DineTimes Business Plan (Final)

8/8/2019 DineTimes Business Plan (Final)

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/dinetimes-business-plan-final 1/19

MIS 5700

Business Plan Cam Peterson

Jake Stowell

Marcus OlanWen Jiang

Zach Coleman

12/15/2010



1

Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .................................................................................................................................. 2

BACKGROUND AND MARKET NEED .............................................................................................................. 3

BRIEF HISTORY .............................................................................................................................................. 3

FUNDING ....................................................................................................................................................... 4

SERVICE DESCRIPTION................................................................................................................................... 4

ECONOMIC MODEL ....................................................................................................................................... 6

Major Business Expenses ................................................................................................................... 7

Long-term Vision ................................................................................................................................ 8

MARKET ANALYSIS ........................................................................................................................................ 8Target Market & Market Size ............................................................................................................. 8

Statistics ............................................................................................................................................. 9

Market Risks & Future Plan ................................................................................................................ 9

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................................ 9

Direct Competition ............................................................................................................................. 9

Indirect Competition ........................................................................................................................ 10

How DineTimes Is Unique & Better ................................................................................................. 10

Barriers to Entry ............................................................................................................................... 11

RISK ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................................................. 12Software Imitation ........................................................................................................................... 12

EXIT STRATEGY ............................................................................................................................................ 13

MANAGEMENT TEAM ................................................................................................................................. 13

OPERATIONS PLAN ...................................................................................................................................... 14

Sales Process .................................................................................................................................... 14

Product & Service Delivery ............................................................................................................... 14

FINANCIAL PROJECTIONS AND ASSUMPTIONS ........................................................................................... 15

APPENDICES ................................................................................................................................................ 16



2

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

DineTimes is a company that provides wait list management software to restaurants and other

food joints. Our software allows restaurant owners to display current wait times on the Internet in a

mobile-friendly format. This allows customers to make decisions as to when to go to the restaurant to

avoid long lines. The software is linked to a remote database which is available to the public at

DineTimes.com.

The purpose of DineTimes is to provide restaurants with a simple and inexpensive way of managing

their daily wait lists while collecting timely data for use in improving their operations. Not only will

DineTimes provide a means for restaurants to inform their patrons of their estimated wait times, but

DineTimes will also help restaurant managers avoid losing customers on peak days by providing a call-

ahead seating interface that patrons can use to get on a restaurant’s queue. This call-ahead seating

system provides many benefits to both restaurants as well as their patrons: (1) it saves the consumers

time because they can get on a call-ahead list immediately after viewing a restaurant’s wait time; (2) it

increases the consumers’ convenience of use, because the device used to access the wait times is the

same device used to get on the call-ahead list, and the experience is familiar and intuitive to the user;

and (3) the system reduces vacant tables, decreasing the time typically wasted by reserving parties who

arrive late.

DineTimes makes money by allowing restaurants to subscribe to our service which provides the

ability to implement targeted advertising strategies to their patrons in the form of emails addressed to

registered users of DineTimes.com, text messaging, banner ads, and side-bar ads. For an additional

monthly fee, Restaurants can access analytical data captured by DineTimes to help them boost

efficiency, recognize both peak business hours as well as unprofitable slow hours, and compare their

user reviews with similar venues and industry data.

Initial business launch is planned to take place in the metropolitan area of Logan, Utah.



3

BACKGROUND AND MARKET NEED

Reservations are a very inefficient way of managing a restaurant; tables frequently sit empty for

quite a long time. Restaurant managers want seats to be full – that’s how they make the most money.

Currently, more and more restaurants are moving to call-ahead seating. This allows them to keep tables

full without requiring patrons to sit in line for an hour (or more). Software used to manage the call-

ahead seating is prohibitively expensive for smaller restaurants. There currently is a gap between

restaurants managing wait lists with pencil and paper, and enterprise-level point of sale systems with

endless features and price tags.

