You stare down at the dinner that you’ve placed on your table for you and your family. It smells marvelous. As one of your children shovels a spoon full of food in their mouth they suddenly shout out, “this is great, you should start a restaurant!”

This gets you thinking that maybe your kid is on to something. You constantly make meals that are the envy of any of your other family members. You could totally start a restaurant but as you take out a notebook, prop your feet up, and click your pen you realize that you have no idea how to open a small restaurant.  

To help you with your planning, here is everything that you need to consider before cutting the red ribbon on opening day.

1. Do a Bit of Market Research 

Before you can start cooking, you have to do a little bit of market research. You can’t attract customers if you don’t really know who you want to attract. You also have to do a little digging to see what’s already around in your area.

You may have your heart set on opening a pizza place because you make a killer pepperoni with extra cheese but if there are already a ton of pizza joints in your area, you may need to reconsider.

One thing that you can do to decide what people like or what will be popular in your area is to give out a survey for people to fill out. 

2. Create a Concept 

After you’ve found out what’s going to be popular in your area it’s time to create your restaurant concept. The reason why you want to come up with a concept is that you want to stand out from your competition. 

So maybe there are five other pizza places in the area but you’re the only one that also serves calzones and pasta. You can then design the interior of your restaurant around the fact that you offer all kinds of Italian food, not just pizza. 

Also, think about how you want customers to feel when they walk into your establishment. Hungry, obviously but go a little deeper than that. Do you want them to feel calm, happy, hopefully not sad? 

3. Making a Plan and Picking a Location 

You want to make your future establishment attractive to investors. This means that you have to have a working business plan in order. This includes ways you intend to pay for it, a plan on getting all of your licenses and paperwork together, menu ideas, and lastly a few choice locations to set up.

When considering where you want to put your restaurant, there are a few things that you need to consider.  

Parking 

You should try and rent a building that has plenty of parking spaces because people aren’t going to want to park down the street and walk. The only way you can get around this is by partnering with a hotel or other building close to you so your potential customers won’t have to walk too far. 

Accessibility  

If someone passes your restaurant because they couldn’t get over to pull in then they will just go to another joint that is easier to get into. This is why most establishments prefer to set up on highway exits. 

Visibility  

Not only do customers have to be able to pull into your restaurant, but they also have to be able to find it. Don’t worry if you can’t afford a sign that extends high into the air. As long as you at least register it with search engines, and do a little marketing you should be fine. 

4. Avoid Nasty Fines and Shuttered Doors 

Before you open your restaurant you have to familiarize yourself with the reasons why you may be shut down so you can avoid them. The two most common reasons are a food/sanitation violation and an employee injury. 

Food and Sanitation

Every six months or so someone will come in to look over your restaurant to make sure things are staying clean and the food is being prepared correctly. This includes any infestations or any gaps in your food temperature logs. 

Also, make sure that all employees know the correct procedure for handling food this way nobody slips up when you’re being inspected. Cleanliness is another factor in this so if you have a filthy prep station your marks will suffer. 

It can be a lot to take in so you may need food sanitation software to help you keep up. You can visit this page to decide if you need it. 

Employee Injuries

Between fryers and slippery floors, accidents do sometimes happen in the workplace. You have to make sure that you document all of these injuries involving not only your employees but customers as well. If you don’t then you could have some fines breathing down your neck. 

5. Figure Out Your Structure

You’ve taken in applications and have hired a full staff of people, now it’s time to find out how you’re going to structure their shifts. For example, how many managers are you going to have on duty at a time? 

If you have a drive-through window how many people do you need running it at once and how many cashiers do you need for the dining room area? Are you going to have the cashiers handle cleaning up the dining room or are you going to hire cleaning people for that? 

These are all questions that you definitely need to ask yourself when you’re making out your work schedules. 

Follow This Step By Step Process on How to Open a Small Restaurant 

Do you feel like it’s a crime for you to keep all your delicious recipes to yourself? It may be worth it for you to open your own restaurant. A lot of planning goes into the process so use these tips on how to open a small restaurant to not get shut down before you begin. 

You can’t start cooking in your restaurant if you don’t have any equipment. Keep reading to find out what all the essentials are.