10 things successful entrepreneurs do for their restaurant business

What is success?

What does it take to be successful?

Success has several definitions in each one’s dictionary, for some, it is money, for some, it is fame, and so on.

To be successful in a particular niche where the definition of your success is defined by the food you deliver is something else! If you’re in a food industry that undergoes inundated with changing trends and competitors, standing out can sometimes seem impossible. Starting a restaurant is quite exciting, it’s also time-consuming and one of the perplexing businesses to successfully kick-off. In fact, 55% of food businesses fail in the first year.

Don’t freak out!

Let’s face it, it’s a fact!

We don’t mean to demoralize potential restaurateurs out there, but we do believe that prevention is better than cure.

Why do many restaurants fail?

Lack of planning?

Lack of proper information about the industry requirements ultimately leads restaurants to their failure. From kitchen administration and menus to floor plans and employees hiring, the planning stage will make or break your restaurant. Before delivering the food to your customers you need to spend a plethora of time on innovative technologies like billing software, restaurant pos software, and much more which helps to upgrade the overall performance of your business.

Poor location, high rentals, inexperience, lack of owner’s involvement, lack of reporting, poor marketing, and poor allocation of resources all can push your restaurant costs up because of which your food business can end up failing.

After proper research and interviews with the topmost successful entrepreneurs in the food industry, we list out the 10 tips and tricks that entrepreneurs do to make their business successful. With sheer commitment, passion, and hard work along with some pearl of wisdom, you can definitely touch the sky.

Let’s look at and consider those best practices before starting your restaurant.

How to be a success in the food industry?

1. Do proper research

The restaurant business is highly competitive. So proper research and planning are extremely necessary before you dive in with both feet. Such proper research will help you to find your accurate niche, target audience, and greatest risk factors. Finding the niche market is necessary to focus on a unique target market. Rather than marketing to everyone your product and service, this approach focuses on one group—a niche market—or demographic of potential customers who would most benefit from the service.

”To be successful, you’ll invest a lot of time and money—so make sure that starting a restaurant is your passion, not just a business venture you hope will make money. It’s harder than you can imagine”- says Omer Orien

Ask questions from industrial experts, which helps to mould your vision and mission. Convey your business goals with your team and inspire them to achieve them, parry all the illusions and dilemmas. Dissect your long term goals into smaller weekly, monthly goals. Try to achieve it within a time frame.

2. Use of innovative technology

The best way to reach the maximum number of people is by technology. With advanced technology, you can seamlessly build your identity and brand. With the use of innovative technologies like restaurant pos software, you can upraise your business anywhere with an internet connection. You can easily analyse the real-time reports of inventory counts, labour usage percentages, productivity daily.

In the digital epoch, customers can choose from a wide array of brands. The growth of the brand simply depends on user experiences and to stay relevant, it needs to be lead very effectively. Now users switch from app to app and from brand to brand when they are unsatisfied with it. So it is extremely important to leverage different digital technologies like restaurant accounting software which helps to provide flawless services and also to track income and expenses.

3. Location matters the most

Where your target audience is spending their time? Where are your customers hanging out? All of these questions have great significance.

If your restaurant is not in the right place, you won’t allure enough number of buyers you will need to stay in business. So take ample time to look for the right space, because the location is everything. You need that perfect place that drives crowds, is easily accessible, has the potential for growth, and budget-friendly. Along with that, you need to find how high the traffic is in your desired location.
Also, the location has easy accessibility and good visibility.

4.Don’t let your customers wait for a long time.

Patience is a virtue but not one to push on your customers.

Let’s face it. People hate waiting especially when they are hungry.

Even if we know the customer’s perspective isn’t completely correct, do the best to understand their needs and prerequisite, and do what it takes to make them happy. When buyers pay money on your product or service, they expect value for their money. Some organisations entirely banish waiting time through Virtual Hold Technology (VHT ) because they realise the impact of making a customer wait.

5.Hire the right employees

What it is important to build a great team at your restaurant?

How can you hire the right employee for your restaurant?

Maybe these are some of the few questions that you find yourself struggling with. Start by asking yourself, how many staff do I really need?

For the success of every venture, you need the right set of people who understand your vision and stand by it. If you’re planning to open a restaurant, there will be different roles from purchasing, cleaning, purchasing, supervisory, human resources, food servers, cooks, chefs, and accounting to hiring. A skilled employee who is an expert in his/her domain is totally an investment for your venture.

