AN ABUNDANCE OF RESTAURANT OPPORTUNITY
RESTAURANT CONSULTANTS OF AMERICA™
An Abundance of Restaurant Opportunity
Whether you’re planning to start a restaurant in New York City or Teardrop, Wyoming, you’ll find plenty of opportunities. All of the great ideas have not been done quite yet. Even if your idea has been done before, you can always compete by outperforming the competition.
There are many ways to break into the restaurant business. A variety of options allows you to choose something that fits your lifestyle and excites your passion. You need to believe in your idea, or you may as well burn your money. Each type of restaurant has its own client base and requires a unique set of skills to be successful.
Restaurants are typified by the kind of food they serve, their style of presentation, their atmosphere, and their price range. Some restaurants focus on a particular meal, such as breakfast or dinner, or offer only a portion of a meal, such as desserts or snack foods. Other restaurants specialize in a certain kind of food. The following list provides some common examples of these:
Ethnic food (Mexican, Chinese, Italian, and so on)
Chicken
Barbeque
Pizza
Hamburgers
Seafood
Ice cream
Sandwiches
Hot dogs
Deli
Nouveau cuisine (this includes the infusion of different types of specialties)
Breakfast
Diner
Restaurants also differ in the way they serve the food. For example, a deli or a diner probably offers counter service. A pizza place may provide only take-out or delivery service. Steak house servers come to the customers’ tables, and buffet restaurants let customers serve themselves.
Atmosphere differs greatly from restaurant to restaurant. A fast-food place is worlds away from a fine-dining establishment. A themed restaurant doesn’t look the same as a truck stop. A restaurant’s atmosphere attracts certain types of customers and affects the food prices. Coffee shop customers expect to pay less for their food than customers at a casual-dining restaurant, for example.
Evaluate your options. Do you want to be the hot dog king of your world, or would you be more content with a deli or a formal dinner place serving seafood? Remember, it’s your dream.
Restaurant Strategies for Success
The restaurant industry is thriving like never before. The reasons for this growth include the following:
The concept of franchising
The cultural changes of the American society (for example, more air travel, longer commutes, more women in the work force, and more entertainment opportunities)
The growth of fast food or the quick service restaurant (QSR) segment
Easily accessible capital—more people are getting more money to open more businesses, especially restaurants, than ever before
The American love affair with food, entertainment, and convenience
In America, we are surrounded by the abundance of opportunity that we call free enterprise, and the restaurant business is no exception. An early-morning person can choose a breakfast-oriented business. A late-night type can choose a dinner house with or without a bar. A chef can be a caterer. The choices are open to your imagination. You can invent a category. Go ahead, I dare you. The opportunities to do what you want are great.
The flip side to this wealth of opportunity is that restaurants close down every day. The numbers are astonishing and rather sad because all of these owners thought they had a great idea. How can you avoid joining the statistics? Read on.
Food for Thought Here are the four big reasons restaurants fail:
Lack of knowledge
Poor planning
Poor execution
Undercapitalization
Tip Jar: The restaurant business changes at the speed of light. Just when you think you know everything, something new comes into the picture. To be successful in this business, you must always continue to learn about it.
