Closing one soon after will be one of the most forgettable and excruciating experiences. So how do you open your doors and keep them open? How do you dine out on restaurant success for years to come? Here are a few tips for a successful and stable restaurant.
Get your three-requisites
Before you even think about opening your doors, there are three critical components your restaurant must have to succeed – a great concept, a great location, and a great chef. If you've got a great concept, it's destined to fail unless you have the location to drive traffic and the chef to translate it to your menu. If you've got a great location, you'll be nothing but a speed bump to foot traffic unless your concept and chef can turn you into a compulsory detour. And your chef can have all the Michelin stars in the universe, but if the right numbers can't reach you and your concept doesn't reach anyone, he'll be cooking up a storm of discontent in no time. Concept, location, chef – it's all three or none at all.
Focus on guests
As a new restaurant you can become obsessed with enticing new people in your door with advertising campaigns and street-side gimmicks. While that can work, it can also make you lose sight of the people who really matter – those already sitting at your tables. They are your marketing campaign. They are your word-of-mouth as long as what goes in their mouths comes out as glowing compliments. So set aside a percentage of your start-up revenue for here-and-now guest experiences. Gift cards and complimentary dishes help to create a connection, a feeling of being appreciated and spoilt. "The chef would love you to try this dish." That's about the most persuasive statement you can make for your new restaurant.
Plan to struggle
If you expect customers to pour in the door the moment you open, you're clearly going to be disappointed. While a jam-packed restaurant opening extravaganza masquerades as a hit in the making, most restaurants suffer a lull after the initial hype. The safest bet is to begin with around nine months working capital and don't get carried away by early success. It can take years to become truly established with a regular rotation of loyal customers so avoid the urge to splurge during those heady early days. The reason most restaurants go broke is because they fail to pace themselves. They run a 400 metres strategy for a marathon event.
