(866) 458-4777
Paul Kendall
Starting a restaurant is an exciting time! You’ll have the opportunity to make your own mark in your local community, build up a reputation as a restaurateur, and can continue to refine your vision for food, locale, and more.
Just like any business, there are crucial steps that must be taken as you turn your grand visions into reality. Ideas are great, but the way you execute them and bring them into reality is what really matters.
From creating your restaurant’s vision to getting a restaurant equipment lease to marketing, and more, here are 10 major steps an aspiring restaurateur needs to take from the beginning.
Decide On the Restaurant’s Theme and Vision
This is often the most exciting part about opening up a restaurant. You’re working with a blank slate and you have the chance to paint your own vision right onto it. If you’re already searching for ways to build your restaurant, you probably already have a good idea of what that’s going to look like, and you may even have some ideas of how to make the most of your restaurant equipment lease.
To add to your theme and vision for your new restaurant, consider a few of the following questions to help you get a better idea or more clarity for your vision:
● What kind of food do you want to serve?
● What is your menu selection inspired from?
● Where do you want your restaurant to be located?
● What kind of customers are you looking to serve?
● What’s the visual design of your restaurant going to be?
● What kinds of exciting promotions do you want to run?
● What’s the general layout of your restaurant going to look like?
It can also help to think beyond the initial theme of your restaurant and also consider the implications of making a long term impact. Do you want to stick to one restaurant and be well known in your community? Do you aspire to have multiple restaurants or even franchises in the years to come?
Pick Your Restaurant’s Location
Start scouting out available areas that you could potentially place your restaurant. Just keep in mind that by the time you start seeking financing like a restaurant equipment lease, the available locations may change (more opportunities or certain opportunities being taken). It’s important to develop your theme and vision with clarity and to take as much time as you can, but you still want to act swiftly in order to secure an ideal location.
Create and Test Your Menu
As you were creating your theme and vision for your restaurant, you’ve probably already come up with a delectable menu in your mind. But like all great ideas, it’s how you execute them that really matters. Before you go off to start looking for funding, like a restaurant equipment lease, make sure that you’re putting enough time into fully developing your menu.
It’s not enough to just create a tasty list of foods and design a great looking menu. Before you set it in stone, allow people (like friends and family) to try it and get their honest feedback. What you may enjoy or think is “great” may not be to your general customer base.
Be open to criticism and feedback, as this information is crucial, because it will allow you to better tap into what your customer base may actually enjoy - and pay for.
Develop a Thorough Business Plan
Creating a business plan is an absolute must before you start looking for a restaurant equipment lease or other forms of restaurant financing. Your business plan is not just for future investors or financiers. It’s for you, your team, and to an extent your customers.
Your business plan is both an overview and a breakdown of your restaurant’s goals, how you plan on
making money, what you need funding for, how you’ll grow, and more. If you’re planning on utilizing restaurant equipment lease or other financing, be sure to include that in your business plan.
Overall, your business plan should include:
● Executive Summary - a quick overview of your business plan and restaurant goals.
● Business Organization/Management - the structure of your business.
● Funding Requests - type of information required to seek funding and what you will use funding
for. This includes your plan to utilize restaurant equipment lease, a bank loan, or other financing
or lease.
● Description of Business - a quick overview of what your restaurant is about and what sets it
apart from others.
● Services/Products - overview of the food you’ll sell or services you’ll provide.
● Financial Projections - how your funding will be used and how it will impact the growth of your
business.
● Market Analysis - an overview of the research that has been done about your industry, local
market, and other competitors.
● Marketing/Sales - how you intend to make money within your business (e.g., sales strategy).
Start Constructing Your Restaurant and Hiring Your Team
With the necessary funding from your restaurant equipment lease, loans or capital funding, you can begin building your restaurant - literally from the ground up, in some cases. This is a great time to start putting out adverts that you’re hiring.
