1. Create Your Unique Selling Product/Services!

What’s so special about your café/restaurant? The blue mountain coffee? Food? Dessert? Café Theme? Create a business plan with the USP in mind, how it will be profitable, define your target market, know who are your competitors, plan for marketing strategies, and finances planning.

With your unique selling point, you can then pitch the idea to your investors/partners which will allow you to quickly validate your business idea as well as get a good sense of who your market is, how you’re going to reach them and how you’re going to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

2. Location! Location! Location!

A good location is crucial to the success of your business. Ideally, a place where there is high human traffic and activities going on plus easy access to your outlet.

Tips to find a good location:

· Shortlist the ideal locations that you want your shop to be and do a survey. You do not want a ghost town. Low human traffic flow equals to low sales.

· Check out the neighbourhood within a radius of 100m to 500m to 1km, You will want to know if there’s any competitors and start planning your marketing strategies.

· Observe the human traffic flows in the morning, lunchtime and dinnertime.

· Which group of consumers are there within the area. Students? Executive? Shoppers? It helps to identify your target market.

· Find out where are the nearest car park and public transport.

3. Imagine you’re the customer

Visualize how your shop would look and feel the moment you step in. How you will be served and seated, a menu place on your hand and how will the dishes be presented to you with the right aromas lingering the air.

First Impression is the most Important!

Tips:

Pay attention to the logos, and interior and exterior appearance because that’s the first thing people see. 85% of new customers patronizes cafes and restaurants by the visual outlook of the establishment.

Having a smooth running operation plan is vital for a café/restaurant. It creates safety and proper workflow. E.g Customers to know easily where to place order for your food and for your staff to have the ingredients they need within reach to quickly make their dishes, and a seating area that’s comfortable.

Walk yourself through every scenario you can possible think of.

“As a chef, what will I need to be near me?”

“What do you want in a seating area?”

“How the food presentation will look like?”

“Will my customer knock into one of the bar table sharp corners?”

Put those ideas down on paper. Every single little details count!

5. Plan your finance in detail and wisely.

Many have jumped into operating a business without any proper planning on how much capital and cash flow they need.

During one of my coffee chat with an experienced restauranteur, he gave this piece of valuable advice, “Before you start a business, make sure you have enough funding to sustain the business at least 1–3yrs. if your total capital is $100,000 dollars, you will need another $100,000 dollars.”

Why? After depleting most of the capital to pay off your rent, renovation, kitchen equipment and table chairs, hiring of chefs, waiter and what not, you will need enough capital to sustain your business in the event of rainy days for at least the next six months.

While you work out your finances, keep a list or spreadsheet of all the things you’ll need and compare prices.

Tips:

Always get prices from 3 different vendors for any item and compare each item before you purchase to ensure you’re getting the best deal. Use the Internet to your advantage and look for the best prices on everything from comfy chairs to espresso machines.

Familiarise yourself with the company cash flow especially considering more than half of the businesses that fail were profitable in the initial months and when business season drops, they found themselves in the reds very quickly.

5. Determination and a positive mindset.

You’ll definitely face unexpected challenges and hurdles. Keeping a positive attitude when things aren’t going your way.

When you are in doubt, ask and search for answers!

When the student is ready, the teachers are everywhere!

Set a high expectation for your establishment. It’s even okay for you to have a certain degree of obsession when it comes to how your shop runs and looks.

Starting a café/restaurant requires a lot of hard work. And the hours are long and you can see the returns only some time down the road.

If your passion and love for food has led you to open your own shop, please feel free to share these tips and comment below what are the biggest problem you face in setting up your restaurant/cafe!

By: Haryanto Soemito