Top 10 Tips for Developing Your Concept !!!

Restaurant concepts are only limited by imagination and budget. There are so many possibilities, how do you know what kind of restaurant to run? Here's a guide to help you decide.

1. Make Sure Your Concept is Different Enough

If there're a lot of traditional red-sauce Italian restaurants in your area, for example, then maybe you shouldn't open another one, even if you think your mom's recipe for lasagna is out of this world. Make sure that your concept will be distinguishable by the average consumer. The restaurant business is competitive enough without you having to go head-to-head with established eateries. Remember, one of the keys to a restaurant's success is having a concept that stands out from the crowd.

2. Don't Be Too Far Ahead of Your Time

While you need to be different, don't be so different in your concept that customers won't "get it." If you're too weird or too different, you'll have to spend too much time educating your clientele. Opening a raw food eatery in Pocatello, Idaho, for instance, may not fly. Do your research and make sure friends easily understand your concept. Remember, the best concepts are variations on a theme -- not a totally new theme.

3. Don't Price Yourself Out of the Market

Be careful your concept will allow you to offer menu items at prices that the market will bear. You may have a great idea for a fine steak and seafood eatery, but if you're planning to open in an area where poor students and struggling artists mainly live, you better make sure that customers who can afford your prices will be banging down your door. Remember that the concept needs to be right and the prices need to be within reach of local patrons.

4. Don't Design A Menu that Will Make Food Costs Skyrocket

Grandiose menus with many exotic ingredients don't pay off unless you're a top restaurant charging over $100 a head. Smart menu design uses the same ingredients over and over again in clever ways, so that food buying can be done efficiently. A well-thought-out menu will have chicken breast in one dish, for example, chicken stock in another and gizzard stuffing as a side, so that the entire chicken can be used, saving money on buying just breasts.

5. Make Sure Your Concept Will Be Profitable

Some concepts look good on the drawing board, but in reality they can't make money. Either they take too long in the kitchen, require too much labor, or cause patrons to linger and slow turns. Make sure that your concept will make money with up to 50% less business and 50% more costs. With spreadsheet programs, it's easy to change your numbers. Don't rely on the best case scenario. Stuff happens. Make sure your concept is flexible enough so that you can make adustments.

6. Good Concepts Are On-Trend

Strong concepts take a current trend like healthy fast-food, the rise in popularity of tea, or the growing love of Latina food and run with them. They leverage the popularity of a growing trend, not a fad. They deliver solid execution, fair prices, good service and offer menu items in an atmosphere that is current and popular. Remember that you'll going against the current if you try to be too avant garde or too retro.

7. Your Concept Has to be Easily Identifiable

If people can't pronounce or spell the name of your restaurant it's not good. Don't think it's uber trendy. If the name is too foreign or the font you choose for your logo is so unusual that it's hard to read, you're shooting yourself in the foot. Spend some time to come up with a unique name that is easy to spell and preferably starts with one of the first letters in the alphabet. The name of our restaurant was "Beyond Measure."

8. Take Inspiration from Other Sources

It's ok to borrow from other eateries and museums that you've seen in your travels. Maybe a museum in Texas had a great exhibit that gave you an idea for the lighting in your restaurant. Maybe a restaurant in Chicago had a cocktail that was dynamite and inspired you to create a similar one in Florida. Recipes and unpatented ideas are in the public domain and are out there to inspire you.

9. Make Sure Your Concept Fits the Location

So you had this great idea for a burger joint, but you lucked out and got a seaside location. You now serve burgers and fries in a place that attracts lovebirds seeking a romantic seafood meal. Oops! Maybe you should re-think your concept. How 'bout dressing up the menu and dining area for dinner, offering fresh broiled fish and offering lobster burgers at lunch, removing the candles and flowers from the tables.

10. Make Sure You Love the Concept

Any successful restaurateur will tell you that they created their concept because it's the type of restaurant they love to eat at. If you create a restaurant because you think it'll be popular or because a silent partner convinced you to -- beware. With all the time, energy, and money you'll be putting into the place, make sure you love the idea and are passionate about the menu.

5 Profit Boosters Hidden in your Restaurant Point-of-Sale System!!!

Your restaurant point-of-sale system is one of the keys to your smooth running operation - helping to keep the orders flowing correctly and the cash coming in.  But are you overlooking some of the ways your POS software could help you boost your restaurant's bottom line?   Here's 5 common features that many restaurant owners neglect - but that can make a real impact on your profit!

