Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Don't go it Alone, Hire a Restaurant Consultancy

By Jose L Riesco

A lot of people start to think about what they're going to do in "semi" retirement when they are getting towards the end of their primary career. It is normal for people to dream about opening a business and doing something that they really like and a lot of people think about opening up an establishment to serve their favorite food. If this is at the forefront of your mind, just be sure that you contact a good restaurant consultancy before you start to embark on that journey.

A restaurant consultancy should be one of the first firms to turn to when you are mapping out your plan to open up your dream restaurant. It is not good enough to assume that, just because you have experience in management or administration that you can automatically transfer this to your new endeavor. You need to become proficient in a large number of diverse areas and an experienced consultant can help you.

When you are thinking about spending your life savings to pursue a dream and wishing to open up your own restaurant, be absolutely sure before you commit everything that you are able to conceptualize its development carefully. How will you position yourself in the marketplace, for example and will you go it alone or become part of a franchised chain?

A feasibility study should be one of the first things that you prepare and a good restaurant consultancy can help you to compose this as well as a business plan. Remember that you could become a little bit emotionally involved with a project like this, so you should have somebody neutral at your side when it comes to making decisions and assumptions.

You may be coming to the end of a career in administration and feel like you have great skills which you can use when you open up your new eating establishment. However, have you had a lot of experience with hiring, employing and firing staff? There's so much to do with employment law, training, policies, procedures and scheduling that you will need to call on a restaurant consultancy to guide you.

Dealing with vendors can be quite difficult at times and is one of the challenges when opening up a new business. There are a number of valuable tips and shortcuts that you can learn from your contact at the restaurant consultancy to help you position yourself profitably, create a good relationship and manage inventory levels to best effect.

Even the best in planning may not save you from some of those unexpected bombshells, but there are a number of "regular" pitfalls that you might not have anticipated. Experts from a restaurant consultancy have been there and seen it all and can certainly help you as you gain your footing.

A business will thrive or fail on the strength and quality of its employees, no matter what area of commerce it is in. For your restaurant, you will need to be sure that you have the best chefs, kitchen staff, maitre d', servers and greeters, so you should be sure to get the best consulting staff as well.

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