Starting a Restaurant of your own (Part 1)




If you love to cook and people rave about your homemade lasagna, BBQ ribs or seafood jambalaya, maybe you've thought about opening a restaurant. Running a restaurant takes more than good food, although that's an important factor of success. It also requires someone who is detail minded, customer oriented and has business sense. Find out more about starting a restaurant before you make a decision to commit your time and capital.

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Location
If you haven't decided where your restaurant will be located, visit the website of each Chamber of Commerce of each city you're considering. Also visit the official city website. There may be economic development incentives to open a new business in a specific area.
Market Data
Marketing information is available through various local sources to help you determine the numbers of potential customers near your proposed site and their demographic characteristics. Check with banks for local economic projections and statistics. Call local magazine and newspaper advertising departments to get information on subscribers. Look in these publications for a restaurant roundup section or similar listing of restaurants. The publication's offices will tell you the demographics of their subscribers, as well as the cost to advertise of course. If you're considering locating in a strip center or shopping mall, the leasing agent will have information on who shops there and those would be your future customers.
Business Planning
The Small Business Development Centers provide free information on business planning. So does the Service Corp of Retired Executives or SCORE. Check with your state and city business development offices to see if they offer business planning assistance, seminars or programs.
Licensing
Restaurants need a business license of course, but are also subject to kitchen safety and health inspections and require a resale license. You may also need special permits or licenses for waste management, garbage pickup and parking. The Chamber of Commerce has specific information available on what you'll need.
Local Restaurant Associations
Much of the information is provided to members as one of the benefits of joining but you should be able to find restaurant industry information, vendors, government links and news that's of interest to you locally. Some associations are developed for cuisine specific restaurants so search for those as well.

National Restaurant Association

The National Restaurant Association keeps you updated on what's going on nationally in the industry including the impact of federal legislation. No membership is required to read the latest news on the website.

Library

The local library has books on starting and running a restaurant. Larger libraries have periodicals and publications as well. Joining a city or county library is free. Some university libraries are open to the public to browse through the stacks but require a membership to take materials home.


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