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".

Waitressing Until Restaurant Close

Being a waitress is a full time job, working day or nights can be challenging but the rewards are greater. I interviewed Jackie Schwarzhaupt, a current waitress at Tarpon bend. Jackie is well known at Tarpon, she has been working there for over one year and is very familiar with most of the customers that come in to eat. "As a waitress, i have to be quick on my feet as well as being extremely "customer service" oriented when customers enter the restaurant" stated Jackie. Rude customers, not being tipped well and drunk individuals ordering more drinks are some of the downfalls a waitress has to deal with. Jackie has a lot of experiences dealing with these pitfalls, her motives is that it's bound to happen but tomorrow is another day, and everyone is different. Jackie has dealed with friday nights at Tarpon bend closing at 4:00 am and this has been some of the worst nights to work. "When everyone wants to have a good time at the same time being so drunk that they cannot stand straight, i have the right to tell them they cannot drink anymore. I am allowed to call a cab for them to go home. Some appreciate my concerns and service, and some want to start confronting and sometimes fight. At this point, i would call my manager to resolve the situation and if this does not work security would have to interevene" mentioned jackie. Being a waitress has positive features, meeting great people and making really good tips allows you to have your rent money for the month in two or three nights of working. After a while, people start to get familiar with the waitresses working there and are more and more generous with their tips, it seems as if it becomes a family buisness. The most rewarding aspect of waitressing is the tips that come along with the job and also the positive comments that customers give a waitress. "One night, i made about 300 dollars on tips, i was extremely happy and the customers were so nice giving me so many compliments. This is the most rewarding thing about the job, there is nothing like someone saying "you did a great job" and "thank you for everything". Compliments are always the most pleasing things to hear" said Jackie. Now that i have covered all aspects of the restaurant buisness, hostess, cook, and waitress, it is your turn to pick which one you would prefer to work as!! Looking forward to responses!

Cooking on Friday Nights

Working in the hospitality industry as a hostess can be tough, but what about working as a cook on a busy friday night? I interviewed Neckson Jean-Baptiste who has been a cook for Tarpon in the past. He gaved me great insights of what it has been like for him to work in the restaurant buisness. Neckson's true passion is music, as an R&B singer he is working extremely hard to make it in the entertainment industry. Cooking is his second passion, and this is what he does until his music career takes off. When being asked what was his worse experience in the kitchen, Neckson had an interesting story to share. " My worst experience would have to be a busy Friday night at Tarpon Bend. One of the cooks had an emergency and called out, therefore there were only me and one other cook. The manger was fairly new and was still being trained on working the stations correctly. Friday nights at Tarpon get extremely busy, Tarpon Bend is located in a good area where a lot of customers come in and out. The kitchen holds three stations, I was working on both sautee and salads that night. The hardest part was to keep my eyes on both the fried foods as well as preparing salads and entrees. But this was not all, a party of 6 entered the restaurant and each ordered a seafood kettle which takes about 14-15 minutes of cooking. There was no time to recover as other tickets kept coming in. As a result, the food kept coming out late." That same night Neckson mentioned that he received a total amount of 30 tickets at one time. With all the hard work that cooks put in, Neckson mentions that the best part of working in the restaurant business are the compliments from customers. Praise is mostly what cooks like to hear from customers, because as we all know long and strenuous hours while standing on your feet having to endure stress is certainly not enjoyable. Finally, i asked Neckson how will he use his culinary skills when the music career takes off. He mentioned that he wanted to go to culinary school or take buisness mangement classes so that he can open up his own restaurant. Neckson wants to impact the hospitality industry making it a wonderful dinning experience for America.

Working in the Hospitality Industry

Working in the hospitality industry, may not be so easy for individuals trying to make a living. Dealing with rude customers, people that do not tip well, and drunk individuals on friday nights are just some of the pitfalls of working in the restaurant business. When i worked at Tarpon Bend, in Fort Lauderdale http://www.tarponbend.com/ i experienced first hand what it was like to deal with all these pitfalls. One of my worst experiences was on a Friday night. I was a hostess and there were lots of people at the bar, i had to make my way through the computer so that i could put orders in. One of the customers standing up at the bar, looked at me and said " am i in your way?" sarcastically i responded " just a little bit". He got furious used profanity and i had to call over my manager to settle down the situation. The guy eventually left and the situation blew over. Another Friday night, one guy opened up a tab at the restaurant for ten people when the bill came he apparently could not afford it and started raising hell at the bar cursing at the manager. All the bouncers gathered around him as he was becoming more and more violent. The bouncers took him outside as he was starting to throw punches at security. Working in a restaurant can be difficult however, it can be life changing in a good way. Working at Tarpon really taught me valuable lessons and i also met wonderful, genuine people. The waitresses are all extremely good looking as well as giving customers great service. They all work there butts off to make more money and the cooks had always an interesting story to tell making all of us laugh. This is also where i met my boyfriend, he was the cook and i was the hostess. Who ever thought that you could find love working in the hospitality industry!! As a matter of fact this has happened to a few people i know. One of the waitress and a bouncer at Tarpon had a wonderful relationship, and my other co-worker worked in the excutive offices for the restaurant and her husband was a cook. Even though working in a restaurant can be tough, you can meet a lot of interesting people and also find friends and love.... The only downfall are the incidents that may happen are a little more extreme than the average job however, the experience and knowledge of customer service is life changing.

Hospitality Guru Diva Introduction

One may ask who is hospitality Guru Diva? or Why is this blog so important? Well, I thought that since many of us work in the hospitality industry or have worked in it in the past it would be interesting to write and gain thoughts of what others may think of working in the industry with the hard economic times we are dealing with right now . I think that it is also important to guide and lead others to many job opportunities in the industry. Many people have lost their jobs because of the economic crisis and are looking for opportunites to search for leads hoping that somewhere someone is hiring. A great website that can help people find jobs and also help employers find their right candidate to hire is called http://www.job.travel/. I think this was a good idea to help people in the hospitality industry find what they are looking for or even a lead to where they have the possibility of getting hired in these hard times. Also check out http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/about/pubs/news/newsdetails.html?id=541 Cornell even talks about how beneficial job.travel is!!