Should I go pro? That question is always answered by the following question: do I have a demand for my product from a large enough customer base to cover the overhead and make me a large enough profit to live on?
The answer to that second question is not something I, nor anyone else, can answer for you. The answer is found in marketing surveys, a business plan, and the form your business will take: ie concession, mail-order, storefront.
After spending years thinking about opening a bbq joint, I decided to see if there was even any interest from my potential customer base. I did a quick and dirty marketing survey. I took the phone book and made 100 random calls. I would skip every ten pages, and choose the 15th name on that page. Skip ten pages, choose the 15th name... etc. I would call and introduce myself as a local person interested in starting a new food business. I asked three questions:
1. Which type of restaurant would they like to see most A. hamburger, B. chinese, C. italian, D. pit-smoked barbecue, E. mexican, F. a Denny's-style. If the person answered anything other than barbecue, I thanked them and concluded the call. If they answered "barbecue", then I would proceed asking the next two questions.
2. What would your preferred menu item be: A. BBQ pork, B. BBQ beef brisket, C. BBQ ribs, D. BBQ chicken, E. Other?
3. What style of restaurant would you like to see: A. formal dining, B. casual dining, C. take out with informal inside seating, D. take-out only, E. take-out and delivery.
Sixty-one of those responding highly favored a barbecue joint. It probably helped that at that time, there were none in the entire two-county area. This was encouraging, so I decided that if I seriously wanted to pursue this any further, I needed some sort of process to help me decide if I had what it takes to open a restaurant.
For me, I used the process of constructing a business plan to determine whether or not I would proceed forward with the decision to open my store. It took me about a year, and made me delve into aspects of being a business owner that I didn't even know that I was clueless about. Writing the business plan helped tremendously in clarifying what I needed to do in order to strengthen my weaknesses. It gave me the clarity of knowing what I needed to do in order to get my business off the ground.
A business plan will force you to know:
1. Where your customers are.
2. What your customers want and need.
3. How much it will cost you to produce the product you want to sell. The cost of goods is not just about how much you pay for the food to make your product.
4. How you plan to attract customers and enlarge your customer base. Just how many new customers will it take per day in order to make the money you need to cover costs and profit? A good business will keep customers coming back; those are your Regulars. However, most of your Regulars will only eat out once in a while, not every day. Sure, you will have some that may come in a couple of times a week, but not everyone will. Most won't. And even your regulars may want something to eat, periodically, other than your bbq. They simply won't show up each day.
You need to have a plan to continually grow your customer base. If you plan on just "word of mouth", then I hope you have a fat wad of cash sitting in your reserve account.
Marketing is not just advertising; advertising is only one tool that you use to market your product. Marketing is about letting folks know what your business is and why they need your product. Marketing can be as simple as visiting surrounding businesses with a sample of your product and a stack of business cards. Or it can be as elaborate as a high-powered marketing firm can make it. A good business plan will incorporate a marketing plan. Marketing can be inexpensive and still be incredibly effective; call it guerilla marketing.
What good marketing needs, however, is something that is always in short supply when you run your own business: time. And without taking the time you need for marketing, you cripple your chances of success from the get-go. A good business plan will help you understand how you are going to fit marketing into the whole of your business.
5. What you want your operation to look like. For instance, my business plan helped me to figure out that I didn't want to deal with front of the house staff and scheduling ie waitresses. So I focused on how to make customer counter service a smooth, pleasant, and efficient experience for the guest.
6. What equipment do you need to get up and running? This includes hard equipment like sinks, dishwashers, pits & smokers, prep tables, prep equipment, cold storage, hot holding and cold holding, etc. It also includes consumables like paper towels, cups, take-out containers, straws, food-handling gloves, etc. The plan will make you understand your inventory needs, plans for maintaining equipment, and all the nit-picky details that can bust a budget.
7. Who are the wholesale suppliers that you will want to deal with to get the best prices on your inventory items.
8. What amount of start-up funds do you need? A business plan will make you honestly think through, evaluate, and intimately understand several types of budgeting processes that you need to know. It will force you to account for every nickle that you will need to spend, and give you the tools you need to keep you from blindly throwing money into the wind. Without that kind of disciplined approach, you can run out of money before you are even half-way through opening up your business.
You need to know what your line item budget is for your equipment, for your remodeling or construction, for your initial inventory, for your monthly expenditures, and for the OTHER STUFF: government fees, permit charges, inspection costs, taxes, surcharges, attorneys, bookeepers, software, pencils, calculators, file cabinets, advertising, phone bill, utilities, and on and on.
A business plan, done properly, is a lot of work; but it is not wasted work, nor is it useless make-work. A business plan is the only way to answer the question "should I go pro?"
In my mind, if someone is unwilling to put in the work to plan and think things through in a disciplined and thoughtful manner the way a business plan forces one to do, then they should forget about opening their own business. The dedication to succeed simply isn't there.
I thought I would hate doing my plan; but I actually enjoyed it. And it answered my question about whether or not I should open my own business.
I made good use of the Small Business Administration's website. I also used Entrepreneur Magazine's website. Both have a lot of resources for planning and running a small business. They also have information on how to do a business plan.
I used Business Plan Pro to help me get started doing my business plan. I found that it helped me format the plan and progress with its writing in a logical way. You don't need to buy software to do a business plan, but it is something to consider if you are stuck on how to get started. I'm sure there are any number of programs out there.
If you have access to a college, they may have a small business counseling program. If you were in America, I could point you to our government resources for small business which provide wonderful programs to get you going with counseling and outstanding resource materials. Please check with your own government's small business program for similar programs.
Good luck with your decision, I wish you the best.