Taste of Han Dynasty Business Plan /
Prepared by Ying Xue, Yang Wang /

Executive Summary

Han Dynasty plays a prominent role in Chinese history and it still has a great impact on Chinese society. Meanwhile, recent years, the mainland of China has seen a big culture revival movement. So we consider this as an appropriate opportunity to operate our business and also being a part of this movement.

Taste of Han Dynasty: a place to taste history is a theme restaurant that aims at providing customers a special dining place which allows them feel and experience Han Dynasty culture and atmosphere. We are going to operate our restaurant in Nanjing, which is a popular tourism city of China. We decided to locate our business in China mainly because of the background we mentioned previously and we believe Chinese people will understand our idea much better and more familiar with the topic. We segment our customers into three target markets, which are local people, people who love history and culture, and tourists. In terms of products, we will provide everything that one restaurant is supposed to have as well as our own specialized products accordingly. Employees that that will be hired to help to run our restaurant include two managers, a full time accountant, full time and part time chefs and waiters (waitresses). We believe this organization structure will be effective for our 400 square meters (one floor) restaurant that concludes a maximum sitting capacity at 200. All full time employees will be working 360 days a year from 11am to 11pm.

To realize our business plan, we require a $750,000 financing budget, which contains a 55% of equity that comes from our parents and friends, and rest of 45% of debt that we plan to borrow from bank. Unlike many other businesses, we see a positive net income of $54,739 in the first year and it continues to grow up in the following next four years.

With all of these saying and our marketing strategies that will be presented in detail, we are very confident that Taste of Han Dynasty will fill up the vacant position in current market and contribute to culture and entertainment development of China.

Table of Contents

Executive Summary...... 2

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Mission Statement

1.2 Corporate Goals

1.3 Industry Overview...... 6

2.0 Operating Plan...... 7

2.1Location...... 7

2.2Site Plan...... 8

2.3Floor Plan...... 9

2.4 Quality Control Program...... 10

2.5 Suppliers...... 11

3.0 Human Resources...... 12

3.1 Job Descrptions...... 12

3.2Human resource wages...... 14

3.3Hours of Operation...... 14

3.4Training Program...... 15

4.0Marketing Plan...... 15

4.1Competition...... 16

4.2Positioning...... 17

4.3Products

4.4Pricing

4.5Promotion

4.6Segmentation and Targeting...... 19

5.0Financial Plan...... 21

5.1 Indirect Competition...... 21

5.2 Summary of Project Income

5.3 Summary of Projected Balance Sheet...... 23

5.4 Risk Analysis...... 23

5.5Critial Variables...... 23

5.6Break-Even Analysis...... 24

5.7Contingency Plan...... 25

5.8Net Present Value and IRR...... 25

6.0 Conlusion...... 26

1.0 Introduction

Taste of Han Dynasty is the first restaurant which themed on Han Dynasty. People could get special experience for dinning in Taste of Han Dynasty, since it is not only a place that people could have dinner here, people could also have experiences on culture of Han Dynasty.

On top of providing the dining experience to customers, Taste of Han Dynasty focuses on the atmosphere which provides to customers. In Taste of Han Dynasty, there are bridge, small pavilions and stone chairs around the main dinning building. Also, the main dining building would be in Han Dynasty Style, people feel the cutural atmospere while they have dinner here.

1.1 Mission

Our mission is to spread the culture of Han Dynasty,attractingincreasing people to have interest on Han Dynasty. Also, providing great tasty foods and culturalatmosphere for customers is another mission of Taste of Han Dynasty.

1.2 Goals and objectives

Our goal is to approach our mission statement and satisfy our customers so they return and acts ambassadors for our business while generating above industry average profits to position us for future growth and expansion into new market.

Short-term objectives (1 -2 years)

Reach our assumed customers per day which is 150 customers per day

Be protitable in first two years

Develop complete accounting, operating and Human resource systems

Long-term objectives (3-5 years)

“Taste of Han Dynasty” would be a well know brand among local people and tourists

Shareholders should be satisfied by the dividend

2/3 portion of the bank loan would be paid

1.3 Industry overview

Nanjing is the capital city of Jiangsu province, and it is the second largest city in east part of China. The population of Nanjing is approximately 8 million people. Moreover, economy of Nanjing is also strong, since our restaurant is market on high-end, Nanjing could a suitable location that many people could afford to have dinner in our restaurant.

The restaurant industry is competitive. The barriers to enter this industry are few, since it requires relative fewer funds to open a restaurant. At same time, one of the key factors that people have dinners in a high-end restaurant is determined by the disposal income customers have. Economy is unstable in recent years, and the inflation rate in China is higher compared to decant years ago. Therefore, there is a high chance that people decrease frequency to have dinner at restaurant because of the decreased disposal income. Therefore, in this industry, the mortality is high.

