It’s an uphill battle, a rather difficult one when you start your own business from the ground up. With a cut-throat competition on every nook and corner, a restaurant is one business that demands all of your attention and meticulous planning to the very last detail.
But as we all say, impossible itself says I am possible, and with a lot of determination, consistency and hard work no mountain seems impregnable and no business goal seems unattainable.
Yes, restaurants do ask for a lot of your blood and sweat, but rewards you with just as much satisfaction. You may think that running a successful, in-demand and trending restaurant may require a lot of monetary investment, but that’s hardly true.
Here are a few tips on how you can run your restaurant with a tight budget and still keep it the hottest talk of the town.
1. Plan your marketing techniques
As soon as the business plan is laid, a traditional marketing budget for your restaurant can pose as a burden. But with the power of social media, these days you can pre-market your restaurant online and cut the unnecessary costs around traditional marketing.
Marketing your restaurant and creating a buzz around it is not rocket science anymore. You just need to have a team that is tech-savvy and knows about the ongoing social trends. All you have to do is choose the right social media platforms and create a page for your restaurant. This will help you start a pre-launch campaign and generate a buzz for the opening event. The same platforms can be used to drive more walk-ins and attain your business goals.
2. Cloud Kitchen
When starting off with a tight budget for opening a restaurant, you don’t necessarily need to have a dine-in space, if your investments are low. A cloud kitchen can become an affordable option to build a strong customer base, when you eventually want to expand and have a physical restaurant in the future.
Centralizing most of your budget in deliveries, will help you become cost- effective and maximize your ROI. This will not only help you cut down operational costs related to a physical restaurant, but also assist you to re-invest and scale-up your business.
New business owners, looking to step into the world of the food industry have a better chance at claiming their audience with a cloud kitchen when running the ship on a tight budget.
3. Concept of Self Service
Appointing staff members and retaining them can quickly become a challenging task. Coming up with a concept of self- service in your restaurant could prove to be a real cost-saving tool.
Having designated staff to help customers out with their payments or any queries is essential. This will help in building and sustaining good customer relationships.
The concept of self service is not novel to the customers around the world. However, new working stations developed around these concepts are exciting to people from all walks of life. The opportunity of selecting foods from a digital menu, and making digital payment is something that is new and can break the long queues while increasing the consumer’s experience.
This builds a fascination around your restaurants and inevitably becomes a unique selling point which you can market, anytime anywhere.
4. Preventive Measures for the Restaurant
Emergencies don’t usually knock on the door before taking place. Having a preventive maintenance system is essential to cut down unexpected future costs that may leave a dent in your budget. Underestimating breakdowns of machinery can lead to incurring of costs higher than it would cost to integrate a preventive maintenance system.
Owning a restaurant can keep your plate full but running it on a tight budget can be a whole new challenge. To think ahead of your time is surely beneficial for your efficiency and your restaurant’s success. Apart from that, having a strategy and back- cash handy, just in case everything doesn’t work out as planned can prove an effective damage control system.
