Many people dream of owning a restaurant. Most of them had the experience of working at a restaurant at some point in their lives. But do they have what it takes to succeed? How to start a successful restaurant?
Owning a restaurant can be a dream of many people, but not everyone tries to make it come true. When you think about it, there’re quite a lot of things to take into consideration before you manage to launch it. Some people may be not aware of the time and effort that needs to be put into building this dream. The first year of the restaurant is crucial. That’s when around 60% of them fail. How to avoid failure? Here are the tips to achieve success.
- Have a plan
The reason why many restaurants fail is the lack of a business plan. It’s crucial. You may have a great vision on how you want your restaurant to be and what it stands for. You need to plan the steps that you’re going to take in order to achieve success. The process should be simple at first. Your plan should include a market research, competitors, target audience, a marketing plan and financial and budget plan. Restaurant like Salt Flakes Restaurant have goals, like achieving a Michelin Star and they work to achieve it.
- Concept
Do you want to create a fine dining restaurant or a casual one? Is your dream restaurant more modern or classical? Perhaps you want to create an atmosphere from the French Riviera. You need to create an ideal image of your restaurant. Concept is one of the top three factors of success. The atmosphere, cuisine, decorations and details all need to work together.
- Chef
No restaurant achieved greatness without a great chef! You need to make sure that your chef fits your concept to avoid the drama and misunderstandings. If your restaurant specializes in a certain kind of cuisine, make sure that you hire an expert. Great dishes lure in customers and win them over!
Make sure the chef you hire has their food handler card and is aware of safety protocols when working with food.
Outsource As Much As You Can
As you might expect, running a successful restaurant means juggling quite a few things. If you’re managing too much, you could end up making mistakes. Naturally, there are a few ways around this. Perhaps the most notable is by outsourcing as much as you can.
While many things will have to stay in-house, such as cooking and customer service, you could outsource more than you’d think. Most of this will revolve around your back-of-house, such as accounting and multiple other things.
You could also consider reputation management companies or marketing agencies to manage your local image. There are multiple reasons why you should consider this. Perhaps the largest is that it’ll boost your image with the local community.
That’ll help drive your overall foot traffic and revenues. Outsourcing other duties can also offer several other benefits. Most of these will revolve around your costs. Hiring marketing professionals, cleaners, accountants, and other employees can be quite expensive.
Alongside their salaries, you’ll have to think about insurance, employee benefits, and much more. By outsourcing many of these areas, you’ll negate these costs completely. Those savings can then be used in many other areas, which will then further fuel your growth.
Then there are the time-savings that you’ll see. Other parts of your restaurant will be more important to its success. Why take time away from them to focus on some less crucial areas? Outsourcing everything you can lets you focus on the areas that more directly impact your restaurant’s success.
With that, there’s no reason you shouldn’t consider outsourcing some core duties.
- Location
Location can make or break the restaurant. You might have great marketing, the best chefs and friendly atmosphere, but if your location is unpopular than it will be hard to attract customers. It’s good to start your restaurant in the popular parts of the town or in a trendy new location. Make sure that it complements the concept of your restaurant!
The success of the restaurant depends on how well you plan things out. It’s also a bit of luck, talent of your chef, location and the idea. All of these mixed together can create a great experience.
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