DineTimes aims to fill the gap with a simple wait management software which allows restaurants to

broadcast wait times, manage wait lists and even allow patrons to put their name on the list via the

Internet or mobile phone. Software will be managed from a tablet computer in the hand of the hostess

or via a desktop computer. The buzz created by this new use of technology will also contribute to the

reputation of the restaurants using our software.

DineTimes will decrease long wait times at restaurants. All restaurants have peak periods. People

get so frustrated when they are hungry and decide to go and get something to eat, only to end up in

long queues waiting for their turn to be attended to. DineTimes will help restaurants inform their

patrons about the wait times all through a simple mobile interface. Patrons will use the Internet to “call

ahead” and will show up just in time to be seated.

DineTimes is a new service to the market. The system works well, but it’s yet to be tested on the

market. See “Barriers to Entry” for more information.

BRIEF HISTORY

DineTimes began with the idea that you could build an electronic device that would allow a

restaurant hostess to broadcast the current wait time to customers. A device was built using the

Arduino open source micro-controller platform. We also built a website to capture the transmissions



4

and organize the data in a format viewable on mobile devices. Taking our prototype out into the

restaurant world resulted in a lot of great feedback: most restaurants desired a cheap way to manage

call-ahead seating. They reported that the wait time stuff was okay, but not a current priority. This

feedback helped us to revisit our plans and build something people would actually pay for. So here we

are, building a call-ahead seating management application. We have already made a very basic

prototype and are making good time moving it toward production.

FUNDING

DineTimes is currently self-funded. By utilizing efficient open-source tools, startup costs have been

kept to a minimum and the only fees incurred are web hosting. We consider it an out of pocket expense

covered by the founder. Due to our planned method of operations (discussed hereafter in further

depth), the business will build a sustainable financial growth plan, requiring little or no outside

investment. As business continues to grow there will be a need for more developers and our hosting

expenses will increase, but we will implement a just-in-time style of hiring and upgrading hardware.

SERVICE DESCRIPTIONWhat DineTimes offers is multi-platform software which allows restaurants to post their current

wait times in an effort to increase their visibility to hungry patrons who are interested in knowing how

long the queue is at their preferred dining venues. Restaurants can also allow patrons to use the

DineTimes interface as a call-ahead seating service, which adds great value as it is a cheap way to serve

a restaurant’s need to increase table efficiency. Both restaurants and consumers can visit

DineTimes.com to access various levels of information on the site; general information on the Web site

is available at no cost. Advertising management will also be available for restaurants, given they

subscribe and pay for a premium account. The software is built to support several roles, and the

content available to the Web site visitor depends on their role.



5

The DineTimes team will manage the functionality of the Web site and have overarching access to

account management and manage the features available for restaurant advertising. Restaurants can

sign up as an admin to manage their patron email lists and implement their advertising methods, and

can have access to data-driven charts and graphs if they are subscribed as premium users. This data

includes, but is not limited to, average and peak customer wait times, throughput, conversion ratios

from DineTimes-related advertising, comparisons to industry leaders, etc.

Consumers can view the wait times posted on DineTimes.com, and if they register with DineTimes

they will be allowed to access a call-ahead seating interface which lets them enter in the name of and

number in their party, and this request is immediately sent to the restaurant hostess to accept or deny.

This saves the consumer time because he can add his name to the call-ahead seating list the very

moment he finds a restaurant with an acceptable wait time.

As stated previously, restaurants can post their wait times by multiple methods. They can access

the Web site and enter in a wait time from any hand-held device with a mobile Web browser, a

traditional desktop computer and Web browser, or make use of a micro-controller device built on the

Arduino platform, which is open-source and relatively inexpensive (approximately $100 each). This

device can be connected to the DineTimes database via Ethernet connection, and can refresh the

current wait time in the database every 5-10 seconds. Restaurant patrons can literally be kept informed

second by second regarding the current wait times of their favorite restaurants, and the patrons

themselves can actually submit wait times to the site themselves if they wish. The service is incredibly

easy and intuitive to use. The Web software is designed to function similar to other common Web

interfaces used every day, with user logins, search bars, text boxes, and buttons. The power of the site

is driven by its simplicity.

