How to Have a Successful Opening Night

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNEwh6p_YoU

So, you’ve built your restaurant, you’ve hired your staff, you’re ready to open. You want to make sure you have a very successful opening night for your restaurant. There’s a lot of preparation that needs to go into that night. A lot of training of the staff, and a lot of testing of the menu, and it’s very important to give yourself the opportunity to try to operate without the public being in your restaurant.

One of the ways that you can to do that even before constructions final, if you have enough staff to do it, invite some friend in, give them a dining experience, ask them for their honest feedback. What went well? What didn’t work? It’s a great opportunity to prepare for opening night by having a dress rehearsal with people who you’ve invited and who you care about. Give them a free meal and ask them for their honest feedback in return.

Once you have all that information, you need to promote your opening night. You need to get the word out. You need to let the world know that you are opening your restaurant. You might want to do that with a press release. You might want to do that by having flyers that you hand out. You might want to put out some sort of notice on the Internet on your website. You may want to actually send specific invitations to people that you know and say, we’re opening and we’d be delighted to have you to come in and experience our new restaurant.

Challenges with an opening night are that you don’t want too little business but you also don’t want too much. Too little business well feel like a downer, too much business will create bad experiences that will set a bad first impression and will not create good word of mouth from the beginning. Now most dinners know that on opening night a restaurant, just like a new theater production can be a little weak in the knees, but if they have to wait an hour and a half for their food they might not come back and they’re going to tell everybody they know the story. So you want to prepare. Think about the perfect number of people to have your first day is and shoot for that number.

Maybe you want to limit your hours at first. Maybe you just want to open just for lunch or just for dinner to start. Maybe you want to offer a somewhat smaller menu than you will actually ultimately offer your guests. It’s important to remember that you have to walk before you can run in the restaurant business, and it’s better to serve a few people and give them a great time, than to serve a large number of people and have a mediocre time.

Preparing for a great opening night also involves your attitude because things will go wrong. This is a restaurant that’s never been opened to the public before and all of a sudden all these many different moving parts have to operate in sync. So, you need to be prepared to smile and believe and enable your staff to believe that you’re having a good time, that it’s going well no matter what happens. Obviously if something serious you need to take care it, but on your face and in your demeanor what you should project is, this is a great night and we’re having a great time, and this is going to be a great restaurant.

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How to Determine Restaurant Menu Price Point

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_BkkadC2Ok After you've decided what is going to be on your menu, you have to start thinking about what everything is going to cost the customer. You only have one shot to make an impression on guests and the price point of your menu can have a big impact on their experience.

"They will have just signed the check and they’re going to make a judgment, 'Was it worth what it cost me?"

Above all else, you need to be aware of the perceived value of what you offer in relation to what it is costing the guest.

If a guest tries your food and decides that they would pay more than what you charge for the same experience, you have done a good job.

However you decide to price your menu, it will have a massive effect on your business. Aside from the cost of food, the menu price point should also reflect the cost of the over all experience including the staff and setting.

Consciously or not, guests are constantly appraising the dining experience and comparing it how much they are paying.

"So the first thing you need to determine is 'What price points match the experience that you’re delivering to your guests?"

Another thing to consider is what type of service you will offer your guest. The perceived value of the food will change depending on whether the food is tossed across a counter or delicately placed on a table cloth.

The type of material the food is served on may also play a role in determining a guest's opinion on the value of your food. Typically, something served on fine china will be considered more valuable than something served on a paper plate.

After you've considered perceived value, it's time to think about what the food is actually costing you. Be careful: certain items like organic greens can actually cost more than protein. It is essential that you are aware of your food cost and price your dishes accordingly.

Because different items will sell in different quantities, it's important that you adapt your pricing to accommodate your guest's tastes.

"The things you sell more of, have a more profound impact, proportionally, on your profitability. So when you’re thinking about pricing, you have to use it to work with your sales mix so that the entire revenue works for your food costs."

