Restaurant and Bar Funding Sample Proposal

Funding the In Step Restaurant & Roadhouse Dance Hall

Here is our proposal submitted in application for a business loan of $200,000 to start up our new In Step Restaurant & Roadhouse enterprise. As you will see, we are an experienced team of partners, expert in running restaurants and music venues. Our partners are investing $200,000 of their own money to start this business.

We have done our best to detail here all the steps and costs we anticipate for getting our business up and running. We believe this new business will fill several currently unmet needs in the Fort Smith area. Because our target market is waiting for our new business, we believe we will have no difficulty paying back the loan within five years. We have already placed a tentative offer on the property we propose to remodel and begun the process of filing for the needed permits, so we hope to receive this loan within 30 days.

The In Step Restaurant & Roadhouse, LLC is seeking a $200,000 loan to complete the purchase, remodel and startup of the restaurant and dance hall. We have studied the market for restaurants and music venues in Fort Smith, Arkansas. The following list discusses our largest competitors. Hwy 97 Bar & Grill This combination restaurant bar offers a small dance floor and live music on Friday and Saturday nights.

On live music nights, this venue is extremely crowded. There is insufficient room for all customers to sit at tables or squeeze onto the dance floor. In addition, there is insufficient parking and many cars must park on the road shoulder, which is dangerous for both drivers and pedestrians.

Our new dance hall will offer a large space for dancers and other patrons who want to enjoy live music, and adequate parking for our customers. Uncle Marty’s Burgers & More This is the most-visited food service venue in the Ironside neighborhood. However, this restaurant is open only for lunch, and offers only take-out fast food sandwiches, fries, and soft drinks.

Our new In Step Restaurant will serve the needs of workers, shoppers, and visitors in the Ironside neighborhood for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We will offer a varied menu and a full bar, which has been a frequent request of business managers and tourists in the area. Country Ways Tavern This popular venue offers pizza and beer and has live country music on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

There is no dedicated dance floor at this venue, although sometimes customers move aside tables to create a small dance area. In addition, the only food offered is pizza, and the only beverages are soda and beer. Our new In Step Restaurant & Roadhouse will offer live music, a large dance floor, a varied menu, and a full bar. Our management team believes the In Step Restaurant & Roadhouse will instantly draw many customers away from the venues mentioned above, and will quickly become Fort Smith’s most celebrated place to eat and dance.

We believe the building at 1450 Rocky Place, Fort Smith, Arkansas, is perfectly located for our needs. The building has adequate wiring and plumbing to handle most of our projected needs, although we plan to install an upgraded electrical panel to handle a new sound system, and add two more restrooms to handle our nightclub dance hall needs. We plan for our restaurant to be open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. This operation fits in well with those of adjoining businesses.

The closest businesses are BB’s Western Store, a store that sells western apparel and equestrian supplies, Grandma Lacey’s Craft Shop, and the Clothing Mall, which contains five clothing stores. All these businesses open at 10 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. Monday-Saturday, and we believe their customers and employees will be excited to have a restaurant next door. In addition, the Graystrike Insurance Company and the FS Aluminum Products Corporation occupy several buildings within easy walking distance and have a combined 435 employees, who welcome our restaurant for lunch and dinner meals.

All these businesses are closed after 7 p.m., which means that the music from our dance hall will cause no problems in this industrial zone. All residential areas are a minimum of.5 miles away from our proposed location. This means the building is within easy driving distance but out of range for any noise problems.

The closest police department is 1.75 miles away, and the closest fire emergency aid station is 2.2 miles away. We have already broached the idea of having a nightclub in this building with both police and fire departments, and these authorities anticipated no issues with this location. The following describes the target market and audience for our In Step Restaurant & Roadhouse.

The target market niche

From 1992 to 2009, Fort Smith had a popular dance and music venue—The Razorback Music Hall. The Razorback hosted country dance lessons as well as concerts by rock, country, blues, and Cajun musicians. The music hall, which also served food during the dinner hour, attracted thousands of guests each week, with many coming from as far as fifty miles away.

