Starting a Restaurant – Dream or Nightmare?
You go to your favorite restaurant or watering hole and watch every aspect of service and the food delivered to your table. You are convinced you could do it better. You conjure up the vision of a crowded restaurant with happy people enjoying your creations and hospitality. Keep the dream; it is a lot safer than reality.
Over 5000 people will open a food service or beverage operation this year (and every year). This same year almost the same number will fail. In fact, depending whose research you want to use, 60 to 90 percent of the restaurants opened annually will never see their fifth anniversary.
That means for every entrepreneurial dream, there is a corresponding nightmare out there somewhere.
For the entrepreneur the preceding warning and paragraph fell on deaf ears. If you are going to do it, then at least do it right and have a chance of survival.
How do you start the process? It’s simple; a plan. You must have a business plan. Without a step by step guide to keep you moving in the right direction, you can get lost like a sailor without navigation tools. You may get to your destination, but it could take a costly detour to find your way. A pretty good restaurant business plan can be found at Restaurant in the Weeds.
Once you have a plan, you know the cash you will need. Don’t even think about opening your doors without enough operating capital to survive six months without a customer. Surprises are part of the restaurant business and most of them cost you money. Of the thousands of food operations that fail annually, most close their doors because of the lack of funding to keep their dream alive.
Finally, one of the key elements of survival is your location. Don’t make the mistake of believing that great food will overcome the key elements of survival, including the essentials of a perfect facility to serve your creations. Chain restaurants spend tens of thousands of dollars doing demographic and traffic studies for each location; and they still make mistakes. Start with three unbreakable rules;
1. Visibility – either by pedestrian, such as a shopping center, or alternatively vehicle traffic.
2. Parking – safe, convenient and in a quantity that would support a full restaurant and staff.
3. Access – if there are obstacles to get to your facility, such as a traffic pattern that requires crossing a major highway without traffic lights or a second story that requires walking up stairs, guests will not find your access convenient and accommodating.
That’s it. You are ready to open your restaurant. Oh, what about the food you say? The response is a question. Are you planning on serving bad food? If the answer is no, then the food isn’t nearly as important as the planning, cash and location.
Great food will be expected by your guests and it is a given whenever a restaurant opens. Even mediocre food can be tolerated if all the other elements the customer expects are there. That is how almost every chain restaurant builds their brand. Of the hundreds of thousands of franchised food service operations, how many really serve unbelievably good food. Most serve acceptable fare that meets a value in the guest’s mind, but they excel in providing the rest of the dining experience.
Most budding restaurateurs believe the food is the key, but in the real world food is important and expected – it’s the rest of the package that brings guests back daily, weekly and monthly.
Multi-concept restaurant owner, author and marketing consultant. Built several restaurants into successful ventures that continue to grow and prosper today. Author of the best selling ebook titled The Restaurant Ebook - A Guide to Keeping Your Dreams Off the Chopping Block. Writen many articles and other mini restaurant ebooks on various subjects.
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