3 Things Every New Restaurant Needs

Opening a restaurant is like following a recipe. There are several ingredients you need in order to start combining things to create a final product. Some factors are obvious, like writing a business, raising capital, and finding the perfect location. Other factors like cooking equipment and a surveillance system might not come into consideration until you are closer to the opening date. Here are three important factors to consider when preparing to open a new restaurant.

1. A Restaurant Concept

You need to have a concept in order to open a new restaurant. Your concept defines your brand, determines your customer base, and the design of your restaurant. The best idea for any small business is to choose a concept, stick with it, and become the best at what you do.

You’ll need to outfit your new restaurant with the right restaurant equipment from a reliable restaurant supply store according to your concept. Go Food Service brings you the best selection of restaurant commercial equipment at affordable prices. Their extensive catalog of commercial kitchen equipment includes:

• refrigerators and freezers
• ice machines and coolers
• commercial sinks and dishwashers
• commercial fryers and ovens
• mixers and coffee makers
• warming equipment

Go Food Service provides commercial cooking equipment buying guides to help new restaurants create lists of the essential pieces of restaurant equipment and accessories they need. In addition to outfitting your commercial kitchen, you can also find pans, flatware, cabinets, and bar area accessories.

2. The Right Insurance

A restaurant is a business and you as the business owner are responsible for carrying the right types of insurance. The last thing you want to do is pay a lot of money in lawsuits because you don’t have workers comp, liability, or property insurance. You will need documentation detailing that you are in compliance with local laws. It does take time to get the necessary documentation, licenses, and insurances you need to operate a successful business so be sure to budget enough time to get them.

Any business can be susceptible to thieves, vandals, and unfortunately, employee theft. You can improve restaurant safety with restaurant video surveillance from Verkada. The surveillance camera company carries durable restaurant security camera systems that record onto a hard drive and offer remote viewing of video surveillance in real-time. They carry several types of cameras to suit your security systems needs such as bullet cameras and dome cameras. All of their restaurant security cameras record in 1080p HD video and have audio recording capabilities.

It’s important to have security cameras monitoring the important areas of your restaurant including the parking lot, exit and entrance, cash register, and dining room. Give yourself the peace of mind of a high-quality video surveillance system so you can focus on delivering the best customer service possible.

3. The Right Staff

As a restaurant owner, you have a lot of daily tasks and responsibilities to tackle. Sometimes a restaurant owner also serves as the general manager and assumes front of the house responsibilities. The key to running a successful business is to hire the right staff. A new restaurant needs a qualified restaurant manager who handles vendors, merchandisers, patrons, and chefs. You want to hire staff members who have your restaurant’s best interests at heart and who know how to do the jobs they are assigned.

Having the right staff frees up your attention to focus on important tasks like managing your new restaurant’s social media presence to attract patrons and promote good customer service. A big responsibility as a restaurant owner is to connect with the community and network with other local businesses. This can only happen when you can give your full attention to developing business relations and business operations.

Opening a new restaurant can be a very rewarding small business for the motivated restaurant owner. There are many things that you need as a new restaurant in order to succeed. Defining a concept, holding the right insurances, and employing the right staff are three key things that your new restaurant needs to succeed.