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

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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).

Create your Restaurant Menu

How to Create your Restaurant Menu

Another great marketing instrument that is generally overlooked will be your restaurant menu. As I've mentioned in my Previous Post “Creating Good Customer care Culture”, first impression is important. Preparing the menu takes a lot of work and a lot of planning. You need to do it step by step. And you can't skip any of these steps. Below are the steps.

Restaurant Concept

Firstly, you have to identify what is your restaurant concept and what type of customers that you want to attract. Look around at your area, other restaurant premises and what others are offering. You have to know whether the community are young working adults, families or college students. This will determine the style, quality and portion sizes of the food that you will feature on your restaurant menus. It would be suicidal to open a fine dining restaurant in a community of families who normally dine together.

Market Analysis Market

Market analysis is an important part in planning your menu for your restaurant. You need to know what others are selling, what the locals want. The market analysis also can help you with your menu prices so as to be inline with the income of the community in your area. Its no point to create an expensive menu for a community that are in the middle income category. You will then have an empty restaurant and a fridge full of expensive items.

Consult your Chef

In one episode of Restaurant Makeover, the Makeover Chef tells the Restaurant Chef that "Chefs create menus not owners". This is true, only the chef knows what he is good at. Its no point for the owner to come out with the menu that the chef is not able to cook it well. Firstly consult with your Chef and also review your current menu with him. Take into consideration of your top sellers and the poorest selling items. This is to identify what to remove and what to keep. Also take into consideration the local likes and what others is offering. The items in your menu may be limited to the size of your kitchen or by the equipment that you have. If you want to try something new you have to be prepared to buy the equipment that your chef needs for his menu. Also take into consideration the skill level of your staff both in the kitchen and at the front. Its no point to create a fine dining menu when the staffs are not skilled enough to prepare or sell it. Also the raw items should be readily available or you will have a menu with lots of sold out items.

Menu Pricing
Knowing the costs of your items that you plan to sell means success to your business. By carefully calculating the food cost you can determine the price that you will be selling. But saying that, you also need to be aware what your competitors are selling, so as not to overprice your items thus turning away business. That's where your market analysis comes into play. There are numerous website giving out free templates that you can use for calculating your food. One such site is Menu Costing Templates

Designing Your Menu
As mentioned in my previous post Free Restaurant Menu Templates, that a restaurant menu is an important key to promote what your chef has to offer. In the menu you will list what is available in your restaurant. Splendidly prepared menus will really entice the customer to dine within your place. I’ve learned that beside scrumptious sounding write ups, mouthwatering images will definitely appeal to customers to try something new. Sometimes I feel that the customers usually are not clear on what to order, so they normally will order the norm. Shying away from something unique or different that your chef have conjured up. Thus a picture will give the customer a visual taste of what's coming. In that post I also suggested some free templates sites so you don't have to take the trouble of designing the menu from scratch.

Proofread and print final design Go through the entire menu with a fine tooth comb as error will make you look like a fool and also once printed its costly to reprint again. You could also hire a professional editor. You can do what I normaly do, is to pass around to a few friends who are quite ok in English and ask their opinion. After all the people that is going to read your menus are normal people not restauranteurs. So if they can't understand what you are trying to drive at, how do you expect your customers. After all this is done, sent out your menu for printing. In my next post I will give you ways on promoting your restaurant menu.

 
Product Restaurant Management Suite - CLASSIC
Website www.restaurantmanagementcenter.com
Cost Only $37
60 days unconditional money back guarantee
CLASSIC restaurant management suite was put together by Andreas Breitfuss and his team to help those people in the restaurant industry. It is a selection of restaurant management tools that when used in combination can help you streamline your restaurant, café or hotel. These pre-designed forms, templates and spreadsheets save you time to concentrate on other areas of the business. There is beverage costing sheet, restaurant requisition sheets, purchase order forms, blank stock take sheets, stock take spreadsheet, stock take financial analysis spreadsheet, wastage sheets, standard food recipe templates, standard beverage recipe. Beverage engineering spreadsheet, menu placement card, menu advertising elements and sample restaurant menus

What Type of Coffee Shop Should I Open?

By Tony DiCopro
When we think of a coffee shop, most think of a sit down place, maybe with or without a drive through. While that may be true, there is also the coffee kiosk and coffee cart. Here are some points to consider when starting a coffee shop:

Sit down (and mix) - most advantageous if you are planning on having entertainment and events. This would be considered, more often than not the full-service coffee shop. Outside of the purist coffee house that serves nothing but coffee in only a few forms, most sit downs serve light foods to full menus, also called cafes. The mix is pretty much adding a drive through window if space allows. A drive through window can add as much as 20% more revenue to your sales because of its convenience

Drive through (stand alone) - usually a lesser start up cost, you can have your drive through constructed off-site by a company specializing in such for about $20,000 or less. A lot of times you can get a ground lease from the owner of a parking lot that does not need all that parking space. Be sure to consult with the city planning department to be sure you can do this. It will most likely require a certain square footage of lot space for employee parking and customer vehicle 'stacking'. This is a fancy way to say how many cars can be in line at your drive through window on your property and still allow easy flow in and out and, to still have enough space for the other tenants in the plaza. Note that if your city and/or health department does not allow portable water and sewage onsite, you will be required to install plumbing and sewer. This can get costly but if the location is prime, it will outweigh your upfront costs. You can also find a stand-alone building that can be converted to a drive through. Gas stations and some former fast food places (without an inside dining area) are good for this. On the gas station, be sure to visit your city planning and zoning department to be sure you can convert it into a coffee drive through. You may have an issue with the car stacking again.

Kiosk - these are great for malls, hospitals, car dealerships or anywhere that you do not have or need a storefront. It's a step above the cart (below) because the kiosk is pretty much a coffee shop that can be taken down and moved fairly easy. They are basically a prefabricated, fancy group of counters all connected together. It gives the feel of a stand-alone coffee shop. A lot of jewelry places and such have these in malls.

Cart - That pretty much says it all. A cart will cost you from $8000-12,000 or so to have built. They are also usually found in malls, car dealerships, hospitals etc. They have considerably less room than a kiosk but are a great option if you want to be in a mall or the like. You would normally be limited to serving food and bakery that is pre-packaged. No matter what kind of coffee shop you decide to open, be sure you have researched it all, and are ready to be immersed! Starting a coffee shop will take up a lot of your time but will be worth it in the end! Good luck!

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Tony DiCorpo is a coffee roaster, barista trainer and coffee business consultant. He has authored many articles on coffee and the coffee business. Tony has extensive experience in business and collectively more than 20 years experience in sales, business management, entrepreneurship and the coffee business. The website to go to get his business plan is www.tonys-coffee-shop-business-plan.com