Tue 31 May 18.00 - 20.00
*NOTE that this is an IN-PERSON event and will not be recorded. Tickets are for in-person attendance only*
Are you ready to take the leap into opening your own place? Whether that's a bakery, a cafe, a bar or a full-blown restaurant, moving your concept into bricks-and-mortar is the ultimate goal for so many of you.
At this invaluable event we're going to be talking about what it takes to open your own place, from business plan right through to marketing.
We'll exploring how to tell whether you're truly ready, how to put together a business plan, diving into the money you need to make it happen (how to get it and how to spend it). We'll be busting wide open the closed and mysterious world of commercial property - how to find the right site for you, how to negotiate, what you should be looking out for, what charges to expect and more. AND we'll be talking all about your marketing strategy - defining your brand and how to reach your audience, and all the practicalities of the launch!
Whether you're ready right now, or you're getting clued up for the future, this talk will give you the tools you need to make truly informed decisions and demystify all those scary unknowns.
We'll be getting into the mood with fantastic canned cocktails from MOTH drinks, featuring Margaritas, Negronis and Old Fashioneds, and we'll have that brilliant Allpress coffee to keep us going!
OUR EXPERTS
HUSSEIN AHMAD - Partner, Viewpoint Accountants
Viewpoint Partners are accountants and financial consultants specialising in the restaurant and hospitality industry, working with some of London’s most exciting independent restaurants and bars including Berber and Q, Sager and Wilde, The Laughing Heart, Bright, Café Deco, Darjeeling Express, Rita’s and others.
The Viewpoint team support their clients from concept to bricks and mortar, to multiple sites and beyond, providing bespoke financial forecasting, business plan creation and more. They love going out to eat and drink, and they are committed to helping the hospitality sector thrive.
HUSSEIN will be taking a deep dive into calculating how much money you really need to open your own place, and how to access that money through debt, equity, government schemes and more. He'll be showing you how to put together all those crucial points in your business plan - showing market demand, assessing competition, and putting together your strategy and financial forecasting.
BASH REDFORD - Co-Founder, Forza Win
Bash Redford received a wrongly paid tax rebate and took it as a sign from on high to follow his passions, so started a supper club on the roof of a film company with Thom and James (now Pizza Pilgrims). He had no idea that was he was doing was completely illegal and he was shut down after two weeks - but he had been bitten by the restaurateur bug, and after several years of (legal) pop-ups he opened his first bricks-and-mortar site - Forza Win in Peckham.
Bash and his chef/partner Michael are currently working on their second site in Camberwell, with more exciting projects in the pipeline.
BASH will be talking first-hand about what it takes to open your own restaurant - all those highs and lows from the nightmares of finding and losing sites, holes in the ceiling in place of extraction, dodgy landlords and cleaning your own toilets, to finding a partner who wants to share your vision and the exhilaration of your first great review. And since he’s knee deep in his new opening right now, he’ll be giving you the raw intel from the coal face.
JOSH ROSE - Co-Founder, Raven Rose
Josh Rose cut his teeth at Soho House Group, rolling out their casual dining brands across UK. With 10 years experience both client and agency side, Josh is a restaurant and hospitality expert, advising renowned chefs, international brands and home-grown heroes.
JOSH will be talking all things LEASING: working out your ideal location based on your target customer, explaining all those hidden charges, how to budget for everything from business rates to fit-out, and taking a deep dive into the deal - from explaining all those details in the heads of terms, to how much you should be paying up front - and why.
SOPHIE ORBAUM - Communications Director, Harts Group
Sophie has been running PR and marketing activity at Harts Group (Quo Vadis, Barrafina, El Pastor, The Drop, Parrillan and soon Bar Daskal) for 6 years, and now, along with her team, she also represents some external clients, including Journey’s End wine, Brunswick House, Orasay and Below Stone Nest. In her previous role at Gerber Communications she has taken incredible establishments such as Gymkana and Hoppers from pre-launch to household names.
At Harts Group, Sophie has been instrumental in the success of numerous high profile openings, launching the El Pastor brand, and a cluster of Harts Group restaurants at Coal Drops Yard. She is currently overseeing the launch of Parillan Borough Yards, with more plans in the pipeline.
SOPHIE will be helping us to break down what is meant by a launch communications strategy - Defining what your brand is, what its unique proposition is, who it serves and how. She'll be drilling down in to audiences, core and target, how best to reach them with the resources you have, and looking at where you might want to invest. Then there are the practicalities of launch events and organising promotional activity at what is also the busiest and most stressful time for the ops teams! She'll be covering ‘friends and family’ vs ‘press nights,’ comps and local discounts, and what to do if a critic pops in... and finally she'll also touch on internal vs external comms, and how your most important ambassadors are your team.
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We know that things can change at the last minute, but if you need a refund do let us know with plenty of time. Refunds will take between 5-10 business days to process and will not incude the £3 booking fee per ticket.
The doors open at 6pm for welcome drinks, the talk starts promptly at 6.30pm.