This restaurant guide and current topic information is your key to finding restaurant marketing ideas, cost controls, staff management and tools for restaurant mangers. Everything from starting or buying a restaurant to menu planning. These are the best recent articles around. There are dozens of links to the right.
The short articles below are donated by one of the most experienced and prolific authors that owns manages, starts and successfully buys multi-concept operations. His expertise is utilized on the Restaurant in the Weeds site quite frequently.
Starting a Restaurant or Marketing Your Current Cafe, Lounge or Bar
Here are Restaurant Ideas That Work from Restaurant Owners
Advertisers/Sponsors
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Resources for Restaurants
Restaurant Marketing, Publicity, Advertising
Restaurant Cost Control
Restaurant Management and Staff
Restaurant Menu Management and Food
Opening a New Restaurant
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Starting a Restaurant?
This is a waste of words on the dreamer you must be, but if you have one sane moment, don't do it!
OK, that being said, here is some of the equipment you need;
- a folding cot in the backroom for the nights you are so tired it's easier to sleep at the restaurant.
- some gift cards for the family and friends who won't see you at their functions for a long time.
- some gel pens to make writing checks a little easier, since you will be writing a lot of them for the next few months.
- at least one full LARGE bottle of aspirin for the headaches you are going to have.
- a rabbits foot would be nice, blessed by the pope, deemed Kosher and a little Buddha statue might as well be thrown in for help.
Well, those are the basics and then you have to be one of the fortunate few (less than 30%) that will be in business three years from now.
What does it really take? Here is the short version;
- Double the cash your business plan projects.
- Marketing plan that will not compete with the chains, but beat them at their own game using their research.
- A location that has every attribute a restaurant location must have - visibility, parking, traffic and the proper demographics for your product.
- The fortitude to evolve and change almost daily.
- Your complete and undivided attention for at least six months - and that is if things are going well.
Notice I didn't mention anything about food. That is the least of your worries. Rarely do failed restaurants serve bad food.
If you have all of the above, now you can start your restaurant. If you don't, go to Las Vegas and put your money on one of the numbers on the roulette wheel. Your odds are about the same and the pain will last only a few minutes!
How Does a Restaurant Become Successful?
The article above paints a very dark picture of the restaurant business. It should. It's tough and much more demanding than most people ever see in their dreams.However, over the years, I have found some elements that almost every restaurant that is around on their 5th birthday has. Here is a list to help you start, buy or run a better restaurant;
1) You must have a business plan. It can be one page or a thousand pages, but it has to give clear direction for your concept. The two most important parts of your plan is a cash flow projection and a marketing plan.
2) Your restaurant marketing plan must address the three parts of marketing;
- Communicating your message to your customer/prospect.
- Selling your product to the guest/prospect.
- Delivery of the product and meeting the customer's expectations.
Most restaurateurs believe marketing is advertising. That is not the case.
3) You must have the financial resources to survive. There are a lot of sad stories out there about very good restaurants who just ran out of money - even though they were profitable! If you don't understand how that can happen, you better learn about restaurant cash flow real fast.
4) You must understand your customer and what they expect. The simple example is the person who opened a Sushi Restaurant in Leon, West Virginia. Not very bright.
If you think you can circumvent the key elements above by buying an existing restaurant or franchise, they have almost the same failure rate. There are no guarantees.
Building a Restaurant Marketing Plan
If you are starting a restaurant, your marketing plan is critical to your initial success. Even more important for long term survival is a regular and consistent marketing plan to maintain growth, retain customers and replace customers through natural attrition.
My recommendation is to create a new plan every six months that schedules your goals and implements the actions that attain those goals.
An example for a busy breakfast and lunch restaurant that has a wait during breakfast hours, but is not full at other times, may look like this;
Goal
To increase sales during non-peak hours 7 to 8 AM and 12 to 2 PM.
Step 1 - Create early dining specials for "early risers" from 7 to 8 AM.
Step 2 - Actions to communicate early riser specials to prospects and existing customers.
- Create POS material for a small table display.
- Print flyer for parking lots of surrounding businesses who have employees who must be at work by 8 AM. Place flyer on all cars.
- Run small ad in neighborhood publication.
- Place small POS in every to go order.
Step 3 - Develop three new lunch specials that would be popular for lunch trade based on customer demographic.
- Use theme "Not Just for Breakfast Anymore".
- Announce the lunch features in all the steps above along with "early risers".
Step 4 - Involve staff by informing them of your goals. Ask ideas for specials. Train to talk to customers about the new items and emphasis on the two periods.
Step 5 - Use email to reach your customers with a timely email announcing all of the above.
Step 6 - Personally pass out flyers to all businesses in the area who have potential to order take out lunch food.
Step 7 - Track sales during the targeted time periods and individual items that were created for the plan.
Step 8 - Adjust the plan after every 30 day period according to sales and item tracking. Do steps again as applicable.
This is a simple marketing plan that should accomplish your goals for the period. Of course, new ideas and creative methods to accomplish your goals are necessary for the long term.
Find time to regularly educate yourself on some of the latest techniques and innovative marketing ideas for restaurants.
Email the author your questions. He will respond!
Buying a Restaurant ?
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The materials below have been prescreened and recommended by other restaurant owners and managers. The best of the best on each subject.
The Internet's bestseller manual for restaurant managers and owners. Build sales and run a better restaurant. Read how independent owners started from no sales to $1.5 million and continues to grow even in this economy.
Another new breakfast and lunch start up went from $0 to over $600,000 in sales using steady growth techniques.
And there is the restaurant who was ready for bankruptcy that was at $1.8 in sales two years later after being purchased by new owners.
Written by an experienced restaurant owner who tells how to build business with no tricks, just solid business tactics.
Get your copy here.
