You’ve opened your new restaurant and building it up. However, maintaining a restaurant is serious business, especially because your financial future depends on the beginning expenditures.

Yes, that happens a lot in the restaurant industry.

The negative statistics are well known. In the shortest amount of time, 60% of restaurants fail in their first year, and 80% fail after 4 years.

In the beginning, while you work to realize your concept, it might be simple to develop tunnel vision. You can overlook your target market’s tastes (in terms of cuisine, ambiance, and lifestyle), present routines (such as where they currently dine out), and even the competitors.

Here are 10 costly errors that newly opened eateries frequently commit. Do not let them agitate you. If you approach your possible vulnerabilities with a little more humour, you’ll discover that it’s simpler to take a step back and act to lower risk and avert problems that might endanger the life of your business.

Absence of a Business Strategy

A well-known Seattle chef has 20 years of experience working in the restaurant business. Over the years, he had a vast understanding of culinary operations, personnel management, menu planning, and inventory management. He decided to start a restaurant one day, but owing to a lack of funding and preparation, he was forced to close it in less than 10 months.

Said not everyone is suited for company ownership. Who would be the employee if everyone was an entrepreneur? Many believe that becoming your own boss will simplify their lives, but few seriously assess it.

Any new enterprise must have a business strategy to succeed. It assists the owner in establishing reasonable expectations and goals, ultimately preventing the business owner from making expensive mistakes over time. Even though creating a company strategy takes time, it will be well spent if it enables you to establish future goals and plans for achieving them.

Aiming for Immediate Results

A delusion and a mistake you might make that will only lead to disappointment is assuming that your restaurant will turn a profit as soon as it opens. The hard truth states that building sales volumes takes at least two to three months. Any seasoned restaurateur would advise you to set aside money as insurance to cover your first fiscal quarter.

During the first quarter, your kitchen and wait staff are only beginning to adjust to the surroundings, rules, and jobs. They are learning how to operate as a team, interact with customers, and assist you in making modifications. The menu might need to be adjusted. Furthermore, getting into a routine with your providers can take a few weeks. The likelihood of your new restaurant making it into the second quarter may be limited to none unless you consider or pay these operational expenditures during the first few months of your restaurant company.

Lack Of An Integrated Technology Stack

Before launching a restaurant, you must thoroughly study and investigate each component of restaurant industry technology. It’s important that technology works for you and is effortlessly integrated throughout your restaurant, whether you’re looking into POS systems, restaurant table reservation system, digital menu ordering system, inventory management software, or personnel scheduling tools.

Make sure that every piece of technology provides you with the information and insights you need to create unforgettable guest experiences. Most importantly, data should flow from systems like your point of sale, online ordering, and event management software into your restaurant CRM platform.

When all your client information is in one location, taking action to increase customer loyalty is considerably simpler by introducing a loyalty reward program. Because of the epidemic, customer satisfaction is greater than ever, yet these customers demand the hyper-personalized experiences that data enables.

Making the Wrong Hires

The people that work in your restaurant are what keeps everything running smoothly. Selecting the ideal chef for your restaurant is like selecting a soul mate. The cuisine that the chef prepares establishes the identity of the business. Like this, amiable employees may attract clients only by being amiable and providing amiable service. Each employee in the restaurant has a crucial part to play in how well it runs; thus, every applicant should undergo a thorough interview before being recruited.

Having No Strategy For Using Social Media

While foot traffic may contribute to some of your business, effective marketing is essential if you want your restaurant to succeed. Some inexperienced restaurant operators make the error of limiting their promotion to flyer drops and regional publications.

It would help if you employed a social media marketing plan to increase your consumer base and strengthen your brand.

Take advantage of a significant share of potential clients. You’re guaranteed to engage potential customers when you upload pictures of your delectable cuisine on platforms like Instagram and content to promote your business on sites like Facebook. Additionally, don’t forget to include a “Reserve” button on your direct reservation link so that clients can easily do so when they are already considering working with you.

Dependent Upon The Restaurant Manager

You must rely on the restaurant manager as a restaurant owner to run your restaurant. Always keep yourself informed of what is going on in your business. Analyze the daily reports to keep an eye on the company’s operations. You may utilize a POS program that delivers all the reports, including sales data and inventory records, directly to your phone if you don’t need to be physically present at the restaurant all the time to operate a business.

Not Controlling Restaurant Expenses

Most restaurant owners make the error of failing to prepare and fail due to financial constraints within the first six months of operation.

People frequently overlook their overhead expenses when starting a restaurant business. For instance, the rent for the restaurant should only account for up to 30% of the fixed expenditures. Careful planning and shrewd execution may help keep restaurant expenditures under control.

Disregarding Menu Design And Engineering

Your menu serves as a sales brochure. A well-designed menu may reinforce your brand personality. To do so successfully, one needs to have a thorough grasp of what makes clients tick. Customers may become overwhelmed by too many options and difficult names, giving them a negative first impression. Another typical error new restaurant operators make is to ignore the technical aspects of menu engineering and instead concentrate on what they can serve or prepare quickly.

You Don’t Pay Attention to Online Reviews

Being unhospitable is a significant error in the hospitality sector. It entails paying attention to client comments, and eateries that don’t follow this advice are doomed to failure.

Most eateries who struggle in this area do so because they perceive review sites as the competition. After all, it has been demonstrated that rival businesses post fictitious reviews, and online trolls often create bogus reports of misdeeds committed at restaurants.

These statements may be genuine, yet there are also good praises and criticisms.

Therefore, eateries who disregard positive and negative reviews run the danger of missing out on insightful consumer input that might prevent their establishment from suffering down the line.

You have the chance to promote your restaurant’s reputation positively through reviews.

Making things right (even if you weren’t at fault) with a discount or gift might help you capitalize on a negative review. And get a favourable review in return.

Ignoring Customers’ Suggestions or Demands

More significantly, you may pay attention to what most of your customers are saying, both positively and negatively, about your restaurant’s cuisine, ambience, and personnel.

Will one customer’s feedback alter how you manage your restaurant, hire personnel, or develop your menu?

Most likely not.

However, if several visitors complain about one aspect, such as the absence of gluten-free items on the menu or the loud music, you may easily make changes to enhance the visitor experience. Additionally, these minor adjustments will ensure you retain clients.

How Can HiMenus Assist?

With our all-in-one restaurant online ordering software, HiMenus assist establishments in getting started. We have researched what has and has yet to work for various organizations. With this information, many novice restaurateurs have been able to establish their businesses with the less financial outlay and prevent operational mistakes. HiMenus is a reputable business regarding food offerings and delivery; you have an excellent chance to register with us. This way, our large poll audience can reach you easily, and you get loyal repeating customers without much effort. 

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