Starting, Owning and Marketing A Restaurant Blog|Starting and Owning a Restaurant - Construction, Planning, Marketing, Opening and Managing a New Restaurant

Sometimes the best questions came from unexpected people. While walking through the new restaurant, I got into a conversation with a regular customer. He asked, “When do you get comfortable that you know your risk of opening a new restaurant was the right decision?”. Seems like a reasonable question, but it’s one I have never answered before or ever thought about.

Opening a new restaurant is never an easy task. The first ninety days has been up and down from many perspectives. Sales started off good, but we still have a lot of capacity to do more. Staff has improved greatly, but they can learn more and do better. Table turns are fair, but we can improve service to make them better at peak seating times. Management functions are OK, but need much more training and improvement in several areas. We are slightly profitable with along way to go.

Now if I look at one of the restaurants we have that are over five years old I can state that;

Sales started off good, but we still have a lot of capacity to do more. Staff has improved greatly, but they can learn more and do better. Table turns are fair, but we can improve service to make them better at peak seating times. Management functions are OK, but need much more training and improvement in several areas. We are slightly profitable with along way to go.

There is my answer. You are never comfortable!  The same exact statements for both an existing operation and new operation can be applied.

When you become “comfortable” about anything in this business is when you get stagnant and the excitement, challenge and opportunities slip away. If you look at any operation that stopped growing, closed up or is barely hanging on, I have to wonder if the owners got “comfortable”.

Now that I have had time to mull over the customer’s question, I will be able to replace my ambivalent answer with a firm one. I need to thank them for asking!