Ten things I know about starting a restaurant that you need to know:
1. You don’t need as much money as you think. I know of successful restaurants started for less than $1,000 and I opened my most profitable restaurant for less than $10,000.In my book I show you how to perfectly align your budget with your plan.
2. The single most significant decision you will make in planning your restaurant is selecting a location. I bring nearly 30 years of commercial real estate site selection experience to the table and teach a methodical step-by-step approach designed to help you find the most profitable and “best fit” location possible.
3. Most leases for first restaurants are a potential disaster for the restaurant owner. I made my living negotiating restaurant and other commercial leases for nearly three decades. Please…let me show you how to structure a lease that will be ideal for a start-up restaurant.
4. The vast majority of "advertising opportunities" you will be presented with will result in a net financial loss to your business. It is imperative to have an analytical framework to evaluate the liklyhood of any advertising expense actually returning net profit. In my book I give you the tools and insight to do just that.
5. Identifying, attracting, hiring, and keeping "big fish" employees is one of the single most important skills for both your profitability and your peace of mind. A few key insights about whom to hire in the restaurant world, and whom to avoid hiring, will vastly improve the quality of your life as a restaurant owner. Let me show you how to separate the wheat from the chaff in employees.
6. If your restaurant concept is weak, unclear, or a bad match for your customers, your restaurant won’t thrive, and probably won't survive. I'll show you how to develop your own restaurant concept, one that is authentic to you and a great fit for your prospective customers.
7. Effectively managing your employees is important, effectively managing yourself is essential. We’ll explore how to maximize both your effectiveness and contentment.
8. If your new restaurant is to thrive well into the future, constant iterative review and refinement will be necessary. It’s not as daunting as it seems. We will discuss the processes that will keep your restaurant popular, profitable, and growing for years to come.
9. If you are going to open a restaurant you should first become an expert in why restaurants fail. In my book I give you my conclusions, drawn from years of observation, and those of four other industry experts. If you want to avoid failure you must first understand it thoroughly.
10. Now is a better time to start a restaurant than any time in decades. The combination of online review sites and shifts in public preference work together to advantage independent establishments and to make now a great time to start a new restaurant.
Thinking of opening a restaurant? Read this book first. It may dramatically improve the odds of your success and save you tens of thousands of dollars.
Your First Restaurant - An Essential Guide
