Finding Firms That Serve Restaurants’ Needs

Q.: I am a veteran restaurant professional seeking to open a new concept that serves high-quality food to people in their homes as well as at a restaurant. I would appreciate any information you could provide regarding a Web presence or additional restaurant start-up information.

--William Moss, Santa Monica

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A.: You’d be wise to start by engaging a qualified and experienced restaurant broker--not just a business broker. There are a number of brokers that specialize in restaurants in most of the Greater Los Angeles geographic locations. They know what’s out there and can help you find a closed restaurant to buy or lease and remodel to suit your needs--a very cost-effective solution.

Another professional you may want to turn to is a restaurant designer. There are food facility design firms that can help you with the design and layout of your restaurant. There also are design-only firms and firms that will do the design and sell you the equipment.

Once you find your location, the California Restaurant Assn. is a great resource. If you have not run or owned a restaurant in California before, it will help you get up to speed on licenses, laws, ordinances, etc. The CRA also is a great advocate for the independent restaurant operator and provides many cost-effective resources such as credit card processing, employee background checks, insurance coverage, etc. The CRA can provide you with a list of consultants that can help you in areas such as food facility design and human resources. The group also has associate members that are vendors of commodities such as meat, produce, dairy, bakery, etc.

Depending on your financing resources--and especially if you are planning to borrow money to build or to remodel an existing facility--you may need to show your business plan to a bank and a landlord. Qualified restaurant consultants can help you put together a simple but thorough business plan. An important part of the business plan is to forecast your cash needs both before the opening and for the first six to 12 months of operations.

Marketing and public relations are important too. When you are not opening something with a known brand name such as Cheesecake Factory or McDonald’s, you can’t count on customers to flock to your doors. I recommend that your business plan and your budget include some marketing and PR assistance from consultants who specialize in the restaurant industry.

Here are some Internet resources that should help get you started: The California Restaurant Assn. Web site is at https://www.calrest.org. The Food Consultants Society International has a Web site at https://www.fcsi.org. The Food Consultants Group, a local organization that has a number of consultant members that can probably help you with some of these tasks, can be found on the Web at https://www.foodconsultants.com.

Keep in mind as you are engaging a consultant or restaurant broker that you should carefully check his or her references before hiring, and make sure the people you talk with have used the consultant to do work similar to what you need.

--Art Manask, restaurant

consultant, Manask & Associates,

Burbank

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Q.: I am interested in learning how to start an Internet business. Would you please describe, in a step-by-step fashion, how to achieve that? I am sure this will benefit a lot of ambitious young people.

--John T. Wang, Glendale

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A.: Very simply, my advice for getting started with an e-commerce venture is: Just do it. It is a learn-by-doing experience, and that is half the fun.

Here’s a very broad, simple outline of some of the steps you should take on your e-commerce journey: First, you’ll need to be computer-competent and have some experience surfing the Web. If you haven’t done so yet, buy something from the Internet to see how it works.

Write a simple plan stating what you would like to accomplish. Do you have something that is different from the services or products already out there? If it is, great! If not, then how will you differentiate your e-commerce company from the others?

To set up your business, you will need a home page or, in Web parlance, a “domain.” You can get one through Web sites such as https://www/register.com or https://www/networksolutions.com or from one of many others at a cost of about $35 to $100 per year. This will usually get you a single home page that you can build by using the domain service’s template.

You will also need a hosting service. “Hosting” means your business is using someone else’s server. This is a very inexpensive way to go and is much easier than using your own server, technicians, etc. at the beginning stages. Compare the costs of hosting services and choose one that’s affordable.

The most difficult part of e-commerce is the fulfillment aspect, so make sure you have that ironed out before you get into business. Many e-commerce sites got burned at Christmastime because they could not ship products. Don’t forget that you only get one chance to make a first impression, and that customer service is critical.

--Tom Anderson, managing partner, A Solution Sales and

Marketing Consultants,

Manhattan Beach

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If you have a question about how to start or operate a small business, mail it to Karen E. Klein, Los Angeles Times, 1333 S. Mayflower Ave., Suite 100, Monrovia, CA 91016, or e-mail it to kklein6349@aol.com. Include your name, address and telephone number. This column is designed to answer questions of general interest. It should not be construed as legal advice.