BUSINESS PLAN

La’Pooh
Restaurant

Alexandra Takacs, Alexandra Bognar, Irina Litovcenco, Zsuzsa Deak and

Aaron Killman

01. Dec. 2009.

Executive Summary ................................................................................. 2  
#1 Business Idea ........................................................................................ 3  
#2 Industrial Analyses .............................................................................. 4  
Industry itself..............................................................................................4  
Main Competitors .......................................................................................5  
Future Trends and Strategic Opportunities ................................................5  
#3 Management Plan ................................................................................ 6  
Mission Statement: .....................................................................................6  
Core Values: ...............................................................................................6  
#4: Management Qualification and Compensation............................... 6  
#5 Products and Production .................................................................... 8  
#6. Marketing Plan ................................................................................... 9  
Marketing Program: ...................................................................................9  
#7 Estimating sales ................................................................................. 10  
References ............................................................................................... 12  

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Executive Summary

La’ Pooh is a children’s themed restaurant designed with the middle class family in
mind. It also caters to the tourist family who needs to find a way to entertain their
children when they grow tired of museums and statues. With a variety of activities
that children of all ages can enjoy it will be Budapest’s top children’s restaurant.
The restaurant industry in Hungary is a competitive but lucrative industry. With
about 30,000 places accounting for 18 billion dollars in sales the earning potential is
obvious. In the current economic crisis up to 30 percent of restaurants have failed.
This can be a great opportunity for our restaurant since these failures will lead to
openings in the market and reduce competition. In the restaurant industry one of the
most important factors is location. Our location in the heart of Budapest ensures good
visibility and easy access to all who decide to utilize our facilities. When location is
coupled with our high level of service and our concern for customer satisfaction we
can be sure that customers will return again and again.

While the restaurant industry in Budapest is very competitive as a whole, when you
break it down into smaller categories it is easy to find niche that needs to be filled. If
you look around Budapest you will see many cafes, fancy restaurants and themed
restaurants, but you will not see many children’s restaurants. The closest thing that
comes to our idea would be McDonalds and TGI Fridays. McDonalds is more of a
quick, relatively cheap way to eat and entertain your children and TGI Fridays is a
rather expensive place to eat and really doesn’t cater to children as well as it could.
Our restaurant will fit right between these two places with reasonably priced food that
includes a children’s oriented menu. If children cannot eat a full size adult meal than
why try and force them to. We will offer them smaller alternatives at an appropriately
reduced price to save both money and to prevent needless waste. Since we also offer
events planning and assistance we are taking out place to a higher level of children’s
service when compared with the competition.

Our plan is not to just open one restaurant in Budapest and then expect everybody to
come to us. Our plan is to begin with one restaurant in Budapest and after making a
name for ourselves we can expand in to various districts or even other cities. There
are many places around Budapest that are restaurant friendly and that we feel our style
of business would be warmly received. In the future we also plan on expanding
technologically as well. We plan on making online reservations and advanced
ordering one of our trademarks. Expanding into catering and event planning outside
of our restaurant is also a possibility.

Our restaurant will be run by five highly qualified individuals. Our management staff
has experience in waitressing, as well as training in various other forms of the
restaurant industry. All of them have been involved in the industry for years and plan
of bringing all of that experience together in one place. Their experience is what led

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to the idea of having a place for children and not just someplace to take children.
After having see children interacting with various other restaurants our team decided
to make our place more comfortable and entertaining for them.

Marketing will be very important to our restaurants success, especially in the

beginning. We have a plan that will enable us to reach our desired demographic in
various ways. By placing flyers near schools we can be assured that people with
children will be the ones to see them. By placing ads in the local papers we reach
many more people who may have friends or relatives with children and they in turn
may spread news of or establishment through word of mouth. Through direct mail we
can also target specific areas that we feel our message may not be reaching, and
through billboards we can assume that tourists and other travels will learn about our
place. Finally our website rounds out our marketing plan by providing easy access to
anybody with an internet connection.

