a restaurant project, is the usual answer to the question:
What project can I start my career with and make a profit?
The restaurant business is definitely one of the most
profitable ventures anywhere, and the only reason is that no one can give up
food.
But not all restaurant projects have been able to continue
and succeed for years, as competition in this field is very fierce. As I told you, dear reader, when most of us think of a
project of our own, we choose a restaurant project.
One of the most important reasons for the success of any
project, regardless of its idea, is good planning, and listening to previous
experiences to benefit from them. The restaurant project in particular is a double-edged
sword. Good management is the investment that guarantees the success of the
project, and the slightest mistake during preparing any meal may lead to the
completion of the project overnight.
Through this article, we will show you everything you need
to know in order to start a restaurant business of your dreams. With us, you will learn about the success factors of the
restaurant project, and the steps that can be followed when making a profit
from this project to be your life project.
Follow this article with us to know more.
Before we start the steps of implementing a restaurant
project, we have to address the most important types of restaurants, as there
are many types of restaurants, each of which has a special character and a
special nature.
Types of restaurants
By the restaurant, we do not mean the need for large spaces
to build the project inside, but in recent years more than one type of
restaurant projects have appeared.
The types of these restaurants vary according to their
purpose, their area, the services that are available within them, in addition
to the financing or capital you need to start a restaurant business.
1. Food
and Beverage Restaurant
It is the restaurant that serves food and drinks that are
eaten inside, and here, of course, you need a certain space, equipment and
equipment, and therefore a large capital, and other factors so that the first
step of the project is correct.
Restaurants that serve food and drinks inside the restaurant
need a comfortable and airy dining hall, and need a good kitchen and an
adequate area to serve customers.
2. Fast food restaurant “Take Away”
This type of restaurant project has spread greatly in recent
years, and the majority of its founders are young graduates or entrepreneurs.
This type of restaurant is considered the easiest restaurant
project in terms of equipment, as it does not need an equipped place for
customers to sit, but depends only on preparing the meal and eating it outside
the place.
But it is difficult to compete in it. To be based on presenting a new idea that is welcomed by
lovers of dining out, and is also dependent on the customers who live in its
geographical scope.
3. Specialty
restaurants
They are restaurants specializing in certain foods; An example is restaurants that serve Chinese food, Indian
food, or other international cuisines.
As well as restaurants specializing in certain foods, for
example, there are restaurants specialized in types of pizza and pasta only,
and there are other restaurants that specialize in providing meat only of all
kinds and all methods of cooking.
Liver restaurants, oriental food restaurants, and burger
restaurants of all kinds, all of these are restaurants whose idea is to
specialize in only one aspect or only one type of food that people prefer.
4. Cafe
It is a place where people gather for certain drinks or
meals. Most of these places have limited meal choices because they are based
mainly on drinking drinks, and it varies in size from one place to another and
also in what it offers to the public.
Steps to implement a restaurant project
1. Do a
feasibility study
Many of those who want to launch their projects are not
interested in doing a feasibility study, and this is a very big mistake, and
contributes significantly to increasing the chances of project failure.
As for you, you should make a detailed feasibility study for
your project, through which you can obtain accurate data on the chances of the
project's success, and also through which you can prepare a solid plan for the
implementation and marketing of the project.
There are many types of feasibility studies, for example, in
terms of arrangement, there are:
- Initial
or preliminary feasibility study: through
which you can conduct a simple study to ensure the feasibility of the
project in general.
- Detailed
feasibility study: through which you can make a
detailed feasibility study that contains all the minute details about the
feasibility of the project and the details of its success.
In terms of type, there is also a marketing, technical, and
legal feasibility study…etc.
2. Select
the capital
Without a doubt, the first step to starting any project
after good planning is capital. For a restaurant project, the capital you need varies
according to several factors, as follows:
- The
size or type of the restaurant you are going to start with.
- The
place that you will rent or even buy in order to implement a restaurant
project.
- The
equipment, appliances and furniture that you will need as a start depends
on the size of the restaurant.
- The
number of customers expected to receive in the restaurant.
- the
type of restaurant and what it offers; Is
it a restaurant to receive customers, or the customer will get his food
outside the restaurant “take away”.
- Marketing
methods for the restaurant in the beginning: will it be digital marketing ,
or rely on placing signs on the
road or distributing leaflets with the services provided by the restaurant
to passers-by.
- The
salary of the employees that you will start with should be a
consideration, in order to maintain the reputation of the place in its
ability to retain its employees.
Do not be afraid, dear reader, when you know that
establishing a restaurant project requires capital that can reach millions. Although this is true, but nothing is impossible, a small
start can lead you to a bigger project.