1.  Marketing 

If you are not tracking individual customer behavior with your point-of-sale system and tying that to your marketing program, you're missing out on a huge opportunity to connect with your customers, boost repeat visits, and increase ticket averages.   Your POS software may have a customer database, that lets you find customers who haven't visited recently or who love your Chicken Parmesan.  Your POS software may even have a built-in loyalty program, that encourages customers to identify themselves and lets you reward customers for purchases.   It may tie in to a marketing automation system, that helps you keep in touch with customers via e-mail, text message and social media.  Don't let the goldmine of customer data sit untouched!  Even a simple action, such as welcoming new customers with a follow up email or postcard, can make a huge difference on your bottom line.

2.  Inventory

No one likes counting cans and boxes and spending long nights doing data entry.  That's why very few restaurant operators use any of the inventory and food cost controls they've got built into their POS systems.  But you can make a difference on your food cost without getting bogged down in all the paperwork.  Just pick 5 high cost, high risk or "indicator" items.  High cost - like steak or cheese.  High risk - like liquor, beer or wine.  And "indicator" items, such as cups or boxes, which can point out when food items are going out unaccounted for.  Just pick 5 to start, set them up in your point-of-sale software, and count them on a weekly basis.  You'll learn valuable information about your operation, and send an important signal that you are paying attention to food costs

3.  Customer Groups

Does your point-of-sale software let you track house accounts?  Does it have an accounts receivable function?  Does it track businesses and hotels?  How about charity affiliation programs?  These bells and whistles are designed to help you make more money!  You may have never taken the time to set them up, but it's worth the investment in learning.  These features allow you to provide special service to some of your potentially most profitable customers, and those who will recommend your restaurant in the community.

4.  Labor

Of course, your standard restaurant POS system gives you timekeeping functions so you can feed your payroll system.  But are you taking advantage of all the management tools available to keep on top of this critical cost center?   Alerts when employees approach overtime can help your managers keep labor costs where they are expected to be.  Forecasting tools based on historical sales can help you build a smart schedule.  On-the-spot reports, graphs and alerts will let you know if your labor costs are meeting your goals. Teach your managers how to use these tools on every shift:  when to send extra staff home, or when to call someone in if labor is too low (as that affects customer service).

5.  Menu Analysis

Your menu may be a handed-down family tradition, or it may change regularly with the times.  But every item that earns a spot on your menu must pull its weight.  Do you know which items are most profitable, and which are costing you money?   Can you accurately predict how many lasagna dinners you'll need next Friday, so you don't end up with wasted food at the end of the night?  Which coupons are bringing in business, and which are duds? Buried somewhere in the hundreds of POS system reports are the answers you need.  Most restaurant owners get in the habit of skimming a summary report once in a while.  Take some time on a quarterly basis to review your menu performance reports, update your food cost comparisons, and evaluate your couponing. Use the information your POS system has been gathering to help make informed decisions to improve your bottom line!

Four Questions To Ask About Your Restaurant Website Design !!!

Your guests should never see this.

When you search for the term “restaurant website design” in any of the major search engines, you will come up with two types of results.  The first will be companies offering to sell you a restaurant website of varying quality at a wide range of prices.  The second and more prominent set of results will be articles complaining about how awful most restaurant websites are.  These complaints have become increasingly prevalent online and commentators wonder why so few restaurants build websites that enhances the guest experience.  That is why I have designed a list of questions to help you evaluate your restaurant website.

Having spent most of my career in the restaurant industry, as well as having designed a number of websites’ gives me a unique perspective on this issue.  I understand that designing a high quality website is not something that most restaurant owners have been trained to do.  This is something they will generally outsource to a website designer who knows very little about the restaurant industry.  A lack of understanding often prevents both parties from creating the best restaurant website design  to enhance the guest experience and effectively promote the restaurant.  The result is an under functioning website that fails to provide much value to restaurant owners or potential guests.

