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

The independent restaurateur has been at the point of a big economic shotgun for almost a year and a half. One wrong move and the deadly blast of pellets pummels the body and soul of the restaurant. Food costs, labor costs, lower consumer spending, increased industry regulation and changing guest eating habits have faced the independent restaurants across the country.

While there are signs of an improving economy, restaurants cannot plan on the consumer returning to pre-recession habits for a long time to come. Many diners have changed their eating habits and others continue to face an uncertain jobless recovery that will keep restaurants at the tail end of the recessionary curve.

What should the independent be doing? Here is a list that may help your planning for 2010:

• Don’t wait for the economy to rebound and bring customers crashing to your doors. Long term marketing efforts shouldn’t be ignored, but short term results need to be your focus.
• If you are struggling now, it isn’t going to get better tomorrow by doing the same old thing. Change is difficult, but failure is worse. You may have to do things you have never done. Coupons, discounting and lower prices may be the difference between saving jobs and generating enough cash flow to pay bills. Most “experts” think discounting may hurt your brand, but not as much as closed doors.
• Stop any impulse you have to listen to restaurant marketing gurus who have the answer to sales results overnight. It ain’t gonna happen. Mobile marketing, social marketing and other tools are aguably useful over a long period of time, but for the average restaurant they don’t deserve the long hours and cost to implement when the battle for survival is imminent.
• You must become mentally in tune with your guests. Who are they? Where are they? What do they want? How have they changed? What drives them to your door or your competitor’s door? Will they increase their restaurant visits if you …..? You finish the line!
• Even if you could afford the cost of big newspaper and TV advertising, don’t be so sure it will produce for you. Consumers are turning to the Internet for news and entertainment. Newspaper sales are declining. TV audiences are declining. Grass roots, personal marketing may be the least costly and most productive form of getting your message out.

There are no quick fixes, but there are ways to build your business the way it has been done for decades. Provide a consistent product at a value to the guest. Get that message out and capture new guests one at a time.

If you are starting a restaurant now, there are big potholes in a long road. In a “normal” year like 2007, there were about 72,000 restaurants that opened and 60,000 that closed. While statistics for subsequent periods are difficult to produce, everyone agrees that there are more closings than openings. In fact, bankruptcy records may give some idea of the numbers. There were 43,500 business bankruptcies in 2008. Through June of 2009, there have been over 30,000 cases filed already.

Is it all doom and gloom? Absolutely not. If you are paying your bills, seeing some head count growth year over year and finding ways to keep costs going down, you can easily survive with a smart reaction to ongoing economic woes. Even a few new restaurants will make the grade if they have done their homework, planned properly and have sufficient resources to withstand any planning mistakes.

2010 will be just as challenging as 2009, but at least we know what to expect and how to react to the recession imposed environment.