Unfortunately, in 2009, The Razorback Music Hall burned down and the owners went out of business. Since then, the customers who frequented the former music hall have not been served. We hired Ozark Polling Service to do an unscientific survey of 100 households picked at random from the Fort Smith phone book; 40% of those said they would attend dances and concerts at a new venue, and 62% said they would eat at our restaurant.

The size of the target market

From 2001 to 2009, customers at the Razorback Music Hall averaged 17,540 per year. By comparing this to the general population and the growth in our area since 2009, we estimate that the target market for our music and dance venue is currently between 21,000 and 24,000 customers. Customers for the restaurant alone can be averaged at approximately 19,000 per year, based on numbers reported by other full-service restaurants in our area.

Where they can be reached

Country line dance and Cajun dance lessons are popular throughout our area, but students have few places to go after they have finished their lessons. We plan to advertise our dance hall through all local instructors, as well as through local papers and magazines. We have been in touch with the former owners of the Razorback Music Hall, and they have shared their marketing successes with us, so we plan to advertise in all the print and online resources that worked well for them.

Target market demographics

The target market for our music dance hall covers a broad range. Country western line music and dancing generally appeals to ages 25-55, classic rock to 30-65, and Cajun music and dance to a smaller but dedicated audience aged 25-65. We plan to purchase and remodel the building located in the Ironside neighborhood at 1450 Rocky Place, Fort Smith, Arkansas.

General Description

This wooden building, originally constructed in the 1970s, was formerly divided between two businesses. An antique furniture curio shop and a popular café for locals. Combining these two spaces into one large business gives us many of the features we need for our restaurant and dance hall night club business.

Please see the Renovation page for more details. After these two facilities are combined, we believe we can get an approved maximum capacity of 420 customers dance hall and restaurant areas combined , which should easily accommodate our anticipated needs. We plan to leave the café and kitchen area largely unchanged, except for updates to the kitchen and the acquisition of new dining furniture. We will knock out the wall between the former restaurant and antique shop areas so that customers can easily move between the dining area and the new dance area.

The former restaurant has a wheelchair ramp and accessible restroom facilities that are perfect for our needs.

Additional Information

The large parking area surrounding this property allows ample parking for patrons. If patrons or employees want to use public transportation, there is a bus stop only a few hundred feet away, with busses running between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. The building located at 1450 Rocky Place, Fort Smith, Arkansas is a wooden building in good condition.

It was originally constructed in the 1970s and the interior was most recently divided between two tenants. An antique furniture curio shop, and a popular café for locals. Itemized below are our plans for renovating this building for our needs.

Remove the wall between the two former tenant spaces. We have consulted with a structural engineer, who confirms that we can remove the wall between the two former spaces and replace it with a beam and posts to support the roof. Update the kitchen.

This will allow easy movement between the restaurant area and the former antique store area, which will become our dance hall nightclub area. The former restaurant opened in the 1970s and closed in 2001, and the kitchen equipment is quite outdated. We plan to remove most of the old appliances and cabinetry and replace them with more modern appliances and fittings.

Purchase and install new dining furniture. Although we plan to keep the booths along the walls of the former restaurant and change only the vinyl seat coverings, we will need to purchase new tables and chairs for the majority of our dining area. Construct a bar in the dance area.

We plan to construct a bar with foot railing and stools for patrons of the dance hall and for those bar patrons who do not wish to sit in the dining area. Add two new restrooms. To accommodate our new dance hall, we will need to construct two new restrooms in the northwest corner of the former antique store area.

The building currently contains one restroom in that corner. Install new lighting and sound system for dance hall. We need a completely new lighting and sound system for our dance hall area. Paint walls, refinish floors, and add décor touches as needed.

Sanding and refinishing the floor of the former antique store will be our most costly and time-intensive project in this category. A few longstanding popular events in our areas are always looking for new venues. The organizers of the following events have already expressed their enthusiasm for using our new restaurant and roadhouse. Cajun Festival Each year the Cajun Festival celebrates French Canadian heritage, music, dance, and food.

Our new roadhouse will have a dance floor large enough to host festival dancers and hold lessons, and our chef has agreed to provide several Cajun specialties during the festival. Whomp n’ Stomp This two-day country line dance workshop has held their event at the children’s camp facility outside of town for the last three years. They would be thrilled to have us host them with our full-service restaurant, bar, and dance hall facilities. Classic Rock Week This event hosts a lineup of rock musicians who specialize in music from 1950s to the 1970s.

