Operating a takeaway and fast food restaurant in Zimbabwe can be highly profitable if done properly. Takeaway and fast food restaurants in Zimbabwe prepare food on their premises to sell over the counter or deliver to customers. They sell a wide range of foods including chips, sausages, pies, hamburgers, rice, sadza and chicken. This article will explain how to start a takeaway and fast food restaurant business in Zimbabwe, and the business plan.

 

A fast food restaurant in Harare

A fast food restaurant in Harare

What you need

Research

Because the fast food and take away business in Zimbabwe is so competitive, it is very important that you do a thorough research. Start by talking to someone who is in the fast food and restaurant business or someone who has done it before. Find out what works, what doesn’t, and get advice from those who are already in the industry. If you know of any restaurant businesses that have failed, you should try to find the reasons behind their failure.

You have to define your target market and niche which you are going after. You can never capture the whole market; you can’t please everyone as people have different wants so you have to focus on the market you have chosen. What is the specific segment of the fast food industry you want to enter? Who are your targeted customers?  What products are you going to offer? What is the competition in your proposed location? What is the demand for your products in your targeted area? How are you going to price your products and how sensitive is the demand to your prices?

Do you want to locate your take away business in the high density suburbs? Then your sadza should be cheap. You cannot afford to go into the take away business without carrying a market research and writing a detailed business plan. Do not just go into the fast food restaurant business because someone says it is profitable. Carry out your own research.

Type of food

What type of food are you going to sell? This will depend on your targeted niche and location. Fresh chips, hamburgers, Russian sausages and meat pies have a high demand in Zimbabwe. You may also want to sell sadza, rice and different types of relish like chicken, pork, beef, fish and offal. You can also sell pizza, coffee, cream doughnuts and bread. Where are you going to get the foods and raw materials from? Where will you purchase the potatoes to make the chips? How much do they cost? You should have answers to all those questions. It is very important that you carry out a research.

Price list for a fast food restaurant in Harare, Zimbabwe

Price list for a fast food restaurant in Harare, Zimbabwe

Location

This will depend on your target market.  The location of your takeaway business will determine how many customers you will have. If your fast food business is located in a place with little traffic and visibility, you may end up not being successful as you will usually need high numbers of customers to be profitable in the takeaway business. Find yourself a location with as much traffic (foot or vehicle traffic) passing by as possible, where you can get plenty of customers and establish your brand and reputation. You may locate your fast food business by highways (one successful business which comes to mind is Chicken Slice, Mvuma, along the Harare Masvingo Highway), business streets in the CBD, growth points and shopping centers (high visibility, and high traffic). You may also locate at or close to universities, to target the university students. If you are targeting the high income earners then you may want to locate your restaurant business in the low density suburbs.

Premises and Equipment

The type of premises you have will depend on the location of your takeaway and fast food restaurant business, and the size of the business. If you don’t have your own premises, you will have to rent.  Consider walking around your targeted location to see if there are any obvious empty properties that may be suitable for your takeaway business. To get the premises you may have to visit property consultancy companies, which you may find by checking the classifieds section of a newspaper, or by googling. You may also put an advert in the newspaper.

Depending on what kind of fast food restaurant business you are opening you are going to need different types of catering equipment. The equipment may include stoves, fridges, sinks, tables, microwaves, pots, plates, cutlery, pans and point of sale systems etc.

Capital

The amount of capital you need will depend on the size of the fast food business you want to start . You may want to get a business loan from the banks, though the chances of getting one in Zimbabwe when you are starting a business are low. Banks prefer giving loans to businesses which are already operating. Consider using your personal savings, applying for a personal loan from a bank, and crowd funding from your friends and relatives. You may also seek investors and partners. A well detailed business plan will help you in securing funding from investors and banks.

Labour

The number of employees you need will depend on the scale of your business. You may need a manager, preferably someone who has some experience in managing fast foods restaurants and takeaways, someone familiar with the local buying sources and suppliers. The manager should have good leadership skills and be able to supervise all the employees.  Or you may become the manager of your business.  You will also need the chefs and cooks, the ones who will prepare the food, and preferably hire people who have the experience in preparing the food, or else you have to train them before you open your business. You will need high quality food in order to last long in the fast food and takeaway business in Zimbabwe.

