Starting a restaurant business
The food business is a profitable venture anywhere in the world, even more so if you are opening a restaurant, because it offers a comfortable space with a la carte meals to delight the different customer profiles you will have.
In this article we give you all the information and advice you need so that this project can be approached from an original and successful point of view. Stay until the end to discover how you can open a restaurant step by step.
Let’s get started!
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First steps in a restaurant
The management of the restaurant is no small task. To achieve this successfully, you must have staff who are experts in administration and cooking, but who are dedicated to pure management. Otherwise, which is even better, you should hire a professional in gastronomic business management, as this person handles the marketing and sales strategies needed to move forward such a venture by opening a restaurant.
Opening a restaurant goes beyond buying tables and preparing food; it requires very delicate preparation. We will choose the concept of the restaurant we want to set up and according to that, we will choose the decoration, the adequacy of the premises, the menu, the staff’s uniform, the hours of operation and other basic aspects.
How a restaurant works
The restaurants are the familiar places par excellence, but the truth is that it is an open space for all the public, where not only the moment of some meal is shared, but also an experience and a memory. There are theme restaurants that tend to focus on particular interests, restaurants with special decoration that open their doors to entire families, spaces for business events and more.
So why open a restaurant? Besides launching into one of the most profitable sectors of the market, it is also about comfort, practicality and good food. People who choose to eat at a restaurant, not only look for practicality, but also want to be well served and seek a way of eating that encompasses quality, taste and originality, and therefore are able to pay the price we set.
If this is the type of business you are aiming for, then it is worth taking the next step. All this makes it a business with a lot of performance, and above all, with a very long duration, because as fashions and trends in gastronomy are changing, your restaurant can adapt and keep standing.
Requirements of a restaurant
Something we must take into account is that the requirements and registration documents may vary according to the region in which we are located, so it is extremely important that we previously contact the corresponding entity in our city to request information about it. However, in general, you must have operating licenses for the handling of food, permits and other references to the Ministry of Health.
On the other hand, you need to have a place suitable for installing a restaurant, since not just any place is suitable for opening a restaurant, but it must have the connections for the kitchen and other features, such as an emergency exit, a fire extinguisher, a sector for ventilation or to put a smoke and odor extractor typical of the kitchen. It should also have an important area for the diners’ tables.
Equipment, decoration and staff
The equipment will consist of the tables, chairs, counter, cash register, kitchen, extractor, kitchen elements, utensils and decorative elements. The decoration will go according to the profile you want to give to your restaurant. For example, if it is a restaurant focused on the grill, then you will decorate it with cow hides and horns, among other elements that refer to those animals and the field in general. A rustic style.
The hiring of personnel is necessary so that these people can take charge of the different areas that will be part of your restaurant, such as: the kitchen, the tables, platforms, entrance, the cashier, the administrative sector, cleaning and restaurant marketing management. All of them must be covered by the right people.
How to promote a restaurant?
A business like this must be eye-catching on its own and be visible from afar, which is why the front of our restaurant should have the name and be decorated, from the start, with the chosen theme.
Days before the launch you can hand out flyers with the date of the day you will open, add promotions or offers for the occasion and even bring musicians who go with the theme of the place. Internet today and
one of the best allies for this type of business, so it is convenient to open a website where you can hang your special dishes, events made over time and include a section for home delivery.
Key tips for starting my own restaurant
Although the decoration of the facade is crucial to attract the attention of customers, it is not enough to make more people know us, that is why it is so important to invest in advertising your business in different formats. Nowadays, before going to a place to eat, many prefer to start the search from the comfort of their phone and that is why we have to have a web presence, to be more within reach.
In many cases, it is preferable to avoid hiring family and friends, especially in the initial stage where the relationship may change, however, we can not deny the success of family businesses.
On the other hand, the location of the restaurant should also be carefully evaluated, because according to it, we can even vary the theme or concept, decoration or approach, for example, if it is an area with a greater presence of trees, a rustic and natural sense would be a good option to attract the public.
Weaknesses: one of the most common mistakes entrepreneurs make when opening a business like this is to create a menu that is tailored to their particular or nearby preferences. What you need to do, in fact, is a market study that allows you to know, among other things, the interests of the public to which you are launching your restaurant and if it is a family restaurant, the offer will have to be much wider.
Knowing what your customers like, which products and dishes they buy most, this makes it easier to know the market trends and incorporate this into your menu. This, because we must have in clear the concept that is going to handle our restaurant.
Points in favor: this is one of the sectors with the highest profitability in the market and that is indisputable, therefore, investing money in a venture like this, with proper planning and proper management, are the right conditions to start making money.
The great amount of possibilities that a business like this can have even make it an excellent way to promote gastronomic tourism, offering a menu with traditional recipes of the area.
Success stories
To give an account of what can be achieved with a business like this, we take as an example some restaurants and other types of businesses in the same sector, which have managed not only to expand their projects, but even expand it from franchises that today have presence in a large number of countries.
Find out in the following link the success stories we talked about, investigate their modes of operation and know their experience to be setting the course of your own project
As you can see, the possibilities are many and the profits even more so.
What are you waiting for to open your own restaurant and start making money?