Before kickstarting your dream restaurant business, you may require a proper funding plan and business proposal that will act as your sales pitch when you’re looking for investment for your venture. As your restaurant’s future may depend on it, your business proposal must be so good it persuades investors to provide the funding you need. This article discusses how restaurants in the UAE can create an effective restaurant business proposal.
How Can Restaurants In The UAE Create An Effective Restaurant Business Proposal
When drafting your proposal, make it clear how you will benefit the other party and build trust by quoting your existing investors or partners, including case studies and testimonials. Ensure that your proposal is simple and just the right amount of information so that investors will understand.
For example, if you are trying to enter into a joint venture with another restaurant, your business proposal must not include too much technical jargon. On the other hand, if you are designing a proposal for an enterprise chain, use business terms and technical vocabulary.
Here is a step-by-step guide to writing a stellar restaurant business proposal that is sure to help you raise funding for your restaurant.
1. Collect Relevant Information
The key to writing a good proposal is learning about the people you are writing it for. A basic proposal will not cut it; understand the other party’s point of view by gaining insight on them.
Do your research and collect all the necessary data before starting to write the restaurant business proposal. If the investor or fund manager thinks that your goals are a match, only then would they consider you a business partner? This would also enable you to quickly write your body of the proposal.
2. Estimate the Costs and Investments
If you do not have a restaurant already, estimate your costs with a mock walkthrough. Go through every step of opening a restaurant mentally to understand the likely expenses. Then come up with emergency or unusual scenarios to know how much of a contingency fund would be required.
Remember that you would need extra cash for the start-up years, and the first six months to 1 year, you could be operating at a loss. Once profits start rolling in, the investors would take their cut on the investment they have made, so a precise cash flow statement is imperative. This is so because there may be many unforeseen events, and this method would create a contingency fund that would be ready at hand.
3. Pen it All Down
The next step of a restaurant business proposal is to put together all the information and write it. While there are many ways a business proposal could be written, The most commonly used format includes an Introduction, Executive Summary, Table of Contents, Body, Conclusion, and Appendix.
Here is how you go about writing each section:
- Introduction to the Restaurant
As the name suggests, this is the section where you introduce your restaurant. Try to do it in a way that makes the other party feel connected and interested in you. You could include your origin story, the thought behind the restaurant, or how the brand came to be. Do this in a way that your restaurant’s goals and those of your investor seem to align. This is also where you can earn yourself some extra points for your work ethic, vision, and ideas.
An excellent way to do this is to quote the names of your partners, associates, or advisors that may be involved in your venture. Saying things like “Our business partners think we are great service providers” creates a better impact than saying “We think we are great service providers”. As far as the length is concerned, try to keep it within one page.
- Executive Summary of Your Restaurant Business
This is where the ‘why should you invest in my restaurant’ question is answered, and so this is one of the most critical parts of the business proposal. Focus on the final goals here and try to give the reader a brief overview of the entire proposal in a few lines. This is partly where it is decided if the reader wants to read further, so keep it short, to the point and clear. Mention what you plan to do, why your restaurant idea is worth investing in, how you are different from the competition, and what the other party can gain from an alliance with you.
- Table of Contents
Depending on the length of the proposal, include a table of contents. If your proposal is quite long and includes many sub-parts, include a table of contents. Restaurant business proposals should ideally not be too long or draining, so add this step only when you need to.
- Body of the Restaurant Business Proposal
This is the second most crucial part of your proposal after the executive summary. This is the section where all the points in the summary are explained in detail. Include what you plan to do, how you plan to do it, the detailed costs of your plan, why the investor should consider you, how you plan on benefiting him, and how prepared you are to go through with your goals; all of this comes here.
Also, include details about potential risks you might face in this expansion or venture. It is easy for investors or to-be partners to expect a little too much from the other party. Do not give in to demands that are unreasonable but do not make it sound like you cannot or will not step out of your comfort zone.
- Conclusion
Once you are done with the proposal’s key portions, emphasize your strengths, past experience, and why your proposal deserves consideration. Conclude with a call to action that encourages the reader to think favorably about it. Mentioning contact information and links to your social media and websites is an excellent trick to use here.
- Appendix
The appendix, like the table of contents, is an optional section. It includes bits and pieces that could not be accommodated anywhere else in the restaurant business proposal.
Follow these steps and write a compelling, pitch-worthy restaurant business proposal that offers an edge over your competitors in the UAE.
