The Farmer’s Table

B14: The Niners

Executive Summary
We plan to open an organic restaurant in Iowa City, because we see a large potential in the citizens and students living in the area. Our restaurant, called The Farmer’s Table, would serve only organic, locally grown, raised and produced products. This will give us the ability to offer an extensive and exciting menu. In this report we discuss why we believe this restaurant will be successful. The report includes a mission statement, a SWOT analysis, a detailed competitive strategy, and a list of objectives to be completed before opening the restaurant. These elements will demonstrate why we believe our restaurant will be a viable entrepreneurial endeavor, and worth investing in.

Mission
The Farmer Table’s mission statement is, “Our goal is to offer customers healthy, organic, locally grown and delicious food. We want to provide them with the best possible service and make their time at our restaurant an enjoyable experience.”
As learned in Intro to Management, an effective mission statement defines the organization’s purpose for stakeholders, establishes key priorities by stating a unifying goal, and establishes a motivating challenge. Our mission statement is good because we challenge ourselves to provide the best possible service and make delicious food for our customers. We explicitly state what our goal is, “to offer customers healthy, organic, locally grown and delicious food.” We will serve the citizens of Iowa City, local stakeholders, by providing them with a high quality, unique restaurant.
SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis includes determining an organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. In conducting a SWOT analysis our team is trying to assess the strengths and weaknesses of our company’s internal environment and also to assess the opportunities and threats of our external environment (MGMT, pg. 99). Through extensive discussion we have found that our company’s internal environment potentially has a lot of strengths along with some weaknesses as well.

Strengths
Our group is comprised of a diverse group of academic backgrounds and interests, which we believe is a great advantage in planning a new business. First, there are two accounting majors in our group: Chiyu Xue and Chase Kadlec. This is a great strength because they will be able to handle all of our bookkeeping, financial statements, and be able to analyze how our restaurant is performing financially. “In order for your business to be successful and turn a profit, it is imperative for you to learn at least the basics regarding finance. If you understand finance and its many facets, you can tailor your business practices to maximize overall revenue and continuously lower costs (ehow.com/way_5229078_learning-business-finance.html#ixzz1GF20tRcU). Another group member, Cindra Bombei, is studying marketing which is incredibly valuable when trying to start a new business. Her expertise in this area will allow our restaurant to be well advertized and publicized well before our opening, which will persuade many customers to visit, helping our business to succeed. Our last group member, Matt, has work experience in a bar and restaurant in downtown Iowa City. His knowledge gained from this experience will be very valuable when we are initially trying to run a bar and restaurant for the first time. Chiyu has strong connections with the increasingly large Chinese population amongst University of Iowa students and in the Iowa City community because of her ethnic background. We believe this will increase our business and overall support. “To get started in the industry, you must often develop your connections from the ground up. This process can be accelerated if someone on your team has connections” (www.artistshousemusic.org/articles/the+three+essentials+of+management+the+importance+of+connections).

Weaknesses
As a group, we also have many weaknesses that may