Beginners' Guide to Expand Food Business

1. WHO is your target audience

It is always important to be aware of who your target audiences are; and the persona that these target audiences have in terms of consumption. Say for example, we have narrowed down young adults aging from 18-35 years old as our target audience. What we did, is effectively scoping in and determining the research subjects to explore the preferences and likings of our selected audiences.

2. WHAT are the current food business trends

After segmenting your target market, identify what are the trends and preferences. What are some other factors that will influence or impact the taste preference? You will need to consider the possibility for it to undergo maturation over time. Take a look at how competitors do it. What are the changes needed?

Check out Current Food Trends in Singapore 2019!

3. WHERE to expand your food business

If you are thinking that the answer is what your "gut feel" tells you, you are terribly wrong. Most FnB owners fall under the misconception that if any location is near the MRT station, they are at the best strategical location! But that is not true, deciding on your next big outlet requires much research and study of the target audience and also the terrain.Following the example above, we have already determined that young adults aging from 18-35 are our target audiences. Once we know that, we can perform different sorts of research to test the feasibility of certain locations to expand to. The image below shows the heat map of young adults living around the area of the different MRT stations. Not every MRT station is filled with young adults. For an instance, Jurong east's location is not as populated with young adults as compared to Tampines (from the heat map below).

4. WHEN to expand your food business

To take advantage of the food-frenzy, one must act fast and leverage on the hype to garner attention for your brand. After studying the market, you should start on implementing them. The longer you wait to implement your plans, the less accurate your strategy will be as trends will change.

5. WHY plan to expand food business

"If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail."Benjamin Franklin

A successful business needs to think forward to solutions in order to grow. A simple business expansion planning will help any growing company to thrive bigger and achieving more things. With your restaurant expansion business plan, you can reach more first-time customers, and introduce them to your business as a first mover.

6. HOW to plan for food business expansion

There are 4 ideas on how your plans to expand the food business can be successful:

1. Add new products or services - From your research on your customers' preferences or the current trends, you can plan to add new products on your menu or extra services to maximize their dining experience in your restaurant.
2. Sell more variants to your existing products or services - If you plan to keep consistency in your menu book, you can explore on selling more variants to your existing products (e.g. different flavors, size portions, etc).
3. Expand to new markets - Instead of targeting the same old market, you can consider planning to appeal to a more target audience.
4. Tap into new marketing channels - Like how countless companies have taken advantage of online opportunities, consider investing more time and effort on new marketing strategies and channels. (Read here for low-budget marketing ideas!)

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