Here are a few questions to ask about your restaurant website design to determine if it is producing the results you need:

1) Where does your restaurant website rank in Google?  Type in your city and the type of cuisine you serve into the search bar on Google and hit enter.  If your restaurant website does not show up on the first page of results, your website is underperforming.  This can be due to how the site was written or external factors which can be corrected.  Regardless of the reason, your restaurant website design company should address search engine optimization to boost your ranking in Google.  Potential guests will often choose a competitor on the first page of Google results before even finding your website on subsequent pages.

2) How does your restaurant website design look on a smart phone?  Use a smart phone to find your website and look at the results.  If it is slow to load, fails to load, or is in font too small to read, then you are losing potential guests.  A growing number of searches are being performed on smart phones and this trend will only continue.  It is vital that your restaurant website looks good and loads quickly on a smart phone.

3) How long does it take to find the basic information?  Your restaurant website should feature the address, phone number, and hours of operation on the front page.  This should be presented in HTML rather than flash or as a graphic.  An easy way to check this is to try to copy and paste this information.  If you cannot copy it, a search engine generally cannot read it.  This can be devastating to your search engine ranking and incredibly frustrating to your guests.

4) When was it updated?  If you restaurant holds special events, limited time promotions, or receives any kind of publicity, this should be added to your restaurant.  While sharing this information on social media is highly advised, the best way to do so is from your website.  This means that you should maintain the ability to update your website to promote these events.  Whether you are adding the information in house or paying a monthly fee for updates, you need to make sure a procedure is in place for updates.

The real key to all of these questions is objectivity.  I know some of the answers might be tough to accept.  Each of these four issues has the potential to guide guests to your restaurant or to one of your competitors.  The internet is the single biggest source of restaurant recommendations for potential guests.  Your website should be designed to encourage guests to trust you with their dining dollars.  Providing them with a restaurant website that makes finding you simple and enhances their experience is one of the most powerful parts of a successful restaurant marketing plan.

How to Choose Restaurant Menu Items !!!

The Right Dishes for a New Restaurant Menu

Creating a restaurant menu can be overwhelming. What dishes should you offer and what should you skip? The ideal restaurant menu offers a balance of unique dishes and old favorites. It also has the right food cost to maintain profits (ummm…which is extremely important) and can be easily reproduced in the kitchen during a busy dinner rush. Avoid Food Fads on Your Restaurant Menu
Just like fashion, there are trends and fads in restaurant menu items. Remember micro-brew beers of the 1990s? They were everywhere. Low carb menu items were all the rage during the Atkins Diet phase. Like those Co-Ed Naked t-shirts you wore in college and your favorite Kurt Cobain-esque flannel shirt, some food trends are really popular, but eventually fade away. While you want your restaurant menu to be exciting and trendy, you need to keep perennial favorites as well. Think of a burger and fries as the little black dress of your menu. It can be dressed up –perhaps a California burger with guacamole and pepper jack cheese- or served plain. Either way, it has staying power with most menus.
Restaurant Menu Items Need to Have Low Food Cost
In order to keep profits up and prices affordable for customers, each item on your restaurant menu should be priced to determine its food cost- the actual amount it costs you to make the dish. Pricey ingredients (truffles, anyone?) will result in pricey menus. This doesn’t mean the food you order should be the cheapest available- quality is the most important aspect of creating menu items- but you need to balance high and low food costs to for a reasonable profit margin.
Keep Menu Dishes Easy to Prepare
Unless you are an ultra fine dining establishment, the menu items coming out of your restaurant kitchen need to be moved quickly and efficiently through the line. Any menu items that have fussy presentations can potentially bog down the kitchen staff during a lunch or dinner rush. This doesn’t mean food needs to be thrown onto plates lunch-lady style. You can still offer great presentations, but keep it simple. 
Items on a Restaurant Menu Should be Versatile
Cross utilization of menu items keeps food spoilage down and allows you to use ingredients in more than one dish. For example, if you offer a homemade spinach and artichoke dip, try to offer other items that feature both spinach and artichokes. It is also a good idea to update your menu periodically and remove items that aren’t selling. 

Planning for a Restaurant !!!

