What would your ideal restaurant be like?

Have you ever imagined owning your own restaurant? Most of us have a favorite place where we like to eat, somewhere we feel comfortable and relaxed. Or maybe we find that a certain hangout is good for business meetings. Then we start to wonder what it would be like to have a similar place of our own and how we would fashion it.

Before we conjure up our ideal restaurant, however, we should be realistic and consider the pitfalls. Being a restaurateur is hard work, requiring excellent communication skills as well as the ability to multitask and handle stress.

Naturally, there are also many benefits – most importantly, you get to be your own boss and fulfill your dream. These considerations aside, let’s examine the vital preparations before your restaurant dream becomes a reality…

Werner Kunz / People Photos / CC BY-NC-SA

A vision and a mission

Apart from considering how, when and where you will open up your restaurant, it is vital to have a vision. What type of eatery do you want: a franchise, a fast diner, a café, a pub, an upmarket establishment – or something else? That’s your restaurant concept. What do you want to offer diners? A restaurant is more than just a place where we eat – it can serve as a venue for important business meetings or, alternatively, relaxing conversation. What kind of people will you attract? What will the atmosphere be like?

Once you have a vision, you’ll also need a mission for your restaurant. These two are more or less interchangeable, the only difference being that your mission is how you will communicate your vision to customers. You may even have a mission statement, something visible on your website and in your restaurant (for example, on the menu). Diners will judge for themselves if your establishment has succeeded based on their impressions of the service, the quality of the food and the ambiance. If people liked it, they will return.

Choosing a location

Choosing the right location also depends on your vision. You can’t really have a luxurious, fine dining restaurant in just any neighborhood. You will face vastly different challenges in New York from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Las Vegas or Miami. In many ways, your city determines your clientele as well as your culinary choices, budget and expectations. Other factors are population base and even employment figures. But your vision still comes first. It will determine how you proceed.

Be realistic: devise a business plan

Flights of fancy are all very well but you will need to plan seriously if you mean to succeed in the real world. Once you have figured out your target clientele and location, and maybe even arrived at a name for your restaurant, you must prepare a realistic plan that outlines your vision and matches your competences.  If you lack the resources to open a restaurant, you will probably have to get a loan and banks are currently very strict about handing out money. The business plan – and all the paperwork related to it  – income statements and so forth are all prerequisites before the restaurant becomes reality.

A good restaurant starts with a vision. Owning and managing a restaurant is not a vocation;  it’s a calling. You need to stay balanced, recognizing the ideal as well as the practical realization. Stay grounded and you will know when your vision needs to meet reality and when reality can accommodate your vision.

Photo credit for featured image: williamcho / Food Photos / CC BY-NC-SA