5 Tips for Running a Successful Restaurant
You want to introduce your amazing food to the public, but may feel a little shaky on the business side. Opening a restaurant is definitely as much about business as it is serving food people will love. I will help get you started on your culinary entrepreneurial path with five top tips for running a successful restaurant.
- Get to know your target consumers. As with any business, it is important you do lots of research before deciding on your concept or type of restaurant, as well as mastering your food craft. For example, if you are going to open an area with lots of wealthy people, you may be thinking of opening a fine dining restaurant. Perhaps it might be a pop up restaurant or it may have a particular cuisine from a particular country you are well educated in. It’s important to hire a head chef that has years of experience and is able to please customers.
- Keep sufficient funds in reserve and plan your capital expenses for the next few months. This is a good idea to make sure that you don’t run out of money quickly as your amount of customers may decrease. Unfortunately, it is common for start-ups to face a financial slump quite soon after opening.
- Show your employees that you value them. Restaurants are renowned for being very stressful environments to work in. The stress can cause some people to forget that their colleagues are humans with feelings, not food making or dishwashing machines. Teamwork is vital for a successful kitchen, and this is achieved through respecting one another.
- Make sure to get a Food Hygiene Check (I recommend hygienecheck). Hygiene is of course extremely important when handling food. All of the kitchen staff should have food safety training as well as health and safety training.
- Have great customer service. Even if the food is amazing, if the waiters are rude, customers will not want to come back, so make sure you treat your customers as you’d like to be treated.