A Beginners Guide to Opening a Restaurant
Have you always wanted to start a restaurant but just don’t know where to begin? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Of the thousands of people who try to open their own restaurant every year, of those only a percentage find success in the very fickle restaurant industry. That is not to say that it is impossible to open a successful restaurant. However, it is challenging and requires a lot of hard work and dedication.
Starting any business is a difficult task. Unfortunately, that is even more true of opening a restaurant. With razor-thin profit margins and unpredictable customer consistency, opening a restaurant can really feel like a gamble. However, if you work hard, know what you’re getting into, and set yourself up for success, it can be gratifying financially and emotionally.
Regardless of your level of expertise or experience in the foodservice industry, if you’re passionate about getting your restaurant up and running, you can succeed. Take comfort in the fact that on average Americans eat out four times a week, so there is the demand, you just have to find a market that works for you and your restaurant.
Right now, it might feel like you are alone in this difficult endeavor. You aren’t! Below you will find a list of tips for opening a restaurant specifically designed for people like you; self-starters with little outside help and a dream of starting their own restaurant.
The following list of tips for opening a restaurant is geared towards some of the challenges that come along with obtaining and designing the right space for your business, as well as some of the logistical things such as formulating a concept and business plan.
Picking a Concept for Your Restaurant
First on this list of tips for opening a restaurant is finding your concept or niche. Every restaurant needs a concept that matches the food. Whether you want to open a traditional tavern, a seafood restaurant, or a sports bar, you will need decor that matches your market.
Picking your concept needs to be done before you can begin the process of opening a restaurant. There’s nothing worse than having to pivot your design and décor halfway through because you decide to go a different direction with your concept. Indecisiveness will lead to extra expenditures and unnecessary delays.
Formulating a Business Plan
For your restaurant to be successful, you will need a business plan. After you’ve chosen your concept and demographic, this is one of the most important tips for opening a restaurant. Without a well thought out business plan, you and anyone you’re in business with will be wandering around in the dark trying to figure out where to go.
A business plan is essentially the blueprint for how you want your restaurant to run when it’s all finished. To formulate a business plan with any success, you will have to take a long and hard look at all aspects of the business end of operations.
You will need to decide if you’re going to be the sole proprietor; or if you are going into business with someone else, is it a partnership or a joint-proprietorship.
You want to know exactly where your startup money is coming from, and how much it will cost upfront to get your business running. As yourself questions like, when will we turn a profit? And am I willing and able to not make money for five years?
Five years might sound like a long time to go without turning a profit. Still, unfortunately, that is relatively standard in the restaurant industry. Starting your own restaurant isn’t cheap, and you need to be prepared for that to the best of your ability if you wish to find success.
Your business plan should also include a detailed marketing plan. You can’t run a successful restaurant if no one knows that you exist. You will have to detail your advertising strategies ahead of time and push your name into the public eye before the restaurant is even open. This could mean anything from taking out an ad in the local newspaper to hiring professionals to formulate custom designed websites for your business. However, you wish to do so, it is crucial to the success of your business that you advertise as much as possible.
Obtaining and Renovating a Building Space
Finding a building or space that meets your restaurant’s needs can often be the most difficult thing about starting a restaurant, or any business for that matter. The following tips for opening a restaurant will help you find and renovate the perfect space for your restaurant.
Rule number one of starting a successful restaurant: location, location, location. It’s as simple as that. If you are in a high traffic area, your restaurant will be heavily trafficked. Without a strong reputation, people won’t travel out of their way to get to your restaurant if you’re in a low-traffic area. And it’s unlikely that you will have a reputation at all as you are just starting your restaurant.
Choosing a proper location for your specific restaurant concept might be the most helpful of the tips for opening a restaurant on this list. Essentially, you won’t want to open a biker bar in a wealthy neighborhood in Connecticut, and you won’t want to open a five-star French eatery in a farm town in upstate New York. If you want to run a successful seafood joint, it might help to be near the water; even if you aren’t getting your fish from that water, it is part of the ambiance and the experience.
Once you’ve found a proper location for your business, it’s time to make it look the part. Depending on the binding you’ve acquired, the best place to start might be a full-fledged building facade restoration. If the building you are going to occupy wasn’t a restaurant before it came into your hands, chances are it doesn’t look like a restaurant at all. That is when a building façade restoration is a place to start.
