The document provides a practical guide for starting or renewing a food business. It covers key topics such as conception of the business concept, branding, marketing, financing, location selection, menu development, design and fitout, talent acquisition, and operations. The guide emphasizes defining the concept, purpose, and value proposition to develop a strong brand identity. It also stresses financial planning, supplier selection, staff training, and establishing standard operating procedures for long-term success.

1. PRACTICAL GUIDE
How to start or
renew your
Food Business
by Open Pantry Consulting

2. Summary
Introduction
What is the concept?
What's the purpose of the concept?
Why does the concept need to exist?
1. Conception
The concept
The branding
Marketing and strategies
2. Finance
3. Location
4. Food & Beverage
5. Design and Fitout
6. Talent Acquisition
7. Operation
Recommendations
Our contacts
pg 03
pg 04
pg 05
pg 06
pg 07
pg 08
pg 09
pg 10
pg 11
pg 14
pg 17
pg 21
pg 24
pg 27
pg 29
pg 30
by Open Pantry Consulting

3. Introduction 03
What we have put together in the following pages is a practical
guide on what we have learned are essential topics. This is
based on years of experience and applied knowledge in our
services, which has been created to help anyone who wants to
explore owning a venue, or who is already a gastronomic
entrepreneur.
In view of this, the demand for our services has increased,
making us realise the need to build a better guide for
developing businesses and new sites that will appear during this
time.
We also prepared this guide with aim of guiding and helping
those looking for ideas to restart or gear up their business for
success.
We divided the guide into chapters, for example in this first one,
we will cover the basic principles to start to restart your
hospitality business. The thought process for interested parties
is to ask themselves is
-"What is the concept?"
-"What's the purpose of the concept?".
-"Why does the concept need to exist?"

4. What is the concept?
The question seems to be as obvious as the answer.
You can simply answer a restaurant or a cafe for example, but we want you to go
further than this. Think about the history of it’s existence in the community. How
this idea came about or why it will come about, and even more than that, how
will your brand be different from others, and what you have to offer as an
experience that is unique for your customers.
04

5. What's the
purpose
of the
concept?
Everyone wants to make money from their venue,
that is just a fact.
But from that need, you will have to offer an
experience, not just a product or service.
And secondly, what do you have to offer?
In this question we ask you to identify the
potential of your business but understand it's
purpose.
For example, McDonald's makes burgers, and
whilst the may not be the best burgers in the
market, it exists to be a quick snack spot.
Another example is Starbucks, which is not seen
as the best coffee offering in the market anymore
but its purpose is to provide experience and a
community feeling.
05

6. Why does the
concept need
to exist?
Another simple question that will make you think a lot.
First you will need to define your niche (eg, a café). Given
this, do the analysis if there will be a market for your café
(if people will be willing to consume or attend), or the more
technical term is:
"Product Market Fit".
After understanding that you will need to analyse who will
be your audience, for example:
-office workers around you
-residents of the neighbourhood
After analyzing this information, and with proper market
and competition research to get a more accurate answer,
you will need to refine your niche, market and audience.
Following this deep investigation and analysis, the concept
of your business and your products and environment
provided will become more clear.
06

7. After having the 3 answers to the questions defined in the previous
chapter, we move on to the initial phase of the entire process. Our first
chapter will address the concept of your brand. This involves creating
the brand and the strategy you will need to adopt to introduce it to
the market.
Conception - 1
07

8. After highlighting the potential and differential, you will need to think about what attributes,
characteristics and personality that your brand should communicate with your audience,
and what environment you want to convey.
Watch out for clichés.
Let's take an example: If you have or are going to start a restaurant and communicate by
highlighting the characteristics that can make your venue unique and/or exclusive. Eg: Are
all your dishes 100% natural and made with organic ingredients. Based on this principle,
gradually the design of your concept will be more aligned to start working on the branding.
The concept
08

9. First, we need to understand that marketing and branding are
different, but both are business management models.
Branding is a brand management model, but with the objective of
building “brand equity”, that is, the brand value in the market.
How will you create value for your brand?
Think about what you want your customers to say about your brand.
Make the customer, partners, shareholders, suppliers, perceive the
brand as the only solution they are looking for, and why the existence
of your brand and venue is important to them.
09
The branding

10. Marketing
and
Strategies
In marketing, it is the entire company (operation,
purchasing, communication, all departments),
organising itself to implement a winning strategy
for the business based on the 5 principles:
-product
-price
-promotion
-place
-people
How will you position your venues branding in the
market, to discover the needs, and bring
products with attributes and benefits that reach
the profile of the desired target audience?
10

