A Short Guide For Building A Restaurant

Opening a restaurant isn't easy and it takes careful planing, any advice or help you can get before opening a restaurant is essential to your chances of survival. if your about to open a restaurant or any kind of bar or lounge that's going to serve food you better be ready for missing your free time.

This guide will help you chapter after chapter how to build a successful restaurant and how to make a successful business, there are all kinds of ways to make money in the food business and building a dinner or a steak house may be one of those ways but it comes with allot of effort and sacrifice to really make things work.

Opening A Restaurant, How to begin. - Chapter 1

My father god bless his soul is a restaurant entrepreneur in heart and he opened a couple of restaurants in his lifetime, since the year of 1994 he has been the manager at over 8 different restaurants on the course of years, his brothers are also proud owners of a few restaurants and after spending much time at their business establishment I can say proudly that I have learned all the right moves and all the wrong choices a business owner can do.

The restaurant business is not easy, if you want to start-up a place of your own you got to consider many aspects that can be a deal breaker for your business plan. But if you are in it for the long run and your dedicated to make your business work you can break even and start shooting for the stars.

Fact: Running a restaurant is hard work. Before you even start looking for a place you have to make yourself a promise that you're going to give up a healthy sleep and forget about a social life for some time. To get things started a general business plan is in order, this business plan should have everything figured out to the smallest details, there is need of a worst case scenario in it just in case everything you planned goes terribly wrong if you know what I mean.

When you start the business plan the first thing you need to think about is the concept you wish to build the restaurant around, is it Fast Food, Luxury, Sushi, Steak, Latin, French or Italian? Without a concept your restaurant doesn't have any identity. You need a business  plan that brings your investment back in a year to two years at most, in this business plan put everything in even the salary that your paying yourself (yes you need a salary as a owner).

Now look at the cash you have in hand and the realistic options of  the cash you can bring in your business for start-up costs and running costs, if everything fits you have a green light to continue, if not go back to the drawing board. You can fund a bigger and better place with loans but be sure that your business plan is built around paying the loans of in the timeline of 5 years at most.

Next up is finding a location for your restaurant. Now if you don't know it yet you do now, Location is the most important part of your business plan to open a restaurant, don't think people will drive for 2 hours to eat dinner because you got a good price on some fish you sell.

When searching for a location never look for a place alone, when you bring a person with you they sometimes see the things that your about to miss time and time again.

Bonus Tip: When opening a big restaurant I advise to look for strategic partners to bring in, running a big restaurant alone is a heavy task for anyone. A partner maybe takes some pieces of the pie but sometimes that means that your baking bigger pies.

Chapter 2

Now after you are putting the basics in place it's time to target a market, and for that you need to connect your location to the market you want to target.

Are you looking to attract big pocket customers with cash to spend or are you more interested in customers that are looking for a value for each dollar they spend, in any scenario you better be willing to do adjustments to your business plan because even after you build a good plan and you open your doors the customers who come in are not who you expected to be.

Now let's say you got a location and niche for your restaurant, what about equipment? Well I always think that people overspend their money on building a kitchen and buying everything new is not always the best option. There are certain thing that you can find at a good state of quality second hand from a restaurant that closed down fast for a good price that can later be spent on marketing and public relations.

Layout your restaurant, you don't want to build without planning, and if you are a fan of efficiency than you better not let this important issue go over looked, plan your restaurant so customers don't sit next to the restroom and waiters don't have to walk to far with food in their hands.

If you're still filled with the idea to open up your own restaurant then it's time to look for good employees, you start by finding your leading cook and that’s the house chef. The truth is you can't predict success with chefs but you better know they aren't cheap bad or good you better be willing to pay their price.

Beside your chef you need waiters, bartenders and kitchen staff, I have only on advice for you on the issue and that’s don't be cheap on the people that you hire so you can bring in experienced workers that can bring out smiles from your customers, go head hunting for talents in other places if you can.

Be very clear about what everyone has to do at work, make sure that people know where to be and when they need to be. Train your staff to do things as a team that’s the only way to succeed.

Let's say you're not a big restaurateur, then bringing in a manager is a wise choice to go with, someone who knows the ropes can help you build your way to making a place run properly and if you find a really good and he is a big reason your making a lot of money make him a small partner and give him a reason to stay.

Chapter 3 - The List...

Now lets fast forward, you are one day before opening night, do you have this list in order?

1. Open a facebook & google+ page!

2. Sign Up For Yelp !

3. Build a website.!

4. Have all the staff you need for running the place, does everybody know where to be and when?.

5. Do you have your first menu's with no errors on them?.

6. Do you have you supply chain and supply orders in tact for the day after tomorrow?

7. Do you have all the needed permits? health department, fire dept. and any other permit you may need.

8. Did you build a handicap restroom?

9. Did you invite all your neighbors from home and work to come to the opening, did you make first impression prices on the bar for opening night?

10. Did you contact a PRto do some work and build a buzz around your place?

This list can be expanded easily to more and more issues and business owner should address.

If you think you can use a deeper insight on how to start a restaurant you can contact me via mail anytime, Just Click Here.