Fees and such needed to open a restaurant!

Lardalish

Ok, so for those of you that dont remember (probly most of you) Ive been working on a huge project over my entire career at the Art Institute where I have to create a restaurant from start to finish. Now Im just about done, this class is about the business plan. Currently Im working on the budget and a lot of the items on this list I know how to find, but there are a few that Im not sure about.

First on the list is "Licenses and Permits" Now, I know that I need several of these to open just a regular business and several more to open a restaurant, but I dont know where to look for a list of what I need or where to find how much they cost. Anyone have an idea of where to look? My google-fu is pretty weak here apparently.

Second, "Repairs and Maintenance" When I googled around I couldnt find anything that was like a monthly service kind of deal. It was all a per job kinda thing. Which makes sense really, but I don't know how much I should "put away" for maintenance each month. Maybe theres some place that puts up how much an average restaurant pays?

Next is Insurance, now this one Im not too sure about. When I googled around all the insurance sites wanted me to input my business' location, employees, and some other stuff and since this is a hypothetical kinda deal I dont really have those. I might be able to call the place and have them look up an average for restaurants like mine but Im not sure how willing they will be to do that for a school project. Im going to try calling them later today.


Oh, about the restaurant, its about 3000 square feet, seats 100 people, my forecast says it will earn 1.28 million per year. Not sure what else you guys would need to help me out, but just ask and Ill do my best.

Well, I think thats about it for now, if I find something else I need Ill add it here. Thanks in advance guys!

EggyToast

For a lot of these things, I would suggesting simply contacting your city and/or a local restaurant. The city would be able to tell you the licenses that you'd need and their cost -- typically there's inspection fees, food service licenses, liquor licenses, etc.

If you call and say "I'm doing some research on opening a restaurant for a class that I'm in, could I ask you some very quick questions?" you're likely to get very applicable dollar amounts in a few minutes.

In your analysis/report, don't forget to state that the revenue would be 1.28M, not the profit.

RUNN1NGMAN

Also try the local chamber of commerce. They may have some guides to local permits necessary.

Ponge

$1.28million?? Assuming your restaurant is open 356 days a year you would need to bring in $3500 per day to create that sort of turnover. If you're seating 100 people a day, 365 days a year thats still $35 per person. I know this is all a hypothetical but your math seems way off here, i'd hate that to affect your grade.

JHunz

For license and permit information, see if your local city government has information on a website. For example, the city I live on has a Restaurant Guide PDF linked right off their Chamber of Commerce page that has all the information about who you need to contact and why.

Ponge: Seats 100 means at a time, not per day.

PeregrineFalcon

$35 per person isn't unreasonable depending on the location, snootiness, and name attached to the restaurant. As long as we're talking about revenue, not profit. If you're turning $1.28M profit annually, please tell me where this place is located and I'm opening a restaurant the fuck up yesterday.

Lardalish

Hahaha, no that 1.28 mil is revenue, sorry about that.

As for the average check, Ive got it set at about 25 per person doin 1.5-1.75 turns a day at 80% capacity. So thats about 140 people per day, maybe more, maybe less, not too hard to reach 1 mil in revenue that way.

Ok so it sounds like I need to contact city hall or somethin?

EggyToast

Yep, just call up your chamber of commerce. Say you're just looking for a cost estimate for licensing and fees because you're researching opening a restaurant, but not planning on actually doing it.

Figgy

Lardalish wrote: »

Hahaha, no that 1.28 mil is revenue, sorry about that.

As for the average check, Ive got it set at about 25 per person doin 1.5-1.75 turns a day at 80% capacity. So thats about 140 people per day, maybe more, maybe less, not too hard to reach 1 mil in revenue that way.

Ok so it sounds like I need to contact city hall or somethin?

Having worked in a few restaurants, your average check is likely to be a bit lower unless it's more of a fine dining atmosphere. I'm not sure how accurate you need to be there.

Have you factored in the lunch and dinner rush, and are you open for breakfast?

Also, a tip on staffing:

You only want people there when there are customers, and in the restaurant business that means only your rush. Have enough staff on the rush to cover it, but let everyone else go but 1 or 2 people as soon as it dies down. This is how restaurants keep their labour low--no use having 6 servers being paid wage when there are 2 or 3 tables.

Lardalish

Figgy wrote: »

Lardalish wrote: »

Hahaha, no that 1.28 mil is revenue, sorry about that.

As for the average check, Ive got it set at about 25 per person doin 1.5-1.75 turns a day at 80% capacity. So thats about 140 people per day, maybe more, maybe less, not too hard to reach 1 mil in revenue that way.

Ok so it sounds like I need to contact city hall or somethin?

Having worked in a few restaurants, your average check is likely to be a bit lower unless it's more of a fine dining atmosphere. I'm not sure how accurate you need to be there.

Have you factored in the lunch and dinner rush, and are you open for breakfast?

Also, a tip on staffing:

You only want people there when there are customers, and in the restaurant business that means only your rush. Have enough staff on the rush to cover it, but let everyone else go but 1 or 2 people as soon as it dies down. This is how restaurants keep their labour low--no use having 6 servers being paid wage when there are 2 or 3 tables.

The restaurant is only open for dinner, and the teacher gave us a nice spreadsheet that has formulas and such to account for damned near everything (really, its a pretty amazing document).

Thats a good point about the staffing though, I hadn't thought of that, and Ive got to do the one week schedule this week so awesome.

DeadlySherpa

For your maintenance costs, be sure to include the cost of cleaning the kitchen and restaurant, unless you're having your regular staff do heavy janitorial work. Things like degreasing the ranges, vacuuming, glass cleaning etc that typically restaurants will hire a night cleaning crew to do.

VisionOfClarity

Also don't forget to figure out what the commercial property taxes are as well as sewer/water/trash fees. And be sure you have the right meal tax computed in if your area has one.

Casual Eddy

Ponge wrote: »

$1.28million?? Assuming your restaurant is open 356 days a year you would need to bring in $3500 per day to create that sort of turnover. If you're seating 100 people a day, 365 days a year thats still $35 per person. I know this is all a hypothetical but your math seems way off here, i'd hate that to affect your grade.

that's not crazy

my restaurant grosses around 2 million apparently and it's hardly a high price place

I would try and talk to a restaurant manager while it's dead.