How to Start a Restaurant Business

Photo by Artem Beliaikin

How hard is it to open a restaurant? If you’re asking yourself this question, you can at least vaguely imagine that starting (and running) a successful restaurant business is pretty challenging. To aid you in creating a recipe for success, our team has compiled a quick restaurant opening guide. Find it below and explore the most popular concepts, follow the necessary steps to start a business, pinpoint the meaning behind a restaurant POS system, as well as learn about the documents and equipment necessary for the endeavor.

Most popular restaurant concepts 

Determining your business concept should be one of the prior tasks on your restaurant setting up list. From food itself to your style of service, this point should be a definite must-do on your extensive checklist for starting a restaurant. 

A restaurant concept is a theme defining who you are as a restaurant. It is a great way for you to let your patrons in on what to expect from visiting your restaurant. Find some of the most popular restaurant concepts below:

• fast food: this concept attracts clients with prices, convenience, and service speed;
• casual: low-key environment, affordability, as well as type-of-food-based one-of-a-kind decor are among this concept’s perks;
• cafe: this concept is known for outdoor seating, laid-back atmosphere, and a multitude of loyal customers who always return;
• pizzeria: everyone loves a good pizza, so find the best pizza recipes ever if you want your guests to always come back for more;
• pub or bar: there’s a wide variety of variations of this concept, such as wine bars, cocktail bars, pubs with food, and more; 

Steps to opening a restaurant

Find the most crucial steps to starting your own restaurant business below:

1. Decide on the concept and the style of service in restaurant.
2. Work up a plan with your restaurant business ideas.
3. Analyze the financial side of the affair, decide on the funding options.
4. Research and obtain all the necessary documents.
5. Register your newly emerged business with relevant government organizations.
6. Purchase all the necessary equipment.
7. Focus on hiring qualified staff.
8. Sort out a menu.
9. Hire a professional marketing specialist. 

Licenses and permits needed to open a restaurant 

What do you need to open a restaurant document-wise? That’s a smart question, the answer to which should be crystal clear to you at the earliest stages of transforming your plan into reality. So, here are some of the most vital docs needed:

• Business License;
• a unique 9-digit number assigned to a company;
• permit for serving food cooked on-site;
• license for selling alcohol. 

What equipment does a restaurant need?

Prior to opening a cafe or restaurant, outfit it with top-notch equipment. The type of equipment you’ll need is largely determined by your concept. Aside from the typical refrigerators and most common cooking tools, you may need niche-specific equipment like professional stand mixers (for bakeries) or pizza deck ovens (for pizzerias). 

Now that we’ve covered the basics of how to start a restaurant, it’s time to let you in on the notion of POS. So, what does POS stand for in restaurants? It is a blend of equipment and software needed to manage your business, a computerized central hub that aids you in tracking sales, cash flow, food inventory, and significantly bolsters your accounting process. If you’re looking for a reliable restaurant POS system, ORTY is definitely the answer.