Making Your Restaurant Successful

Right now, people may feel a little reluctant to open a restaurant. This makes sense. The past couple of years have been extremely difficult for the hospitality industry, with governments around the world closing the doors of restaurants and other in-person businesses to slow the spread of coronavirus and Covid-19. However, with vaccines being offered around the world and transmission and death rates slowly reducing, we’re looking at a brighter future where restaurants and similar venues don’t have to be as fearful of lockdowns and shelter in place orders. If you are considering opening a restaurant, you’re going to have to learn a few tricks to make it as successful as it can possibly be. Here are a few that you might want to bear in mind.

Location

Choosing a location for a restaurant can feel difficult. You need to weigh up the cost versus the benefit of being in a particular location. Sure, you can go a little off grid and set up somewhere with low rent payments and overheads, but will you have the advantage of footfall that could entice passers by into entering your restaurant and ordering a meal? Often, many cities will have an area where there are plenty of restaurants and where hungry individuals will wander, browsing their options and settling on somewhere to eat. You may find that the higher rent in these places is justified, as you could receive more customers by being there.

Offer Varied Payment Options

You want to make visiting your restaurant as easy and straightforward as possible for customers. This is why you should offer a range of different payment options. Cash only businesses tend to put potential diners off, as they may be hungry and simply want to sit down and eat, rather than walking around looking for the nearest cash point before they visit. Contactless payments are also desirable. You can find out how contactless payments can help your hospitality business here. Another option that is proving increasingly popular is being able to pay through an app. Some of these apps offer options, such as being able to split the bill between different diners, helping to make the payment process as simple and straightforward as possible for everyone at the table.

Consider Your Opening Hours

When choosing your opening hours, you need to consider the cost of operating and the amount of money you will be generating during that time. You need to make sure that you’re bringing in more money during any given period of time than you are spending on operations. Bearing this in mind, you then want to consider your target demographic. When are they most likely to dine out? What experience do you want your restaurant to offer? Do you want breakfasts and lunches to be your priority? Evening meals? Late night dishes? Make sure to consider your opening hours thoroughly to help yourself bag the right audience and generate the most profit possible.

These considerations should help you to make some informed decisions when running your business. Hopefully, they’ll come in useful for you!

Separating Your Home Business From Your Home Life

Working from home is the dream setup, isn’t it? Of course, many people have been forced to thanks to the pandemic, and while many people have found that remote work has its issues, many more people have really taken to the idea. It’s flexible, it’s convenient, it saves on resources all round, and it prevents you from having to commute 2 hours each way just to get into the office! 

However, as we mentioned, working from home can have its issues. And when you’re a small-time business owner using your living room as an office, it can be hard to keep your working life and your personal life separate. You can’t seem to balance work and life away from each other, and far too many lines are being blurred. And that’s something we need to focus on right now – here are some ways to maintain that distinction between both your professional life and personal life. 

Work a ‘Shift’

Working a shift is something you left behind you when you decided to run your own business, and there’s little chance you want to bring the concept back! But if you do, you’ll find that your work life and personal life become more separate than ever before. 

So, decide your working hours. Maybe a typical 9 to 5? Or maybe you want to try the backwards 5 to 9? Maybe you need to start at 8 and finish by lunch? Whatever hours you’ve found to work best, in terms of communication rates, etc., should now be your ‘shift’ hours. 

And during that shift, you don’t do anything else in your home. Nothing else! Of course, it might be hard to conceptualize in your mind, but try to have a bit of discipline here. You’re at work, and if you worked in an office, you wouldn’t be able to nip home just to put the washing out, would you? 

Only Work in One Room

Only working in one room allows you the chance to spread out your professional needs; you’ve got a whole room for keeping files, any projects, and any tech necessary for the job safe and secure. And within this room, only professional talks occur. 

Put a sign up on the door when you’re in there working, in case a partner or a roommate wants to knock and disturb, and ensure this is the only place where your business is run from. 

In doing this, you ensure that the rest of your home is clear and free for your personal life. You don’t have to work with the potential of losing something in the clutter of all your personal possessions, and there’s no chance someone will throw out an important document by accident! 

Outsource Any Professional IT Needs 

Outsourcing your professional IT needs can really help you to feel like your working life is in another realm to your personal life, simply because you don’t need so much digital upkeep in the latter! 

And while you can turn the wifi router on and off and move its position when you’re just using the internet casually, your business’ digital system needs a team to look after it – that’s already quite the distinction for making your personal life much more relaxing! 

So, it’s time to learn about what is a managed service provider, as the more you know about moving your IT infrastructure out of your home, the better! Let someone else deal with it, and take that stress off of your shoulders. And remember, if you don’t have to face fixing up a website server each day, your home business becomes a lot less time consuming to manage. 

Meet Clients Elsewhere

Finally, it’s a good idea to meet clients in a neutral location, specifically when you first meet them. If you’ve brought someone new on board, and you want to have that crucial sit-down, face-to-face chat, book a table at a cafe or a restaurant that’s nearby. 

In doing so, you take that kind of pressure out of your home, and you allow yourself the space necessary for bringing in a new client without the potential for judgement on their part. 

Of course, if you continue to work together, you can start scheduling meetings within your home, but putting up a professional wall for the first time can do wonders for your work/life balance. 

If you’re despairing over not being able to keep your home life and your home business apart, it’s much easier than you think! 

How To Minimize Your Stress as a Small Business…

Owning a small business is no easy feat. Especially in those early stages, you are truly a one-person show. You are CEO, CFO, Head Of Marketing, Social Media Manager, and Intern. Unfortunately, that same sense of control that draws so many people into owning their own business can also lead to its downfall. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 20% of small businesses fail within the first year, and 50% fail within the first five. With the holidays just around the corner, taking care of yourself as a small business owner is so important to keep yourself sane during such a busy time. Here are some self-care tips and ways to minimise stress for small business owners. 

Set Boundaries 

Just like with any other type of job, setting boundaries is a crucial part of maintaining a healthy relationship with work and creating balance in your life. Set specific hours for when you start and (most importantly) stop working for the day. No one should be on the clock 24/7, and it is important both for yourself and your business to take a break. If a client wants you to bend over backwards, or demands more of your time than is feasible, do not be afraid to stick with your boundaries and say no. By setting these boundaries, you will be able to recharge and have the energy to focus on your business. 

Delegate Tasks

If you notice there are certain tasks that take up more of your time or that are not exactly your speciality, outsource them to other people. Outsourcing comes with a lot of Perks, such as freeing up your schedule from usually time-consuming tasks and giving you the ability to focus on what matters to you. Or, if social media isn’t your thing, look no further! Running a small business has so many tedious moving parts, and there are so many services available to give your small business the level of care and attention it deserves. 

Be Kind To Yourself 

Just to really make sure this hits home: you are a human being with needs, not a robot that can execute every task perfectly all the time that never needs to stop. Exercise, quality sleep, and a healthy diet are just as important to the success of your business as countless hours of hard work. Studies have found a profound connection between the three, proving that they all impact one another. For the sake of your health as well as the overall success of your business, prioritise these things. The over-romanticization of burning the midnight oil every night is over: self-care and valuing your health is here to stay. 

These tips are easier said than done. Small business ownership is a difficult undertaking, and getting swallowed up in the weeds and intricacies of your work can come all at once and be incredibly overwhelming. But, by setting boundaries, delegating out your tasks, and truly being kind to yourself, you will be able to navigate small business ownership with energy and a clear mind to lead you and your business on the pathway to success.