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How to Open a Restaurant: A Comprehensive Guide
Have you ever wondered about opening a restaurant ? Perhaps this is an idea that many people have had before. This guide will provide you with essential steps to open a successful restaurant blog. From defining your brand to designing your restaurant, and everything in between, get ready to embark on an exciting culinary journey. Chefmax is happy to share what we know.
Table of Contents
1. Types of restaurant and your brands
If you are dreaming of opening a restaurant, I guess you have already thought a lot about the concept and branding of your restaurant. In Vietnam, people are interested in unique and strange things, and choosing a unique and practical concept for a specific group of people is one of the most important factors in creating a concept and brand. You should focus on your strengths, which means that if you like a concept and want to develop it, you must master it and have a strong understanding of it so that it will be easy to succeed. Here are some classic types of restaurants that will inspire your creativity.
• The original fast food restaurant, the most profitable of the businesses on our list.
• The casual dining restaurant is one of the most popular types of restaurants.
• Fast casual restaurants cater to customers who are looking for food that is relatively fast but also healthier than fast food and more affordable than casual dining establishments.
• High-end restaurants that offer people fine dining, service and ambiance.
• A food service Ghost Restaurant that offers delivery service only to customers.
Depending on your brand and concept, your restaurant should exude a specific ambiance and reveal your identity. This creates a memorable and meaningful experience for those who want to be coming back. Making your brand more specific is the best way to communicate your identity to the public, and for your restaurant name, menu, logo and etc, it should present a cohesive image of your brand.
2. How to design a restaurant menu
Is it possible for a restaurant’s menu design to directly impact sales and revenue? The answer is yes, a successful restaurant cannot do without a well-designed, laid out and planned menu. For any food lover, choosing the menu items to be displayed should be very enjoyable. Before opening a restaurant, you will need to create some of the basic foods that the menu will contain as well as your restaurant’s specialty foods. Your menu will determine the type of equipment you will need, the skills of your staff, and the crowd you hope to attract. Remember, for your customer, will be curious to check out the dish at first, but to keep them, the dish must be truly special and to their taste.
3. How to write a restaurant business plan
Show investors and other stakeholders how you plan to realize your dream and vision for your restaurant and turn it into an (organized) reality. You may think it’s not important to possess one, but a business plan is like your North Star, guiding you back to where you need to be as you build your restaurant, recruit and train staff, and deal with the inevitable setbacks.
Make sure your business plan is as comprehensive as possible – the more detail you can provide, the better it will be once you start working in your restaurant. Here are some points to consider.
• Executive summary – A short description of the restaurant’s business plan and ideas.
• Company overview and description – A description of the restaurant’s name, contact person, and other relevant information.
• Market analysis – Divided into three points: industry analysis, competitor analysis, and marketing analysis.
• Menu – Pricing and cost analysis of the menu.
• Management – Outline your management and ownership structure.
• Marketing and public relations strategy – Your specific marketing plan and how to achieve it.
• Financial projections – provide sales forecasts and break-even analysis.
4. How to properly allocate your budget
In order to keep your restaurant running normally, you need to first determine how you should allocate your budget in each useful place. Here are some of Chefmax’s recommendations from our large number of clients.
A. Restaurant equipment budget
No doubt you already have a clear plan of the type of restaurant and what food to serve. Investing in restaurant equipment is a huge expense and also affects the quality and efficiency of your restaurant’s food, so it is very important that you choose wisely and you do the following.
Make a list of kitchen equipment – make a list of your equipment according to your menu away, then choose the most suitable equipment for you, if you don’t know how to choose, you can consult a professional.
Your budget cost – if your budget is tight, you can compare the cheaper equipment, but do not ignore the quality of the equipment.
The space of the kitchen – any good commercial kitchen design features are easy to use, efficient and safe, but you also need enough space for your equipment, if you have limited space, you can choose more compact equipment.
B. Hiring Employees
Hiring too many or unsuitable employees will result in a waste of your budget, so when looking at your labor cost budget, make sure you look at not only the skills of the employees hired and the corresponding salaries, but also consider employee benefits, training programs, incentives, etc. This will help you calculate the full labor costs in your budget.
C. Costs of promotion
Pre-promotion is especially important, and this often determines the amount of customers you get. This is what makes it simpler for potential customers to find all relevant information about your restaurant. Marketing methods include: social media marketing, coupons or even setting up a website to advertise your restaurant, and each type of promotion will incur different costs, which is what you need to measure.
D. Restaurant operating budget
You also need to allocate a budget for a number of other expenses such as rent, utilities, maintenance and fixed costs such as restaurant inventory management technology software, and you need to regularly review your operating costs and efficiencies, which will help you find ways to save money or provide restaurant efficiencies and ensure that your restaurant’s return on investment is worth it.
