business plan finance

( DeVry Inc   |   MGMT 600   |   November 24, 2015 ) ( i CHEF )

Service Concept

iChef is your modern day person chef. If you have access to a tablet or phone you are one step closer to requesting the meal of your choice. The meal is prepared exactly how you like it right down to the seasoning choice and temperature. Once you log into the app you will need input your delivery address to ensure you are within the delivery radius. If your address is within our delivery radius, you will then be directed to the daily menu options/specials for the day. Your next step is to choose your meat and preparations choices. For example, if you chose chicken you will then decide if you want it fried, baked, broiled or sautéed along with which seasons you would prefer. The house mixture or a general season like sazon, salt, pepper or variety of spicy seasons will be offered as an option, this will included fat free ingredients as well. Next is your vegetable option and preparation choice, steamed, sautéed or baked. As each meal is designed to have protein, vegetables, fruits and whole grains; the final lay out is initially up to the customer. Beverages are offered at an additional cost but not required. As you choose each option a clock in the lower right corner will detail how long it will take to prepare your meal in its entirety. Next you will input your remaining personal information to ensure travel time is calculated as well. For an extra fee you have the option of streaming live to watch your meal being prepared in our state of the art kitchen area. Once your meal is completely prepared it is packed up in heated travel containers to arrive at your destination in 15-20 minutes. Once we arrive we will set up the meal for a comfortable dining experience, thank you for your order, bid our farewells and leave the customer to enjoy their meal!

As we market our business as being “the personal Chef you can afford”, we pride ourselves on making sure you receive that home cooked feeling. As technology is evolving there may come a time where you only need to leave home if you want too. Our product is designed to give couples that “date night feeling” at home, give single male/females that “home cooked meal” without lifting a finger, or that individual that is a workaholic the opportunity to enjoy a meal that is “made especially for them”.

As you hear about our product I am sure you are wondering what makes our product “THAT PRODUCT”. The sparkle in our product is “personalization”,each meal is prepared how you like it and delivered when you want it. We want each of our customers to become a returning customer that brings a friend, who in turn brings a friend that will eventually bring the whole neighborhood!

Target Market & Segmentation

The business will target people aged 25-50 years old, families with a net income of $80,000 and above, professional white collar occupations and people located in and around the town. The restaurant business will be situated at the heart of the town in which most of the inhabitants are the working class. That is majorly our target population. These are the majority of the people in the region and would serve as a very profitable customer base. Working bachelors provide the best population in the market to target as they have the money to use and will most of the time prefer eating out rather than cook for themselves. We are also looking into serving the single parents home that would prefer eating outside once in a while. Families setting would be very pleased of our presence here. The town is growing and having said this, it looks very promising as more and more people are finding themselves coming to the town for employment. As much as we are offering the same food as some online restaurant businesses in town, we will be providing a wide range of products that are not available in the other restaurant. We will also look at how to reduce the delivery time to about 1 hours since the order was placed in order to attract more customers with urgent orders. Quality will be our most attractive aspect of the business of which the customers will be assured off.

Value Proposition

iChef is your very own personal Chef. We are here for our customers to serve affordable quality food with a 5 Star culinary experience. We have conducted surveys to the Lake View Community and to potential customers to find out, what kind of food customers are looking for, what they are willing to pay, and if they are willing to allow us intheir homes. Our survey has concluded that 85% of our survey takers only cook 2-5 times a week and will allow a Chef into their homes to prepare a meal. 65% of our survey takers were women between the ages of 25-50 with annual salary of upwards of $50-85,000. This tells us that this is a need for convenience, and balance. Our survey results have helped us with our pricing strategy, demographics and target audience. We offer what our competition is not, a culinary experience with all the trimmings. We will prepare the meal and potentially be your servers for the evening, which will include organic food prepared just as you like it, floral and entertainment depending upon preference.

Pricing Strategy

iChef wants to offer our consumers the best possible pricing for the meal of their choice. To help appeal to our consumers, we offer special promotions and family group prices at a feasible discounted rate. Pricing is one of the most critical components of marketing because it helps create sales profit and possibly increase market shares. Our pricing structure will be based on the average market price for certain food items and the prices of our competitors. While there are no direct competitors for iChef, we compared prices from similar companies to create a more competitive market. Our pricing will reflect the type of food we offer, the necessary ingredients, pricing for the delivery services and set up, a convenience fee, promotion and more. The pricing model will also include a fee for and client/customer that are interested in streaming live to watch the preparation of the meal by our amazing Chefs and staffing assistants. Within three years, we plan to roll out our catering services to local businesses which include events like: Parties, Baby Shower, Anniversaries, and Retirements, Company functions and more.

Our Menu Prices will range from the following:

Set Up Delivery Charge: $10-15 (depending on the type of order and area) Food Menu & Prices Appetizers: $18-$55 Salads: $10.95-$35.95 Entrees: $25 - $75 (does not include package deals) Side orders: $5-$10 per side Desserts: $12-$40 ($30 is an example of a whole cake or pie) Beverages Water: $2.50 Fountain Drink: $3-$5 Wine (red & White): $25 and up Top Shelf Alcohol Options $20 and up Promotion & Special Offers: · Family meals under $50, not including dessert · Show us your child good report card and they will receive a free dessert. · After your 5th order, our personal chef will prepare the meal in your home (optional). · For new members: if your first purchase is over $100, you will receive a free dessert and $10 off your next order.

Sales & Marketing Strategy

Our day/time of operation is Sunday through Thursday for individual/ family meals (max of 6 people per order). The business will operate during the hours of 5:00pm until 11:00pm central time zone. Our Fridays and Saturdays will operate for scheduled catering events only. Customers can make their reservations and orders during these times and give specific details about the order and delivery time. Our delivery time could possibly vary depending on distance and awful weather conditions, but our goal is to ensure delivery time is kept between 30-60 minutes this is to stay in sync with competitors that offer customers 24 hours for delivery. The selling points will focus to on mobile and online customers. The app/website detailed information for iChefis going to initially start with word of mouth from the executive staff, then proceed to social media twitter and Facebook because it is no cost assessed. The advertisementwill include the location of the restaurant, steps for placing an order, terms of our services, payment methods and the business hours along with any current promotions we will have. We will also advertise our promotional strategies on the website as well as our offers for each day. The website will also inform customers about the upcoming events, and special menu items. We will maintain a blog for which the management and the staff will have access to after the special dinners and events where they will write about the experience and invite other to come and be part of them. As far as the budgeting goes, we will have a 20% margin on sales that will be used on the advertisement of the restaurant and what it offers. In this amount, promotional events will also be organized out of it.

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