inventory control

This particular software can also provide you some useful techniques on inventory control. In this way, you can always track the ebb and flow of your stocks and equipments. This will put your money at less risk because you won’t be buying unnecessary supplies if you have a well-controlled inventory list.

There may be many things that restaurant entrepreneurs may require, but having some reliable restaurant business plan software, you can be sure that everything will fall exactly into place, the way you have always planned them to be. It may not be that perfect but at least you are confident that everything will be running smoothly.

Bill McRea is the publisher of Knowninfo a premium website dedicated to providing Information, Marketing Strategies and great eBooks like How to Start A Successful Restaurant Business. Visit our site daily for updated information, and unique products.

This is the place where all your clients are going to spend their time. The immediate impact on entering has to be fabulous, as the saying goes “The first impression is the last impression”. So start working on it right away.

Start with the setting of the dining tables. They should be adequately spaced apart to allow movement to flow unrestrained. Waiters and guests alike should have plenty of room to move around without crashing into each other. While you would like to utilize your space to the utmost, do not neglect this important aspect. If necessary, go around and do a mock exercise to check out the problem areas.

Select a dining set to go with your overall settings. Have you chosen a theme for your bistro? Modern or classical, smart and exclusive or relaxed and luxurious, the choice has to be made as per the clientele you targeting in your business plan.

Who are you catering to? Are you targeting students interested in a quick snack and coffee, or are you planning something for the family man who wants a good time with his family in a cozy environment? You also must have a fair idea of the paying capabilities of your clientele, for that will decide your budget for setting up as well as for later actions like menu prices. You could well be catering to a purely working class clientele, in which case your settings will need to be very different from that of a family restaurant.

Other aspects that need attention are the selection of the dining chairs, placing of the cash counter and decorative facets. Make sure the dining room chairs are matching with the tables. The counter in most restaurants is mostly placed closed to the kitchen door (as opposed to the exit in the case of most stores), enabling the counter manager to easily keep a tag of the orders. If you are opening an outdoor joint, the view will be the predominant attraction, and you need not spend too much on the interiors except for the basic neatness aspects. Decoration of an indoor eatery is a different ball game, however.

Use Amish furniture to give a class to your restaurant that is unparalleled. Elegant enough to attract attention, yet sturdy and strong to withstand long and rough use. The beauty of Amish handcrafted furniture lies in its unique style and the special ambience that it brings to your room.

Having selected the basic furniture and its settings, it is now time to work towards the selection of the crockery and setting up your kitchen. More on those aspects in my next article.

Buy dining room furniture from wholesale Amish furniture dealers for the best prices. An Amish dining room table will last you for generations.

SBA 7a loan has many benefits on both purchase AND refinances, despite the notorious reputation it has with some borrowers. Most of these earlier issues have been ironed out in the last 5 years though borrowers should be careful who they work with, as bank that are inexperienced with the SBA can quickly complicate the process.

Examples of the benefits include 85% financing and low rates at prime + 1-2% for most borrowers. Right now Prime is at 5%. An effective rate of 6% from a historical stand point on a special use property such as a restaurant is exceptional. In addition, most 7a loans are amortized over 25 years helping the borrower spread out their loan and thereby increasing cash flow as compared to most traditional bank loans of 15 or 20 year amortizations. Working lines of credit, equipment, and construction/renovation loans can easily be tied into the loan.

One of the other huge benefits is the flexibility this program has for cash flow analysis aka debt coverage ratios. Most sources want to see a 1.3 on this type of building while the SBA 7a loan only needs a 1.1. In other words, the business needs to show that for every $1. of proposed mortgage payments that the restaurant has $1.30 of net income to cover the proposed loan. So after all expenses have been paid including the mortgage the restaurant should have $.30 left over. With the 7a it would only have to be $.10 left over which can be a big difference for most business that have tight cash flow.

Further, the borrower is allowed to use future business projections as well, to supplement any existing short falls in cash flow. This is not possible with 99% of the other options out there as they will only look at historical statements like your tax returns, balance sheet or profit and loss statements.

The negative with the 7a loan is that the rate typically floats and the SBA has a guarantee fee of 2.75% of 75% of the loan balance. However this is not always the case. For example, we have a source that offers this as a 5 year fixed, 25 year amortization loan. And there are banks out there that will absorb or pay for the guarantee fee themselves.

The short of it is if you’re looking for a restaurant loan keep you eye on the 7a loan.

Author: Jeff Rauth
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Creditcard Currency Conversion Fee

Opening any business is a daunting task. It is highly rewarding as well as highly stressful. The first step when deciding to open any business is to sit down with a business consultant who can give ideas and information input.

Let us assume the decision has been made to open a full service home-style restaurant in your hometown. The very first step is to find a good location. Location is going to be a key factor in the success of your restaurant. You want to choose a location that is accessible to a wide range of customers with a good amount of traffic. You also want to decide whether to buy or build or to lease space for the restaurant. If you choose to lease the space, I suggest you possibly locate near big box stores such as Kohl’s, TJ Maxx etc. Also locating close to a movie theater can be a plus. If building your own restaurant is more your style, check property management companies. They might have properties available where you can lease the land and they will build to suit. The third option is to purchase the property outright and build.

A deciding factor in your decision may be financing. Many financing companies and banks want the business owner to lease land and building first to establish a track record.

My advice to anyone wanting to open a restaurant is to hire a good business consultant to do the research on location, cost, finance and business set-up. The consultant can give advice on incorporating or remaining a sole proprietorship.