11. Finances - 2
11

12. In this chapter, we will address the second most important issue for opening / renewing your business.
The money, or rather how you are going to fund the concept.
Knowing the cost of your up and coming venue is one of the most important steps, if not the most important.
People often don't take this into account and over-capitalise, especially on their first venue.
People have a dream when they start, which is incredibly important, but that often means you have oversight for the
amount of capital needed.
Whether you need an exact figure will depend on variants such as, what style of venue it is, where will it be located, what
the size of the venue is, the type of product served and the style of operation.
Based on the experience with our customers, and analysis with market experts, we suggest that in addition to your initial
capital designated for opening your business, you will also need the money to stay trading for at least 12 months (not
counting what you will have to profit in the initial phase of the business).
In the case of a large business, the ROI will be approximately 36 months, depending on the operations and initial
investment.
We want to make sure you have some tips that are relevant to the financial issue of your business based on our alliances
with great financial firms over the years:
12

13. Know how to price your product, formulating the margin on top of various
other expenses (tax, reinvestment, employee training, leasing, accounts, etc)
on ontop of the general expenses like staff wages and cost of goods. Having
your pricing right will allow you make a return on your business quicker.
Plan your income and expenses so that your business has continuity. It is
necessary to maintain consistency for the development of your brand.
Be prepared for expenses to be higher than what you were estimating.
Remember that unforeseen events always happen, no matter how much you
have planned, getting the operation right always requires some adjustments
in real time.
Ways of raising money: remember that you can apply for loans from banks,
but this will have a high cost when you are starting out. Open up the possibility
for funding from people you know. However, do not open too many members
for two reasons.
Make sure you are separating your business and personal finances. This is one
of the most common mistakes we see.
-1. The first division of profit will be divided into more slices, with a long-
term return on investment.
-2. Because the chances of having more divergent opinions on how to
conduct the business are greater, increasing the chance of breaking the
contract, disconnecting from the rest of the founders, implying the
withdrawal of part of the investment at an unwanted time.
13

14. Location - 3
Everyone wants the perfect location. However, you need to choose
with the strategic mind. Your location will depend a lot on where your
audience is, and whether people will have easy access to your
business.
Going a little deeper in choosing the site, you will also need to take
into consideration whether the local atmosphere is consistent with
your brand concept.
14

15. For example, if you have an idea for a family-friendly cafe with a cozy family
atmosphere, where people can spend hours, take their dogs, have a playground
for their children, obviously you will not choose a commercial district, no matter
how well located it is.
We would recommend that you view the site 3-4 times and take data on the
number of people walking past for at least 3 hours.
This will give you an indication of the customer base in the area, even if your
venue is a ‘destination' concept.
Another important point that we need to raise in this chapter of the guide is “the
cost of this location” (if the property is not freehold). Pay attention and consider
some of the following points when signing the lease:
15

16. Outgoings of the venue (waste removal, marketing funds)
Rent-free period (if offered)
Fit-out contribution (if offered)
Extra structural work needed
Demolition clauses
If you have not got experience in negotiating leases then we would advise you to use an
independent leasing agent to do so on your behalf.
Ask them to outline how they get paid for the research they do, and the lease deal you sign.
From our experience, they are very much worth the cost.
All in all, if the lease does not feel right then walk away, there is always another site, and you
don’t want to be locked into a 5-10 year mistake.
16

17. Food and
Beverage - 4
17

18. This is the chapter that gets everyone excited. After all, it was learning
a recipe, or understanding food that made you want to have your own
business.
However, do not fall for the romance to think that it is the easy part.
Many details are involved in this part of the process. Starting with the
development of the menu.
When developing a menu you will need to take several points into
consideration. Never forget that this has a fundamental role in the
concept of how your brand presents to the market and your potential
customers.
Choosing a menu with a reasonable amount of options is important,
but you need to be strategic. A bigger menu will usually mean a higher
cost of goods unless there are lots of interchangeable ingredients. If
you'd like to have more options, try to optimize the ingredients & make
full use of different parts for different recipes. Eg: egg white for lemon
tart, yolk for icing. Without wasting any part of an ingredient.
Your choice of dishes also should highlight the seasonality of the food.
18

19. Your profitability falls due to the
supply/demand of the ingredient (less in
the market + more people looking for it
= the more expensive it will be).
1. 2. The risk that the supplier will not deliver it
to you because they could not find it is a very
high risk.
3. The flavour of your dish is also at risk of
being compromised, as out of season
ingredients tend to have less flavour.
19
IF YOU NEED TO USE OUT OF SEASON INGREDIENTS, YOU WILL RUN 3 RISKS:

20. The balance of 'costing the menu accurately' vs. 'what a customer will pay' in the
market for that dish is one of the most important things to remember. Be
prepared to change your first menu quickly. You have to collect your customers'
feedback and mould it to their taste.
Another important item that should be taken into account when putting together
your menu is who your suppliers will be. The choice of a partner supplier is quite
delicate. Think about the following details:
-COGS should be no more than 30% across your whole range.
-You should review your suppliers every 6 months for the best deal.
-You must have a costed menu.
-You should be stocktaking weekly, or at a bare minimum monthly.
What you don’t see you can’t change, so with COGS being one of the major costs
in a food venue, make sure you are across the detail.
20

