Beginning owners of restaurants, taverns, neighborhood cafes, and other catering companies have different approaches to choosing a kitchen and creating an inviting atmosphere for customers. However, the main rule to remember when making your choice is that you are running the business. Regardless of how much you enjoy cooking or interacting with customers, you should follow some rules for the greatest success.

Service at the best eateries comes with perfect ease as their owners and managers prepare as if for battle. Their mission is to serve every customer perfectly, which means creating the right atmosphere, both in the room and among the guests, and serving the best food. The following are eight tips for running a new restaurant business:

1. Research the business aspects of opening a new restaurant

Before you open a restaurant, there are numerous business details that cannot be disclosed in this article, especially those that are universal to a restaurant anywhere in the world. Nevertheless, costs and location are critical everywhere. You need to familiarize yourself with the legal requirements of the country where you are going to open this type of business. Here are some of the key points you will need to know:

1. What insurance is required and what exactly is recommended to run your business?
2. What permits, licenses, and registrations are required. For example, getting a permit to collect sales taxes, contracting for services under SES regulations, getting a retail liquor license, and registering with government agencies.
3. ERP and CRM software can help optimize many resources and increase sales, so you need to decide whether to automate your business or manage it manually.
4. Which method of bookkeeping, payroll, and reporting should you choose?
5. What security issues will you face?
6. Are you going to sell alcohol, wine and/or beer? How will you enforce regulatory compliance, and be held accountable for it?

2. Choosing a theme and culinary direction

Choosing a recognizable theme, concept and direction will help attract your ideal customer, whether they are a casual customer or an urban club goer, a sports fan, someone who lives in the neighborhood, as well as families, foodies or business people who want to dine out.

3. Promoting business on social media

Today’s catering companies are facing new challenges in communicating verbal information that was considered basic by previous generations. Information is now provided digitally, and customers are using websites, social media and other platforms to decide where to dine today. That’s why your business needs to provide a full online presence.

4. Providing customers with convenient ordering options

More often than not, customers choose a restaurant using their cell phones, so you should definitely put your menu out there for easy access. And a special ordering option on the website, will simplify many operations and speed up service.

Many restaurateurs have expanded some features and now offer online or phone ordering and table reservation services. The more ways customers can place orders, the faster your revenue will grow.

5. Staying current with culinary and marketing trends

Many new owners have a clear culinary vision, but the first rule that should be repeated is that your catering is first and foremost a business. At the most basic level, the success of your business will depend on satisfying a variety of customers with different tastes.

This means that an experienced caterer will include a variety of price points, healthy foods, and special dietary meals on the menu.

Food preferences change very quickly, so a modern restaurant’s menu should include healthy foods as well as information about how they are prepared and where they come from. The trend toward using farm products is also important, so try to find local suppliers. You should research national, international and local restaurant trends to find the best concept and space and identify the right customer.

Find out what restaurants are open in your area and try to create a menu that the locals like, while still offering something unique that sets you apart from the competition.

6. Creating an organized business

If your restaurant, regardless of cuisine or concept, makes a small profit, it is critical to control inventory, recycling, opportunities for theft, portion sizes and mismanagement. Each item on your menu should be broken down by ingredient and priced according to current prices. Gradual and regular price increases can have an effective impact on profits, and will keep you from losing money. Small price increases are more easily accepted by customers than larger but infrequent price increases.

Minimizing waste directly affects your business because every piece directly reduces your profits. You can’t create a waste-free business, but it’s important to monitor how waste is generated. If your chefs and kitchen staff are making too many mistakes or serving too many portions, corrective action needs to be taken.

Organizing your business can turn a small business into a profitable and highly professional business. Ongoing organization is also important because culinary trends evolve incredibly quickly. That’s why accurate accounting, effective inventory management, portion size control, and minimizing waste and theft are very important.

Effective management practices can also reduce labor costs, for example, with more efficient and cross-trained employees, allowing you to reduce your staff.

7. FOH and BOH personnel management

Personnel management is often the biggest challenge a restaurateur faces. That’s why it’s important to connect both front-of-the-house (FOH) and back-of-the-house (BOH) employees with customers. Successful restaurateurs understand that their employees are very important because they interact directly with customers and prepare food.

Your staffing needs will fluctuate depending on the season, special events, weather, local festivals, number of tourists and other factors. Finding and training the right staff, hiring seasonal staff, and arranging for temporary workers in emergency situations may be necessary in establishing a successful restaurant business.

There are also technical details of salaries, benefits, health insurance and planning to consider. Contact your local restaurant association for tips on planning, payroll management and compliance for your employees.

8. Opening up additional avenues of income

The number of seats, number of diners and speed of orders often limit service options and potential income. That’s why so many restaurant entrepreneurs are discovering other sources of income for their business. These include:

• Takeout and catering
• Take-out orders.
• Previously prepared foods for quick consumption, such as boxed lunches, sandwiches, etc.
• Bottled, canned and packaged foods
• Delivery services
• Restaurants “on wheels” (in small trucks)
• Sales of merchandise including cooking supplies and equipment, clothing with the company logo, souvenirs for tourists, and local sports team paraphernalia
• Hosting parties, meetings and special events such as food and wine tastings
• Small food trucks touring remote areas to attract new customers
• Selling cakes, desserts and breads

These are just some of the most important areas to consider when opening a restaurant. You can’t do everything on your own, so think about bookkeeping as well as installing software to automate record keeping, filling out reports and monitoring business performance.

It is important to select competent employees who will ensure that all “sides” of the restaurant business work properly.