In my next article I will talk about the equipment necessary to the running of a restaurant.

Kathy Rupert is a business consultant with more than 30 years experience in various areas of business. she has a degree in Business Administration and Management. She has owned a Mexican Restaurant in Pueblo, Colorado with her husband. She has also managed a Fazoli’s restaurant and a Subway.

Kathy currently lives in Trinity, Alabama with her husband and two cats.

Whether people are willing to admit it or not, the World Wide Web has made the world a much smaller place, especially when it comes to shopping. The once dreaded tasks of flipping through catalogs, making countless phone calls and driving across town (and even across the state) in search of a specific item has been conveniently replaced with a click of the mouse, a computer screen and an Internet connection. Not only does this save time and fuel, it saves you and your business money!

There are, however, a few things you will want to consider before you purchase anything, including restaurant furniture, online. First and foremost, you’ll want a secure site that enables you to put in your payment information (credit card numbers, etc.) without the worry of unauthorized individuals being able to access this personal information. The easiest way to check for site security is to look for the secure logo, like Verisign or Geotrust. Your personal payment information is safe with them!

The second item on our list is variety. You’ll want to have choices to make your establishment truly your own, reflecting you, your personality and your ideas along the way. Retro, contemporary, art deco, or classic- you’ll want to pick your style and work from there, always being open to new ideas and possible adjustments, prioritizing as you go in order to accommodate your primary needs. The ideal furniture provider will have an optimum selection to allow you to create your establishment’s environment the way you want it to be.

Don’t forget about shipping! Reasonable shipping rates and online tools to help you to calculate shipping costs, plus the all-important time frame for which you will receive your newly purchased items, will take the guesswork out of the shopping experience. This will enable you to keep your budget intact (and your sanity, too!)

The most important aspect of any business, whether you’re in the business of serving food or selling the seats for the customers to sit on, is customer service. You’ll surely agree that you want to receive both the excellent service that many small companies are known for, but the wide selection of products which a larger company can obviously provide. There are a few online stores that offer the best of both worlds, so shop around!

Lisa Elsworth recommends that you visit http://www.restaurant-bar-furniture.com/ for more information on restaurant furniture.

If you want to learn the restaurant biz in Manhattan, you have to start at the bottom. Ultimately, every restaurant is going to desire managers who can honestly say they’ve worked every position and know how things should be done because they’ve already done every job. In Manhattan especially, there’s the added obstacle that you really can’t start to be a waiter unless you learn to bus tables and be a runner. A runner is just someone who runs food from the kitchen to the tables, but doesn’t really interact with the customers.

If you’re really lucky, you can find a restaurant that is opening, track down the owner and tell him you’ll work for free just so you can learn the biz. You’d be surprised how open a restauranteur is to this because there are so many things to do in a restaurant opening. Most restauranteurs have a pre opening list that has hundreds of things that have to be done before an opening.

Anyway, that’s it for now. And as always, click here to check out my “learn how to cook” website. Let me know what you think of it so that I can make it better. Until next time folks.

Jonathan Chin writes and edits for intensecooking.com. Check us out for anything related to basic cooking at http://www.intensecooking.com.

It begins with a plan, including the type of food, location, and marketplace. Who will eat there and how much will they pay? How will you attract them? What are your long-term goals? How about a short-term goal of creating the restaurant and surviving the first year?

There are so many elements in the process, yet it’s fairly easy to list them, not necessarily in order:

• The basic business plan
• Arranging the financing
• Securing the property
• Seeking out a contractor
• Creating the cuisine
• Looking for employees
• Obtaining insurance, accounting and legal resources
• Planning the marketing approach
• Setting a timetable
• Designing a menu

The last one is not the least, in order of importance. It might even be the first. Without a menu, you have no restaurant. Why? Because it sets the tone for the whole operation.

It lists all the items you have for sale. It shows the public your pricing structure. It gives other information such as payment types, catering, banquet facilities, delivery or takeout, and other details about your business. If it doesn’t, it should. It’s a mini-advertisement or billboard, that eventually ends up in the hands of every single customer, therefore it’s terribly important. So, how much time did you spend on it’s content and design? Probably not nearly enough, but now you have some food for thought (pardoning the pun).

Now, a few words about my background. I worked as a sales consultant for the Yellow Pages for 25 years and encouraged all my restaurant accounts to place their menus in the directory. The problem was the need for a full page to accommodate the menu. That proved to be rather expensive and therefore, not an option, for many family-run restaurants.

Today, there are several online versions of the directory that allow this feature. Luckily , there are some more specialized sites only list restaurant menus, but they also retype them for some reason. I prefer an online copy of the actual menu, which helps display the flavor of the restaurant. I think most people prefer to see the real menu for that reason. One such site even asks for restaurants to post them on their site for free. Menuelephant.com is my choice for placing your free menu. It will gain you maximum exposure with a zero cost investment. You have no excuse not to go there and try it. Where else can you get free advertising and a purple pachyderm as a business partner?

Jeffrey Hauser was a sales consultant for the Bell System Yellow Pages for nearly 25 years. He graduated from Pratt Institute with a BFA in Advertising and has a Master’s Degree in teaching. He had his own advertising agency in Scottsdale, Arizona and ran a consulting and design firm, ABC Advertising. He authored a book about his directory years, “Inside the Yellow Pages” which can be seen at his website, http://www.poweradbook.com and he is currently the Marketing Director for http://www.thenurseschoice.com a Health Information site and http://www.menuelephant.com which posts restaurant menus on the “site you’ll never forget.”