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Ten tips for starting a restaurant

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How to open a restaurant

  • Location, location, location, it can make or break a restaurant. Don’t just get stats from the yellow pages or the last census. Instead pound the pavement, check out the potential competition, their pricing, service, style, when are the busy, when are they not? Make sure there are enough potential customers in the segment you are targeting to ensure you can get your share? Stand on the street with a clicker-counter, in the rain if necessary. Always make sure that there is enough passing trade. Remember, once you have agreed the lease and opened your restaurant, the one thing that is almost impossible to change, is your location.
  • Write a business plan. Remember your business plan is not just a document for raising finance from the banks rather it should be the blueprint for how you plan to run your business. Decide on how many customers you need daily to break even, be conservative.
  • Keep your set up costs low. Can you buy second hand equipment? Can your friends help you fit out the store? Do you need that £5,000 till system? Over the years we have seen way to many restaurants that would have a viable business if they weren’t crippled by their start-up costs.
  • Don’t limit your offer.  Don’t limit your offer to a single day part. Just because you have a coffee shop during the day doesn’t mean that with a few tweaks to the menu that you can’t run a wine bar or bistro from the same location in the evening.  Remember you pay rent 24/7 on your new location so you need to sweat the asset.
  • Always compete on great service. Service doesn’t really have a cost. And the smaller owner run business can always out service the big chains.
  • Restaurant start up guide

    Click here to download the restaurant start up guide

  • It is critical that you start by hiring the right staff.  All too often we visit new restaurants that have spent a fortune on design and layout but have paid no attention to hiring great people. Only hire staff that SMILE. The number one reason that customers return to a restaurant is great service.
  • Never think that the cash in your register is yours. It isn’t, it belongs to your suppliers, your employees, the government etc. Always pay yourself last. In many instances the owner is the first person to take cash out of the till and at the end of the month there is no money to pay anyone else.
  • Set up a Facebook page for your business. Why, because it is a great way to engage with your customers and it is free?  Don’t worry about a website until your business is up and running.
  • Find a good accountant, before you even think about setting up a restaurant.  Ask friends and colleagues for advice. Open a business bank account immediately and always keep your personally finance separate from your business. If book keeping and pay roll is new to you consider going on an evening course to learn the basics. There are plenty of courses available particularly for Sage and Quick Books
  • Remember the biggest barrier to running a restaurant is never getting started. It is easy to plan but never take the plunge. You need to be prepared, you need to have funds and you need to be willing to work hard but most of all, if you want to realize your dream of running a restaurant, you need to get started – today!

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