We plan to include an electronic user guide (probably in PDF format) to educate restaurant

managers how to order, build, configure, and install their own Arduino micro-controller themselves. We



6

expect most of our clients will prefer to submit their wait times via the Web software, so it seems

reasonable to focus our efforts on maximizing the capability of the Web interface and data analytics

instead of consuming precious time and resources in buying, building, configuring, and installing only

relatively few devices in a small number of restaurants.

ECONOMIC MODEL

DineTimes gives the restaurants basic access to the website at no cost, allowing them to submit

wait times and manage call-ahead seating. Users can access DineTimes.com for free to view the

restaurants’ wait times, put their name on a wait list and also post a restaurant’s wait time on their own.

A premium subscription level will be the means of generating revenue from restaurants. Premium

restaurants will have monthly access to the analytical data we collect on their restaurant. They will be

able to see trends in their wait times and have a better understanding of how busy their restaurant is.

This will allow the restaurant managers to improve their customers’ experience and make educated

staffing decisions. This subscription will be a fixed monthly fee of $49 per month, paid at the beginning

of each month. Restaurants can also pay $110 extra per month for an add-on which will allow them to

advertise and market directly to their patrons via email, text messaging, and banner ads displayed at the

top of the mobile-user interface and on every page of the DineTimes.com Web page.

Restaurants can also build their own micro-controller device that will submit their current wait

times to DineTimes.com via the Internet. We will make the instructions available and provide an API

through which the device can connect at no cost to the restaurant. Providing the restaurant with an

alternative means of submitting their wait times will increase the likely-hood of adoption among

restaurants and also increase the quantity of useful data at DineTimes.com.

Data collected from restaurants (e.g. average wait times for steak houses in Chicago on the

weekends) is extremely valuable for parties doing market research in the restaurant industry. Selling

accurate and geographically-specific, anonymized data to research institutions, trade organizations, and



7

entrepreneurs is another method of generating revenue. Companies like Zagat and Yelp will be very

interested in that data, the value of which will only increase with the network effect as more people

adopt the DineTimes way of doing business.

Major Business Expenses

Software hosting will be one of the largest expenses for the business. By utilizing the elasticity and

scalability of cloud computing (sourcing the infrastructure to large data centers) we would pay for only

the resources we require. Storage space and computing power are readily available and can be

upgraded easily. Allocation of these costs on a monthly basis will also help keep start-up costs low (i.e.

no large, up-front investments in technology). Cash flow will also be more easily managed due to this

model. DineTimes can begin with a minimal server setup and scale the infrastructure as necessary. A

minimal fee to preserve the DineTimes Web domain name each year is also expected.

Software developers are a crucial part of the business. Programmers command salaries

commensurate with the skills they bring. For DineTimes to succeed in building great software,

additional skilled developers are necessary. A large portion of revenues will be allocated to developer

salaries; this is reflected in the financial model. Virtually all of the development and proof-of-concept

work on the DineTimes application and Web presence has been completed by students for a class

project, so no monetary compensation was incurred. However, while we expect continual development

and maintenance as long as DineTimes is operational, developers’ salary-related expenses for ongoing

development are expected.

To promote the business at startup, DineTimes will undergo significant efforts to advertise our

services through online resources such as Google Featured Ads, Facebook, Twitter, etc., and also

through physical forms of advertisement such as menu inserts in the restaurants themselves, local

newspaper advertisements, and billboards.



8

Long-term Vision

DineTimes has a business model similar to that of the company 37 Signals. 37 Signals built a simple

business collaboration tool called Basecamp. Basecamp allows companies to collaborate internally with

employees and externally with clients, all through a simple, clean, web-based interface that can cost the

company as little as $29 per month. Upgrades can increase the cost up to $149 per month. 37 Signals

has not publicly released exact figures, but they have casually mentioned that they have more than

three million people using their software. If you estimate that a third of their product users are paying

customers (they do have a free plans that allow users to manage 1-2 projects) and that every paying

customer is paying the minimum monthly amount of $29, this conservative estimate puts their revenues

close to $30 million per month.

