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Novice owners of restaurants, taverns, cafes in the neighborhood, as well as other catering companies, have the opportunity to approach the choice of cuisine and create an attractive atmosphere for customers. However, starting a restaurant business, you should not forget the main rule – you run a business. Regardless of how much you like to cook or interact with customers, you should follow some rules about how to start a restaurant business to achieve the greatest success.
Serving in the best eateries takes place with perfect ease, as their owners and managers are preparing, as if for a fight. Their mission is to perfectly serve each client, which means creating the right atmosphere, both in the hall and among the guests, as well as treating them with the best dishes. The following are eight tips for managing a new restaurant business:
The study of business aspects when starting a new restaurant Business
Before you open a restaurant, you should familiarize yourself with numerous business details that cannot be disclosed in this article, especially those that are universal for a restaurant anywhere in the world. However, cost and location are critical everywhere. You need to familiarize yourself with the legal requirements of the country where you are going to open this type of business. Here are some of their key points you will need to know:
What insurance is required and what exactly is recommended for running your business? What permissions, licenses, and registrations are needed? For example, obtaining permission to collect sales taxes, concluding an agreement on the provision of services according to SES standards, obtaining a license for the retail sale of alcohol, and also registering with government agencies.
ERP and CRM software will help optimize many resources and increase sales, so you need to decide whether to automate your business or manage it manually.
- Which method of bookkeeping, payroll, and reporting should you choose?
- What security issues do you face?
- Are you going to sell alcohol, wine and / or beer? How will you enforce compliance and be responsible for it?
The choice of subjects and culinary trends
Choosing a recognizable topic, concept and direction will help to attract your ideal client, whether it is a simple visitor or an urban club lover, a sports fan, a person living in the neighborhood, as well as families, gourmets or businessmen who want to dine.
Promotion of business on social networks
Today’s catering companies are faced with new problems in the transmission of oral information, which were considered the main ones of previous generations. Now the information is provided in digital form, and in order to decide where to dine today, customers use websites, social networks, and other platforms. This is why your business must have a complete online presence.
Providing customers with convenient order options
Most often, customers choose a restaurant using mobile phones, so you should definitely put your menu in the public domain. A special opportunity to order on the site will simplify many operations and speed up maintenance.
Many restaurateurs have expanded some of the possibilities and now offer check-in online or over the phone, as well as table reservation services.
The more customers have ways to place orders, the faster your income will grow.
Keeping up to date with culinary and marketing trends
Many new owners have a clear culinary concept, but the first rule should be repeated, stating that your catering is, first of all, a business. At the most basic level, the success of your business will depend on the satisfaction of many customers with different tastes.
This means that an experienced restaurateur will include in the menu dishes of various price categories, healthy food, and special diet dishes.
Food preferences change very quickly, so healthy food should be presented in the menu of a modern restaurant, as well as information on the method of its preparation and origin.
The trend to use farm products is also important, so try to find local suppliers. You should study the national, international and local trends in the restaurant business in order to choose the best option for the concept and space and determine the right customer.
Find out which restaurants are open in your area and try to create a menu that will appeal to locals, while at the same time offering something unique that sets you apart from your competitors.
Creating an organized business
If your restaurant, regardless of the cuisine or concept, brings in significant profit, then it is extremely important to control the inventory, waste processing, theft, portion sizes, and mismanagement. Each item on your menu should be divided into ingredients and priced according to current prices. A gradual and regular increase in prices can effectively affect profits and will allow you not to lose money. Slight price increases are more easily accepted by customers than larger, but infrequent price increases.
Minimizing waste directly affects your business because each piece directly reduces your profit. It is not possible to create a waste-free business, but it is important to monitor how waste is generated. If your chefs and kitchen staff make too many mistakes or serve too large portions, then corrective action must be taken.
Organizing your business can turn a small business into a profitable and highly professional business. The current organization is also important because culinary trends are developing incredibly fast. That is why accurate metering, efficient inventory management, portion control and minimization of waste and theft are very important.
Effective management methods can also reduce labor costs, for example, with more effective and cross-training of employees, which will reduce staff.
Human Resource Management
Personnel management is often the biggest problem when you are starting a restaurant business. That is why it is important to establish communication between employees, both working with clients (“front-of-the-house”, FOH), and not having contact with guests (“back-of-the-house”, BOH). Successful restaurateurs understand that their employees are very important because they interact directly with customers and prepare food.
Your staffing needs will fluctuate depending on the season, special events, weather, local festivals, number of tourists and other factors. The search and training of the right staff, the hiring of seasonal staff and the organization of temporary workers in emergency situations may be required when creating a successful restaurant business.
There are also technical details of salaries, benefits, health insurance and planning for consideration. Contact your local restaurant association about how to start a restaurant business regarding advice on planning, managing payroll, and regulatory compliance for your employees.
The discovery of additional ways of income
The number of seats, the number of visitors and the speed of order execution often limit service opportunities and potential revenue. That is why so many restaurant business entrepreneurs are opening up other sources of income for their business.
These include:
- Catering and catering
- Orders “with you”
- Previously prepared foods for quick consumption, such as box lunches, sandwiches, etc.
- Bottle, canned and packaged food
- Delivery Services
- Restaurants on wheels (in small trucks)
- Sale of goods, including culinary supplies and equipment, clothing with the company logo, souvenirs for tourists, as well as attributes of the local sports team
- Holding parties, meetings and special events such as food and wine tastings
- Small cars with food traveling around remote areas to attract new customers
- Sale of cakes, desserts, and bread
These are just some of the most important areas to consider when opening a restaurant. It is impossible to do everything yourself, so think about accounting and installing software to automate recording, filling out reports and monitoring business performance.
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