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So you’re a great cook, and you want to take your creations to a larger audience. But are you really ready to start your own restaurant?

Make Sure You’re Ready

So many people want to get into the restaurant industry – but as anyone who’s ever watched Kitchen Nightmares knows, just as many of these restaurants fail because the owners just weren’t prepared to run this kind of business. Running a restaurant can be brutal at the best of times, but if you jump in without the right knowledge and experience, it’s a recipe for disaster (pun intended). You’re going to need to do exhaustive research before you take any steps – if you’re still just at the daydream stage, check out a book, such as How to Start, Run & Grow a Successful Restaurant Business: A Lean Startup Guide Kindle Edition by Tim Hoffman, which is available for free on Kindle Unlimited and Audible. Doing your homework can save you time and money before you go back to school or make other big commitments.

Assess The Area & Competition

You can have the most wonderful restaurant in the world, but if it’s in the wrong location, your restaurant dreams will be over before they even get started. Make sure that your menu and prices are appealing and affordable to your audience – so if you’re opening a pricey, experimental tapas restaurant, maybe don’t open it at a truck stop where people just want to get quick and filling meals! This seems like a no-brainer, but I see so many restaurants make this kind of mistake. Also, opening a restaurant in a building that’s hard to find or out of the way is also going to stack the deck against you.

Get Ready to Launch

So you’ve done your research, come up with the perfect concept, and found the ideal location. Great! But that’s just the beginning. Here’s just a few of the items that will be on your to-do list once you’ve decided to open your own restaurant:

• Secure financing: Unless you have a substantial amount of money in your savings account, you’ll need to secure a loan in order to open your restaurant. This could range from a general loan to secure the supplies and staff if you’re renting the restaurant space, to financing for the building itself if you’re going to be purchasing the property that the eatery will be operating from. If you’re going for the latter option and you’re based in the Sunshine State, you can start this process with agencies such as The Associates Home Loan of Florida. Psst….some of my favorite restaurants are in Florida!
• Hire staff: No restaurant can survive without the right staff. Hiring is always tricky; it’s always nice when you can get a direct recommendation from someone you can trust, so put the word out to those in your local network and look into employment agencies and sites like Monster.com‎.
• Find customers: Much of a restaurant’s success will come from the location and word-of-mouth, and you’ll want to consider what other advertising you may want to pursue, such as your restaurant’s social media presence.

Have you ever considered starting your own restaurant?