Visiting a restaurant instead of eating at home is a regular occasion in most people’s lives when we can socialise with family and friends, enjoy new cuisine …and not have to do the washing up!
There are thousands and thousands of restaurants in the UK, so competition is quite fierce if you wish to open one yourself. Nonetheless, running your own eatery is a dream for many people, don’t let that put you off.
Check out our guide to opening your own restaurant:
Formulate A Concept
When you plan your own restaurant it is vital that you have a clear concept of what you want to be and how you wish to brand yourself. Big questions to ask yourself should be:
- What type of cuisine will you serve?
- What will your service style be?
- What will the atmosphere and ambience of your restaurant be?
- What decor will you choose?
Choose Your Basic Menu
After you have chosen your cuisine it is important that you pick some basic meals and food items that can be your bread and butter (pun intended). By having an approximate idea of what you will be producing will allow you to work out what staff you will need, what clientele you want to attract and figure out what equipment you will require.
Write A Business Plan
Having a clear but detailed business plan is an absolute must if you are to make a success of your restaurant and reach out to banks and investors for capital. Here are some of the most important pieces that should be in your business plan.
- An executive summary
- Company description and an overview
- An analysis of the market conditions
- Business offerings
- Management structure
- A PR and marketing strategy
- A projection of your finances over the short and medium term
Secure Financial Backing
Unless you’re married to a millionaire, getting enough capital to start your restaurant can be problematic. Restaurants will almost always need a significant cash boost to cover start-up costs and a considerable amount for day-to-day costs before you start making money yourself. By having a thorough plan and a strict budget you’ll hopefully be able to convince a bank or private investors to put in.
Pick A Location
Choosing where to place your restaurant geographically is key to its success. Opening a fine dining restaurant in a business district where people are looking for something to a quick lunch bite isn’t a great idea! Here are the features to consider when choosing where to lease a commercial space for your new eatery.
- Demographics
- Visibility
- Accessibility
- Competition from rival restaurants
- Labour costs of the locale
Complete Your Permits
Getting the correct permissions and licences to open a restaurant from your local authority is something best completed sooner rather than later.
Find Wholesale Food Suppliers
All restaurants need a reliable and constant source of ingredients from a food wholesaler at a price that you can afford. Bulk food suppliers save you money! Make sure that these costs won’t rise sharply in the future so that you can make sound financial plans and projections. Also make sure to establish a good relationship with a reputable equipment supplier so that your restaurant can run smoothly, even if the worst happens.
Design Your Restaurant Layout
Next on your list should be carefully choosing how you will organise the layout of your restaurant. You will have planned out the aims of your menu and brand, so you need to design a restaurant layout that will suit these goals. By building a smooth flow from your front-of-house to your tables, from your kitchen to your waiters, you can set your eatery up for success. After these key components have been decided, you can choose a delightful decor that suits your brand.
Employ Staff
Your staff are possibly the most important part of your restaurant besides the food, so it is key that you choose honest, hard-working and competent workers. After identifying your exact needs you should try and find excellent and experienced team members for these fundamental positions.
- Head Chef
- General Manager
- Sous Chef
- Prep Cooks
- Servers
- Hosts
- Food runners and bussers
- Barmen and Barwomen
- Dishwasher
Advertise Your Business
Letting people know how great your new restaurant is key to getting your business off to a good start. To do this you can invest in a number of PR and advertising strategies.
- Physical advertising boards
- Social media
- Make an email list for future marketing activities
- Create a Yell account
- Commission a website
- Advertisements in local newspapers
- Offering promotions to new guests
- Use a loyalty programme
- Hosting a grand opening
Dry Run Your Restaurant
Before opening for real, you should host a ‘dry run’ to make sure that everything that your restaurant should do, will do when you open. By inviting friends, family and investors to a soft opening, you can test out new dishes, fine-tune protocols and get your staff used to operating in the restaurant. If things go wrong, you will now have time to rectify them before opening for real!
Freshways – Wholesale Food Distributors
We at Freshways consider it our mission to provide our customers with a vast range of quality dairy products at a wholesale price that can make any company competitive in their industry. The clients that we provide for come from a collection of different sectors and they all are highly satisfied with the quality, reliability and affordability that we at Freshways offer.
Freshways are dedicated to the steady provision of wholesale cheese, yoghurt, eggs, milk, and lots of distinct brands that are popular across the United Kingdom and beyond.
Some of the industries that we cater for are retailers, hotels, bakeries, cafes, wholesalers and manufacturers to name but a few. Whatever your exact wholesale requirements, Freshways is the dairy company for you. Every piece of cheese and every pint of milk that Freshways processes come from well-treated animals that live graze and milked in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. We also like to provide our customers with recent news about fresh milk, dairy and similar topics from Acton, London, the United Kingdom and the world.
For the past two decades, we have matched and exceeded our client’s expectations and have gone beyond them! Freshways is honoured to offer dedication, customer service and sky-high standards to whatever we put our minds to. Freshways is proud to only hire hard-working and highly-experienced staff that are willing to go the extra mile for their customers. All our staff enter a comprehensive training programme that ensures that they can be the best they can possibly be with us.
Freshways have a range of buildings across England and Wales, but our main headquarters is based in London. As we are the largest family-run independent wholesale dairy products company for independent retailers in the UK, we are honoured to say that we have acquired a superb reputation across the industry. Our extensive list of customers and unswerving dedication to detail and efficiency has made us a big name in the sector, as well as a partner that can be 100% relied upon. We are the wholesale dairy suppliers for you.
If you have a question or want to talk to one of our friendly customer service staff, call us today by ringing 0208 746 2046 or emailing us at info@freshways.co.uk. You can also find more information by visiting our website.