Tuesday, March 10, 2009

How to Start Your Own Restaurant Business

According to the National Restaurant Association, the restaurant industry reached a record of $537 billion in 2007 and there are approximately 935,000 restaurant-and-food service outlets. Things slowed down in 2008 but the industry is still very much alive. With 12.8 million employees the industry is the largest employer. Owning a restaurant can be very rewarding, but don't think you can open one and hire a manager and then forget about it. You need to be on top of training your manager and employees so that you don't lose your profits and/or your business. You also need to keep up with federal, state and local regulations. There are lots of pros and cons when starting your own restaurant business. First, you have to create a business plan for your restaurant business to have a chance to succeed. You have to ask yourself what kind of restaurant am i constructing, a seafood place, steakplace, all of the above, etc...One of the most important factors that one must consider when building his/her restaurant is location. If the restaurant is located in a good location such as a downtown area, most likely a lot of traffic is going to come there. After you have chosen the location, the next step is building your own restaurant. At this point, choosing a good contractor, buying or leasing the location also laying out the space and design of the restaurant for example: your entrance, bar area, patio, restrooms, kitchen and more. There are four types of licenses when starting your own business. Most of them include business insurance, equipment and supplies. When the restaurant is built it is important to keep in mind that developing effective systems to successfully run your business is critical.
Developing a menu that makes money, setting menu prices, hiring the right people such as cooks, managers, waitresses, bartenders, hostesses, food runners are some of the important aspect of what an owner must think of. Last but not least, the owner and manager must think of unconventional ways to market the restaurant and attract customers. Financial management of how to budget, keep track of sales, calculate costs of sales and inventory, reducing cost but mostly how to build wealth. Starting your own business in any industry is tough, hopefully these tips can help if you are in search of answers on "how to start your own restaurant business".

1 comment:

  1. it is one of the hardest businesses to partake in...however, even if our economic time is slowly approaching the depression, people will always need to eat. People in general, across the world, are more and more concerned with eating healthy and being "green". Maybe, it would be a good idea to start a green oriented restaurant with healthy food at an affordable price! gotta get working on that business plan though!

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