If you're planning on starting a restaurant, you've got a lot of company. In my experience, more people seek advice on launching a restaurant business than any other type of business. While that doesn't make your task easier, it does mean I can help with some tips.
To start, you need to plan your strategy very well. Your restaurant has to focus on some key elements that'll set it apart from the thousands of other eateries out there. These could be location, cuisine, decoration or even--good luck with this one--price. Maybe it's located where there's a lot of traffic, or across the hall from a gym, or near a bookstore, or outside a theater. Maybe there are no fish tacos in your town, or no good Italian restaurants. Maybe there are no cafes near the river with outside seating. You have to know why you're different. In short, don't try to please everybody generally; find your niche market, and please those people very well.
By differentiating your restaurant, you make marketing it much easier. Marketing is critical to restaurant success, but marketing can be expensive. And in most cases, the most effective restaurant marketing depends on repeat business and word-of-mouth. Think about how you choose a restaurant yourself--do you look through your Entertainment book or other coupon source? Do you research with a Zagat guide or online reviews? Or do you ask for recommendations from friends? Ask yourself how people will describe your restaurant and why they'll recommend it. If you can't put that short conversation into easy words, you're in trouble.
Also, if you have a choice, don't start a low-priced restaurant. Low-priced restaurants are much harder to market than mid- to high-priced restaurants. Fast-food franchises are everywhere, and they have a huge corner on that market. People believe in cheap food when they see strong branding and lots of customers. You don't want to be the dive on the corner that can't attract business.
Unless you're already partnered with an investor, you should assume you won't be. In general, restaurants aren't targets for professional investors because they're so risky. The few exceptions include celebrities who back restaurants that capitalize on their names, and well-known chefs and successful restaurant owners opening new venues.
Not having access to startup financing doesn't mean you shouldn't start the business. It means you should carefully decide whether you're going to start slowly, minding expenses, or borrow enough money to start big. Your borrowing options include commercial bank loans, which require assets you can stake as collateral, and SBA loans, which require less collateral than bank loans but still require you to put up 30 percent of the starting costs to qualify for the guaranteed loan. When in doubt about loans, go straight to your favorite bank and ask for advice.
Be sure to count your startup costs well. You don't want to get into a bind where you've spent half of what you thought you needed and you've run out of money. You'll probably have to rent a location and spend a few months fixing it up, and you may need employees some employees to help out during the fix-up period, too. Unless you're moving into an existing restaurant, you'll need to buy kitchen equipment, tables and chairs, cash registers, phone systems and décor to establish ambience. And then you need to budget for what's called "working capital" for the startup period when your spending exceeds your sales. Some say you need at least six months of expenses ready to go; others recommend having 12 months covered.
Your sales forecast is also important. I like to build a sales forecast based on unit sales, meaning meals and drinks, not just gross sales amounts. That helps me break the sales forecast into components I can count. How many tables do you have? How many meals will you serve on Friday night when the place is almost full? What does an average meal cost? How many drinks come with the meals? Then calculate unit sales, average revenue per unit and average cost per unit.
Then comes your expense forecast. With meals and drinks already priced out, your remaining operating expenses are mainly people, rent and other fixed costs. Estimate those per month, and match them to your sales forecast.
When all the costs are tallied, you'll get a good picture of the cash flow and how much money you'll need to keep the restaurant operational. During the early months of startup, your cash flow probably won't cover all your expenses, so you'll want your plan to include how you'll cover the difference.
Finally, as you get started, remember that business plans continually go out of date, and good business plans are never done. You should take an hour or so every month to review the difference between what you planned and what actually happened, and update your plan accordingly.

10 Restaurant Menu Design Ideas !!!

Summary: If you got excellent restaurant menu design ideas with good choice of content, you got good menu and certainly you will get new guests which can become your regular guests and the best ambassadors of your restaurant. Restaurant menu design are very important but often disregarded part of the restaurant marketing.

Successful restaurateurs have already said goodbye to the classic menus, which were simply "just fine", but did not make a profit. Menus should be successful tool and serve as the good advertising. This will happened only if they have meet the essential requirements. This means that they are seasonal, visually pleasant, sophisticated, clear, various, targeted to a specific group of guests, and definitely must to be credible. This "silent salesperson" does not occur by accident - it needs to be strategically planned.
Good menus should be designed to match specific groups of guests, those with deeper, and those with less deep pockets. If menus are used and understood as a marketing tool, they could increase your traffic in one season and bring more visitors to your restaurant.

