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Setting Up a Restaurant – 4 Tips for Getting Started

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The world of restaurant startups can be so competitive. Whether you’re interested in a small cafe, a fast-casual joint, or a food truck, your road to setting up a restaurant can be a long one.

But if you do your research and take the time to acquire all the things you need to open a restaurant, you can maximise your chance of success – and start your business off on the right foot!

To increase those chances of success, we’ve chosen 4 tips that should help you open your dream restaurant. Keep reading, and see how you can set yourself up to succeed!

4 Steps to Setting Up a Restaurant

Step 1. Create your ideal buyer persona

Stop! Before you even consider opening a restaurant, it’s time to do some homework. You can’t just have a great restaurant idea – you need to know who your target market is.

And the best way to figure this out is with a buyer persona. A buyer persona is a simple document that lists the basic attributes of your ideal customer – the type of person who would regularly come to your restaurant.

This document can include:

  • Age
  • Income levels
  • Area of residence
  • Level of education
  • Gender
  • Behavior patterns
  • Demographic information
  • Goals and desires

And much more. Creating a detailed buyer persona can help inform everything about your restaurant. By creating an idealized customer, you can tailor your restaurant and products to serve them – enhancing your chances of success!

2. Come up with a solid business plan

What do you need to start a restaurant? A business plan! If you don’t have a business plan for your restaurant, you’ll fail. We’re not trying to scare you – just to drive home the importance of a solid business strategy.

If necessary, hire a consultant to help you come up with a business plan. This will help you define things such as:

  • Operating budget
  • Profitability goals
  • Expected traffic and size of consumer base
  • Growth rate
  • Target market (based on your buyer persona)
  • The basic concept behind your restaurant
  • Marketing and publicity campaigns
  • Business structure
  • Additional consulting staff requirements (accountants, designers, etc.)

There is no substitute for a business plan. If you don’t have a business plan, you’re essentially driving without a roadmap – and there’s no guarantee that you’ll get to your destination.

3. Find the right location

importance-of-restaurant-locations

Use demographic information revealed during the demographic process to help you find the right part of town for your restaurant – and then start looking for space! Here are a few things to look for when choosing a location for your restaurant:

  • Plenty of foot traffic
  • Spacious, well-lit environment
  • High population density
  • A layout that requires minimal changing
  • Appropriate utilities – gas, plumbing, heating, cooling, electricity, etc.
  • Convenient location for deliveries and pickups

Though it may be hard to find a location that fits all these requirements, it’s worth looking. If you choose a great location when setting up a restaurant, you’ll have a much easier time succeeding.

4. Hire the right staff

Once you’ve got a business plan, and a location, the only thing left for you to do is find the right staff – and open up your restaurant to the world! However, finding the right staff members can be tough in the service industry.

It’s best to hold open interviews and publicize them in local papers, online classified ads, and even by putting up flyers and posters. If you can get a large applicant pool, you’ll be able to pick and choose your employees more effectively. Here are some things to look for in potential employees:

  • Friendly, upbeat attitude
  • Great “people skills”
  • Clean background check (no criminal record)
  • Previous experience in a food-service environment
  • Strong knowledge of your restaurant niche

hiring-right-hospitality-staff-waiters

Hiring the right staff is absolutely critical to the success of your restaurant. A restaurant startup lives and dies on customer service. Even if your food is great, your customers are unlikely to come back if they’re treated poorly, or have long wait times.

So take the time to perform in-depth employee interviews, and don’t rush the process. You’ll know when you’ve found the right staff – and you’ll be set up for success!

Follow these 4 tips – and bring your vision to life!

There are no guarantees in life – or the restaurant industry. But if you follow these 4 tips, you can seriously increase your chance of succeeding in the often-cutthroat world of the restaurant business.

Your journey won’t be easy – and it may take a while for your business to take off. But by following these tips and using advanced restaurant POS software such as Impos, you’ll have the edge you need to outpace the competition, and run a successful restaurant!

Loved this advice? Read more about opening a restaurant today with our comprehensive Restaurant Startup Guide!