American Business is overwhelmingly Small Business According to data from the Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs. There are 5.6 million employer firms in the United States and 89% have fewer than 20 workers. The Steps to Start a Business can be challenging and time consuming for potential entrepreneurs.
While doing my research I decided I wanted to become an entrepreneur and open my own Restaurant Brokerage Firm. I knew after working with one of the nation’s largest Restaurant Brokerage Firms for over 7 years as a Sales Development Manager and Restaurant Broker, I was qualified to be my own Broker!
This blog is about my experience during my first 90 days since I opened EATS Restaurant Brokers. The challenges have been monumental at times, the setbacks have been hurtful, but the rewards have overshadowed all the negative the obstacles. I have listed some important steps I had to complete and a mistake I made during the process.
Organize Business Entity
The first obstacle was establishing the business entity. The first items I addressed in order are listed below:
– Drafted a Business Plan
– Set up Business Structure
– Set up Business License- create the company name
– Applied for an EIN (Employee Identification Number)
– Set up Business Account
– Set up an accounting system for debits and credits
– Created a Marketing Plan
– Created a Marketing Budget
Create a Website
The presentation of your business can make or break your business in the beginning stages of a company start-up. Like most start-up companies I was trying to save money any way that I could. I first used a Website developer based out of India, the prices were affordable and the websites this company produced looked good.
Once I paid my money and provided content and pictures for my website, it was completed in about 4 weeks. The website was active for one week before I started to have issues. After three weeks my website had an error message, I could not get in contact with the website developer.
Once I knew I have got scammed I quickly found a website developer located in the USA that specialized in Business Broker websites. The website development team made the process simple and my new website was down six weeks later. I paid double the price of my previous website but the quality is so much better.
It’s true you get what you pay for!
Marketing
Getting customers is the difference between closing the doors and succeeding. I did not start my business with a huge marketing budget.
I’ve spent countless hours cold calling restaurant owners, sending emails, sending mailers, and networking to get restaurant seller leads. Branding myself on social media and blogging has been time-consuming activities but have been successful in getting leads.
The marketing aspect of my business as a Restaurant Brokerage has been a challenging learning experience. The freedom to be creative with my marketing has been the most satisfying reward for opening my business.
There are more than 28 million small businesses in the United States, making up a whopping 99.7 percent of all U.S. businesses, according to the Small Business Administration. I’m glad that EATS Restaurant Brokers is one of those companies!
For more information on the restaurant market and other available consulting services or restaurant valuations, contact Dominique Maddox at 404-993-4448 or by email at [email protected]. Visit our website at www.EATSbrokers.com