DineTimes plans to use a similar model, building a large customer base and charging those

customers a small monthly fee (see financial model). This allows customers to pay as they go, rather

than make large financial commitments in the beginning. This will also help us focus on keeping our

customers happy (for customer retention) and also allow us to find new and innovative solutions to their

problems. The market for restaurant service software is just as large as the customer base that is using

37 Signals’ products.

MARKET ANALYSIS

Target Market & Market Size

DineTimes’ initial target market is based in Logan, Utah, with approximately 150 restaurants and a

population of about 50,000. The target demographic is comprised of college-aged to middle-aged men

and women (couples), who eat out regularly. Smart phone users who have an affinity for technology is

another targeted demographic because DineTimes utilizes the power of mobile Web browsing

technology, and this demographic is most inclined to use smart phones.



9

Statistics

According to the National Restaurant Association1, the average American eats out 4.2 meals per

week – roughly one in five meals. If this number is representative of the Logan metropolitan area, that

makes about 210,000 meals per week. Currently the estimated amount of smart phone users is 60

million people, with an estimated 82 million more smart phone users added to the market in 2011. It is

clear that there is a large pool of potential users in Logan, Utah.

Market Risks & Future Plan

Since Logan is a college town and the population of college students fluctuates throughout the

year, the use of DineTimes’ service will likely rise and fall according to the number of college students

throughout the year. However, DineTimes is not limited to the Logan area; other metropolitan areas are

available for market penetration in the near-future. As the popularity of the software expands following

initial product launch, it will be expanded to more populated areas (e.g. Salt Lake City, Utah). As the

network effect takes place, expansion will move to other various cities based on need and demand. As

smart phone use becomes more and more popular, and as the awareness of information available to the

public increases, DineTimes foresees restaurant patrons using their smart phones to check the wait

times at restaurants as part of the eating-out process.

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

There are two forms of competition DineTimes faces upon entry to the market: direct competition

and indirect competition. These two forms of competition will be addressed individually, after which we

will explain how DineTimes is different from the current forms of competition and how we satisfy a

currently unmet need in the market.

Direct Competition

OpenTable.com > OpenTable is an online reservation service for over 15,000 restaurants where a

1http://www.restaurant.org/tools/magazines/rusa/magArchive/year/article/?ArticleID=138



10

user can visit the site, find a restaurant, and book a reservation. OpenTable has a presence in all 50 U.S.

states as well as several international regions. OpenTable also offers a mobile App to users.

What’s The Wait > What’s The Wait is a mobile App which is partnered with OpenTable.com and

Yelp (which provides information and reviews about restaurants and other businesses). It allows users

to post wait time information about a restaurant and the number of people in the line. However, the

whatsthewait.mobi Web site displays posts which are several days old.

Line Snob > Line Snob offers a free iPhone App to users who can receive discounts and coupons to

restaurants, clubs, and hotels after reporting the line wait times they’re standing in. Line Snob gives

companies a three-month trial to test the service, after which the business begins paying a monthly fee

determined by the estimated cost savings provided by Line Snob’s service. Line Snob also receives

commissions through in-App promotions and advertising. Line Snob currently does business in Boston,

Washington, D.C., San Diego, and Las Vegas.

Indirect Competition

Loyalty Cards > Loyalty cards are a popular way for restaurants to increase business. However,

loyalty cards are mainly integrated in fast food chains and are not common at most dine-in restaurants.

Grandpa’s Way > Looking up a restaurant’s phone number online or in a phone book, calling the

hostess, and asking for the current wait is a common method to obtain updated wait time information.

Google > Google is in the information business, and part of its services includes restaurant listings.

How DineTimes Is Unique & Better

We provide a way for restaurants to post their own wait times directly to our Web site with the

micro-controller device; the restaurant hostess herself could do this as she schedules tables and books

reservations. We also provide a way for restaurants to promote their venues through localized

advertising placed on banner ads on the wait times lists and on every page of the DineTimes Web site.