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How to Plan a Restaurant Menu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS6J7C8VY1U Your menu is one of the most important aspects of your restaurant.

"It will determine how many people you need in the kitchen to produce the food. It will determine many of your price points. It will determine how your business performs from the point of view of check average. How much is each person going to spend when they eat at your restaurant?"

Your menu has to also correspond with your restaurant's concept. You need to make sure that each dish is in line with what you want the experience to be like for your guests.

Another important detail you have to consider is the number of options you will have on your menu. You need to figure out whether you plan on having an a la carte or prix fixe model and how you plan on setting up the menu to reflect that decision.

Many of these details depend on the type of restaurant you plan on opening and what type of experience you are going to provide for your guests. It's important to think about these things from your guest's perspective. What is their reaction going to be when they look at your menu for the first time?

"Are they going to say "Ooh, I want that!" or are they going to be overwhelmed by too many choices? Does the menu make them feel comfortable? Does it make them feel excited? Does it make them feel bored? Does it make them feel overwhelmed? How does the guest feel about the menu and the items on it?"

Guests can tell a lot about a restaurant from the menu details. If you provide seasonal ingredients and/or locally sourced produce, make sure to mention that.

Menus should also not be set in stone. Everything from the changing of the seasons to the availability of specific ingredients will affect your menu. You have to consider what people will feel like eating at different times of the year.

However, be aware that this is a balancing act. As your restaurant develops a following, people will learn to associate your restaurant with a signature dish. You'll have to find a way to keep the crowd pleasers on the menu while exploring other options.

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How to Find a Restaurant for Sale

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvBs7NEZbZc If starting a restaurant from scratch seems too daunting and expensive, another great option is to take over an existing business. The hard part here is finding a restaurant for sale that fits your needs.

One of the best ways to do this is to find a broker. Although they charge a fee, they have insider knowledge on which restaurants may be willing to sell and when their leases expire.

Another option is to stakeout a neighborhood that you are interested in to see which restaurants are performing well and which are struggling.

"Notice which restaurants are always empty. I’m afraid it’s a pretty simple fact that if a restaurant’s never full, it’s not doing well."

This might give you a good idea of which spaces are going to be available soon.

If you are trying to break into the restaurant industry, it makes sense to talk to people who are already in the business. Begin to go out and talk to restaurant owners in your area and let them know that you are looking for a restaurant to take over. By tapping into this network of people, you'll be able to build up your industry relationships while acquiring valuable information.

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How to Pick a Location for Your Restaurant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btcDbJ0u-j0Choosing the location of your restaurant is a task that can not be taken lightly.  Above all else, you need to make sure the location matches the concept.

"How big will your restaurant be? How much rent can your restaurant pay? How will people come to your restaurant? Is there parking nearby if people are going to drive there? Is there foot traffic if you expect people to walk in? Is there public transportation nearby for people to get to your location?"

It's your job to make sure that all of these things align with your goals.

One thing you can do when choosing a location is visit it at various times of day. Check out other businesses around the neighborhood. Based on the area, you should be able to get a sense for what types of businesses are doing well and which ones are suffering.

Something to remember is that the location has to make financial sense. You may have found the perfect location for your type of restaurant, but if the money isn't there, it isn't there. Rent should always be taken into consideration in relation to your revenue and profitability.

"It is something that you’re going to have to come up with every month to pay that landlord. And you want to make sure that your restaurant will generate enough revenue to pay for that."

You also have to think about how you will accept deliveries and how materials will be transported to your location.

After you've settled on the general area for the restaurant, the next thing to do is look at specific spaces.

"Is this space big enough? Does it fit the aesthetic idea that you have for your restaurant? Does it fit the operational needs of your restaurant? How much is it going to cost to build out the restaurant in this location?"

If the space is raw, you have to account for what that's going to cost you to make the space operational. It probably won't be cheap. Even if you are simply taking over a space, you need to figure out how much it will cost to get the restaurant up to your standards and to fit your business's aesthetic.

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