Running a restaurant is not like running a normal business. For a start, you can’t just be good with the books, numbers and business acumen. You need to bring something to the business itself. You either need great customer service skills to run the pass, or culinary skills to be a chef. Then, on top of this comes all the usual business problems you have to take care of. Management, tax, marketing etc. To run a restaurant means being able to multitask. Yet, there are various hints and tips that can help you succeed as a restaurant owner.
Change To Suit The Seasons
First, you need to be able to change certain things on your menu to suit the seasons. Sure, there will be things you need to keep on there that are manu favourites, but you need to think about wholesome hearty foods in the winter and lighter foods in the summer. You should be aiming to capitalise too, on particularly cold days offer cups of soup outside, or on hot days offer ice cream or slush drinks. You’ll need to purchase some commercial ice makers to do it but it will be well worth it for the added income. Being able to change to suit the seasons means you can tap into weather dictated potential. It will help with sales and marketing.
Marketing Is different
When you own a restaurant marketing is different. Sure, you can use advertising, but no one is going to want to eat in your place based on a poster. Be proactive. Hire some charismatic upbeat promoters and send them into the local town center with samples of your best products. You need to do this right outside your restaurant too, luring people in with good food. You need to get people to sample your food, then it can speak for itself. Another key way of marketing a restaurant is through reviews. Invite a local columnist or food critic in. Give them the best food and lavish treatment. Their review will drag more people into your place. Understanding food marketing is the first step toward getting your business out there. Go to food trade shows and watch how the masters do it, you’ll get some great ideas. Also, many websites exist that provide good restaurant promotion ideas. Check them out.
Get The Interior Right
People don’t want to have to eat somewhere that is dark or dingy or unkempt. They want to eat somewhere that’s interesting, somewhere that looks good and perhaps has a theme. Sure, if the foods great people will keep coming back but if your restaurant has something special you will pull even more people in. Look at TGI’s, walls strewn with interesting American paraphernalia. The Rain Forest Cafe, built to look like a rain forest and alluring to kids but adults too. If you can think of something different, you’ll attract people through gossip and talk as well as through good food. If your don’t want to go for a specific theme but instead want a normal restaurant, then make sure the interior is comfortable, warm and inviting. If you do this you can’t go too far wrong.
