Mastering the Startup: Essential Tips for Opening a New Restaurant

Nearly 53,800 restaurants opened their doors last year. While the industry has proven its resilience and remains in demand throughout the year, not all establishments are sustainable over the long haul.

What’s one of the most important aspects that can influence long-term success? Implementing a good start-up plan. 

In this post, we share essential tips for newly opened restaurants. With TRG’s specialized consulting services, you can give your new restaurant the best chance of becoming a profitable venture.

Here are indispensable tips you must consider:

Define Your Restaurant’s Concept 

A restaurant concept is an overarching theme that serves as the foundation of your dining brand. 

Here are some popular concepts you can use as inspiration:

• Fast food (quick-service restaurants) like McDonalds or Burger King. This booming industry is predicted to be worth $1277.6 billion by 2032.
• Casual dining establishments offer moderately priced food with large menus that cater to different palates. They offer table service and a relaxed unpretentious ambiance.
• Fine dining boasts luxurious experiences. They often serve multi-course menus with meticulous preparation. These businesses are often backed by reputable accolades like Michelin stars.

Virtual restaurants, pop-up restaurants, food trucks, farm-to-table restaurants, and café/coffee shops are also in demand. 

TRG employs a 5-step approach to concept development. We help you design a unique selling point that communicates what sets you apart. Our experts also consider the demographics of your market so we can recommend a menu, design, and atmosphere that works.

Craft an Actionable Business Plan

A business plan is a strategic framework that outlines your goals and how to achieve them. It helps allocate resources so you can operate and grow purposefully without taking on unnecessary financial risk. By providing clarity on several aspects of your business, it can also be used to forecast demand.

Conduct a Feasibility Study

One in 3 restaurants shut down within the first year of operations. It’s thus important to evaluate the practicality of your project with a feasibility study. At TRG, we help you make informed decisions with research-backed data like:

• Natural and man-made barriers affecting your restaurant’s area
• Direct and indirect competition
• Industry resources 
• Staffing and management
• Traffic arriving by foot, road, and public transportation

These insights help your investors forecast how quickly they’ll make their money back and the return on investment they’ll receive.

Choose the Right Location

Your business location has more bearing on your success than you’d think. Research suggests it can influence online reviews, price, evaluation, and satisfaction.

Choose a visible, well-placed location that is easy to reach, preferably with plenty of parking spaces. It will stimulate people’s natural curiosity of what’s new while bringing in more traffic. An accessible visible location can also help you trim down your marketing costs. 

Rent is often expensive in prime real estate so evaluate the competition to see how they affect your long-term profitability before committing to a location.

Get Your Licenses in Place

A business owner must obtain all the necessary licenses and permits to operate a restaurant. Here’s an overview of what you need:

• Business license 
• Building health permit 
• Employer identification number (EIN)
• Food service license 
• Liquor license (if you serve liquor)
• Live entertainment license
• Music license
• Valet parking permit 

Though requirements vary across counties, they all need close attention to detail and a lot of paperwork so apply for them as early as possible.

Hire the Best Staff

The type of people you hire can make or break your restaurant. With average turnover rates reaching 75% annually, you must carefully hire manpower for your kitchen, service, and management teams. Aside from building a solid pool of star players, you must also cultivate a positive work culture and solicit feedback to enhance job satisfaction.

Take Home Message

The restaurant industry is expected to surpass $1.1 trillion in sales this year, illustrating restaurants’ continued demand. However, only 20% of these ventures move towards long-term success according to the NRA. 

TRG Restaurant Consulting sets you up for success with a customized strategy that positions you as unique and recognizable. Contact us and let’s make your dream restaurant a reality.