Meaning, you can determine your needs to start your project
and then calculate its costs. If your personal capital is not enough, you can request
financing from the competent authorities or resort to investors to inject more
capital.
Even if these investors are your relatives or friends, but
make sure that all your steps are codified so as not to lose your rights and
the rights of others.
3. Study
the market requirements and know your competitors
Before starting the project, especially the restaurant
project; You have to be aware of the market requirements, and what is
meant here by the market requirements is that you are looking for what people
need in the food business in the area where you have chosen your business. What are the advantages of your competitors in the same
field, whether within the same region or the same governorate.
You can do this by conducting surveys or opinion polls if
you can, or searching through Google for the requirements of people in general
in the field of restaurants.
Also, researching the complaints that are published about
specific restaurants is very required in order to avoid them, thus adding
another competitive advantage to you.
Also, studying the market makes you aware of what will
happen in the future for your project in a way that allows you to plan well for
any crisis or problem that may occur. It also helps you determine the required
capital so that you can compete in a way that helps you continue and expand.
Here are some practical ways and tools to help you
understand the market:
- Your
personal experience in dealing with restaurants and trying to extract the
reasons for success and reasons for failure.
- Experience
of those close to you (family, friends, relatives, and even neighbors)..
Ask them about the restaurants they like and don't like and why.
- Use
social networking sites (your personal accounts) to gather more opinions.
- Ask in
specialized groups on social media.
- Follow
the pages of popular websites, and try to elicit the reasons for customer
loyalty.
- Search
Google for the most famous restaurants in the city in which you want to
start your project, and monitor the reasons for the success of these
restaurants.
4. Find
suppliers for restaurant project requirements
The quality of the restaurant project comes from the food it
serves as well as the equipment inside; For example, if you make sure that the refrigerator for
storing food matches the required specifications, this will certainly return to
the quality of the food and thus the quality of the project as a whole.
Dishes and cutlery, when they are to the desired
specifications and are suitable for everyone, will surely be a big draw for
customers.
Also, getting to know suppliers who specialize in supplying
you with the needs of the restaurant will give you the opportunity to learn
about everything the restaurant needs.
We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the
requirements of the restaurant's needs before speaking with the suppliers so
that you are aware of the basics, and the supplier can provide you with
everything new.
5. Choose
the right place and the space that suits you
As we mentioned at the beginning of the article that the
location of the restaurant is one of the most important factors for the success
of the project. When choosing the appropriate location, you must be specific at
the beginning.
Answering the following questions can help you be more
specific as you choose a location:
- What
type of restaurant?
- Is the
financial level of the people of the area commensurate with the quality of
your implementation of the restaurant project?
- What
are the places where there are not a lot of restaurants and therefore
there will be less competition?
- Do you
want to buy the place you will designate the restaurant or you will trade
it?
- What is
the space that will fit this type of restaurant?
- Approximately
how many visitors will the restaurant receive?
- What is
the specific area of the kitchen?
- What is
the size of the equipment that will be equipped with the restaurant and
thus allocated space for it?
6. Take
care of the interior finishes
Attractive and appropriate decoration that draws the
attention of the public is one of the most important ingredients for the
success of the restaurant project. One of the most important items for which a portion of the
capital must be allocated is the decoration or interior finishes of the
restaurant.
If your project is a restaurant specializing in
international food; Such as if it is a Lebanese restaurant, a Chinese
restaurant, an Indian restaurant...etc. The decor must have a character that
indicates the content of the meals being served.
If you are not familiar with this, you can use an interior
designer or a specialist, but if you know the basics of finishing and can
supervise the finishing workers for the sake of saving, do so.
7. Choose
the restaurant staff
The work team, whether supervisors or workers, is one of the
most important factors in establishing a restaurant project, and the types of
teams here vary according to the place:
A/ Inside the kitchen
You need skilled chefs who have a list of ingredients that
are prepared with food in order to ensure quality. This list can be obtained from many sources on the Internet,
or the assistance of specialists in preparing these meals if necessary.
Pay attention, you must make sure that the list of
ingredients and ingredients is something specific to the restaurant and a
business secret.
You also need assistants for these cooks, and people
responsible for cleaning the kitchen by cleaning floors or walls to prevent the
accumulation of dust or the presence of any source of attracting insects.
You also need someone who is responsible for cleaning
utensils and dishes in a good and safe manner using good cleaning materials.
b/ the reception hall
And here in the event that the restaurant is equipped to
receive customers, of course you need a good team based on customer service. Starting from the catering providers and those responsible
for taking the customers’ requests and transferring them to the kitchen, passing
through those responsible for the cleanliness of the seats and tables and the
cleanliness of the reception hall in general, to the end of the manager
responsible for managing all these.