Although the restaurant industry is competitive, Taste of Han Dynasty still has its strengths. Themed restaurant is popular in current industry, and Han Dynasty Theme restaurant is the first this kind of restaurant in China. In recent years lots of peopleare very interest in the culture of Han Dynasty, therefore, this bring us an opportunity for opening a restaurant themed on Han Dynasty.

2.0 Operating Plan

Our objective is to provide customers a special dinning place which allows them feel and experience Han Dynasty cultural atmosphere. By saying this, we will operate a Han dynasty theme restaurant in Nanjing. We will realize this by providing customer delicious food as well as creating a simulated environment of Han Dynasty: both internal and external.

2.1 Location

Our themedrestaurant will be located in Nanjing of China (see figure 2.1 and 2.2). The reasons why we set up our business in this city are meaningful. Firstly, Nanjing is the capital city of Jiangsu province which is one of the richest areas and one that has the biggest portion of population. These factors will guarantee us a considerable potential number of customer and we believe they would be able to afford dinning at a high-end restaurant. Also, since our restaurant theme is “Han Dynasty”, which makes the culture perspect a typical factor to our restaurant. Nanjing, a beautiful city, has a long and deep history and it was one of the ancient capital cities in China. We believe the image of this city is quite close to our theme.Moreover, as we stated that Nanjing has a long history, it is also one of the most popular tourism cities in China. Meanwhile we will build our restaurant right beside the Xuanwu Lake, which is a beautiful and popular destination, and it is very close to many other historical sites.There could be lots of tourists come to Nanjing because of those sites. Locating in Nanjing could be an essential opportunity for us, since one of our main target markets is tourist,. Thus, locating in this city is an appropriate decision.

(Figure 2.1 and 2.2 Location)

2.2 Site plan

Since we are aiming at provide a unique “Han Style” themed restaurant, we would try to create the most real and accurate both internal and external dinning atmosphere. Our site plan, presents as Figure 2.3, is try to build a retro and elegant environment. The entire site design looks like a big circle, the restaurant building lies in the very middle and it is surrounded by a small artificial stream. There will be some wooden bridges for the sake of customers’ convenience. All white area will be covered by plants such as bamboo and pine tree. We select these plants because there are many related historical stories about them in China. Bamboo stands for good luck and pine tree are green all the year round. We often describe someone who has a noble and unsullied character just like bamboos and someone who has a stronger character like pine tree. These two types of plants could give customers more direct impression of our restaurant. We want to make the white area as the gardening and outside activity area, so we would build some pavilions and stone or wooden tables and chairs. Furthermore, we would promote our restaurant as environment-friendly, in terms of parking service, we encourage people taking public transit to our restaurant, but we will negotiate with near parking lots for parking service, so parking area will be about one hundred meters from our building. By doing all of these, we want our customers fully integrated into the atmosphere we create. They could take few steps to walk along the 100 meters bamboo trail in order to feel a natural and peaceful environment first, and then they will see the building in the depth of the dense woods.

(Figure 2.3 Site Plan)

2.3 Floor plan

In terms of floor plan, there will be two similar floors in the building, cashier and information area is in the middle as well as the stairs to the second floor, we will leave enough space for special performance and activities, all dining tables will be placed near the wall and only few small tables will be placed in the center area. Washrooms are right at the top left corner. The kitchen, storage, staff room and office are all at the top right corner. We will have an internal use stairs in the kitchen just in order to sever customers in the second floor better and to avoid use the stairsin the centre when busy.

(Figure 2.4 Floor Plan)

(Floor 1)

(Floor 2)

2.4 Quality control program

We will do random quality tests every month for our food and for any new products in the future to ensure customers get the best quality products. Besides, we are willing to under the supervision of regulate organization. We will public supervision results and encourage feedbacks from customers.

2.5Suppliers

Meat, vegetables, and cooking materials are main raw mateials we need. We will have a long term contract with at least two local farmers for fresh organic vegetables. They will responsible for supply and transport vegetables to our restaurant at 8:00am every day, one supply on odd day and one supply on even day. We will purchase meat (ex. pork, beef)and other materials (ex. salt, oil) from local wholesale, and seek long and stable relationship with them.

3.0 Human Resource Plan

(Figure3.1 Organizational structure)

3.1 Job Descriptions

HR manager- Yang

Schedule the work shift for employees include front and kitchen staffs

Recruiting employees and interviews

Charge for the employees’training program

Employees promotion and benefit

Dealing the confliction between employees

Operating manager- Ying

Daily materials purchase from supply chain

Deal with the complaint from customers

Inventory storage management

Supervising the work performance of employees

Charge for the advertising for restaurant

Accountant-professional

Responsible for the tax company need to pay

Pay the bills for the company

Create accounting system for company

Leader A and Leader B

Leader A responsible for supervising work performance in 1st floor

Leader B is responsible for supervising work performance in 2rd floor.