To get our idea off the ground we were required to take a loan to cover the necessary
costs that come with starting a business in Hungary. We also will rent our location to
begin with in order to save on upfront costs. To begin with we will have twelve
employees; this is the optimum amount that ensures we have enough people to run
everything in an economical way. In the future after we pay down our loans and our
customer base expands we can expect to hire more people as well as having the option
of buying our own location.

#1 Business Idea

La’ Pooh will be a unique restaurant that caters to families with children. In Budapest
it is difficult to find a true children’s style restaurant that are popular in many other
countries. We want to fill this need with a restaurant that delivers quality services at
reasonable prices. Many people take their children to fast food places as a treat but
there is only so much you can get out of a fast food visit. At our restaurant there will
not only be a menu that offers a wider range of choices but there will be
more activities to engage and entertain children for longer periods. Do to the many
tourists as well as embassies and international companies in Budapest that bring in
international employees who are used to having children’s restaurants in their home
countries we are sure that they will utilize our establishment as well.

As a children’s restaurant our primary focus will be on children and what they like as
well as what their parents like. We all know that parents and children do not always
agree on what they should do so we hope to create an environment that both can agree
to. As a restaurant we will have to provide good food that is appealing to both the
young and old. We will have to include the usual children’s food choices as well as
some health food choices to ensure a well rounded menu. The adults will have the

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option of ordering larger menus with foods catered to their taste, of course anybody
can choose from either menu.

In addition to food services we will also provide activities and entertainment for
children. This child friendly environment will be central to our business success.
People can take their children to any restaurant for a meal but how often do the
children become bored after a few minutes in a traditional restaurant? If the children
have various forms of entertainment from balloon making clowns to books and the
option of drawing on special walls than both parents and children are more likely to
enjoy their visit. To top it all off drawing contests will be held to help motivate
children to explore their creative minds.

As a restaurant we obviously will be service oriented. Our primary customers will be

middle class families with your children. During the high tourism season we also
hope to attract tourists travelling with their young children. Our restaurant will be a
good place for them to relax and not have to worry so much about their children. Our
staff will receive specialty training in dealing with children to ensure a safe
environment in which the children are supervised but not overly so.

Finally our restaurants location in Budapest will make it very convenient for all
people. As Budapest has an outstanding public transportation system and we will be
working out a parking reimbursement plan it will reduce some of the hassle of inner
city movement. Our company’s success is centered on our family friendly approach
and our concern for children and their families. Our unique entertaining atmosphere
will also ensure that when asked where they would like to go for a meal their first
thought will be our place.

#2 Industrial Analyses

Industry itself
According to National Restaurant Association research total sales of restaurant
business n USA is $566 Billion, it consists of about 945,000 locations and counts 13
million employees and the total Restaurant-Industry Share of the Food Dollar is 48%.(
Restaurant Industry Facts at a Glance, 2009). If we refer this Statistics to Hungarian
environment, we can provide a relation between Restaurant industry both in Hungary
and USA. And according to provided proportion, such numbers are identified that in
Hungary there are about 30,000 places that provide a total sale that is about $18
billion. This statistic shows that restaurant industry can be called one of the most
mature and stable, but because of the economic crisis, an increasing number of
restaurants in the world are either closing down, or in obvious financial distress. That
also relates to Hungarian restaurant industry, which also suffers from crisis.
Approximately 30% of restaurants all over the world failed during the current

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economic crisis. More and more restaurants are going to be closed (Restaurant
Industry Facts at a Glance, 2009).

Besides, this can be an unexpected opportunity for opening a new and successful
restaurant, in case it drives with new idea, and touches a new target market, providing
new service that will attract current customers.

The success of the company also depends on different factors: first of all a restaurant
has to have a good location that is available not only for tourists that usually walk
through the city centre but also for native citizens. Another important aspect of a new
business is to decide what the target market of the restaurant is and analyze the
atmosphere of current world. These factors can help to lead the business to success,
but being ready for unexpected threats are also important. Analyzing the industry
itself, we also tried to find the psychological view of current customers.