They would love to include our Roadhouse as one of the venues hosting musical events during their week. Folkfest This assemblage of folk and bluegrass musicians and crafts people is interested in the possibility of using our Roadhouse facility for their music events. We are in the process of persuading our neighbors at FS Aluminum Products to allow usage of their large front lawn for crafts booths to accommodate the Folkfest crafts tents, too. By hosting these popular tourist events each year, our new restaurant and dance hall will quickly become well known and profitable.

Here is a description of the business partnership Limited Liability Corporation we have created for our In Step restaurant nightclub venture. Tanya Leary, Restaurant Manager Tanya has 10 years experience managing her own restaurant and bar in Taos, New Mexico. She has recently moved to Arkansas and is eager to open a new business here. Tanya will contribute her management expertise to the enterprise and invest $50,000.

Tanya will receive a salary commensurate with the hours she works, and will receive 25% of the profits from the business. James Oldham, Chef James Oldham has a degree in Culinary Arts and eight years of experience as a professional chef. James will create our menu, oversee all kitchen operations and invest $50,000. James will receive a salary commensurate with the hours he works, and will receive 25% of the profits from the business.

Mark and Michelle Siegman, Entertainment Managers Mark and Michelle Siegman owned and managed a nightclub in New Orleans for nine years, and managed a country dance hall in Little Rock for the last four years before moving to Fort Smith. Mark and Michelle will oversee all renovations and installation of sound and light systems for our dance hall, book musicians, and advertise and manage all events associated with the nightclub dance hall aspect of our business, consulting with other partners as needed. Mark and Michelle will jointly invest $50,000 and receive salaries commensurate with the hours they work, and will receive 25% of the profits from the business.

Kelli M. Krause, General Business Manager For the last seven years, Kelli has run her own small business, KMK Distributors, but has sufficient time and energy to take on the management of our new restaurant dance hall enterprise. Kelli will be responsible for general accounting and tax-reporting issues, as well as payroll and other employer tasks. She will take on other duties such as advertising or overseeing work crews as needed, in consultation with the other partners. Kelli will invest $50,000 and receive a salary commensurate with the hours she works, and will receive 25% of the profits from the business.

Salaries for partners will be determined by the average salary for such work in the Fort Smith area and must be agreed upon by all partners. Partners listed above have equal votes on business matters, with Mark and Michelle Siegman each having ½ vote, or 12% interest apiece in the business. The partnership agreement for In Step Restaurant & Roadhouse LLC is filed with the state of Arkansas Department of Licensing.

Standard Disclaimer. The numbers represented above are to be used as estimates for the projects discussed. Estimates are subject to change if project specifications are changed or costs for outsourced services change before being locked in by a binding contract.

We believe our new enterprise—the In Step Restaurant & Roadhouse—serves several needs that are not currently met in the Fort Smith area. We have an experienced management team and an excellent plan in place to create quick business success. Need #1 For years, the local public has wanted a dance venue to replace the popular Razorback Music Hall, which burned down in 2009. Many local dance instructors and students have also expressed a desire for a local dance hall.

Need #2 Many popular local musicians need a venue in which to play country, classic rock, and Cajun dance music. Need #3 Although there is a high population of day workers and good traffic for retail services, there is no full-service restaurant in the Ironside neighborhood in which we propose to locate. Recommendation #1 Our new In Step Roadhouse will serve the needs of local dancers and music lovers. We will offer dance lessons twice a week to create even more customers for our dance hall.

Recommendation #2 Our new In Step Roadhouse will offer a new venue for local musicians. Recommendation #3 Our restaurant will serve the needs of the local employees, shoppers, and visitors to the Ironside neighborhood. Goal #1 We want to become Fort Smith’s most popular dance hall.

Goal #2 We want to become well known for offering quality live music experiences. Goal #3 We want to become one of Fort Smith’s most popular restaurants. We have a well thought out plan to ensure that all of the above goals will be met within our first year and plan to reach excellent profitability within three years.