Set a Date for the Grand Opening
The moment you’re confident about the progress of your restaurant, and when you know that all of the pieces will come together (like your restaurant’s construction/design completion and having a great team of employees), you want to pick a date to open your doors.
You can also consider a soft launch for friends and family to help you and your team work out any last minute issues before the general public (or press) arrive to review your restaurant’s start.
Start Promoting/Marketing Your Restaurant
With your restaurant equipment lease covering your operational expenses, you’ll want to utilize your other financing (e.g., from a loan) to start putting out advertisements and utilizing marketing to help get the word out about your new restaurant. Consider where your future customers will be paying attention, such as magazines, social media, TV, and more.
Develop Stellar Quality Service
No restaurant can succeed for very long if the quality of service is subpar. From day one, you want to make sure that you’re as close to perfection as you can be when cooking food, serving your customers, and taking care of your team. Likewise, you also want to make sure that you’re able to maintain or revitalize morale in your team after the initial excitement of the launch happens. Be sure to look for opportunities to increase quality and customer service, and be willing to make financial changes, such as utilizing restaurant equipment lease, if they will help improve your customers’ overall experience.
Stay Forward Focused and Stay Adaptable
They say getting started is often the hardest thing to do, whether that’s for a restaurant or other type of business. From developing your vision to getting a restaurant equipment lease to getting customers, it’s all a challenge to get the pieces to come together.
But it’s just as important that once you get your start that you don’t get complacent. The restaurant business is challenging and requires you to always be moving and adapting. Regardless of how well (or not) that you’re doing, always assume that things can get worse if you’re not consistently putting out your best or looking for ways to innovate and stand out.
Always be re-evaluating your current services, your financials (such as your restaurant equipment lease -do you want to keep your equipment at the end of the lease, renew the restaurant equipment lease, or find new equipment?), and constantly look for ways to make your restaurant stand out in your community.
Always consult with your financial advisor, whether you’re looking for a restaurant equipment lease, business advice, or other steps that you may need to take to create a successful restaurant. Like they say, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. So take the time to dive deep into what it takes to run a successful restaurant.
Restaurant Equipment Leasing Companies
Restaurant equipment leasing companies can offer the best choice on how you can finance your restaurant equipment. Aside from the working capital loans, financing companies are also offering restaurant equipment leasing. You can wrap in Hood system with installation, buckets, pans, utensils and all sorts of soft costs.
In fact, even the experienced restaurant owners will advise you to use this type of loan because it can help you save a lot of money. Financing companies will also offer you to lease reliable equipment from trusted vendors.
If you are looking for a restaurant financing company that can offer you the best loan, look at companies like Trust Capital USA.
Trust Capital USA can give you freedom in how you will use the loan. The company’s services do not require any upfront costs or down payment.
The restaurant equipment leasing by Trust Capital can help you save money in upgrading or replacing your equipment. Their company will help you upgrade or replace the equipment whenever it is needed.
Trust Capital USA also offers restaurant equipment leasing even if you have a bad credit. You can get a $250,000 worth of loan by just filling up a single page application on their website.
The best thing about their loan is that your application can be approved within 24 hours!
Their loans are offered with flexible payment options and they have better rates than banks for qualified borrowers.
Trust Capital USA can also help you have a faster return on investment because their specialists will assist you in improving your restaurant. All of their services is available whether you have a startup business or you are planning to have an expansion or upgrades.
Find Restaurant Business Funding and Restaurant Equipment Financiers to Support Your Vision
With a completed business plan, you can begin to look for financiers or investors that want to support your vision. Remember that you are going into a difficult industry and as a “startup” restaurant, you may face a lot of rejection initially. If you’re passionate about your vision, persevere and continue looking for a financier that can provide you with a restaurant equipment lease, capital funding, loans, or other forms of financing.
You can utilize multiple sources of funding to support your vision, so don’t hesitate to shop around for different funding avenues.
Call 866-458-4777 to discuss your financing options for starting your restaurant from the ground up.
