Today, the restaurant industry is capable of surprising many different formats. For example, it can be a restaurant for the elite with an exquisite exotic menu, an establishment for family couples with an average price level or a democratic fast food restaurant.
However, any of the above-mentioned institutions should, above all, please ordinary visitors with delicious food, high quality service and unobtrusive soulful atmosphere.
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The Past and Present of the Restaurant Business
The first rudiments of the restaurant business originated in the days when people began to travel. Merchants, caravans of merchants, traveling actors, emigrants, and knights hungry for feats. And everyone needed something to eat. So the prototypes of the restaurants of our time arose. At that time they were taverns, inns or pubs.
Today, more than ever, for the success of the restaurant business requires advertising. The most important part of it is information about the location of open establishments, as well as their distinctive zest. It is this singularity that attracts potential visitors.
The means used for advertising are quite varied. They include media such as the press, television, radio, and the Internet with social media. Showcases, posters and signs are also used for advertising, and it is advisable to use word of mouth. You can run a television report from the restaurant, focusing on the interior of the institution, the features of customer service and the existing menu.
However, despite the huge range of means used today in advertising, the best advertising for any restaurant, of course, as before, is the excellent quality of dishes served, combined with a high culture of service, which depends directly on the staff of the institution.
Pros of the restaurant business
- Quick payback on monetary investments. However, this will succeed only if you develop a business plan with the necessary calculations, with a carefully thought-out concept of opening a restaurant, because only in this case you can count on the profit at the start, and the return on investment, invested in the developed project will require about a little less than a year and a half.
- Excellent prospects for further development.
- The presence of good purchasing power. However, today, due to the constant rise in prices, it is much harder to do than it used to be. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly important to be creative in choosing the interior of the future restaurant, as well as having a menu with delicious and rare dishes.
- The availability of excellent profitability. With its help, business owners determine the profitability and productivity of the return on investment. By the way, if the restaurant is properly organized, the profitability can be 20%, but in some cases it can reach 40 and even 50%. However, to achieve such results, you will have to work hard.
- It is an interesting kind of business, which also brings a lot of benefits to people.
Highlights of opening a restaurant
Actually, before we proceed to the opening and implementation of a direct explanation of what the restaurant business, let us summarize the comparative analysis of institutions of this type. To begin with, it should be understood that at the moment, especially in large cities, there are many large restaurants that can be considered sharks in this business, and against which a young institution better not compete. Therefore, it is objective and reasonable that the best solution to the question of how to compete with large restaurants would be to narrowly target this business. Let’s say you can open a restaurant with Chinese, French, or Italian cuisine. In this case, it will be easier for you to get into the rut and gain experience and respect among customers. In addition, as already experienced businessmen say, the success of the restaurant often depends on the literacy and determination of its direct owner. There have been cases where the willful decision of the boss ruined the future of the institution, and sometimes vice versa. Therefore, if you still have little experience in the restaurant business, I advise you not to take any drastic and cardinal measures to change this or that thing. The best option would be to observe the behavior of your customers after those or other innovations. In addition, it is worth noting that an objective problem for any restaurant can be trivial theft, both in the kitchen and at the cash register.
We are all human and many of us simply do not have enough of their salary, so they will steal from you everything they can. The best solution is, of course, to pay your employees a decent wage. You have to create a good working atmosphere in your team with decent incentives, so that your employees won’t even think about stealing something. These things sound trivial and simple, but, please, don’t leave them without attention and don’t expose your new business to the danger of being doomed to failure. Let’s move on and try to get directly to the main point.
If you have decided to make a restaurant business as a means of permanent income, you should understand that with the lack of proper experience, it will be extremely difficult for a newcomer to create everything from scratch. Therefore, some experts advise to pay attention to the fact that the ideal option would be to buy a ready-made restaurant. This will allow you to gain experience directly in the open institution and to make the foundation for further development and promotion of a whole chain of restaurants under your brand.
Choosing a location and decorating seasonal guests
Placing an institution near the places of walking, think about the pedestrians – on the sidewalks the distance from the outermost elements of the summer cafe to the edge of the roadway must ensure free walking traffic, it must be taken into account, otherwise you will not avoid complaints
Placing near places where people live, consider whether the music will be too loud, how the lights work and whether the smells will not fly into the windows of residents from nearby houses or vacationers.
When thinking about temporary structures, find out if gas pipes, water pipes, or electrical lines run through the area. Whether the timing of the season coincides with the repair of city utilities in your area. Find out the depth of fixtures for the future café. Consider the architectural requirements of the location where you plan to locate the seasonal establishment.
Menu, staff and equipment
Menu, of course, depends on the chosen concept, but no matter what it was – to work out, enter into an automation system, engage in its design, plan the purchase, select the appropriate equipment, you begin long before opening. Otherwise, there is a danger of simply not having enough time. For staff, prepare contracts, checklists, prescribe as much as possible all that you want from them and how you see the work, thus freeing up your time and the cost of training. It is better to have in stock a few questionnaires, so that in the “hot” period is not left without an employee.
Owners of seasonal business in catering in general are doomed to success, with the competent opening costs recouped in the same season. It is enough to plan correctly and start preparing for the next season in time.