Today, more and more people have less time, resources and abilities to spend enough
time with their children. Current parents seek for an alternative ways of spending time
all together, and having good quality meal. Parents are much more interested in health
of their kids, have less time for entertaining them, so that’s why they seek for a good
place where they can spend time all together. And our restaurant is well positioned for
the current interest in producing qualified food from moderate to low prices as well as
entertaining service. According to the Werner study, customers now expect to spend
an average of $12 per meal when dining out. That means that we are going to cut cost
to satisfy our customer not only with a good service, but reasonable prices too
(Werner, n.d.).

Main Competitors
The restaurant business in Budapest is very competitive. The main players in
Budapest restaurant industry are Gundel Café, Babel, Costes, Il Patio, Onyx, Leroy
Café, Fresco and etc. But none of them provide a well-organized entertaining program
for children. Our main competitors are Mc Donald’s restaurant and T.G.I. Fridays
they provide the same service of entertaining children, but more interested in
providing fast food products for more adult generation.

Unlike to our competitors, we are more concerned about our young customers and
their parents. We are going to provide not only tasty and quality food, but also to give
our customers a friendly and warm experience. Organize their important events, and
gather the whole family at once.

Future Trends and Strategic Opportunities

In future we expect to expand our opportunities in attracting more customers. We are
going to open more restaurants in different districts of Budapest, in some malls like
Mammut, Westend and etc. Provide more range of services, such as delivering our
products to the home of our customer. As the technological progress is expending, we

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have to think about new services that will help our customers have access to our Web
site from their home. We plan to open an online web shop, where our customers can
reserve some meals, and entertaining programs that would be delivered straight to
their house or other places.

#3 Management Plan

Mission Statement:
To provide patrons top-notch food service coupled with an entertaining atmosphere
that delivers a unique dining experience.

Core Values:
We are focused on the food and so we must continuously check to ensure our
standards are upheld. Our food must not only meet but, exceed customer expectations
to ensure they are getting the best value.

Dining and entertainment is what we do. We strive to remain the best in both areas
through each employee’s personal commitment to excellence.

Our top responsibility is the customer who believes that we will deliver on our
promise of top notch food service and entertainment. We listen to their comments and
consider them to be an integral part of our restaurant.

#4: Management Qualification and Compensation

The strength of our management staff positions us for success. We have assembled a
team that embraces different disciplines, accomplished professionals with expertise in
all areas of the business. The management team to run the day-to-day operations and
shifts at the new location will include Irina Litovcenco, Alexandra Takacs, Zsuzsa
Deak, Alexandra Bognar and Aaron Killman.

People are the single most important element in our operations. We value the
managers and staff as the single most important element in running a quality
operation; the managers need to be all on the same page of operations. We have found
that friendly strong managers make friendly strong crew people. From that crew
comes the next generation of managers and a quality operation. The customers can see
it in the quality of the food, how clean the store is and how friendly and fast they are
served.

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ALEXANDRA TAKACS, PRESIDENT/OWNER OPERATOR

Owner Operator of La’Pooh.

Duties: strategic development, back-office administration, financial analysis, internal

control, taxes and accounting records, daily operations, quality control, advertising,
food costs, labor costs, liquor cost, oversee management controls, maintenance and
repairs, and building the business profits.

IRINA LITOVCENCO, GENERAL MANAGER

General Manager of La Pooh.

before: waitress in Gundel (Andrássy út)

Duties: daily operations, new management development, scheduling, ordering, food,
labor, and liquor controls, quality controls, maintenance/repairs, crew training,
employment, crew's hourly wages, pay increases, and overall store operations.

AARON KILLMAN, DINING ROOM MANAGER

Dining room Manager of La’Pooh.

for 4 years Aaron has recently completed training

Aaron has a real talent for dealing with all aspects of the business.
Duties: daily operations, ordering, inventory, new hires and crew moral. Aaron is
responsible for choosing the good staff members.

ZSUZSA DEAK. KITCHEN MANAGER

Kitchen Manager of La’Pooh.

Zsuzsa has a real talent for dealing with all aspects of the business. She is responsible
for organizing the parties well (including: invited the clowns, decide the games that
will be played etc). She gets on well with children.
Duties: quality controls, kitchen procedures, labor and food costs controls, scheduling
and overall kitchen operations. Zsuzsa will use her experience to train and oversee the
new kitchen manager coming on board.

