Want to try your luck at opening a new restaurant in Vancouver? Before you do, I highly recommend you take a moment, and read this restaurant start-up checklist. There are many things to consider, whether you are opening a coffee bar, a hip bistro, a trendy sushi nook, or whatever your dreams lead you to. Here are some quick restaurant opening tips to keep in mind:
1) Do Your Research
Whatever your vision is, make your concept loud and clear. Defining a clear concept of what your new business will be, is the first step in making sure your business will stick for the long run. Keep it simple, keep it genuine.
Never lose focus from your concept, as many people try to do too much too fast, and that’s how they steer off the road, and fail to succeed.
Have a sense of an approximate area you want to start your new restaurant. Gather demographic data for that area, how much foot/car traffic goes on, who are some of your competitors, and where are they located. Find out how they differ from your restaurant, in terms of concept, price points, service, volume of business etc.
The more research you do, the more informed you are, and the less chances of you being surprised by unforeseen roadblocks.
2) Make a Business Plan
Write a mission statement for your restaurant. Come up with one sentence that really speaks how unique your concept is. Make your restaurant as distinguished as you can from your competitors. When someone reads it, it needs to be very clear that your restaurant is far more superior to other competing businesses.
Decide on hours of operation, and the appropriate management team that needs to be recruited to run the restaurant. Hiring and training of different positions should be considered, from servers, to cooks, to supervisors.
Consider what marketing strategies you want to use, whether it’s a website, Facebook, Twitter, a loyalty program, etc. Whatever you choose to use, it is important that a marketing plan is created well before you open the restaurant.
A detailed schedule of what you want to achieve, such as a weekly target of how many followers, or how many likes, is a measurable metric that makes it easy to see if indeed these marketing tactics are working, and if so, how effective is it working
3) Forecast your Financials
Do sales projections. Do them realistically. One easy way to do this is to visit a similar sized and priced restaurant, in the same area as you, and observe their operations. Take note how many customers come in, during lunch and dinner, how high is turnover of new customers, how much food people are ordering, and how much an average bill would be.
Estimate the cost of ingredients for meals, beverages and bar items. Also estimate the cost of labor, how much you are going to pay each of your employees, and how many employees is needed at certain periods of the day and week. Consider the costs of equipment, utility fees, rent, ongoing marketing costs, location expenses, and the list goes on and on.
What’s important at this step is that you are putting into account of all the possible expenses, and making a comprehensive restaurant startup costs spreadsheet. This will help you determine your costs of everything in order to open up a restaurant, but also forecast the break even point where your restaurant is making at least enough money to pay off all of its monthly expenses.
4) Plan your Menu
Create a simple list of menu items for each service (breakfast, lunch, dinner), or categories of the menu (i.e. appetizers, entrees, dessert). Determine an ingredient list for each menu item. Compare prices from vendors, and how to maximize cost efficiency.
Keeping your menu small is most likely going positively stand out to customers, as they won’t encounter the problem of having too many choices to choose from, and also your chefs will be more proficient delivering consistent levels of taste and flavors.
5) Don’t Forget the Permits, Licenses, and Setup Essentials
Getting the needed permits and licenses is very important, because without them you simply cannot operate your restaurant.
Always make sure and consult government agencies for a business permit, the health department, the local fire department, and liquor-licensing department so you can sell and serve alcohol.
There is nothing more depressing than declining customers drink orders. Once everything is roughly set, make sure you have the required restaurant insurance policies in place, to ensure a peace of mind, as if you wouldn’t have enough to worry about.
So to our future restaurant owners, I hope you found these five quick opening a restaurant tips helpful. Keep this start up restaurant checklist in mind, and we hope to see your upcoming operation be the talk of the town in Vancouver sometime soon!
If you’re planning on opening a new restaurant in Vancouver and are looking to for a marketing strategy that will drive sales to your restaurant right from opening day, then feel free to contact Vincent at vince (at) Eatmarketing.com
Guest Post Written by Nicole Cheung