Opening a restaurant is one of the riskiest start-ups out there at the moment. Most struggle to make it past the first year, but if you do, it can be a very rewarding and profitable business to own. If you are thinking of opening your own place, there are a lot of things to consider, to avoid ending up in the restaurant start-up graveyard with the rest of the failed enterprises. These are some of the key aspects to a successful restaurant.
Have a Clear Concept
The competition is fierce in the hospitality industry so you need to make yourself stand out. If you open a traditional italian restaurant, even if your food is amazing, you will struggle to attract new customers as people will go to tried and tested places that they can be sure about. You need to be offering something that they can’t get anywhere else, otherwise nobody will take a chance on you. The concept of your restaurant needs to be very clear and consistent throughout, If you are unsure about what your restaurant is, the diners will be too, and they might get a sense that you don’t really know what you’re doing.
Funding
Once you’ve got a solid idea that you think will set you apart from the competition, you need to decide how you are going to pay for it. If you’re lucky, you might be in a position to fund it all by yourself, but for most people, this is not the case. The majority of restaurant start-ups are funded by investors. These people are going to be putting a lot of their own money into your idea, so they need to feel confident that they are going to see a return.
You need to draw up a thorough pitch that covers all bases. Make sure you do your market research so you can prove that nobody else in the area can offer what your restaurant will. You also need to include your profit projections so potential investors can get a good idea of how long it will be before they see a return on their money.
Location
You should include potential locations in your pitch, but these won’t be set in stone. Once you have secured funding, you can start looking into premises for your restaurant properly. This is perhaps the most important factor in a restaurant’s success. You need to make sure that the building is right and fits with the character of your restaurant. But most importantly, make sure it is in a location that is busy with potential diners. If you open your restaurant in the middle of an industrial estate, you might save on rent, but you won’t get many customers.
Equipment
So, you’ve got the money and found a location. Now you need to get it ready for opening. You could buy all of the equipment outright, but that is a large amount of money to put into a restaurant straightaway. For the first few months, it might be worth renting the equipment from places like https://www.butlerequipment.com.au/ until you are making enough profit to buy it outright.
Staff
The last thing to do is to hire some staff. You might focus mainly on the chef, but the waiting staff are equally as important. A combination of great food and excellent service is what makes a restaurant successful so make sure that you hire professional hospitality staff.
If you follow these tips, you should be able to keep your restaurant going for years to come.