1. Four levels of menus

First, the menu is a list of restaurants offer with listed prices. But the restaurant's menu goes a lot further than that and has a big marketing function.
All you need to know about a restaurant should be found in the menu.
Since approximately 90% of guests still do not know what they want to eat when they enter in the restaurant, and 85% of them are carefully viewing and listing menu approximately for a 5 minutes, we can say that the menu is used on an emotional and effective level. Restaurant menu must meet the relevant tasks such as: Elective assistant, Additional vendor, Consultant for sale, Sales promoter and Funny Colorful notebook. It must arouses the curiosity, become gourmet deceiver, make a (food) wishes come true, etc..
Menu should also inform your costumer about some extra offers and opportunities too, like possibility of renting halls for various events, organization of catering, seminars and courses that can be held in the facility, special program for sale etc. Also menu should contain a reference to the website and Facebook page (link or QR code), articles and comments from newspapers and  hospitality web sites and flyers with the special offer.

2. How offer should be designed in your restaurant menu 

In all available menus there are so called "runners" which is popular food and "weak" food offer. Runners is best selling food often popular standard dishes - which are recognizable. If you look better you will notice that 20% of the total supply of food on the menu, make up 80% of sales. Successful restaurateur knows which food should get so-called. "star" profile. These are the "runners" who leaves the most money in the cash register.
How can you make a star dish? You should make it distinctive.  Customers should be able to recognize the uniqueness of your restaurant. For example if your restaurant offering a dish that has a unique shape and flavor and it is the one and only like that in your part of town you get the goal. Based on this, you can even increase the price. Follow the golden rule: Stars from the menu should be combined with the stars from the wine card.

3. The menu structure

The first thing which should be done when structuring menu is to:

• make a menu content - offer which will be included in the menu,
• then comes the the accompanying text,
• and at the end – menu design.

You should be aware these important things :

1. Right side of menu always sells more then left one.
2. Good texts in menus emphasize the specificity of that choice.
3. The first and the last dish placed in the menu card are in sections of commonly ordered dishes.

So it is clear where and how the stars of menu should be positioned in menu .A weak supply (those with a smaller margin) that we have on the menu, should be put on the left side of menu card.

4. Menu contents 

Be very careful with selection of the menu contents. Small number of offered dishes in the menu is not a mistake, but rather an indicator of quality. If you offered more food that would not make more traffic, and often will only confuse the customers. If your restaurant has clearl profile then it has better position in catering industry and your menu may contain less food/dishes. In this way your dishes got always the same unique taste which make your restaurant distinctive.

5. Menu design

Content determines the form of the menu – form may not be determined by the content. But definitely what form determines is the menu effect. So read carefully those restaurant menu design ideas. Menus are part of the marketing advertising. They must be harmonized with website, business cards, brochures, images, offers and billboards. Consistency in design, color, font and logo is important for recognition and restaurant image. Standard, plastic menus are a total failure. Caterers sale pleasure and a menu just has to evoke that. Do not let the decision for change of menu design is made only to replace "old for new". Take the opportunity to completely change the contents of the menu, of course, if it is necessary.

6. Professional design of menu

Find a professional graphic designer to design your restaurant menu if you can or made it by your own with menu templates. The menu title and the material from which it is made, should represent the type and quality of your restaurant. Hand-written menus indicate that the object is traditional, and that their guests can enjoy local dishes in your restaurant. Will the menu include pictograms and photos, depending on the style of the object, but certainly be aware that these graphical elements can make up to 15% more profit.
But at the same time never forget:
• Menus must be clearly readable
• Even in poor lighting conditions, for older people or people with low vision
• Pay attention to the font size, font and contrast.

7. Flyers

Gusts gladly take with them flyers which contain restaurants offer. Be sure that flyer contain all additional information : announcements, suggestions for outings, coupons, and advertisements. Flyers should be immediately reimbursed as soon as they disappear.
Flyers with an offer come "to the people" on various ways: for example, at the exit of the building, mailboxes, etc. In this world there are more and more vegetarians, vegans, diabetics and people with allergies to certain foods, and people who dine under religious aspects. The special menus will complement the main menu. Restaurants which have special menus for groups of guests have a much more profit, and can be proud on their service at a high level.

8. Prices in the menu

Price must be clear and credible - this should be certainly regulated by law . Psychology gives testimony for prices determination: Amounts that end with 95 or 99 cents are insignificant. But who does not increase the price from 50 to 80 or 90 cents has lost his money.
The most important note is: The menu is not price list. The menu which has been made in order to price level is not the best one. Guest should not choose his own dish regarding how much it costs, but according to what do they like to eat. The best solution is to mix more expensive and less expensive dishes in your restaurant menu.

