Location and Atmosphere
Colbert is a small restaurant café that is located in Sloane Square in Chelsea. The café operations are motivated by well-known café avenues in Paris. The restaurant is open for operations all through the seven days of week until post-theatre (Vouchers 2022). The menu offered by Colbert includes breakfast to morning coffee, lunch, mid-afternoon snacks, early evening drinks and dinner. To name a few, Colbert menu includes pancakes or French toast, creamed porridge, crispy beacon roll, wild mushroom, jambon omelette etc. The business operates under Restaurant And Café Industry. The owners of Colbert are Chris Corbin and Jeremy King.
Its cocktail menu includes Vesper Martini, Reserve Manhattan, Old Fashion Chelsea and Classic Champagne. The dinner menu includes, superfood salads, smoked salmon mushrooms, poached egg, Colbert hamburger, pan-fried skate, fat iron steak etc.
Colbert seems like, it has expanded its business operations slowly over the last century so that it can accommodate Le Patron’s always growing art collection and local collectables (Frederick, O’Connor and Kuratko 2018). Abiding by the spirit of French cafes, Colbert, based on its prime location on Sloane Squares very next to the Royal Court Theatre, is considered as the perfect spot to spend some relaxed time over drinks, snacks or full meal.
Colbert is classified as small business because, the turnover of this business is not more than £6.5 million (Kuratko 2016). Furthermore, the balance sheet total of Colbert is also not greater than £3.26 million and the employee strength of this restaurant is not greater than 50 employees.
Colbert has attained business success over the last century due to its ever growing art collection and collectables. The café operates its business by abiding to the spirit of traditional French cafes. The prime location of Colbert is at Sloane Square which is very next to the Royal Court Theatre and it is a perfect spot to spend time over drinks, snacks and full course meal.
Colbert is considered successful because of its quality traditional French based food menu, coffee-based beverages, classic cocktails and dining menu. The patrons visiting Colbert have good time and they get high quality experience (Burns 2016). Each staff members of Colbert are courteous, efficient and attentive towards their patrons. As the restaurant is located in a very central and easily accessible position, not many people are required re-introduction to the neighbourhood surroundings of Sloane Square which is very next to The Royal Court Theatre.
Colbert restaurant is based on its small size and the fact that Colbert is not a franchise, the restaurant is a unique coffee shop concert unlike any other restaurant café in Sloane Square. Despite its uniqueness, the business is competing against some big and highly established coffee houses to achieve market share.
Colbert should place small advertisement on weekly basis in the local newspaper. The restaurant should promote coupons and deals. Menus must be distributed to the local business and faxing of orders will help in encouraging more footfalls (Blundel, Lockett and Wang 2017). Colbert should use attractive box for take-outs and patrons must be provided with an equal opportunity for sit-down service.
Menu
To market Colbert’s French cuisine, its menus must be distributed to nearby Sloane Square local establishments to encourage the patrons to come to café. Colbert should place advertisement and listings in the nationwide and regional tourist guides. The Moose Mountain Community College is very adjacent to the Sloane Square where Colbert restaurant is located. The students are very likely to visit Sloane Square during weekends and during their holidays times.
Colbert should adopt competitive pricing strategy with excellent customer service. If any of its customers are not satisfied, the item would get replaced or it may be taken off from bill (Liang, Wang and Lazear 2018). This will help Colbert to leverage the internet as the part of marketing presence. By charging identical prices just like the large chains, the overall service and quality of product will help in commensuration with the prices.
There are certain main aspects of Colbert’s operations management that will help in maximizing profits. These are;
- Incorporating Technology: Technology plays a vital role in driving convenience customer. Efficiency and cost savings for restaurants. Colbert is recommended to go contactless by simply introducing contactless payments, ordering through QR code and through online ordering services (Audretsch, D.B. and Moog 2022). Colbert should collaborate with third-party food delivery services to interact with the wide variety of customers.
- Tracking metrics: For any type of restaurants, tracking of business metrics is very important. The Colbert restaurant owners are recommended to track their performance by improvising in their operations through sound POS system. By tracking restaurant metrics will allow Colbert owners to keep an on their everyday sales report against their competitors.