DineTimes provides value to the consumer by giving them what loyalty cards and phone books



11

cannot: (1) the current wait time of a restaurant, (2) discounts and/or coupons offered by the ads

promoted by the restaurants which save consumers money, and (3) alternative restaurant choices which

may have similar or more desirable wait times.

DineTimes is a better alternative than searching for a restaurant’s phone number and calling a

hostess because a user can report wait time information and receive incentives from the restaurant for

using the DineTimes Web site. Also, if a hungry customer calls a hostess who reports a time which is too

long, he would have to look up another number, call another hostess, and repeat the same process over

and over again until he is satisfied with a wait time or gives up in frustration and starves to death. The

DineTimes interface offers the hungry customer a method to search for a restaurant by the shortest wait

times first, thus ending the quest to satisfy his hunger much sooner, after which he can immediately use

the call-ahead seating interface to get his party’s name on the queue at that restaurant, which the

hostess can accept or decline that very instant.

While some of the main players in the current competition provide a way for users to see wait

times at a restaurant, DineTimes adds an additional value to the restaurant-goer because our Web site

continually refreshes the current wait time posted by the restaurant hostess and patrons, providing end

users with a to-the-second update on the current wait time – not a wait-time posting which was added

14 hours ago. DineTimes is about providing up-to-date information to the people, fulfilling a need in our

fast-paced, dynamic economy.

Barriers to Entry

Restaurant adoption is one of the greatest barriers we face. For our applications to gain traction,

restaurants need to adopt the call-ahead seating interface and step away from classic pencil and paper

management. Change is not easy, especially for restaurants who have been doing the same thing for

years. We plan to offer web-based training to restaurant operators, but more than anything, we will

continue to simplify the interface. Simplicity, in an environment where stress levels can be very high, is



12

a number one priority. A low-risk pricing strategy will also make the decision less complicated for

restaurant owners (who can spend thousands of dollars on software).

User adoption is another barrier to entry. Even if restaurant owners embrace the technology, if

users don’t subscribe to the new way of eating out, our product could show limited value. Again,

simplicity is the key; by making the the interface and user experience seamless and enjoyable, we expect

that adoption will not be an issue. Users will be excited at the new value our service offers.

One of the greatest values we can provide to restaurants is decreasing their operating costs. Our

software will allow them to part ways with expensive point of sale add-ons that are neither simple or

convenient. Some of our competitors offer a 3-month trial of their software. Our base level will be free

while our premium levels will provide inexpensive, yet invaluable analytical information to companies.

We do not expect that the adoption barrier will be incredibly difficult to overcome.

Because our software will be so inexpensive we will have to, as 37 Signals founders say, “under-do

the competition.” Even if competing companies try to replicate our model and our software, they will

fail because they will likely try to build more complicated software. Simplicity will be our key to success. RISK ANALYSIS

Software Imitation

Software is an industry where products have a reputation for failing at the worst possible time. By

implementing functional and operational testing during the design phases of our product, our final

product will be robust and dependable. We may seek a method patent to protect our specific process of

enabling restaurants and patrons to manage call-ahead seating through their wireless devices.

Providing software as a service allows us to continuously add features and fix bugs without

requiring the end-users to download updates or worry about the state of the software. Since our

revenue comes from monthly customer subscriptions, we will be forced to continue to provide

unmatched service alongside our quality product.



13

EXIT STRATEGY

We believe that DineTimes can be a lifetime business for us. While we have big plans for a solid,

healthy business, we have no plans of going big and selling out. Rather, we want to continue to

innovate and bring cool and inexpensive products to the restaurant industry while maintaining a

profitable business. We love to eat, and we love good restaurants. We want to be their lifelong partner.

MANAGEMENT TEAM

Cam Peterson is a grad student in Management Information Systems. He has a passion for cool

web technologies and has a habit of telling everyone he knows about them. He has experience with

jQuery, Ruby on Rails, PHP and more.

