Opening
a restaurant business is an enormous capital venture with countless variables
to perfect. When you think you’re ready to launch your restaurant, you will
undoubtedly come across setbacks. Even after you’ve opened, you will face a
constant stream of challenges; we’ve all seen Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen
Nightmares. That being said, there are profound successes for every restaurant
disaster story. The key to surviving is following the correct formula and adapting
to changes within society. We will outline the perfect roadmap to opening your
restaurant business throughout this article.
Conceptual
Design
Before
you do anything, you need to decide on the concept of your restaurant. How do
you want guests to feel in your establishment? What will you be known for in
years to come? Defining your idea will let you start building a menu, and from
this, you can design the entire restaurant. Alternatively, you may be starting
your journey further down the line; for instance, if you run a pop-up food
stall or truck and you’re simply looking to transit into a restaurant. Either
way, you need to choose the correct tone for your restaurant.
As
a budding restaurant owner, you’ve likely been to other food establishments to pull
ideas and scope out the competition. You need to decide where you will sit
between Michelin
star quality and Chick-fil-A. For opening a restaurant in 2022, you should be
thinking about healthy meals, QR code menus, culturally diverse cuisine, and
sustainability.
Local Business Opportunities
Now
that you’ve got your restaurant idea and concept, you need to consider where it
fits into the local area. You may come across untapped demographics or even
challenges you didn’t foresee by conducting market research. The market
research stage ensures that you create a menu that people will buy into. You
need to be flexible and willing to change if the local area doesn’t fit your
ideas.
After
you’ve carried out deep market research, you need to research your competitors.
This is an exciting time where you get to explore restaurants – and you can
even have a meal or two along the way. During your research stage, you may find
that restaurants in the area already offer the same concept as you. Again, you
need to be willing to adapt your ideas to suit the local area.
Business Planning
With
research carried out and your ideas in place, you need to build a business plan
to guide you through the opening years. Writing your business
plan will take you some time, but it’s well worth having it in place. You
will need to do the following:
- Include a summary of concept, brand, and ideas to make your business
sound appealing to future investors - Write down the results of your market research alongside a thorough
analysis - Work out where your funding will come from
- Menu design and costings
- Overhead estimations
- Your estimated financial forecast – worked out from your restaurant
capacity and menu prices - Include a plan for how to market your restaurant
A
large part of writing a business plan is to let investors and potential
partners know that you’ve thought through everything. In particular, they will
want to be sure that you’ve fully considered the financial side of the business. Answer the
question “How much
does it cost to open a restaurant?” by reading this
breakdown of the cost over on restaurants.yelp.com. You will find a wealth of other resources
there, as well as intelligent tools to help you run your business.
Getting Set Up
With
your business plan in place, you can choose the ideal restaurant location and
begin to bring your vision to life. Take your initial concept and decide on a
brand for your restaurant. From there, you will be able to design your
interior, menus, and website. When a customer comes into your restaurant, the
first impression of your food comes from the menu, so you need to make sure you
get this right.
Customers
tend to eat with their eyes, which means that they’re judging your kitchen and
quality of food from the moment they walk in. Therefore, you need to make sure
that you’ve got quality equipment in place throughout the front and
back-of-house. The bathroom facilities are crucial – if you’ve got dirty toilets,
people will assume your kitchen is filthy.
Cover Your Back
You
need to make sure that you’re covered in case anything goes wrong, and there’s
a lot that in a restaurant. You will need the following:
- Business buildings insurance
- Employers’ liability insurance
- Public liability insurance
- Business contents insurance
All
of these will make sure that your business is safe in the event of legal fees,
injuries on-site, and any damages that occur.
Remaining Legal
When
running a restaurant, you have a duty of care to the public to ensure that your
hygiene standards are high. Food safety guidelines come from the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA); they will regularly check to ensure that you
are compliant. As well as being compliant with food, you will need to carry out
regular risk assessments and fire safety checks. If you document precisely how
you are protecting your employees and the public and testing your processes,
you can’t go wrong.
You
will need to ensure that you’ve got all the permits and licenses in place
before you open your restaurant. You need a permit to serve alcohol, play
music, and do many other activities. If you’re making changes to your
restaurant site, you need to apply for planning permission. You will fail
before you start if these aren’t in place before you open.
Now
it’s time to launch your business and put your plan into action. Remember, you
need to be flexible and willing to adjust aspects that aren’t working. In your
first year, you need to decide what comes next for your business. Will you
expand your brand, invest in new tech, or start a delivery service? There are
countless avenues to explore that will help future-proof your restaurant
business.
