How to Start a Small Business

How to Start a Fondue Restaurant

On a mission to start a fondue restaurant? This line of business is not for the faint-hearted and requires careful planning if you want to succeed.

Wondering how to start a fondue restaurant? We take you step-by-step from start to success.

Best Practices for Writing a Fondue Restaurant Business Plan

Many new fondue restaurant owners feel unprepared for the challenge of writing a business plan.

Fortunately, you don't have to tackle your fondue restaurant's business plan by yourself. These days, there are tons of great resources and solutions available to support the business plan writing process.

Our Business Plan Help section discusses some of the business plan resources other entrepreneurs have found useful.

Where to Set Up Shop

New business owners often consider how much space they need when deciding where to put their business, but other factors are equally important. We recommend that you also consider things like quality of life, the public school system, local healthcare services and the like. The better the community, the better the pool of potential customers and employees.

Assess the Competition

Prior to launching a fondue restaurant within your community, it's worthwhile to see what the competition looks like. Try our link below to generate a list of competitors near you. Simply enter your city, state and zip code to get a list of fondue restaurants in your town.

Is the established competition doing a good job? It's important to understand their strengths and weaknesses and think through how you'll stake up against those established businesses.

Learn from Others Who Are Already In This Space

After you've evaluated your local competitors, you really ought to talk to somebody who is already in the business. It's very unlikely that the local competition will talk to you. The last thing they want to do is help you to be a better competitor.

Thankfully, an owner of a a fondue restaurant in a different city may be more than happy to give you a few tips, as long as they don't view you as a competitive threat. In fact, they are often very willing to share startup advice with you. Our estimate is that you may have to contact many business owners to find one who is willing to share his wisdom with you.

How do you locate somebody who runs a fondue restaurant outside of your area who is willing to talk?

We can help. Follow the link below, try a few city/state combos or zipcodes, and then start calling!

Benefits & Drawbacks of a Fondue Restaurant Acquisition

An acquisition can be a great way to enter fondue restaurant ownership. But it's important to evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of buying a business before you decide on either an acquisition or startup approach.

BENEFITS: Acquired fondue restaurants should be profitable right out of the gate; they should also be capable of demonstrating a loyal customer base, brand identity and operational efficiencies.

DRAWBACKS: On the downside, fondue restaurant acquisitions can be difficult to adapt to your unique business philosophy so it's important to make sure the business is capable of achieving your ownership goals before you initiate the buying process.

Consider Buying a Franchise

Your odds of achieving your top business goals are substantially improved when you choose to franchise and leverage their successful brand and track record.

Before you get too far along in your plan to open a fondue restaurant, you would be wise to investigate whether buying a franchise could make it easy to get started.

The link below gives you access to our franchise directory so you can see if there's a franchise opportunity for you. You might even find something that points you in a completely different direction.

More Advice for Startups

These additional resources regarding getting started as an entrepreneur may be of interest to you.

Business Idea Evaluation

What Business Should I Start?

Buying vs. Starting a Business

Share this article


Additional Resources for Entrepreneurs

Lists of Venture Capital and Private Equity Firms

Franchise Opportunities

Contributors

Business Glossary