They will responsible for the open and close restaurant

They could be cashers if it is super busy

They will also serve customers while busy time

Leader in kitchen

Charging for report how much raw material and inventory needed to Operating manager

Responsible for supervising the chives in kitchen

Full-time waiters and waitresses

Service customers

Casher

Part-time waiters and waitresses

Assistant full-time employees when busy time

Part-time host could greeting and arrange seats for customers

Chives(3)

Cooking foods for customers

Develop creative receip for foods

Chives assistants

Assisting chives for cook

Responsible for the cleaning in kitchen which include dish washing

3.2 Human resource wages

Wages for employees’ are based on month, the average salary for full-tim employees is $900/per month, and $300 for part-time employees. Wages for managers are based on year, which is $40,000 per year.

(Table 3.1 Salary and Wage costs)

3.3 Hours of Operation

The hours of operation will be same for both summer and winter season. Operation days could be approximately 360 days per year. The operating hours per day is 12 hours. There would be two busy periods, which are period from 12:00am-2:30pm and 5:00pm to 8:00pm, we need part-time employees on those two periods.Table 3.4 shows the operating hours of company.

(Table 3.2 Operating Hours)

Operating Hours
Monday / 11am-11pm
Tuesday / 11am-11pm
Wednesday / 11am-11pm
Thursday / 11am-11pm
Friday / 11am-11pm
Saturday / 11am-11pm
Sunday / 11am-11pm

3.4 Training program

The full-time employees should be skilled and have working experience in restaurant. In the training program, it is HR manger’s responsibility to introduce the company culture and job description for the new employees. Also, HR manager would also ask a full-time employee to teach the new employee’s specific work they need to do.

4.0 Marketing Plan

Since we realized that the food offered at every restaurant are very much the same, customers come to the restaurant for the same purpose: to have dinner, however our “Han style” theme restaurant aims at providing a special dinning place, we want customers feel a great differences while they also have delicious and high quality food. Thus, except those normal products we provide, we will focus more on the marketing strategies.

4.1 Competition

Our researches show that there is no direct competitors compete with us in the “Han style” theme restaurant currently, but we have to pay close attention to some serious indirect competitors, include The Republic of China Theme Restaurant, western-style food restaurant, 80s Theme restaurant, and chain restaurant. The following table4.1 is the analysis of these competitors.

(Table 4.1 Competors Analysis)

Restaurant Name / Advantages / Disadvantage
Nanjing Food Stall / Special and historical theme: Republic of China
Located in a shopping mall
Good reputation and awareness / No segment targets
Feedback on food is normal
Les 5 Jens
/ Western-style food restaurant
High position level
Exquisite products and environment
Clear segment / High price
Not unique
Pizza Hut / Clear segment: young people
Well awareness
Good marketing strategy / Seen as fast food
Not widely accepted by Chinese
YOS. MITE
/ Franchise advantages
Good reputation and awareness
Competitive price / Not specialized
No segment

4.2 Positioning

From previous table we can get clear overview of our competitors’ advantages and disadvantages, and based on these information and our own strengths and weakness, we can find our position in the competition as the figure4.1 shows. We will position our restaurant as a unique and premium place that customers had never been.

Positioning Statement

To those who seek a dream place that provide delicious food as well as cultural and historical atmosphere with reasonable price, Taste of Han Dynasty is your best choice forever!

(Figure 4.1 Positioning Map)

4.3 Products

Since first of all we are operating a restaurant, we will provide everything that one restaurant is supposed to have. We will offer customer special chef soup every day, delicious meals and noodles, and our specialized desert. In order to connect to our theme, we will only serve Chinese traditional white wine. Besides, we will also provide pure and fresh tea for customers who not only come for normal meals but want to enjoy the atmosphere we provide.

4.4 Pricing

Since we positioning our restaurant as meddian and high level, and we will try to approch to this positioning strategy by providing a fantaitic dining place (facilities, food, and environment), so we believe ask for a premium price is reasonable. Our average price for one person is $23 which is the mix price of meals, wine and tea.

4.5Promotion

The most significant purpose for our promotion is to strengthen our uniqueness and to distinguish from our competitors. We will put a lot of effort on both short term and long term promotion.

For short term promotion, we mainly focus on increase reputation and awareness.

We will offer customers 20% off for the first two weeks when open. And we will do a large amount of advertising through two main distribution channels. The first one is the traditional method. We will put ads on selected TV channel, newspaper, magazine, such as tourism channel, newspaper culture section, and fashion magazine. The second way is through social media, such as Renren and Weibo (Chinese Facebook and Twitter). Considering from long term development, we will create membership system and all customers who have membership card can get 10% off. In addition, we will create own promotion strategies to highlight our theme: “Han style”. For examples (figure 4.2), customer can get a free beautiful handkerchief when they spend certain amount and we will encourage customer bring it next time for the sake of environment. Our menus are written in bamboo slips in order to match our theme. We will have special traditional performance play, such as Guzheng, Flute, and “Han style” cloth cosplay and shows. We will encourage customers to wear their own “Han style” cloth to our restaurant and we will offer them 10% off if they doing so. Besides, we will help some customers or organizations hold special activities, such as Chinese traditional weddings.