Running the food business is quite challenging but at the same time, it’s a rewarding role. No matter what type of restaurant you are running whether it’s fine dining or a food truck, all need the same efforts to make it call a successful food business.
Whether it’s a restaurant or cloud kitchen or any other type of food establishment, the role of a business owner is not only about taking orders and serving food. There are infinite actions involve from planning to implementing to analyzing marketing efforts, and paying attention to the factors that make a restaurant owner successful.
Here are some very important tips to become a successful food business owner –
1. Begin with business planning and decide the concept
What type of business you wanna start, a food truck, cafe/bar, fine dining, quick bites, or a cloud kitchen? business outlining should be done carefully because an effective restaurant business planning leads to success.
Ask a few questions with your self –
- How much budget you have?
- Why you wanna start a restaurant?
- Do you have a checklist of all the task -menu, location, staff, transportation, etc?
- Do you know the legal procedure
- Have all the legal documents to start and run a restaurant, etc?
2. Learn about your industry, get familiar with the latest marketing trend.
It’s necessary to have knowledge of the industry you are working in. Attend seminars, webinars, meet people who are already working in the industry have a healthy conversation with them, follow their strategies, if required join classes with your staff for training purposes. It will train you to face the actual battle in the ground.
a) Take basic business accounting courses to set an effective budget
Being a good restaurant owner does not mean to be good at food only, the owner must have the ability to handle management and accounting. Also should be expert in smart decision making, on time.
b) Read restaurant topic related books, successful restroprenuer interviews
Read the best books for starting a restaurant, have some discussion with people who are already in your industry, visit online, follow people who are already working awesome, follow what they are doing. How they are running a business.
c) Plan a concept that makes you stand out of the box
What new you are serving, why people would come to you. As a restaurant owner, take a job to plan your business, pick at least one point that makes you different from your competitor.
d) Analyse marketing trend
What is the latest trend, people are using? Twitter is the best platform to connect with the trend, go on social media, see what people are doing. What they are getting and how.
All of these activities would help you to get prepared to face real problems and handle them successfully.
3. Get finance, know-how to manage a budget
Finance is again a crucial factor to a restaurant owner, he should know when and where to spend the money that will convert as a profit, cost of starting a restaurant may vary from nature of restaurant, it depends on your concept, suppose if you wanna merge bar, then you should study what does it cost to build a bar in a restaurant.
A Smart restaurant owner should know the art of balancing a budget. Know how much you need to set up a restaurant kitchen, cost on kitchen equipment, setting up a complete restaurant, food, staff, labour everything. Few points one should keep in mind while planning a budget –
a) Calculate the estimated cost & get prepare for known expenses
Many of the costs related to the restaurant can be estimated. Once you have done with analysing market trends, you’ll know how much money to be paid on fixed assents like a loan, insurance, rental charges etc. Along with this, you can see how much you’ll have to pay every month on semi-variable assets like employee wedges, resources, utilities. So make a raw estimation of cost to be spent in each assent.
b) Use software to under control Labour Cost
This point doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hire people, the human being is important. It is better that people are getting employment because of you. Here I’m saying avoid paying unwanted wages. instead of this use restaurant marketing automation software, whether you believe or not, this tech software is a game-changer in this ara, automating the whole process from taking orders to getting feedback from customers for future improvements. But first, you have to decide which software suits your business type as per the need and budget.
c) Ensure payment deadlines
In the beginning days of business, you must sure that all debts should be cleared on time!! otherwise, it would create a problem in future. Make sure bills are paid before deadlines. Take care of bigger liabilities first, unless, it creates a bigger issue later. And the plus point is paying dues on time creates a positive image and goodwill of your business that is much important for long-time business survival.
A Smart restaurant owner should know the art of balancing a budget. Know how much you need to set up a restaurant kitchen, cost on kitchen equipment, setting up a complete restaurant, food, staff, labour everything.
4. Choose a Location that would benefit from your business
Choose a location that would be benefited, means an area that has a large number of corporate houses, and you are about to open a restaurant which will have a separate area for professional, people can sit and work there while having quick bites. Food and service are important elements for a restaurant’s success but the location of your restaurant plays a crucial role. Tips to choose a location –
a) Make visibility
Make your restaurant visible to the public, it is like free marketing, set your business in a place where people can easily find you. Your restaurant can easily visible to people passing on the road.
Tips to become a successful restaurant owner
b) Don’t settle in a place of a failed restaurant
Some location failed to gain customers one after another, there is a least chance to win back people because earlier they are associated with bad services, qualities, or maybe something else. Or if you choosing such kind of location, do a strong study about the previous one.
c) Know your neighbours
Do a visit around the place you are looking for, know about your neighbours. Figure out who else is doing the same kind of business as you, from this you will get the level of competition on the particular location. Find out if the location is busy or full of empty tables?
5. Staff Hiring always should be done 3 weeks prior to opening
This will let you identify the right staff for you, also allows you to train restaurant staff as per your guidelines. Everyone takes time to be comfortable in the new atmosphere, if you hire staff prior to opening, it will make them adjust to the business climate.
A) Once you get the ideal staff, offer fair salaries and benefit to them, because talented and perfect people are hard to find, especially when you get a good experience chef. Sit with your chef, discuss restaurant menu designing ideas, give them a chance to lead.
B) Do not show aggressiveness while training to staff members, for this read books related to restaurant staff management, leadership skills books. It helps with complete employees training.
6. Start marketing even before opening
Restaurant marketing is an inevitable part, start marketing before it’s open for business, Social media platform like Facebook and Instagram marketing is the best way to advertise a restaurant business, especially in the food sector. Post pictures of your new restaurant, make engagement with the audience, spread curiosity among locals.
a) Go for SMS and email marketing for promotion, SMS marketing for a restaurant is a little bit convenient and the best way to utilise customer’s database.
b) Go for free marketing ideas for restaurant available on the internet, you can browse, analyse and use them into your business & get benefited.
C) Make a rich customer database with restaurant marketing software, plan productive marketing campaigns.
Being a Restaurant owner, one must keep an eye on all around the market. To capture the new business opportunities. Getting new customers is not tough but getting repeat sales is a little bit challenging. Take the challenge and enter the market with an uncommon business plan.