Whether you are a large or small operator with limited or no foodservice experience, the discipline of evaluating your current business and facilities is similar, though not identical. Indeed, larger chains with more varied store formats and facilities will have a more complex and challenging evaluation process.

Financial Considerations
There are many metrics an operator can look at, but the most important are current sales volume and foot traffic. Some experts will argue that strong foot traffic during peak meal times trumps most other metrics. Experts recommend a minimum of 1,000 customers per day and $25,000 a week in in-stores sales, excluding cigarette sales.

If you have a variety of location types (i.e. highway, commuter, neighborhood stores), be sure to take traffic counts on all of them because foot traffic patterns and sales volume can vary considerably. Each store has to be looked at separately to ensure maximum success and return on investment.

The following are other important financial and facilities considerations:

• Are your current fountain and hot dispensed programs high quality, fresh and clean and in stock all the time? If the answer is no, invest and build credibility in these fundamental programs before moving into food.

• Are your stores modern and big enough? If your facilities are old and have not been upgraded for the past five to 10 years, invest in facilities upgrades. Experts agree stores should be 2,500 square feet or larger to accommodate basic foodservice.

• Consider hiring an expert to conduct full site studies or "propensity reports" to evaluate your facilities (parking, storage, space for food preparation and display, seating, etc.) to understand the physical restrictions of your locations and adjustments that may have to be made.

The Talent
Once the financial considerations and facilities questions have been fully explored, the most critical area of review is in-house talent and other human resources needed to properly execute foodservice.

How much foodservice experience is there among upper management? Does management have the core competencies to execute foodservice?

If you do not have the appropriate in-house talent, are you willing to invest to hire outside talent? Foodservice requires human resources investment at all levels of the organization.

Is the company committed to investing in continuous training to build safe foodservice programs and a credible foodservice culture?

The Offering
So, you have the sales and foot traffic to consider expanding foodservice and are committed to investing in facilities improvements and foodservice talent. Now, what should your offering be? Most experts will tell you to start with the basics and build on a strong foundation.

Focus on the quality of your beverage programs first (coffee, fountain and frozen) and make sure your beverages are fresh all day long. You may need to upgrade your product offerings to improve quality. Do you have automatic icemakers and on-equipment ice dispensers?

Are your cup dispensers all working and is the self-service area clean, with service counters in good repair? Do the product presentation, serving and condiment areas all logically flow in the manner customers shop? Are the cups, lids, straws, stirrers and condiments fully stocked with plenty of back stock?

Is your equipment clean and in working order all the time? Do you have a maintenance and repair program that assures down equipment is back up and running in 12 hours or less?

After consistent beverage programs are built and perfected, then it makes sense to extend into food beginning with breakfast items, which are the easiest to execute and require less labor than other food programs. Consider adding bakery (muffins, doughnuts, bagels and rolls), and hot breakfast sandwiches. After perfecting these offerings, then consider adding more items and varieties to fully capitalize on breakfast before moving on to lunch.

Make sure you give the programs time to work. It may take a year or two until this stage of your foodservice program is profitable and ready for the next stage of expansion, which could be lunch, depending on your location and commitment.

Hot Tips for Beginners

• Invest in facilities assessments to avoid developing programs you can't execute well.
• Conduct all the due diligence necessary (customer research, traffic counts, demographic studies) to develop programs your customers want and will buy.
• Start with the fundamentals (dispensed beverage programs) and excel at them before adding food.
• The simplest food daypart to tackle is breakfast. If your foot traffic supports this and you have a strong coffee business, you are likely ready to add bakery items and breakfast sandwiches.
• Then, as you build success, move into grab-and-go lunch items, but expand slowly, learn and make adjustments along the way.