Some of the growth strategies for Colbert are as follows;
- Rewarding loyal customers: Expanding restaurant is considered successful for several reasons and most important getting repeat customers (Zhang and Cueto 2017). Colbert is required to encourage repeat customers by offering them with discounts, promotions and special offers.
- Attracting new customers through first-time promos: The key towards long-term success of Colbert is by attracting new customers on a regular basis.
- Establishing connections with local business and influencers: The growth strategy of Colbert must include establishing connection with nearby businesses and local influencers. The owners of Colbert are recommended to mention about its business on the social media.
The primary financial planning objectives for Colbert are discussed below;
- The business is recommended to increase the revenues by 5% in its current year and by 10% in the upcoming financial year. It is also recommended to attain the profit margin of 5%.
- Colbert should make accounting analysis regarding its economic seasons for some peak revenue months and wane for its lean months.
- Colbert must increase its gross profit margins by 25% with net profit margin of 3% which is general for majority of restaurant cafes.
Colbert is recommended to have regular social media presence. It is understood that social media is regarded as an excellent tool of promotion for any kind of business. With the help of social media, Colbert will be able to form a social media presence of business which is very easily recognizable. From the things that will be posted online with the customers, it will help Colbert in interacting with its customers, forming brand recognition and will help in contributing to business success.
Colbert is recommended to advertise the business through offline mode by printing flyers to promote about its food delivery services and distributing the same throughout the neighbours. Colbert must also organize events at its restaurant premises and must send out some press release when it launches new services or dishes in its menu. The business must also enquire regarding food and music festivals where it can serve its food.
Colbert is also recommended to hire smart and efficient team. This is because success of every business commences with a successful team and Colbert must focus on its growth strategies through employee acquisition and retention. The owners of Colbert must locate those candidates that integrate well within the team and help to growth the restaurant.
Conclusion:
The Colbert restaurant owners must be concerned with both short-term and long-term growth strategies. The restaurant industry is already a very competitive market and the restaurant owners needs to be on their toes every time. The Colbert restaurant owners needs to include the aforementioned restaurant growth strategies in their small restaurants business for stable growth over the long-term period. Colbert is recommended to encourage add-ons such as extra toppings to its food menus and cross selling for encouraging an additional glass of wine as this would go very well with cheese platter. Colbert must give importance in striking balance between staple things which would make regular customers feel at their home and should try implementing new things so that it can surprise or excite those that visit for first time.
I would suggest making investment in the small business by lending capital to business or by purchasing the shares of company. By providing funds to the business or by purchasing the shares of small business you can earn return. The return earned can be in the form of interest, dividends or appreciations. The restaurant café business is a booming industry and provides higher potential for growth in future. I believe making investment in the small business can be a great choice. I have understood that making investment in small business is considered as the way of growing the portfolio and also it would help the local business owners to move towards the journey of financial independence.
I have faith in making investment in small business because it is a better way of creating, nurturing and growing the asset which can help in generating more than just capital for the investors. I have understood that making investment in small business can be very much rewarding particularly when the investments gets paid off. By investing in small business, I believe that investors can take control of their money in future and with real possibility of earning dividends from those investments.
References:
Frederick, H., O’Connor, A. and Kuratko, D.F., 2018. Entrepreneurship. Cengage AU.
Kuratko, D.F., 2016. Entrepreneurship: Theory, process, and practice. Cengage learning.
Burns, P., 2016. Entrepreneurship and small business. Red Globe Press.
Blundel, R., Lockett, N. and Wang, C., 2017. Exploring entrepreneurship. Sage.
Liang, J., Wang, H. and Lazear, E.P., 2018. Demographics and entrepreneurship. Journal of Political Economy, 126(S1), pp.S140-S196.
Audretsch, D.B. and Moog, P., 2022. Democracy and entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 46(2), pp.368-392.
Zhang, S.X. and Cueto, J., 2017. The study of bias in entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship theory and Practice, 41(3), pp.419-454.
Vouchers, D., 2022. Colbert | French Café Restaurant in Chelsea, London. [online] Colbert. Available at: <https://www.colbertchelsea.com/#about> [Accessed 2 April 2022].