Business IdeaThe Feasibility of New Businesses in the Fast Casual Healthy Restaurant Niche

Business Idea Overview

The business idea that is being reviewed is a family owned business that is not a franchised operation. The research will focus on the likelihood that a small start-up that is locally owned and operated restaurant can still make it on their own in competitive market. Many of the local businesses that do well in the market are often affiliated with some national franchise that offer advantages such as training, advertising, and some administrative support services among others. However, there are still many people who wish that they could start a business because the simply love to cook and would like to make a career out of it. It is often the case that people like this underestimate the difficulty in starting their own business and the failure rate for small businesses remains extremely high because of such examples.

This analysis will look at all the challenges that face a small local start-up and the reasons that so many fail. The specific business idea will focus on a fast casual startup that serves healthy, locally grown, and organic meals. This niche was identified to be a popular dining option that has increasingly become highly demanded by consumers. Therefore, the research will look at the chances a small local business can take advantage of business idea that suits them especially well and see what the chances would be that they could use such a concept to compete against the more established local business as well as the national franchises that can be found throughout the local market.

Fast Casual

Basically the restaurant industry has consisted of two types of different styles throughout the last several generations of restaurants and these have been the full-service restaurants and fast-food restaurants. Since the introduction of the first Mcdonalds, the fast food type of restaurant has grown extremely quickly and this type of establishment generally serves food that is fairly easy to prepare such as hamburgers, chicken, sandwiches, pizza, Mexican dishes, breakfast and snack items. These types of foods became popular quickly because not only do they taste good, but they are served quick and they are convenient for customers. In fact, most fast food restaurants have a drive through where people do not even have to leave their cars to get their meals and many people eat these meals on the go which also make them popular with busy families.

However, after these types of foods have become well integrated into the American style of diets, people started to begin to notice several problems that emerged as a result of eating this type...

The first was that people became heavier as their levels of body fat began to grow larger. The spread of fast food style restaurants was also accompanied by other trends in the society such as the growth of office jobs in which people sat down throughout most of the day. Furthermore, when people got home from work they would also sit in front of the TV for the rest of the day. Thus people were living more sedentary life styles while also eating foods that were higher in sugars and fats and as a consequence the rate of obesity became a common problem for a large number of citizens.
The other style of restaurant that was popular was the more traditional style in which you sit down and eat in the restaurant or what is known as a full-service establishment. You go to the restaurant, get a table, place your order with a waitress or a waiter, wait for your order to be prepared by the cooks, and then eat at the restaurant once the meal is served to you. This is the style of restaurant that is the oldest and has been around since the restaurant has existed. However, the problem with this style of restaurant is that it is often time consuming compared to the faster options and in many cases it is also far more expensive than the prices that fast food restaurants charge. The biggest difference between a fast food restaurant and a full service restaurant is at one style you order and are served at a counter or drive through window, and at the other an employee takes your order at the table and brings the drinks and food directly to you. The faster options are typically more convenient, while the traditional option serves food that is of high quality and includes more service.

However, eventually another option emerged that uses many of the best parts of both of each of these models. The new development was called fast casual and was largely developed by companies like Panera Breads and other companies that also used a similar model. These companies focused on serving high quality foods, but they did so in a manner that was also fast, convenient, and without the full level of service that was found at the traditional style of restaurant. One of the primary differences in the two categories is that fast-food only offer limited menus and do not provide table service. These restaurants typically have a limited menu, compared to traditional restaurants, so that they can be more efficient and focus on a few high quality menu items. The fast casual type of restaurant gave consumers a third choice for their dining options and quickly gained in popularity. People could still eat high quality food without the time required to wait at a full-service restaurant.

Consumer Preferences…