What are the main considerations for opening a restaurant?

um, not to sound like an ass and state the obvious, but unless you’re independently wealthy profitability is #1 (supporting it are targeted customer base, locale, advertising, certifications, price, and quality).

oh, and loan T’s & C’s. might as well add customer influx/turnover as well.

Off the top of my head (which means something will get left out!) and not in any particular order, I would say:

1. Location: Easy entrance and exit, visible from the street, good parking facilities

2. Great food: And not just superior food, but have some simpler stuff on the menu for the pick people.

3. Customer base: who are they? what do they want to eat?

4. CASH. Plan to spend a minimum of three times what you think you will. Yes, minimum.

I know there’s more, but it has slipped away…

@wonderingwhy States how it shold be don. However often emotional thinking and rationalization takes over:
“I love to cook. I’ll open a restaurant and get paid for it.”
“My family members would make great employees.”
“The previous owners are sellling this place at a bargain price. They must not know how it much it is really worth.”
“We will be the only XYZ type restaurant within 1 mile. Everyone will come to my place.”

Look around and see how often restaurants go out of business in your area.
Be careful. It’s a very tough business.

Well, first off, you can’t have a soul. If you’re clear about that, you can move on to the next step, which is having a lot of money and time to invest.

Location. Money. Quality food. Uniqueness.

If you would like to have a million dollars after opening a restaurant have 2 million before you begin.

Here is a restaurant pre-opening checklist.

If reading it does not give you pause, then go for it.

Have you run a business before? It’s great to own your own job, and to have more control over what you do. But it can also be scary and overwhelming, and a restaurant especially so.

(1) Are you interested/able to run the business side of the restaurant as well as the food side? That is, hiring employees, setting prices, creating advertising, setting budgets, calculating and paying taxes, locating & leasing premises, purchasing, handling unhappy customers, and so on?

(2) Do you have/can you get the capital to obtain a building, the necessary equipment (tables, stoves, refrigerators, water pitchers, cash register, etc), and a few months’ worth of expenses?

(3) Your income is not guaranteed and will be low for the first several months or years that you’re in business. Can you handle having terrible months where your income is minimal?

(4) Do you have ideas that would make your restaurant stand out, be worth coming to over other restaurants? Better food? Healthier food? A creative theme? Faster service? Do you have reason to believe that other people want this?

(5) Is there a need for another restaurant in the area? A Vietnamese restaurant just opened a few blocks from my house, and I’m sure it’s great food and all, but we now have FIVE places to get Asian food within 500 yards of each other. Sometimes the town just can’t support that many restaurants.

(6) Do you want to run a business or do you want to cook? If you start a restaurant, you’re probably going to spend more time in the office doing paperwork than in the kitchen making food.

If you’re comfortable running a small business and are just looking at getting into restaurants, by all means, go for it! Check out marinelife’s link.

If you’ve never run a small business before, then congratulations! And I highly recommend the lifestyle. But you might also consider steps that are easier to get into (and out of) than a full-blown restaurant.

*Catering—you can cook out of your own kitchen, and all you need to set up shop are some pretty menus, some business cards, and an outfit you can call your uniform.

*Food Trolley—at one office where I worked there was a lady who came by around noon on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and sold burritos. You can cook out of your own kitchen, and just need to obtain a trolley and permission from the office manager. Or set up a wagon near the town’s train/bus/subway station.

*Use someone else’s business—if you enjoy baking, look at selling pastries at places that already sell coffee. A couple of gas stations near my school sell fresh-baked pastries that presumably come from some local baker. All Starbucks outsource to local bakers as well (that’s why their food isn’t as standardized as their coffee).

*A mini-restaurant—my college has a counter in the student lounge, and some guy named Sam sells sandwiches, coffee, pastries, and soda. Vary the menu according to your tastes, but the start-up cost is much lower.

Good luck, however you decide.