5. Get a license for your restaurant
Ensuring you have the proper permits can be the most tedious step in the process, but it is critical to the opening of your restaurant, and you can do this by seeking professional legal counsel to ensure your restaurant’s legal compliance. It varies from the continents, but is usually a business license, food permit, local permit and environmental plan registration.
6. How to design your restaurant?
Reasonable functional distinction and planning can make the restaurant space reasonable and uncluttered, professional and scientific dining chairs can not only improve the quality of customer dining, but also provide your staff’s work efficiency, reduce customer waiting time and enhance customer satisfaction. The layout of the restaurant will reflect the comfort of the restaurant operation, the following are some of our design tips summarized in the cases of previous customers.
A. Restaurant front design section
The atmosphere and decoration of the restaurant
A good atmosphere for customers to provide a comfortable dining atmosphere, restaurant lighting should first be bright, good dishes, tableware need lighting to set up. For example, in a Western restaurant, you can use warm lights, which can better set up an elegant environment. On the contrary, Chinese restaurants do not need too much lighting assistance, simple white light can also be good to set off the food. At the same time, in terms of decoration, you can design according to the aesthetics of contemporary youth, highlighting your special theme, plus comfortable music can provide customers with a quality dining experience.
Seating capacity
Please do not forget to pay attention to the circulation and mobility of the restaurant, to ensure a reasonable flow of restaurant staff and restaurant customers, so that customers can easily find their way around the restaurant and then reach the dining area or other functional areas, there needs to be enough space between the tables.
B. How to design your kitchen?
Kitchen is the center of food production, its design and layout directly affects the quality and efficiency of food production, please consider the service flow and allocate enough space for the following tasks:
Food processing area – leave the most suitable place for your workbench, the processing area for all ingredients, paying attention to the separation of raw and cooked food to avoid cross-contamination.
The cooking area – the core part of the kitchen, provides the most comfortable location for your commercial gas range, commercial fryer and commercial oven.
Preparation area – an area for handling and placing dishes, if you serve salads cold, you can make them here.
Recycling area – an area to clean your dishes, use a commercial dishwasher to make sure your dishes are always clean.
Storage area – make sure you have enough space to store all your food.
7. How to choose the right restaurant equipment supplier
Knowing the type of equipment you plan to use in your kitchen plays a vital role in running your business and making money. With a large amount of kitchen equipment to consider, choosing the most suitable supplier can be a headache, but don’t worry, Chefmax has the following advice for you.
1. Quality first
Exactly, quality is always the first factor when choosing a quality supplier. If you have experience working in a commercial kitchen, you must know that the changeover area is always busy, which requires ensuring that this equipment can work for hours on end without interruption, and your equipment supplier should provide commercial-grade materials that last longer.
2. kitchen equipment cost and energy efficiency
Kitchen equipment is a huge investment and you must consider your kitchen’s equipment budget, so you may want to ask different suppliers about their costs so you can choose equipment that fits your budget without sacrificing and without compromising overall quality. In the long run, it is better to find a company that offers all the products you need for your kitchen rather than having multiple different suppliers.
3. Ease of use of the product
Considering the ease of use of equipment is necessary for a business environment so that you can save a lot of time by not having to train your staff on how to use complex equipment and having easy to use equipment will speed up kitchen procedures and make them easier. This requires that the equipment you purchase should be user-friendly and intuitive to operate, and that you consider the procedures needed to clean the equipment to ensure that it meets the hygiene standards required to prepare food.
4. Safety of the equipment
The kitchen environment dictates that the selection of commercial kitchen equipment must take full account of safety factors. Most kitchen environments are relatively harsh, and most kitchens are also immune to the adverse effects of water, steam, gas, and air humidity on the equipment. Therefore, kitchen equipment to choose waterproof, fire-resistant, high-temperature resistant, and even moisture-proof interference, anti-erosion performance of advanced equipment.
5. Maintainability
Kitchen equipment for regular maintenance is very important, both to help extend the life of kitchen equipment, but also to ensure the efficiency of the kitchen.
8. Trial run of your restaurant
When you have completed the above steps, Congratulations! You have made your restaurant dream a reality. A trial run is an exercise that allows your restaurant staff to test their control of the process and service, menu suggestions, etc. before the actual grand opening. The best way to host a trial run is to invite family and friends to attend and prepare for the grand opening in a fun, relaxed way. The best way to prepare for the grand opening is to invite family and friends to attend in a fun and relaxed way. Through the trial run you can make reasonable improvements to ensure that you can serve your customers better when you open for business.
Summary
Opening a restaurant is an exciting opportunity and also has great potential, getting the best kitchen equipment will ensure that your kitchen is up to scratch and provide you with everything you need, We trust that you have gone through the above advice and have an understanding of all the processes involved in opening a restaurant, and if you need any help, Chefmax would be happy to assist you and start a restaurant that you will be satisfied with!