Every restaurant has two major parts-Front of House (FOH) and Back of House (BOH). Both this area of operation a different set of skills. To set your restaurant up for success, hire people who have the right set of skills for your business. Look for experienced candidates who need less training in their roles. And it is always better to hire employees, who are experts in customer handling, extrovert, friendly attitude for the designation of the front office staff. For the role of cashiers, hire people who can observe well and reproduce online orders, and instantly communicated to the kitchen staff.
They should also know online billing software.

6.Should welcome changes and re-design the business process accordingly.

Should your restaurant follow current trends?

Success in every business lies where you learn to accept the change, learn to update the new technology, learn to implement new practices. Make sure to add new technologies and tools to improve product quality, productivity, and achieve results. Sustainability is the new normal. Most people nowadays are health conscious and they prefer organic and sustainable products over poisonous processed food. So try to re-design your menu according to your customers’ preferences.

It is also important to have a better understanding of the demographics. The location, the age of your customers, their behaviour, and their interest all these things are important, and this knowledge will help you in marketing and building your brand online. If your restaurant is located in a metro city, where most of the changes evolve from food to fashion. You should be always ready to welcome such trends and changes for the betterment of your business.

The rise of online ordering is another exciting trend that can shape the entire food industry like never before. According to the survey by the National Restaurant Association, three in five UK consumers order delivery or takeout at least twice a week. It also shows that the revenue generated through online delivery is reached $26.5 billion by the end of 2020. This also exemplifies the importance of adapting advanced and modern restaurant management software through which one can seamlessly manage all the online delivery, online billings, inventory management, accounts, and much more.

7.Customer is the king

It is an age-old business phrase that shows the eminence of customers for the growth of every business. The victory or the downfall of your growth depends on your customers. Ventures that treat their customers asking, priceless assets in the industry, have revealed favourable returns than their competitors who put a minimal value on the customers.

Be a good listener.

Give priority to their needs and listen to what they want to say. Use comment cards in your restaurant, a feedback system on your website, and online platforms to collect their response and suggestions about your service. It is of course not a simple task to attract and keep the same customers. Once you have managed to accomplish your target customers, just focus on maintaining a good relationship with the old customers rather than how you will acquire new ones.

To succeed in business you need a customer. So while planning your business, always ask yourself who are your targeted customers? This assists you in putting everything in place to ensure you provide the best to them.

8.Secure funding and manage your revenue

Lacking an excellent financial management system is one of the major reasons for failure.

In start-up restaurants, the usual problem is they just focused on only assembling the capital for opening a restaurant, and forget about the necessity of working capital, that is, the money needed to sustain the business until it reaches its break-even and starts generating profit.

Generate enough capital that you want for launching your restaurant business. It can be divided into three parts. In the first part, assemble fund which is necessary for one-time costs like equipment. In the second part, raise funds to cover the restaurant expenses for at least six months, and finally, for the third part take care of your personal bills for at least six months.

The first and foremost step to control finances is to budget them. Budget all your expenses for food, labour, theft, and pilferage, and monthly pay for rent and electricity. Implementing a well-suited restaurant inventory management software to analyse and track the budget needed for all these expenses.

9.Build a dedicated website

A website allows building your identity for the business, where you can express your own story. It is a better way to banish the print ads and commercials expenses. With a website you can showcase a limitless amount of print information at a fraction of the cost and that information will be available 24/7 and you can also update the information anytime you want to.

People nowadays use the internet for and anything, so having an online identity for your business is highly essential. It is important that if someone is looking for your business they can find the relevant information that they need quickly so they are less likely to become displeased and consider your competitors. You can also add invoicing software to your website which helps the customers to pay directly for the service or products.

If you don’t have a website for your restaurant you are definitely missing out on potential customers. A professional image can be maintained by using a website.

10.Do an aggressive promotion

Promotion of your new restaurant venture online or offline is important for building brand awareness among people. Online promotions have become the need of the hour. Using online platforms for promoting your brand will encourage more people to engage with your brand through loyalty programs and gamification. Add our restaurant to local listings and restaurant review sites for more exposure. Get your menu online on your website or through other online delivery platforms to reach a maximum number of people.

You must need some strategic steps and advance technology to run your restaurant business successfully. Treat your food business like a corporate business entity and run it professionally. There are a plethora of changes and new trends happening in the food industry.

You never know what will happen next, but with sheer commitment, passion, enthusiasm, a lot of planning, and attention to detail, you will definitely find yourself achieving your dream of being a success in the restaurant business.

source https://www.etakeawaymax.co.uk/ten-things-successful-entrepreneurs-do-for-their-restaurant-business/