Blog 19: Third Answer

Technically it's my condescending question and I hope all three of my answers were adequate

• EQ: How can a manager ensure a successful start up restaurant? 
• In order for a manager to ensure a successful start up restaurant they must have a fully detailed business plan.

"Communication is one of the key purposes of a business plan." It makes it easier when you are receiving a new member in to your restaurant, you can show them the business plan so they can get the big idea about what your restaurant is about. And you can easily share your business plan with companies that are interested in investing and especially when you are choosing to apply for a loan. It gives places an idea of your companies financial plan. 

"Helping you to manage your business is another important purpose of a business plan." Your plan is essentially a goal set for even before you started your restaurant. It helps keep everything under control, if your actual sales don't match your sales set in your business plan you can get an idea of what you must work on. 

"Your business plan can continue to guide you through various stages of growth as your business progresses." You can look back at your business plan to look over what worked for your business at one point if things within the restaurant start going south. Sort of like a reference sheet.

Your business plan already gives you the ideas on how to reach out to your customers. Use these methods when sales aren't so great. Use the sales section of the business plan so you can determine which specific types of advertisement would be best for your business plan. Then continue with modifications as your restaurant begins to expand.

1) http://smallbusiness.chron.com/business-plan-important-small-business-2672.html

2) http://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-purpose-business-plan-760.html
3) http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/83818

• A business plan is a pre-restaurant statement. It helps you set the goals for your restaurant. When your restaurant becomes a reality it will become important for you to reference back to the business plan to ensure you are keeping up with these goals to ensure success. 

Blog 12- Holiday Project Update

*Getting back to school, time to put my grr face on*

1.  It is important to consistently work on your senior project, whether it is break or we are in school.  What did you do over the break with your senior project?

I actually continued to work on my independent component during my "me times" when I wasn't spending time with my family. I got to finish up the executive summary part of my business plan although technically that is something that is saved for last, I already had a general idea of what I wanted in a restaurant, so I can just change up some parts as I continue on completing my business plan. I also got to spend some more time with my mentor, we had some brief talks about my business plan. 

2.  What was the most important thing you learned from what you did, and why?  What was the source of what you learned?

The most important thing I learned is that time and structure is everything. I had actually started off my business plan thinking I was just going write about a simple Italian restaurant but then I started thinking more about perhaps making it a bit more new, something more challenging and I started thinking about a vegan only restaurant, I started thinking about the different costs since vegetables and other vegan dietary substances do actually cost more than pastas. I also started thinking about how many people are actually interested in vegan food, I want to be able to reach a broader range of customers. How can I convince other perhaps non-vegans to give my restaurant a try? Hopefully this will be more of a challenge and so far I'm having fun with it. 

3.  Your third interview will be a 10 question interview related to possible answers for your EQ. Who do you plan to talk to and why?

I actually plan to talk to one of my friends uncles, she has two uncle's that own a Peruvian restaurant if I recall correctly, she offered to help me get an interview with them. I'm hoping since they are two restaurant owning people they can give me an honest report on what it is like for them to run their restaurant. 

Blog 1 – Senior Final Lesson/Interview Reflection

1.What three lessons were most helpful for you to see, and why?

The three lessons that were most helpful for me to see were the ones centered upon Business Management, Engineering and Negligence Law. These were the main topics that I was considering when thinking of my senior project, I wanted to know what sort of mentorship they took on and what their role was and if they actually felt like they learned something while "on the job"

2.List one thing that you learned about the senior project in interviews that will help you get off to a good start?

One thing that I learned from the senior interviews that will help me get off to a better start would be when they told me "it's not easy getting a mentor, you have to be very persistent or they just forget about you". I hadn't originally thought about how hard it would be to find a mentor, I thought that all I had to do was find a nice community service area and perhaps find someone working there that is well credited in the line of work that I am looking for, ask them if they would mind mentoring me and they would most likely say yes. I now have to subtract that "most likely" part. If I had gone in to summer with my original mindset that mentorship would be easy I probably would have placed finding a mentor to the last month of summer.

3.What topic(s) are you considering, and why?

My number one topic as of now would be business management, mainly because I am working at a restaurant right now and I am good friends with the owner so I sometimes see how she runs things around the place and ever since I first started working there I had been wondering how she can run a business all by herself. My aunt had also started her own catering business a while ago, she was successful but it only lasted about two years before she had her baby and other stuf with work came up and she could no longer find the time to run her little business, but I had always admired how she was able to begin something from the ground up.

4.What EQ do you think might be interesting to consider in guiding a project like this? (Please don't worry about any sort of formula...we want this question to come from your genuine interest).

I had started thinking about an essential question ever since Ortega walked in to Edwards class to explain the senior project, so far I have, "What is the most essential quality needed in order to open a successful restaurant?". It is still a work in progress but some potential answers include location, customer service, management or media advertisement.

5.What are some ideas you have about finding summer mentorship?

Like I had stated above I am good friends with the owner of the restaurant I am currently working at, I could always ask her for her guidance, but she might be too busy. Another option would be asking the manager of this other venue that my brother works at, they are good friends and I am sure that if I introduce myself, state my project goal and with my brothers recommendation the manager wouldn't mind being my mentor.