Restaurant Suppliers

The Prime Growth Framework for Restaurant Suppliers is a powerful combination of strategic datasets and actionable insight to more effectively deliver solutions to independent and small chain restaurants.
 
Identify prime growth restaurants: independents or small chains, that are employers, with a commercial location, currently at a seed (pre-opening) or expansion (high growth) development stage.
 
Create highly relevant, timely & compelling value propositions, by understanding current growth priorities and positioning your solutions to support those priorities.
 
Enhance your use of data & evidence to make your marketing or sales team a more integrated and valuable part of the small business ecosystem.

The Prime Growth Framework for Restaurant Suppliers consists of four key features:
 
1. Prime Growth Classification
2. Industry monitoring
3. The Prime Growth Briefing
4. Value alignment

Prime Growth Classification

At the core of the framework is Prime Growth Classification, a growth-based classification standard for the small business sector. Growth-based classification uses development stage, growth format and growth scale to categorize firms rather than traditional small business segmentation (revenues, company age, company size, and digital engagement).
 
The purpose of the standard is to identify current prime growth restaurants and segment them by their current growth priorities.
 
Prime growth restaurants are independents or small chains, that are employers, with a commercial location, currently at a seed (pre-opening) or expansion (high growth) development stage.
 
Growth priorities are the big picture context of an owner’s current growth plans – the format and scale of growth they are currently working to accomplish.
 
 

Why this matters

Most small business owners are not motivated by growth¹ and the vast majority are not receptive to new solutions².
 
Prime growth firms are the restaurants most likely to be motivated³ and receptive⁴. When you can identify prime growth restaurants and determine their current growth priorities, you can deliver solutions that support those priorities, making your company a more integrated and valuable part of the small business restaurant ecosystem.
 
Traditional small business segmentation does not provide the ability to identify prime growth restaurants or their growth priorities, as the key indicators are current development stage, growth format, and growth scale⁵.
 
Learn more about Prime Growth Classification
 

1. Only 24% of owners report wanting their firm to be “as large as possible”, and more than 50% of owners cite lifestyle benefits such as “flexibility over schedule” or “be my own boss” as a primary reason for starting their firm. Pugsley, Benjamin Wild and Erik Hurst. “What Do Small Businesses Do?”, Brookings Papers On Economic Activity, Fall 2011. Available online. Only 33% of owners say their primary goal is to grow. The Hartford. “2015 Small Business Success Study”, 2015. Available online. 2. Waters, Steve. “Why The Vast Majority of Small Businesses Are Not Receptive to New Solutions”, SMB Intelligence, May 2018. Available online.. 3. Waters, Steve. “Most Small Business Owners are Motivated by Lifestyle – Not Growth”, SMB Intelligence, May 2018. Available online. 4. Waters, Steve. “Identifying the Small Businesses Most Receptive to New Solutions”, SMB Intelligence, May 2018. Available online. 5.Waters, Steve. “Growth-based Classification vs. Traditional Small Business Segmentation”, SMB Intelligence, May 2018. Available online.

Industry Monitoring

SMB Intelligence uses proprietary open-source intelligence (OSINT) methods applied through a combination of machine analysis and human analytics.
 
We continually monitor over 30,000 real estate, editorial, public government data, social media and other sources to track planned growth activity in the restaurant industry. We apply Prime Growth Classification to that dataset to identify & segment prime growth restaurants, and then aggregate additional data points to determine key characteristics including their current contact details and digital engagement.
 

Why this matters

Which restaurants are currently considered prime growth continually changes, as the sector churns with new firms entering, failed firms exiting and surviving firms moving through development stages.
 

The Prime Growth Briefing

Published every two weeks, The Prime Growth Briefing is a powerful dataset that identifies current prime growth restaurants, segments them based on their current growth priorities, and provides deep insight into their current status through 50 innovative data points.
 
View the data points available in the Briefing.
 

Why this matters

Traditional small business datasets and segmentation does not provide insight into prime growth restaurants, growth priorities, or growth timing⁶.
 
 

Effectively identify:

 
 

Number of firms indentified

The quantity of prime growth restaurant firms / establishments identified averages 15,000 annually. Monthly volume varies with sector conditions / activity.
 

Industry Categories

The Prime Growth Briefing covers restaurants, bars, cafes, breweries, and coffee shops. The vast majority are restaurants.
 

Data Validation

Published every two weeks, the Prime Growth Briefing is the most current and accurate independent and small chain restaurant dataset available. We take extensive steps to ensure the veracity of the data we provide, and to present it to clients in a transparent manner. We use both internal and third-party validation tools, and all contact information is accompanied by validation status.
 

6.Waters, Steve. “Growth-based Classification vs. Traditional Small Business Segmentation”, SMB Intelligence, May 2018. Available online.

This map displays current planned prime growth restaurant activity recently identified by SMB Intelligence. The map is interactive, hover over a pinpoint to view available insight.

Value alignment

The Prime Growth Briefing for Restaurant Suppliers groups prime growth restaurants into seven segments based on their current growth priorities.
 
Growth priorities refer to the big picture context of an owner’s current growth plans – what they are currently working to accomplish. When you can determine current growth priorities you can align your solutions to support those priorities. This makes your solutions more relevant, effective, and compelling, and your company a more valuable part of the small business restaurant ecosystem.
 

Why this matters

Owners live in the moment⁷ and want solutions to current priorities, not generalized value⁸.
 
 

The seven segments:

 

Seed – New Firm

New, seed stage, pre-revenue, pre-opening restaurants currently planning to launch their firm.

Seed – Encore

New, seed stage, pre-revenue, pre-opening restaurants currently planning to launch their firm, with an owner who has previous entreprenuerial experience.

Expansion – Initial

Existing, expansion stage restaurants, currently planning to expand their single establishment firm into a small chain by adding a second establishment.

Expansion – Emerge

Existing, expansion stage, emerging small chain restaurants with 3-10 establishments, that are currently planning to expand by adding an establishment.

Expansion – Advance

Existing, expansion stage, advanced small chain restaurants with 11-20 establishments, that are currently planning to expand by adding an establishment.

Expansion – Velocity

Existing, expansion stage restaurants, that are currently planning rapid expansion by adding multiple new establishments at once.

Expansion – Relocate

Existing, expansion stage restaurants, that are currently planning to expand by relocating their firm or an establishment to a new location.
 
 

7.The average small business has less than a month of cash buffer days (meaning that if something happened that affected their revenue, they would have less than two months before they ran out of cash). 75% of owners have less than two months, 25% of owners have less than two weeks! JP Morgan Chase. “Cash is King: Flows, Balances and Buffer Days”, September 2016. Available online. 8.CEB. “The 9 Traits Small Business Owners Share”, September 2015. Available online.

The Prime Growth Framework for Restaurant Suppliers is a premium, subscription-based service. The service is built for fast deployment into your existing environment – there is nothing to add to your tech stack.
 

Datasets

The Prime Growth Briefing
The Briefing is delivered bi-weekly in CSV format via email.
View the data points available in the Briefing.
 

Strategic insight

The Prime Growth Approach
A nine-step model to implement the Prime Growth Briefing for Restaurant Suppliers into your organization, delivered in PDF format.
 
Prime Growth Classification User Guide
A guide to understanding how and why to use Prime Growth Classification, delivered in PDF format.

Access to the Prime Growth Framework for Restaurant Suppliers is provided to members of our Small Business Supplier Alliance.
 
Learn more about the Alliance.
 
Apply for a position in the Alliance.