getting back on track ... meeting a mentor

over the last 2 weeks, i've been slacking ... taking time away from studying, working, and physical training to go shopping ... hasn't been the most productive week and actually bought and returned a leather jacket i thought all this time i wanted ...

while i've gotten the urge to shop out of my system, i've yet to get myself mentally back in the game to work hard for my goals ... this blog entry is to start documenting how to get myself on track and to make sure i'm following up on thoughts i've been thinking about doing in the past few months ...

i met with daryl ansel, director of ucla food services ... he was introduced by quan, my real estate agent, as the go to person for anything food and restaurant ... he is restaurant ... two weeks ago, in anticipation of meeting him, i've conjured up all these ideas and questions to review with him ... how do i raise funds, how do i start, how much does it cost, how do i meet chefs, are my ideas good ... even thought about showing him a business plan ... but i didn't come up with one ... instead, we had a casual conversation ... me spending most of my time introducing myself and talking about my background and where i would like to go ...

it went well, i guess i had too big an aspiration for our first meeting ... after talking about myself for a while, daryl threw out some good ideas:

- your financials and business plans are the most crucial ... you need to be able to acurately forecast your sales based on intelligent and comprehensive market research data so you know how much you will make and how much you can spend ... it's all inter-related ... this means, homework:

i. research population density; the higher the density, the better the business and traffic
ii. research local restaurants and bars and see what type of traffic they get and what customers are willing to pay
iii. liquour licenses can cost $80K - $100K; it's nearly impossible to get a license through ABC (Alcoholic Beverage Commission); so be ready to buy a license or buy an existing restaurant / bar ... the existing restaurant / bar has it's advantage as the kitchen, electricity, and all are likely laid out ... thus requiring less in renovation and equipment expenditures compared to setting up a new place from scratch

- in the next few months, my plan is to:

i. conduct market research on the venice market
ii. develop business plan including financials
iii. take cooking classes (e.g., the new school of cooking, sur la table, surfas, etc)
iv. network with cooking class chefs, see if i can "intern" or "volunteer" on saturdays to learn more about the kitchen
v. reach out to quan to discuss and look at existing restaurant / bars for sale

- some ideas that were interesting included:

i. non-alcoholic beverages; no club/bar has been successful in making good non-alcoholic beverages, there is a market for this
ii. asian bar food; no club/bar has been able to bring this to LA (west side)
iii. vegan/healthy food is emerging, but the market is still small (10%) and those interested may not be drinkers; so will not be target market
iv. some bars in czech republic have beer dispensers at the table, they promote inter-table drinking competition and inter-bar drinking competition; is this legal in the US?