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ALEXANDRA BOGNAR, CHEF

Chef of La’Pooh.

Duties: creativity to make the menu and seasonal changes (fresh summer food, spicy
winter food etc), train the employees, use and teach of own recipes, make sure the
quality of food before taking them to customers, overall kitchen operations
Additional:
bartender (if we are going to deal with alcohol as well..)
one who is responsible for dishwashing
waiters, waitresses ( we have 3 of them)
cleaners

#5 Products and Production

Our children-centered restaurant, the La’Pooh will provide, happy, friendly and cozy
atmosphere for all families. The appearance of the place will be eye-catching, colorful
and charming. We imagined that the equipments inside will be soft, colorful, creative,
playful, safe and entertaining. One of the walls will be the so called “creativity wall”
where you can paint anything you want. Even more we will put crayons and coloring
books on every table so the children won’t be bored while they are waiting for the
meals.

This restaurant will be very unique in Budapest. We give people not only quality food
but entertainment and fun as well. Our main characteristic feature is to create a place
which is totally opposite of the current atmosphere of the world. We want to give
happiness and make people to look at the world through children’s eyes for that time
while they are there.

We will hire only well qualified chefs and cooks and we will take care of the waiters’,
waitresses’ experiences with children and entertaining. That is very important because
they are representing our company, mistakes are not allowed, we will look after this.
That is why this restaurant will be reliable.

About the durability. We are going to be located in the heart of Budapest in the nicest,
wealthiest, most popular place. We expect tourist’s as much as local people. Currently
children became very important. A few years ago we haven’t seen as much play
houses, playgrounds, toy shops, cartoons, movies as today. Think of for example
IKEA, there is a whole part inside only for children. Furniture, textiles, decorations,
toys, and in the restaurant there are children menus, chairs, plates and cutleries.
Parents and kids love it!

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 We cannot really consider IKEA as a competitor for us, because people’s purpose in
going there has nothing to do with food, but to buy furniture and that is a plus service
that there is a canteen. Our main competitor is McDonald’s. They have playgrounds,
and the Happy Meal Menu with the toys, but McDonald’s is a fast food restaurant
with extremely unhealthy food, impersonal service, atmosphere and it is too crowded.

International creative food and a style of service that will make everyone
feel welcome and special in our restaurant. Our food products will be one of the finest
qualities and prepared with sensitivity and care. We will do everything to satisfy our
guests. The restaurant staff will offer the finest service in a cozy atmosphere and offer
customers an extraordinary time. Our menu will change according to the actual
season. Especially at Halloween, Christmas, Easter and Summer time.

#6. Marketing Plan

La’Pooh Restaurant will focus on attracting a wide and diverse clientele ages 03-60
with an annual income of at least 8300 Dollars (692/month).

We want big families, small families, people without children just to enjoy the
atmosphere and tourists. Our geographic demographic includes people from the local
area, from suburban cities and tourists from other cities and countries. The
characteristics of our clientele will be adults who are creative, entertaining and like to
be childlike and obviously they like children.

Marketing Program:
• Flyers – Flyering at stations, put flyers to nursery schools and primary schools.
• Newspaper campaign - Placing several large ads throughout the month to deliver our
concept to local area.
• Direct mail piece - Containing interior pictures of our restaurant, our menu, "Special
Parties," catering and an explanation of our concept.
• Billboard Advertisement - One month prior to the opening, clearly understandable
billboard ads will advertise the launch of the Restaurant.
• Inner & Outer City Marketing - We will budget to attract customers from the suburbs.
• Website - In this age of communication more and more customers look to a website
for information and assistance in purchasing products. We will be part of that great
communication tool used by everyone every day. La’Pooh Restaurant’s website will
be the virtual business card and portfolio for the company, colorful, creative and well
designed. Our site will offer our menus, prices, reviews and happenings at La’Pooh’s.
We will also have a monthly newsletter about what did happen at La’Pooh’s to get
new customers interested in our restaurant.
• You will also be able to send us an E-mail when you want to make reservations at our
restaurant. Fast, easy and convenient!

