Tips For Making Your Restaurant Business Successful
It is rather very difficult to get into the restaurant business. Yet, every year thousands of restaurants open across the world with many different food and business concepts, as well. It’s not surprising at all that so many new restaurants close mostly within one year of opening.
It is not easy to open and maintain a successful restaurant company either. Business owners that recognize their limitations and take the time to educate themselves will be able to stand out from the many other restaurants competing for customers’ attention and money. You should take the time to learn the essential steps how to start your own restaurant business.
These are five things to keep in mind when opening a restaurant. These simple steps do not necessarily mean that they are not effective. The simple things that we do have the greatest impact on our lives.
1. Learn how to make your own food.
It is almost impossible to open a restaurant without having a solid understanding of food. It does not matter if you have the best restaurant equipment or the best business ideas. But if your knowledge of food is poor, it will not matter. Even if you have the best chef in town and the best automated food packaging system you still need to learn how to prepare and preserve food so that you can serve the highest quality products to your customers. It is rather important to pick the best possible food suppliers. This is especially significant when it comes to things like meat products, oysters, shrimps, crabs, etc. It even can be a life-threatening event in some cases(such as the procedure of preparing a fugu fish). Though being a very special meal, nobody wants to get poisoned as a bonus, right?. Oh, and also it is a good idea for the fruits and vegetables to be fresh and the sour cream not to be gone off, as well.
2. Learn how to manage a business skillfully.
Although you may not find the job very interesting or exciting, you will have to manage finances, HR, accounting, and finance, as well as perform boring administrative tasks. You need to know the basics, even if someone else does this work for you. It is the best possible scenario when you have some sort of full-stack management skills. You must be able to make smart investments that will save you money without sacrificing much of the quality. For heavy-duty work, it is best to invest more in quality commercial restaurant equipment. A good ice maker machine commercial (for example) is essential if you are serving large quantities of ice-cold beverages. It is also a good idea to think about having some alternative power source, such as a generator. It will not save you for very long if you happen to have problems with the electricity, but it is some option after all, and it can spare you a lot of headaches in the future
3. Take care of your staff.
Your business’s lifeblood is your employees happy and satisfied. Your restaurant would not be open if it did not have a calm and safe environment. Showing appreciation for your employees is the best way to make them work much harder. To show your employees that you care about their well-being and growth, what employee benefits and perks, and advantages are you able to offer?
Another important thing you have to consider here is that your employees need to know well what they are doing. Take the example of one of the most important people among them, the hearth of your restaurant – the chef. If you are willing to maintain well your level of success, the chef must be incredibly strict about the recipes or procedures that he or she follows. Here is one bright example from above – The making of fugu fish:
Step 1 Remove the skin gently (there are no scales, fortunately). Take the skin around the mouth and pull it off.
Step 2 Wash the jelly with salt
Step 3 Remove the eyes carefully.
Step 4 Use a sharp knife to remove the flesh from the fish. Be careful not to puncture either the liver or the ovaries, or else they will burst and release toxic chemicals into the meat, rendering the fish unusable.
Step 5 Cut against the bone and fillet like any other sashimi.
Step 6 Cut the head into 2 or 3 pieces, then boil. You can use this for a stew.
It is an important step, also to pay attention to waiters and janitors, because if they are not doing their job on a decent level, not many orders will come to the chef in the first place. As a restaurant owner, you are responsible for maintaining a calm, peaceful, and non-violent environment because this is the right path to a top-quality service
Ask your employees to share their ideas with you and find a way to make them feel appreciated. I will have an astonishing effect on most of them – guaranteed.
4. Spread the word to the world.
If you just sit and wait for people to arrive, they will not be drawn to your restaurant. It’s important to let people know that you are there and offer an unforgettable experience. Customers will most likely look you up online before making an actual visit to your restaurant. It is important to establish a strong Web presence, too. This includes a simple but appealing website that contains all information a potential customer needs, including location, phone number, and menu. You should also be active on social media and review websites as well as local directories. Also, it is worth mentioning that the design must but good, but also it has to be bug-free, so as to avoid troubles with the clients
5. Take care of your customers.
Your customers are your best bet for success as a restaurant owner. It is much more important to keep returning customers happy than to attract new customers. This is where consistency is key. They will return to you for more if they are offered great food and great service.