What food and beverage consultants do - Business Ideation

A Food & Beverage Consultant is someone who provides expert advice, assistance, counsel to the food & beverage industry.

This includes food production, suppliers, hotels & restaurants, packaged goods and consumer goods.

This hub is part of the group on 'food & beverage consultants'

To see the complete the list of what food and beverage consultant do, click here

Business Ideation includes Conception, market research, business plans, strategy etc.

Business Ideation services are similar to any business. Most business start out with an idea and a willingness to create something that either has an expressed need or desire and is something that the the people still dont know they need or desire, but will once it is produced.

All goods and services need to be produced and made available to the consumer.

The food and beverage consultants who assist in these activities would essentially take on tasks such as market research, business plans, strategy etc.

What exists, what doesn't. What are the services/goods on offer. Where do the opportunities exist? what price are customers willing to pay? what is missing in the current offerings in the market? Such and more questions are answered by market research.

MR as it is known in common parlance is about trying to ask a section of the people you want to serve or sell to, to understand their needs and wants and with the results that come up, create an offering that will be desired.

MR also puts to test the basic assumptions of the entrepreneur or the company.

for e.g. you may want to create a restaurant with no kitchen.

Can you?

MR might show you that all you need to do (offer) is a microwaves with a clean seating arrangement and a soda machine.  People would like to bring their own food, heat it and eat in your restaurant.

You do not need to maintain a kitchen at all!

Such thoughts, such assumptions are put to test.

A good statistically correct sample is used.

This topic is vast and probably requires a number of its own hubs, but let me try and put down the basics here.

A business plan is a formal statement of a set of business goals, the reasons why they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. It may also contain background information about the organization or team attempting to reach those goals.

Some common topics covered in a business plan include:

• Executive Summary - a one/two page summary of what the business is about, important financial measures, industry, clientele, promoters, executive team etc.
• Information on the Company - people, experience, background, training, education, history, projects handled, important financial parameters etc
• Information on the Industry - which industry, what are the growth projections, what is the current size, accepted economics research reports, trends, technology, etc
• Marketing Plan - we cover this in another hub (click here) but for the moment, what is your 'product-to-market' plan.  How will you get the customers, who are the customers, pricing, positioning, promotion, place and planet attributes.
• Financials - cash flow, balance sheets, revenue projections, earning -per- share etc.

Strategy consultation includes but is not limited to, assessing the current strategy effectiveness, proposing strategy and implementing or creating roadmaps for the same.

Strategy consultation starts with the simple but effective SWOT analysis.

S- Strength - of the idea, business, product, company, market etc

W- Weakness

O - Opportunity - what are the current opportunities available

T- Threat - what could threaten the business model? 

Strategy consultation could also lead to the creation of USP or Unique Selling Proposition.  This is what makes you stand apart.

Porters model is often used for strategy.  In essence you can be one of the following:

• Cost
• Differentiation

Mission & Vision are other outcomes of a  good strategy consultation.