You have to hire servers, and they have to be well trained, as they will have the most interaction with the customers. They need to make a favourable impression to the customers and work well under pressure, meeting the demands of customers. Good customer service is an essential key which leads to the success of your fast food and takeaway business. How much are you going to pay your employees? How many employees are you going to have? You should have the answers to those questions before you start your fast food business in Zimbabwe.

Licence

You will need a business licence from the city council before you start operating your takeaway and fast food business.  If you operate without a licence, you will have a lot of trouble with the city council authorities, which will negatively affect your business.

Pre-Written Business Plan for Fast Food Restaurant (PDF, Word And Excel) : Comprehensive Version, Short Bank Loan Version, Automated Excel Financial Statements

For an in-depth analysis of the fast food restaurant business in Zimbabwe, purchase our business plan. We decided to introduce the business plans after noting that many Zimbabweans were venturing into the fast food restaurant business without a full understanding of the industry, market, how to run the business, the risks involved, profitability of the business and the costs involved, leading to a high failure rate of their businesses.

Our business plan will make it easier for you to launch and run a fast food restaurant business successfully, fully knowing what you are going into, and what’s needed to succeed in the business. It will be easier to plan and budget as the fast food restaurant business plan will lay out all the costs involved in setting up and running the fast food restaurant business. The business plan is designed uniquely for the Zimbabwean market.

I have been impressed with the level of depth and completeness of your business plans. All product, operational, financial and marketing guidelines are there. Fantastic! Please do add more plans.
T Matambo

 

Uses of the Fast Food Restaurant Business Plan (PDF, Word And Excel)

The fast food restaurant business plan can be used for many purposes including:

  • Raising capital from investors/friends/relatives
  • Applying for a bank loan
  • Start-up guide to launch your fast food restaurant business
  • As a project proposal
  • Assessing profitability of the fast food restaurant business
  • Finding a business partner
  • Assessing the initial start-up costs so that you know how much to save
  • Manual for current business owners to help in business and strategy formulation

Contents of the Restaurant Business Plan (PDF, Word And Excel)

The business plan includes, but not limited to:

  • Market Analysis
  • Industry Analysis
  • Automated Financial Statements (monthly cash flow projections, income statements, cash flow statements, balance sheets, break even analysis, loan repayment calculations, start-up costs)
  • Marketing Strategy
  • Risk Analysis
  • SWOT & PEST Analysis
  • Operational Requirements
  • Operational Strategy
  • Why some Zimbabweans in fast food restaurant business fail, so that you can avoid their mistakes
  • Ways to raise capital to start your fast food restaurant business in Zimbabwe

The Fast Food Restaurant Business plan package consist of 4 files

  1. Fast Food Restaurant Business Plan – PDF file (Comprehensive – 70 pages)
  2. Fast Food Restaurant  Business Plan – Editable Word File (Comprehensive – 70 pages)
  3. Fast Food Restaurant  Business Plan Bank Version – Editable Word File (Short version for applying for a loan – 38 pages)
  4. Restaurant Business Plan Automated Financial Statements – (Editable Excel file)

The business plan financials are in USD currency. 

The financial statements are automated. This implies that you can change eg the salary, markup etc, and all the other financial statements will automatically adjust to reflect the change.

Get the Fast Food Restaurant Business Plan (PDF, Word And Excel)

We decided to make them affordable for anyone who would want a business plan, and the price for pre-written business plans is only US$10 for soft copies.

You can purchase via Paynow (Ecocash/Innbucks/One Money/MasterCard/Visa Card) or via Paypal. You just click Buy Now (scroll down)  and you will then be taken to payment website where you make the payment. Just follow the instructions; you will be done with the payment process in 2 minutes. We will email the business plan (PDF format, Microsoft word format, and a Microsoft Excel file with the financial statements)  to you within 24 hours, using the email address you provided when you were paying.

You can also purchase soft copies at our offices in Harare. Visit  StartupBiz Zimbabwe, Suite 201, 2nd Floor, Morgan House, George Silundika Avenue (between 1st Street & 2nd Street), Harare . The cost of the business plan is US$10 (soft copies).

For any questions, other payment options, email us on shop@startupbiz.co.zw , call/whatsapp us on +263778798072 (Whatsapp us by clicking the link https://wa.me/263778798072.

Fast Food Restaurant Business Plan 

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