If you are not aware of the specifications that must be
available in the work team, you can use previous experiences and search on the
Internet. You can also use companies responsible for hiring restaurant
teams to provide you with more experienced people.
8. Determine
your marketing method and budget
Marketing is the primary tool that makes your project successful by
promoting it, and here we have more than one way to market; Either marketing through social networking sites ,
and of course it is
the easiest and fastest way at the moment.
You can also rely on signs that alert people to the presence
of a restaurant in this place, or even paper flyers that are distributed to
people.
Whatever form of marketing channel you will rely on, you
must have a competitive advantage that distinguishes your restaurant from other
competitors, and this competitive advantage is what will make your project
easier and faster to promote.
We advise you to browse the e-marketing section within the Al-Rabeen website ,
as it contains a lot and a lot of
information about the method of marketing from A to Z.
It is easy to rely on yourself in marketing your project at
first in order to save expenses, and then resort to a marketing specialist when
your project succeeds and begins to spread and expand.
Success factors of a restaurant project
There is no doubt that there are many factors that must be
considered and researched well before starting the project, and there are also
steps, if followed well, that will reap the fruits of the success of your
restaurant project in record time and can ensure its continued success.
But the permanent goal that you are working on should be to
combine the quality that attracts the audience and converts it into a permanent
customer, with innovative new ideas that attract new
customers , and thus
helps in creating new branches for your restaurant.
As for the main factors that must be taken into account when
starting to plan a restaurant project, they are as follows:
1. Innovative
idea
What is different is always what attracts people's
attention, but it should be a positive difference. Many restaurants that can be located in the same place do
not last more than a month, while there are other restaurants that can last for
years. What is the difference between the first and the second?
In addition to many factors and reasons; The first project was certainly not well studied before
starting it, in addition to that it was based on a repetitive idea that did not
present anything new.
As for the second successful project, which certainly lasted
for years, a good plan was prepared for it before starting it, and it continued
to renew the planning with innovative ideas that attracted the attention of
many to it, which helped it to continue.
2. Good
location
In the beginning, the location of the restaurant must be
distinctive so that it is an attractive factor for most customers, in addition
to the fact that good ventilation is necessary to establish the restaurant,
whether it is natural ventilation meaning that the site overlooks the sea or
the Nile or close to it, or the ventilation is internal through the use of
water and pumping devices Air, and air conditioning, all this helps to provide
a suitable atmosphere, whether for workers or diners.
In addition, the distinguished location helps in the ease of
promoting the restaurant or the project as a whole. And when you choose the location of your restaurant project,
you must make sure that the place chosen is located in a surrounding area where
a restaurant is needed.
Or even at least if you find restaurants in the same
location, you have to choose a distinctive idea that competes with the project
from other restaurants nearby.
3. Trained
expert management
International or even local restaurant chains, why do they
succeed in one place and not continue in another with the same quality? In fact, we find that the branches differ in quality for the
same chain of restaurants in the same governorate. This is all due to the management responsible for the place,
whether workers, cooks, or even managers.
If you intend to open your own restaurant, good management
is the key that will open the doors for you to spread in more than one place
and become the owner of a local restaurant chain that may be global.
It is preferable that you are well versed in how to run a
restaurant business. This know-how or experience comes from listening to the
experiences of your predecessors, or reading books about this field. You may also benefit from training courses through the
Internet or even watching videos of specialists.
Always make sure you have at least one expert in each
location. If you manage the project, you must be familiar with
management and how to deal with customers in general.
in the kitchen or food preparation area; There must be a skilled cook who specializes in the quality
of food that the restaurant specializes in serving.
And external customer service, you must be aware of its
rules so that you can supervise who provides it. Restaurant service is the
first interface that attracts customers to your restaurant and makes you their
permanent refuge.
But if you are only specialized in pumping money, any
investor only, make sure that the restaurant is under the management of
specialists in selecting the work team, and also dealing with them in a way
that maintains their loyalty to the place and makes them work with love and
innovate and innovate.
In the end, dear reader, we hope that this article has
opened the door for you to plan well for your dream restaurant project, and do
not despair if your financial resources are few in your opinion.
How many large chains of restaurants began with an area of
several simple meters, and with determination and development, they reached
the world. You may be one of these famous brands in the restaurant
business.
We are happy to share with you through the comments if you
have previous experiences with these two projects or even have other
information regarding the implementation of a restaurant project.