ALT-1 How to Start a Restaurant
How to start a restaurant? That is a question I have pondered over on many an occasion, or rather, how do I start a restaurant? The fact of the matter is that there is no real answer to this. No real tried and tested method that everyone can follow to achieve success. Anyone can buy or lease premises, install a kitchen and kit out a few tables but very few can get it right. So perhaps the title of this article should be; How to start a successful restaurant?
I have worked in the hospitality trade for a number of years and although I do not in any way shape or form consider myself to be the next Gordon Ramsey, I think I have some insight into what works in this very competitive and stress fueled field of work.As I have said, anyone can open a restaurant, maybe it is the house wife who is renowned for her party food or the property investor who has money to spare, but statistics show that approximately ninety percent of fledgling restaurants fail within a year or two. This can be caused from a wide range of problems from location, funding, over or even under staffing, over or under pricing and there are many more factors.
One thing to consider before anything else, before money etc is timing. Is the timing right to open this business? This can be looked at on many levels. If you have family, children, are you going to be able to spare the fifty to sixty hours each week needed to open and run a business? If not then you have to put your family first until perhaps the children grow up and you have time on your hands. The next level to look at is the general economic state of the area you are in. If economy is good and people have cash to spare then they will eat out in restaurants more often but if the economy is poor and people are struggling to find spare money then you will find that restaurants and bars will become quiet places and customers will be few and far between. So make sure that you are going be able to get people through the door of your business before you start.
Many people launch into business without having a clue of what that business is about. If you are thinking of doing this, go get some experience. Take a part time job as a waiter or bar person in a restaurant and get a feel for the business. If you hate it as a waiter/waitress then you will more than likely hate it as a restaurant owner. Doing this will allow you to see how the kitchen, front of house and perhaps even the paper work operates. This experience will stand you in good stead when it comes to the creation and opening of your own business.
If you have your mind set that a restaurant is what you want, then you need to start thinking about investment and where it is going to come from. Will you be able to get a business loan? Do you have savings? Can you re-mortgage your home? These questions need to be answered before the ground work begins. Setting up a restaurant costs a lot of money. The premises need to be bought or leased, perhaps refurbished, staff need to be trained, business promotion must take place. All this needs to be in place before the doors can open. If the money to do all this is available, then you are off to a better start than most.
Then the reserve needs to be set up. In the initial stages of the business, cash will seem to leak from you bank with no end in sight. Stock prices are rising and initially needs to be bought in bulk. If your premises is licensed to sell alcohol, thousands of pounds can be spent in a week. At the beginning of your business you will more than likely be over staffed. This is natural as you simply do not know how many customers you will get or even how many you can cope with in a night. These staff will increase your payouts even further until you are established. With all this money being spent so rapidly, there has to be a financial safety net in place to make sure the business doesn't go under before it gets a chance to begin.So, the timing is right, you have your experience and you have money. What's next? Well your business plan needs to be formulated and at the very beginning of this is the building itself. If you plan to open a family run business which serves home cooked foods like bangers n mash or stew then maybe you won't need to spend a million on a city centre building. The other side of this is of you intend to sell highly priced, high quality Michelin Star style dishes then perhaps you won't want a small country pub with a handful of customers. The property you buy has to match your business ethos and visa versa. Now, with decorating your building, the same applies, it has to match your ethos. But there are a few pointers that could help. Generally stick to neutral colours, whether they are browns or creams doesn't matter but the attraction is the food your selling not the 3000 paintings you have hanging on your bright purple walls. No matter what your building looks like, if people don't like your food then they will not come back.
Well, your building is in the process of being refurbished and set up for the big opening day. What about your advertising? Initially there needs to be a lot of advertising so make sure this is accounted for in the budget in your business plan. I advise advertising as soon as possible, at least one month before opening, more if money allows. Use local newspapers, radio stations to get the word out constantly about your new and exciting restaurant. Use posters around town and flyers around homes to make sure as much people as possible know about you. If you seem to be interesting, then people will talk about you and the word of mouth is the best possible form of advertising available anywhere in the world. Now your budget for all these things will change soon after your business opens and will change every year or sooner depending on how organised your paperwork, forecasting and budgeting is.Well, it has finally arrived, the big opening day. No matter how many customers you can seat in your building this night is the most important of all. Should you serve one hundred or ten customers, you have to get this night perfect. Staff need to be organised and above all pleasant to customers. The kitchen needs to be prepared for anything. I go by the advice that if you can seat 70 people at one time, then you need enough food for double that. Now this is a very expensive way to run a kitchen and should not be carried out on a long term basis, just for the opening weeks until a trend of customer numbers can be established.
So your restaurant is up and running. There are so many more factors that can be touched on in this article but that would bore you. So I will touch lightly on a few more important pieces before I finish.
After a week or two you should see a trend in customer numbers for each day of the week. Try as much as you can to arrange your staff and stock levels around this. If you are doing very little covers during the week and are busy at the weekends, then cut your staff levels and order in as little stock as possible until the weekend. Stock that is not sold will be thrown out so effectively you are throwing away money if you are over stocked and over staffed. Once the business is up and running it is good practice, especially if times are hard financially, to keep stock and staff levels low. If staff are standing around with nothing to do, send them home. This may be a harsh way of working but it will save you money in the long run.
Customers are your only indication if you are doing things right. If you ask your customers what they like about your business and more importantly what they don't like, then you can gain a better understanding of what you can do to improve the business and increase the number of customers you bring through your doors.
Lastly I will say in order to be successful in the restaurant business you have to be prepared to put in a lot of hard work. Paper work is a constant companion along with stress and worry. Trends are constantly changing and you need to change along with them if not ahead of them in order to keep people interested in your food and your business. But through all this hard work, through the certainty of tears and frustration come the rewards. A busy restaurant can lead to a chain of restaurants and a financial stability few can gain. But aside from that there is the fact that you, maybe not alone, but you opened a business, you put your blood, sweat and tears into it and now you can stand back, look at it and be proud of what you have done. Be proud that you have something to give to your children.
What I have said in this article is not the only way to set up a restaurant but it is a start and I hope it will help someone. But the only true way to do this is to try it. To take the plunge into the unknown and go for it. I intend to do so someday and I hope some of you will too.