9. Analysis of the menu

Modern designed menu is simple and affordable way to get traffic and to improve the catering business, but also to please the customer.
Recipe for success:

1. Regular analysis
   
2. Menu modification

Optimize menu gradually by strengthening peaks in the menus and ejecting failures. We suggest that you look at your menu card with the eyes of your guest because then you will easily notice the flaws and mistakes. Also, ask your employees for advice, because they are the ones that customers ask questions related to food and drinks. Check with them about costumers questions and where they had no answers in the menu. It is required to maintain the menu, and this includes daily cleaning, invisible repairing, and replacement of defective or fatty menus.

10. Tell me a story

We can say that the menu advance sale - and the staff performing the actual sales communication. Employees need to learn to look at the menu as a tool of communication. Domestic cuisine is a very popular - and so the story of the region and the place where it begins is very interesting. Guests highly appreciate and respect story about authenticity, family, and tradition - a story which provide additional information about the background and origin. In this way, the menu motivate the order, shows the power spectrum, as well as a fun way of showing the philosophy and identity of your restaurant. Creativity in the kitchen enticing guests. The menu also can do it the same. If you leave the menu at the table after ordering, it certainly provides additional sales.That s because nine out of ten guests in your restaurant after the election and ordering retake menu in their hands, and continue to browse it because it was fun. So most of them decide to order additional dish or drink or maybe desert. The good menu fulfill well its function as a seller, when telling different kind of stories. About the catering object, the staff, the restaurants theme etc. Almost every dish can tell some story. For example, about the origin of dishes, about its name, who and when was invented recipe, a particular way of preparing dishes, etc.

Do you dream of opening a restaurant? !!!

Are you ready to wear a lot of hats at once? At minimum, it’s a job for a hard worker who understands and can handle such diverse concerns as cooking, bookkeeping, marketing and managing people.
You know it’s going to be hard. But you feel like you’re up to the challenge. These tips from restauranteurs who went through the wringer and survived could help bring those dreams a little bit closer to reality.
What’s your concept?
What type of restaurant do you want? Will you serve the food that you like to cook? Or are you thinking about a franchise? With a franchise, you get a built-in menu, ready-made marketing and instant name recognition. If you are cooking this business up from scratch, you’ll need to first come up with a menu that reflects your passion and your expertise. What are your price points? Is there a demographic market yearning what you have in mind?  These are all questions you’ll consider as you develop your business plan.
Got a good location?
Location, location, location. It is the one factor that can make or break your biz. Luckily, it’s also a variable that you control. Choosing the right location invariably depends on accessibility, local employment and the demographic makeup of the neighborhood. Once you’ve decided on a concept, find a place where the residents want what you’ll be serving, one where they will pay what you’ll be charging.
Got a good name?
It’s smart to give your restaurant a name that reflects its menu. It’s also smart to have a name that’s easy to recall (or spell, in case customers will be ordering online). Make a positive first impression with a name that tells the world who you are.
Remember: The menu tells your story.
The menu is what will bring customers in the first place. So the design deserves serious attention.  A clean, easy-to-read menu will guide your guests to the items they seek.  Dish names are as important as the layout and design of the menu, so make them descriptive and distinctive.
Get the right people.
The right staff is the right stuff in the restaurant business. Competent, trained staff is critical. No matter how fancy the cuisine or how talented the chef, the front of the house and back of the house employees must be efficient and knowledgeable. The ones who will be dealing with the public have to do it with grace and likability. Your entire team has to make each person who sits down for a meal feel truly welcome.
Get the right gear.
Equipping the establishment will probably be your biggest up-front expense. The bulk of your budget will go to outfitting your kitchen, your dining area and your bar. Here’s where the high failure rate of new restaurants can actually work in your favor; there is always used equipment available thanks to restaurants that went belly-up. Craigslist is a restaurant supply graveyard (or goldmine, if you’re an optimist). Pro tip: If you’re planning on getting used or leased equipment, make sure that you or someone on your staff is familiar with the items. You don’t want to get burned by paying cold cash for a stove that doesn’t work.