Running a restaurant business is no ordinary endeavour – it takes substantial commitment, business expertise and a love for food to succeed at it. Particularly when it comes to the UK, the restaurant industry is one of the biggest there is – with households spending 84.2 billion British pounds eating out in 2018. That means that your restaurant will have immense competition from the 88,000 new eateries that have sprung up over the last few years.
People choose an eatery because its concept and brand appeal to them – that’s why your restaurant needs to set itself apart from the competition if it is to keep customers coming back. There is a lot that goes into starting your own restaurant. You need to know what it will cost, who your competitors and target customers are, where you will be located, what your staff strength will be, etc. Let’s discuss these aspects in detail:
Know Your Costs
Start by getting a fair idea of the setup costs and daily expenses for your restaurant – create a budget and see how much working capital you will need to stay in business for the next year.
Do you have enough in funding or will you need a business loan to survive the initial setup process? Don’t forget to account for any permits and licensing fees you might need to set up your business.
Know Your Customers and Competition
It takes time to build a rapport with customers and turn them into faithful patrons who return often. There are different ways to attract and retain customers – fine dining restaurants offer a romantic ambience whereas fast-casual restaurants focus on the quality of food and quick service. Remember, more than 1400 restaurants in the UK have shut down between June 2018 and June 2019. This makes it imperative that you research others operating in your niche, find out how they are attracting customers, and figure out ways to cut into their customer base.
Choose The Right Location
Customers won’t like to visit your restaurant if they don’t feel safe getting out of their cars in the first place. Speaking of vehicles, you’ll also need ample parking space if you want to run a family dining restaurant.
Do a location analysis to assess the following parameters:
- Safety
- Parking space
- Square-footage
- Accessibility
- Convenience
- Traffic
Hire The Right Staff
Finding the right staff is critical – you need people who are highly skilled and motivated to perform. For example, a fine dining restaurant would need:
- A seasoned head chef
- Sous chefs, line cooks, kitchen porters, etc.
- Servers and wait staff
- A manager who knows hospitality and has relevant experience
- A polite and accommodating receptionist to greet people with a smile
You’ll need to come up with the right compensation packages for your team members and manage their performance while adhering to employment and food-handling regulations.
Conclusion
It is interesting to note that the average Brit eats at a restaurant at least twice a week – so rest assured that if you get this right, your restaurant won’t be short of customers ever.
Establishing a restaurant takes a lot of effort and planning. If you’re willing to endure, it will prove to be a rewarding experience. The more the reason why taking the time to do your research beforehand is vital to avoiding major pitfalls along the way. However, to make sense of all that information that you will be gathering, it would be a good idea to make use of existing mapping technologies like Maptive to help you visualize all that info into a more digestible manner. For example, by simply uploading a spreadsheet of your restaurant location, as well as those of the other competing restaurants in your area, Maptive will be able to help you visualize the level of competition in your area in the form of a heat map. Coupled with its radius proximity tool, you will be able to figure out the space between you and your competition and the distance that your employees will have to travel to get to your restaurant, etc. All this combined will help you make a better-informed decision on the best location for your restaurant.