21. When it comes to design, we usually get as excited as we did with
the menu development.
When choosing a service provider, many will sell you wonderful
projects, but unfortunately, they are out of the concept. So, choose
one, no matter how much it costs you, that you believe reflects your
beliefs and whom you feel most comfortable with, and lastly, that
has done some great work that reflects your brand's ethos and
identity.
Design and
Fitout - 5
21

22. Entry: Can customers access the doorway easily? Is there only one
entry, more than one is hard to service.
Floors: Will the floor work in high traffic? With so many floor
treatments it is important that it looks good but is functional.
Furniture: The seating and tables need to complement each other
and need to suit how quickly you need to flip customers. Less
comfortable if you want to move people quicker, and more
comfortable if you want them to linger and order two or three
drinks.
Kitchen: Get a qualified kitchen designer. That is all that needs to
really be said, other than focus on the elevations.
Equipment: Make sure it is in the right part of the venue for the
customer/staff flow that you will have.
Here are the most important parts of a venue to consider when
looking at a finished design:
22

23. Get to know your builder and shop fitter well: The nicer you are, the more they will care
about you as a client and want to do a good job.
Have a contingency fund: Something will come up and you need to have the funds to
supplement this.
Keep on top of your project manager: Make sure you get things in writing after
conversations and have meetings on-site regularly.
Have regular contact with your designer: Make sure they are adaptable to any changes
in their design.
Enjoy the ride as much as you can: You may open only one venue in your life, and even
though it is a stressful time, it is also very exciting.
And you also need to think about the fit-out, Here are a few simple tips:
Treat your contractors with kindness, be ready for things to be challenging, and this will
make sure you go a long way to surviving the fit-out stage.
23

24. This is the stage that your project comes to life!
Certainly, you may have heard of many colleagues, outbursts or requests "to put out a fire",
when one, if not more, of your employees calls in sick.
Recruiting a team, training them, putting your employees in the mould of your company, is a
task that is far from easy. But it doesn't have to be complicated.
We arrived at the chapter in which we will talk about how to “retain” your employees, based
on the principle of good recruitment and quality training.
Talent
Acquisition - 6
24

25. Choose a person who loves people. They will need to train often.
Make sure they share your ideals and wants for the business.
Take your time to recruit the right person.
Recruit the manager about 4-6 weeks before your opening so they
are embedded in the culture.
Once you hire them, trust them to execute
Be honest and allow them to come to you with issues and
solutions.
Keep a good connection with them to find out what they care
about. This will allow you to understand them and manage them
better.
Most important of all, empathy needs to be a dominant characteristic
of future employees and they need to be “tactful” with people as well.
After all, they will be the first ones your customers will encounter when
they step on your premises. Therefore, consider these points to recruit
the best staff:
25

26. Only have people who know that procedure fully train a new staff member. You’d be
surprised how much this doesn’t happen.
Dedicate a couple of staff members to be the only ones who train, hold them accountable
and acknowledge them for the work they do.
Have position descriptions for all staff.
Have a training plan for all staff.
Make training fun and have a training culture that shows ‘this is what we do’.
Review training schedules at weekly/monthly management meetings.
Give staff members the opportunity for progression through the brand.
Look after your team first and they will build a culture for success for you.
After hiring your talent, you need to train them properly:
26

27. Operation - 7
We come to our last chapter of the guide.
There are certainly many steps to be worked on before
thinking about having your business or even renewing it. All
the topics we have mentioned have a fundamental role in
the development of your business and this is no different
for the operation.
Developing the right systems and processes will allow you
to operate the venue to be consistent, and more
importantly, driving the path to success more easily.
27

28. Have regular meetings with your team. Daily, weekly
and monthly. Being aligned with your team and
collaborators is paramount.
Keep control of your cash flow. It is important you
know where your expenses are going.
Focus on staff culture and customer experience. Make
every staff member and customer feel welcome and
valued.
Trust your gut feelings on how the venue is going and
the service supporting it. Your customers will tell you
how things really are.
Don’t drop standards and keep consistency.
Have fun and laugh when you can. This will allow your
staff to relax.
Here are our main points for success:
Operating any food venue is tough. Just when you think
you have everything correct, something will happen that
you didn’t plan for.
Be flexible and open with your team and remember why
you started this exciting process.
Good luck and stay well!
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29. Recommendations
Conception and Design
Principle Design
Location and Leasing
Urban Food Collective
Finance
Rising Tide Financial Services
Food & Beverage, Talent Acquisition, Operation, and Conception
Open Pantry Consulting
29
Fitout
DCB Developments

30. www.openpantryconsulting.com
0414 240 261
shaun@openpantryco.com
Thank you
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