How to Open a Restaurant While Saving Money
Yes, a lot of people might tell you that opening a restaurant is not a great idea. There is no way to predict if it will grow well or will all your investment go to waste. Perhaps, you have your doubts too.
The question is do you want to hold back on your dreams because of skepticism and uncertainty. Perhaps there is something else that is holding you back. Perhaps it’s money.
Opening a cafe business is risky. Most people would choose to invest in a safer option. But if this is your passion, then you should not hesitate.
There are a lot of ways to fund your dream project if you do not have the initial capital investment-ready in your pockets. This article will provide you with ways on how to kickstart your restaurant business if you are low on finance.
Map Out Your Business Plan
Search for people in the business sector who are willing to invest in small businesses or real estate. Reach out to them for support. Remember to be well prepared before you pitch in your ideas.
Before you reach out to any businessperson for investment in your restaurant, carefully plan out your ideas. Have a written business plan. Clearly define your strategies and long-term goals.
Explain how you plan on starting up and then how you plan to take it forward. Mention your target audience and how do you plan on reaching them. Elaborate your budget management plans in extensive detail.
Since you will also need to have legal backing for your cafe, consider getting a fast HACCP plan online, for more details check FoodDocs. This will help you ensure the safety of the products you will be offering and also give your business more credibility. Verifying your authenticity to the investor is extremely essential.
Include any prior business endeavors of your own or the ones you have been a part of. State your value. Mention what particular sets of skills you have to offer. Even if you have no experience of running a restaurant before, mention other qualifications that you have. Prove your worth and credibility with everything you have got.
Perhaps you have proved to be an efficient manager in the past. Or maybe you are great at marketing and working with statistics. As good as your business idea may be, you still have to prove that you are a responsible individual who has a unique value of their own.
You do not just have to build the investor’s trust in your venture but in you as well. They should be able to trust you to provide a higher return value in the future.
Get Yourself an Angel Investor
Angel Investors are typically those individuals who are looking to invest their money in places other than the traditional investment opportunities. They aim to get a higher return rate than what a traditional investment would provide.
These people are always looking for opportunities to invest in new business endeavors or startups. They could help someone with starting a startup from scratch or help to expand one that has already been established.
Despite what the name suggests, these are not people who are willing to serve you just for the sake of being nice. They choose to invest in businesses that they deem would provide them with higher value later on. They are generally looking for a return rate of 25 to 60 percent.
Other than providing monetary support, there are other ways that an angel investor might be able to help you out. For instance, they might have extra space in a building they own that you could use for a restaurant setting.
In this case, they will probably ask you to sign a lease that requires that you remain a tenant for a significant period. In other cases, they may request ownership equity in exchange for financial aid for your business.
Consider Running a Food Truck
Starting your restaurant from scratch can seem unnerving considering the costs and efforts it will take to start it let alone maintaining it. Something a bit easier is to start operating a food truck. They can be cheap to get. You can get one with an initial investment of as low as $5000.
The best thing about food Trucks is that you do not have to fret over paying any overhead expenses such as regular rent. You can operate the food Truck on your own so you do not necessarily need to hire a staff to operate it. If you chose to run it on your own it will give you leeway to have flexible working hours and introduce products according to your will.
You do not need a proper website or other forms of professional marketing tools to make your business run. Even flyers in the local community or some social media boosting can go a long way. You can also consider hiring professional food photography services from seattlevideoandphoto.com to help create eye-catching visuals to draw customers’ attention to your products and services. It will make your products look more attractive and inviting, which can help boost sales and increase brand recognition.
Food Trucks are just like any other business. It will require you to consistently invest your time and diligent efforts in it. The main difference is that starting and running a Food Truck costs a lot less than establishing a full-fledged restaurant.
Use Crowdfunding to Start Your Cafe
There are now a lot of crowdfunding sites online such as Kickstarter, FoodStart, and GoFundMe that allow you to pitch your creative project to the public and have them support you. A lot of people have success stories of opening or expanding their food business via crowdfunding through online sites.
This also requires that you have a legitimate plan and backing to present your idea to the community. You will have to work out a way to make them realize how investing in your business will be worthwhile. You can offer something in return for the people who choose to fund your ventures.
Consult Your Local Restaurant Association
Go to your local restaurant association and see what support they can provide. A lot of them have forums that offer professional advice on getting loans or financial support from other restaurateurs. They could also connect you to local restaurants consultants and guide you through funding techniques.
These restaurant associations also host a lot of events to educate people about how to grow their restaurant business. They conduct webinars where they have professionals advising on lending for small businesses.
These events also provide you the opportunity with people leading and struggling in the same business sector. They are a great place to exchange ideas and brainstorm solutions.
Run a Catering Business Initially
Opening an entirely new restaurant can be quite a hassle. It requires a lot of planning and execution that can get hectic and overwhelming. The legal and financial implications of starting a restaurant from scratch are enough to scare us back into our homes.
If starting a restaurant seems daunting to you, perhaps you should consider starting a catering business. It is a lot similar to a running restaurant but it’s a lot more manageable for people who are just starting.
You can run a self-catering business of your own and it will give you an idea of how it’s like to work in that sort of service company. You will have to do all the similar things one does in a restaurant for instance planning meals, managing budgets, and marketing.
Working a few catering jobs initially may give you the experience and confidence that you might need to run your restaurant. One particularly interesting example of a catering business on San Marco Island in Florida that scaled into a full-service restaurant can be found at FamilyDestinationGuide.
