How To Start a Successful Restaurant: GUIDE

If dreams of opening a restaurant have filled your thoughts for years, it might be time to sit down and draw up a plan to open your own business. To help you create a recipe for success, we’ve put together a how-to-get-started guide to make sure you have all the ingredients you need to open your restaurant with confidence.

While starting a restaurant is exciting, it’s also time consuming and one of the toughest businesses to successfully launch. In fact, 60 percent of restaurants fail in the first year.

We’re not telling you this to temper you passion. We’re merely pointing out that if you want a successful restaurant, you’ll need to invest some serious time and money.

What’s the biggest reason for failure? Lack of planning. Before you ever make dinner for a customer, you’ll spend a lot of time figuring out every detail of your restaurant. From kitchen appliances and menus to floors plans and staff selections, the planning stage will make or break your restaurant.

To help you plan, fund, and manage your new restaurant, we’ve asked three owners to share their trade secrets. Kim Strengari owns three successful restaurants in the Philadelphia region, including Stella Blu. Yuen Yung owns fast sushi restaurants called How Do You Roll? which received a million dollar investment from the hit ABC show “Shark Tank,” and now has 10 stores in the U.S. Lambrine Macejewski, is the co-founder of Cocina 214, a contemporary Mexican restaurant in Winter Park, Florida. Below are their tips for success.

Planning:

Have the right intentions

If you want to make it as a restaurant owner, you have to love what you do, Kim Strengari says. While she knew a restaurant was the right path for her, she had to work nights cleaning office buildings to make ends meet when she first opened her restaurant.

“I wanted the restaurant more then anything else in life, so the sacrifices were endless and I never minded making them,” she says.

To be successful, you’ll invest a lot of time and money—so make sure that starting a restaurant is your passion, not just a business venture you hope will make money.

Have a solid business plan in place

You can’t scratch a business plan out on a cocktail napkin. You need a detailed business plan that charts the course for your success. That said, we suggest beginning with a “lean plan” rather than the cliché long, dry business plan. 

Yuen Yung’s plan included a list of everything he would need to buy for the restaurant. “It looked like a novel by the time we were done,” he says. “But it helped us stay on budget and keep track of our capital.”

Your business plan should include market research, a comprehensive look at your competitors, explain your target audience, outline marketing plans, and offer a solid budget projection. To get you started, check out these templates specifically for restaurant planning, or check out LivePlan software that will walk you through the process.

Location, location, location

With a restaurant, location is everything. You need a spot that draws crowds, is easily accessible, and has potential for growth. Of course, you need a location that fits within your budget too. The perfect spot can be hard to find, so take your time, Yuen Yung says.

Whether you rent space or build from scratch, selecting a location is one of the biggest decisions you’ll make as an owner.

Test your menu

You probably have several stellar dishes in mind for your new restaurant, but you’ll want to test them out before you laminate your first menu, Yung says.

“Have a small party and invite people over to try your food before you open. Get honest feedback from people on the taste, the pricing, and the location.”

You might love the taste of a certain dish, but if customers won’t pay for it or aren’t keen on its taste, you won’t make money.

Read More at How To Start a Successful Restaurant: GUIDE

Product Coffee Shop Secrets

Website www.thebrewbook.com

Cost Only $67 60 days unconditional money back guarantee 

There are some people within the coffee shop industry who have not been telling the truth about how much it actually cost to open a coffee shop or open a coffee service business. There are two reasons for this.

1. They are trying to sell you something. Either some really expensive equipment, or some expensive consulting.

 2. "They" don't want to create more competition for themselves (ie, other coffee shop owners).

Wayne Mullins a former co-owner of two successful coffee shops have written this e book called Coffee Shop Secrets which is designed to walk you through the entire process of opening a coffee shop

Coffee Shop Secrets is not for people who think they can sit on their couch and have a coffee shop magically open for you. Opening a coffee shop is work! But Coffee Shop Secrets will guide you straight through the process with the fewest possible mistakes (saving you money and your valuable time).

How to open a Panini Cafe

Whats needed to open your Panini Restaurant

Not too long ago a friend, who had several eateries, required some advice. He had acquired a location to open up a food outlet however there was a catch. He couldn’t make use of any open flame in it. Therefore I suggested to him to open up a Panini Shop. Reason being that the pressed sandwich is compact, neat as well as easy to prepare. A Panini shop is an effective approach to lure lunchtime crowd looking for a quick bite to eat. Pressed sandwiches can offer a crispy, tasty snack as well as a light lunch for your customers. Here are some points needed to open your Panini Shop or Kiosk. With regard to the necessary licenses, seek advice from your local authority to get a much better idea.

Panini Restaurant Design

Your restaurant design should have a clean, pleasing as well as comfortable atmosphere. Providing free wi-fi Internet will certainly appeal to customers working from their laptop, although you run the risk of encouraging diners to linger long after finishing their sandwiches. Obtain equipment necessary for your kitchen like cutting boards, a cold counter that you can display your ingredients, refrigerators and also stainless steel counter top for working along with other small items. Last but not least the key equipment the Panani Machine. Ensure you purchase a commercial one that is able to last longer.

Create Your Panini Menu

Making Panini sandwiches is simple; you simply need to make use of simple ingredients. You don’t need to be or even employ a Michelin Star Chef. Get good quality bread like ciabatta, rye, whole meal and so forth. Select hardy breads so they withstand the sauces as well as ingredients. As for the fillers you can include just about anything like smoked meats, vegetables, cheese and various sauces. A good Panini is generally made with only four or five flavor combinations to avoid overwhelming the taste. You can even use your local delicacies example in Malaysia; Spicy Anchovies Paste (Sambal Ikan Bilis) is a favourite. So I suggested my pal to add it to the menu.

Marketing your Panini Shop

The best way that you could market your shop is to hand out free samples. Cut various bite size sandwiches, skewered with little picks. So customers can sample different varieties. Hand out flyers to local offices, so their staff can drop by lunch breaks. Create special stamps where you can stamp on it, each time your customer purchases a sandwich you stamp on the card. Then the customer can redeem their free sandwich when they have 9 stamps. If you are in an office building you can provide delivery service to the offices when they purchase a certain amount of sandwiches.

Selling Add Ons

In my earlier post “Restaurant Promo Ideas #22- Little Things to Help your Customers Spend More” I sold add ons (Souvenirs) in my pub. I sold products with a Pirate Theme that suited my Pub. You can even offer add ons in your Panini Shop or Kiosk. You can offer bottled water, carbonated drinks, fries as well as ice cream. Should you have the space and your local authority or council allows throw around a few tables and chairs, so customers can sit down whilst enjoying their sandwich. Put a glass door fridge stocked with beverages which is visible to the customer’s view in order to entice them. Don’t price the items too high; these are additional revenue to you.

Product Coffee Shop Secrets
Website www.thebrewbook.com
Cost Only $67
60 days unconditional money back guarantee

There are some people within the coffee shop industry who have not been telling the truth about how much it actually cost to open a coffee shop or open a coffee service business. There are two reasons for this.

1. They are trying to sell you something. Either some really expensive equipment, or some expensive consulting.

2. "They" don't want to create more competition for themselves (ie, other coffee shop owners).

Wayne Mullins a former co-owner of two successful coffee shops have written this e book called Coffee Shop Secrets which is designed to walk you through the entire process of opening a coffee shop

Coffee Shop Secrets is not for people who think they can sit on their couch and have a coffee shop magically open for you. Opening a coffee shop is work! But Coffee Shop Secrets will guide you straight through the process with the fewest possible mistakes (saving you money and your valuable time).