Open a Restaurant
Many of our readers know how their way around a kitchen; even if you’re not a good chef, you probably know at least one or two recipes you can turn into a delicious meal. If you or those you cook for think your food is tasty, won’t others? Of course they will. So, open up a restaurant!
Don’t nine out of ten restaurants fail?
Certainly they do. Of course they do! They’re started by great chefs, too! And, that is the problem. Why? A restaurant cannot be started by a great chef alone; it must be started by a great businessman.
Haven’t you noticed that restaurants with mediocre food sometimes thrive and turn into giant chains, while restaurants with excellent food go under? This shows us that the success of a restaurant has little to do with the quality of its food.
Don’t make the same mistakes other restaurant owners make when starting your restaurant; improving the taste of your food is not the only thing you need to worry about.
If you already feel that your food is tasty enough to belong in a restaurant, then your food is tasty enough to belong in a restaurant. Forget the food. Move on to the rest of the business.
There are many pieces of a restaurant; food is just one small one. To start building the other pieces, you should learn some accounting; you don’t have to be an expert, just get a basic grasp. You might think that you can hire a bookkeeper, instead. However, you’re better off doing it yourself while you have limited funds; there are other, more difficult things you should hire out.
You want to do as many of the jobs as you have time for. This allows money to be saved and reinvested back into the company. Now it’s time to build an inventory system. You need to keep track of everything! Don’t run your restaurant like you run your home kitchen; you need to systematize everything and write it down. Your company will work if you run it like your kitchen, but it won’t be able to grow.
You will eventually hire somebody to replace you to do this job; you’ll need a system for them to follow. If you don’t give them a system, there won’t be any structure in your restaurant. Just like a building cannot stand without a firm structure, neither can a restaurant. It will surely collapse without structure.
You’ll need to do a lot of work to find a good supplier, too. The cheaper, the better, but only if they have quality supplies. Don’t be lazy like lots of owners. It pays to do some searching.
Next, we’ll tackle advertising. This is essential; you cannot go without it. Use newspapers, but stay away from television commercials until you have several restaurants. For now, it will cost too much money that could be better spent elsewhere. Use the local radio if you can afford it.
On we go to advertising. You simply must advertise. You must. Newspapers are good, and so is television. However, stay away from television while you have little money - it won’t be worth it. Local radio can be good if you can afford it. Systems are a must. Every area we just mentioned needs a system. Without firm, strong systems, your restaurant will survive, but it will not grow.
If you have weak systems, they will be like cracks in your foundation. The bigger your business gets, the more “downward pressure” it will put on the foundation (the systems). These “cracks” will get bigger with more pressure, and, eventually, they will be too big; your restaurant will then collapse. With a solid foundation, however, your restaurant can grow as big as you can make it. The sky’s the limit!