8 Steps For Opening A Restaurant Successfully

In the United States, one in three restaurants won’t survive their first year of activity, according to the estimations of the National Restaurant Association. Opening a restaurant is not something to be taken lightly. One must avoid certain mistakes, anticipate the constraints that come with running a restaurant, involve various professionals… Follow our checklist to assess your situation before opening your restaurant!

Dreaming of opening a restaurant? Want to turn your passion into a profession? We understand! But beware, there are a lot of things to consider before venturing into the restaurant business. Opening a restaurant can quickly present financial, human, and operational complications. A well-thought-out concept, clear objectives, suitable premises, delicious cuisine, a motivated team, an effective marketing strategy, and more are necessary. So, we help you take stock with our essential checklist before opening your restaurant!

1. Define the identity and objectives of your future restaurant before opening

A restaurant can take many forms: fast food, sit-down, fast-casual, street food, brasserie, wine bar, brunch, bistronomic, gastronomic… Initially, it is essential to define the identity and values of your restaurant, determine the type of experience you want to offer, how long you want customers to stay at the table, what commitments you want to convey. And above all, keep in mind the goal of your establishment: to offer a unique experience, easily deploy the concept, serve many covers, convey passion…

These defined elements will help target your clientele: wine enthusiasts, lovers of surprising cuisine, families, workers, students… Align the Food and Beverage offer with the identity of your restaurant. And finally, think about the atmosphere that will suit it.

If you still have doubts about the design of your restaurant, there are different incubators that can assist and coach you to succeed. You can find some of them here.

2. Organize your ideas into a rigorous Business Plan

Once you have in mind the identity and objectives of your restaurant, the type of experience, cuisine, and atmosphere you want to offer, you need to organize these ideas on paper. The Business Plan is crucial to review your ideas, ensure that no strategic aspect is overlooked before the restaurant opens, assess its profitability, employee needs, project financially for the long term, and convince banks or investors.

But where to start with your Business Plan? How to structure it properly? Not forget anything? Grubhub provides you with the essentials to include in your Business Plan, including numerous figures on your activity predictions, in this article.

3. Choose your location strategically

The location is, by definition, the basis of opening a restaurant. Your premises must meet the needs of your concept and the desired atmosphere. You must be able to meet the needs of the target clientele. A restaurant aiming to maximize lunchtime activity is more likely to succeed if it is located near office buildings, for example.

There are different strategies for choosing your location.

→ Strategy a: Choose a very well-located space, on a busy street in the heart of a popular neighborhood, but with the disadvantage of a high rent. Here, a high-traffic location is chosen.

→ Strategy b: Choose a location on a less busy street but much cheaper, with the goal of maximizing online visibility on Google and Instagram to attract customers who do not know you yet. This will make you a destination.

Once you have identified the neighborhoods or locations that meet your criteria, talk to neighboring merchants to obtain real information about the clientele and local commerce.

4. Invest in a genuine brand identity before opening the restaurant

If your brand identity remains ingrained in people’s memories, you’ve won half the battle! Because they will talk about it, come, return, follow you online… But what do we mean by brand identity? It’s branding, all the visual elements that define you and your restaurant, starting with the logo, then the colors, the typography… Visual elements that should be found not only in the restaurant but also in your online communication, through your Instagram page and website. You must embody the image of your restaurant wherever you exist so that it persists.

To anchor your visual identity even before the opening of your restaurant, cover the facade of your premises under construction with personalized posters.

Push the use of your branding to the maximum, even on plates, glasses, uniforms…

5. Seek the help of experts in their field

Your passion? Restaurants. You probably aren’t an expert in accounting, real estate, or construction. You need help to start on solid ground! Choose the artisans who will implement your project, a lawyer to ensure that everything is up to standards, an accountant to guide you on your costs to become profitable quickly.

Once the machine is well underway, what to do to have a full house on opening day

6. Communicate before opening the restaurant

If you want to fill your restaurant from the day it opens, you need to communicate about it in advance. You will save time on filling your dining room and also enhance your attractiveness for hiring. For this, we share some tips here:

→ Create your Instagram page well before the restaurant opens. Get inspired by the best restaurant Instagram accounts and follow our tips here!

→ Immerse internet users in the restaurant’s universe with content on the concept’s storytelling, the history and passion behind it, the progress of the works, potential complications.

→ Organize a photo shoot before the restaurant opens to post on future menu offerings, the atmosphere, and the restaurant team. You will create a desire to try the restaurant before it even opens!

→ Plan your posts! With the restaurant opening, you won’t have time to focus on Google and social media, yet they are essential to attract customers. So take advantage of the construction work to start your digital marketing strategy. Anticipate and plan your posts before being preoccupied with other operational issues.

You can go even further with the creation of creative videos in your premises still under construction!

7. Appear first on your keywords from the restaurant’s opening

This step is possible once your concept is well defined. It involves appearing at the top of search results for your keywords: the terms that define your restaurant and its location. When a customer searches for “pizzeria brooklyn” on Google, different results appear. Your goal: to appear first on searches that correspond to you to make yourself known to many customers. To achieve this, you need to work on your local SEO, show the Google algorithm that you best meet the user’s search. To see real results and therefore a good position in searches, it may take a few weeks. So start working on it before the opening! You will save time and attract many customers from the first days.

To achieve this, we give you all the details of a successful local SEO strategy in this article.

8. Ready for the adventure

You want to welcome customers to your restaurant from the opening and for the years to come, so give yourself every chance from the start. Because the first impression is crucial.

You can also open with a “soft opening”: a limited menu and a limited number of covers to acclimate the staff, adapt recipes, or refine internal organization. Don’t forget to organize an opening night during which you can invite the press, influencers, as well as local merchants and neighbors to make your restaurant’s opening go viral. And finally, be ready to receive reservations! For this, you need to equip yourself with the best reservation systems, connected to your website.