However, if the building you’ve purchased or signed a lease on was already a restaurant in the past, you have a lot less work to do. Commercial renovation varies in project size and cost. Still, if you’re only doing cosmetic renovations, you won’t be in it for too much money. Renovation projects -while they might seem pricy- will have a big return on investment. Any renovations that will improve the functionality or feel of your space are work investing in.
Renovation projects range all the way from redoing the entrance to bathroom restorations so, it can be a little tricky to know where to start. Start by making a list, look at all the projects that need to be done, and tackle them as quickly as your budget. Allotting the proper amount of money and time to renovation projects is one of the most helpful tips for opening a restaurant that anyone could offer you. So, don’t cut corners or rush things, it will cost you in the long run.
In most cases, renovation projects will be dictated by your restaurant’s area. Hiring local contractors and sourcing your materials locally will typically result in lower overhead prices while also developing a relationship with other local businesses that will benefit you in the long run.
If you’re opening a seafood spot in southern Florida, look for a bathroom cabinet store in Miami for your restroom renovations. If you’re opening a hot wings bar in Buffalo, do some research and find a fryer technician and supplier that other restaurants use. If you’re a local restaurant, you will want to cultivate a relationship with other local entities. Renovation jobs are a great place to start.
Taking Care of the Logistics
Next on the list of tips for opening a restaurant is taking logistical matters into consideration. No matter how you look at it, many things go into running a restaurant that you just don’t think about. Some of the following tips for opening a restaurant need to be taken care of before your open, and others are important to consider once you’ve established your business. The logistics of running a restaurant can be the most important thing to keep to be successful.
Logistical things like insurance, fire protection, health code, security, and zoning issues keep a business running, and running well if done properly.
Before your business is up and running, you will need to research insurance companies that can help with some of the coverage you need to run a business. After all, business insurance is required by most states to serve food at any capacity, so you will want to find a policy and a company that fits your restaurant’s needs.
All restaurants have different insurance needs. These needs vary depending on your staff, the size of your building, the type of food your serve, and, finally, the location of your restaurant.
Zoning requirements change from state to state and from city to city. Once you have a location for your restaurant, you will need to start looking into the zoning requirements of that city. Things like the distance from the road you are allowed to operate, where and how big your parking lot needs to be, and the restrictions on building construction need to be evaluated before your business is established.
Fire protection and health code requirements -like zoning- will change from city to city. A health code inspection is something that all restaurants will need to go through and pass before opening. If you’ve worked in food service before, you know that health code can feel over the top and are often far too strict to be considered reasonable. However, there’s no way around it. So, it is best to set yourself up for success on the front end, and then keep a clean and tidy restaurant as it runs.
The location of your restaurant will most likely dictate the security level you will require for your building. Whether your restaurant is -whether it’s New York City, Miami, or a small farm town in Vermont- you will want to keep the building secure. There’s a lot of expensive equipment involved in any restaurant, and chances are when you’re staring up, you can’t afford to purchase big appliances twice.
No matter your security requirements, you will want to obtain commercial locksmith services to have the best door locks possible. Proper locks are the absolute bare minimum. After that, you can look into security cameras and high-tech security systems that can further protect your investment.
Getting the Place Up and Running
Once your business model is in place, your building is up to snuff. Your logistical bases are covered; it’s time to start the fun tips for opening a restaurant.
At this point you’ve done almost everything you can before your restaurant opens its doors. It’s time to get the restaurant ready to open.
The following tip for opening a restaurant deals with staffing. Finding, training, and keeping a reliable, hard-working staff is hands down one of the most difficult things to do as a restaurant owner.
Looking into working with a staffing service to help you staff your store will give you a big leg up. It’s hard enough to run a business, but having to worry about finding stuff on your own will make things that much more difficult. Staffing services are designed to find well-qualified employees and match them to your business, which will save you a lot of headaches in the long run.
Looking Towards the Future
Once your restaurant has been established for a while and starts to turn a profit, you may start to think about expansion. Whether you are thinking about opening a second location, upgrading your current building, or relocating all together, you will want to have things set up to make your transition as easy as possible.
If you’re thinking about relocation or a second location, keep in mind professional business moving services. Moving large appliances and equipment can be time-consuming and potentially dangerous, so looking to a professional service could save you a lot of hassle.
Final Take Away
No matter what the vision is for your restaurant, taking into consideration the above-mentioned tips for opening a restaurant will help you get started. Running a restaurant isn’t easy, but with the right attitude and preparation, it can be as successful and rewarding as you’ve always imagined.