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Our sales plan is to establish and maintain position with our local customers. The
strategy is to get more customers in order to increase income. Sales in our business
are client service. We will focus on making all our customers happy with our food,
service and entertainment options. Our strategy is simple: we intend to succeed by
giving our customers a combination of delicious and interesting food in a friendly
environment, with excellent customer service, whether on their first visit or their
hundredth. We will train every new employee so they will fit in with La’Pooh’s
concept, which is "Dream world food, wonderland atmosphere." We will have special
packages for birthday parties or holiday parties and the customers can choose which
one they want. Our sales strategies must take the next step and encourage customers
to become regular customers, and to tell all their friends and acquaintances about the
great experiences they just had at La’Pooh.
Our prices won’t be that high that only the upper class could come. We want all kind
of families so the prices will be in middle category. Main dishes will be around 10-15
$, the desserts and snacks 5-10 $.

#7 Estimating sales

Our restaurant provides a wide variety of food in our well-developed menu. If you
would like to see it in details, look up the appendix number 1 where you can find our
expected menu for three years of our business. There you can find the average prices
of certain types of food (drinks, snacks, main dishes, deserts and entertainment
packages). As we are a children restaurant we provide entertainment programs for
kids. For an approximately of 65 dollars with the entertainment package they will
receive their presents and the programs are also included (like clowns or dancer’s
show and entertaining games) and the birthday cake. We are flexible to any changes
in connection with the packages (so our customers can replace the cake with
something else for example).

In Hungary, restaurants are maintained in a form of limited partnership. According to

the newest law, to make it, we need 2700 dollars and a lawyer for registration. We, as
the 5 founders altogether do not have the money which is needed for this so we were
offered a loan.

As for place – we do not think of buying something since we will have just around the
minimum amount of money to start our business, so we decided to rent a restaurant
that is already has its kitchen equipped. So we only have to spend money on the
design (1500 dollars for designs, 1500 for furniture and 450 for tableware)

Just for the beginning we decided to hire 3 waitresses, 1 cooker, 1 chef, 1 cleaner, 1
accountant, 4 managers and an entertainer. The salaries are expressed in a yearly
average. A cooker will receive 18000, the cleaner will get 3600, the waitress will be

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paid 7200, for the accounting person we will give 12000, the managers (us) get 18000
and the entertainer will receive 6000. The whole expense of salaries for workers is
151200 dollars for the first year.

As for other expenses, we estimate 10000 dollars for advertising, 25000 for research
and development and the total cost of the rent will be 30000. Others: shipping cost
around 250, utilities 1000, 2500 for insurance, 400 for maintenance and office
expenses around 250.

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References

Restaurant Industry Facts at a Glance,(2009).[online]. [Accessed 15th Nov 2009.]

Available from World Wide Web:
< http://www.restaurant.org/research/ind_glance.cfm>

Rosenberg.M ,(2008). Current U.S.A. Population. The Population of the United

States of America).[online]. [Accessed 15th Nov 2009.] Available from World Wide
Web:
<http://geography.about.com/od/obtainpopulationdata/a/uspopulation.htm >

Budapest III. - Gazdaság, közlekedés, népesség. (2008). [online]. [Accessed 15th Nov
2009.]. Available from World Wide Web:
<http://www.kvizkaszino.hu/rovatok/cikkek/budapest_gazdasaga.html>

Free Restaurant Cafe and Bakery Business Plans. [online]. [Accessed 15th Nov
2009.]. Available from World Wide Web:
<http://www.bplans.com/restaurant_cafe_and_bakery_business_plan_templates.cfm>

References for finances:

Tuti-Drink, (2009) [online]. [Accessed 15th Nov 2009.]. Available from World
Wide Web:
<http://www.tuti-drink.hu/index.php?page=arlista&oldal=11>
(Beverage Price list)

Slando,(2009) ) [online]. [Accessed 15th Nov 2009.]. Available from World Wide
Web:
<http://ingatlan.slando.hu/budapest/etterem_kiado_P_14779525.html>
(Restaurant building Rent Magazine)

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