Zach Coleman is a senior at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business studying Management

Information Systems and Entrepreneurship. He will graduate summa cum laude in May, 2011, and plans

to enter the professional work environment to gain more work experience before applying to the MBA

program at Harvard Business School. Zach is versed in several programming languages including SQL,

Visual Basic, C#, and JCL, and enjoys learning the principles of entrepreneurship and how to establish a

successful start-up business.

Wen Jiang is a graduate student at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business studying Management

Information Systems. She will graduate in the summer of 2011. She will go back to her country (China)

to become a university lecturer at Fujian Tech University. She has experience with several programming

languages such as SQL Server, Visual Basic, and ASP.NET. She is a good communicator and a master of

online shopping.

Jake Stowell is a graduate student majoring in Management Information Systems. He has worked

in the software industry for over ten years and has experience in software support, quality assurance,

and development. He has experience with Oracle, ASP.NET, JavaScript, SQL Server, and more. He has a

passion for the next best thing and taking projects to the next level.



14

Marcus Olan is a graduate student majoring in Management Information Systems. He will be

graduating in the fall of 2011. Marcus earned his bachelors degree in Electrical and Electronic

Engineering at the Regional Maritime University in Accra, Ghana. He had worked with the biggest power

generation station in Ghana and gained a good understanding of power generation operations. He also

has some computer networking knowledge, good leadership skills, and great communication skills.

Our current team has a well-rounded set of technical skills, including jQuery, SQL, ASP.NET, PHP,

etc. These skills are sufficient for initial development and prototyping. While DineTimes has a great

team, we still lack some of the technical skills to get our stuff out there. The next few hires will be

skilled developers with experience in Ruby, XML and jQuery. Ruby is the language making up our

restaurant interface. jQuery is the javascript library that will make the interface look cool and perform

solidly. XML is the medium through which we receive data from external web services. We plan to hire

the developers as soon as we launch our beta version and have tested our prototype with local

restaurants.

OPERATIONS PLAN

Sales Process

DineTimes founders will visit initial restaurants, one by one, to introduce and demo our software.

We’ll demo the application using Apple’s iPad (our suggested hardware for managing wait times via our

software). If restaurants have computers at the host desk, then the demo can also be shown with their

standard Web browser. We let them try it out, hands-on, and sign them up for the free account.

Training is not necessary due to the simplicity of our design.

Ultimately this is a tool that costs very little money to restaurants, but provides nice returns by

increasing efficiency and making their customers excited about the new technology.

Product & Service Delivery

After we have introduced the device to the restaurants, we will continue communications with the



15

restaurants and monitor their use via our application. We will send information regarding product

updates and upgrades via email. We will also send an email with some of the basic usage statistics to

show the restaurant the value of the premium analytics version.

As restaurants subscribe to the premium version of the site, we automatically allow them access to

pages which show graphs and charts of data from their restaurant. We will use a variety of open-source

tools to create the data-driven charts and graphs.

For restaurants wishing to do advertising, another section of the site will become available after

payment is received. They will be able to send out one email advertisement to a specified list of patrons

who actually want to receive the ads. There will be an interface for them to manage their ad campaigns.

FINANCIAL PROJECTIONS AND ASSUMPTIONS



16

APPENDICES

Figure 1 – Illustrates the DineTimes user interface on an Apple iPad. The call-ahead seating functionality is shown by the pop-up messages atthe lower right corner of the screen, which the hostess can accept or reject.



17

Figure 2 – The DineTimes,com Web site Figure 3 – User search options: search by on a mobile device. The user can clearly restaurant name or search by shortest waitsee the name, phone number, address, currently in the database within a specifiedand current wait time of the restaurant. distance of the mobile device’s location.



Figure 4 – The restaurant search feature lets Figure 5 – Sample of a user entering in text inthe user browse a listing of registered restaurants the search field, which generates a listing of on DineTimes, or directly enter in the name of restaurant names beginning with the letter B.the restaurant in the search box above. The user can then choose a name from the list.

Date post:	09-Apr-2018
Category:	Documents
Upload:	camjpeterson
View:	214 times
Download:	0 times

DineTimes Business Plan (Final)

Documents