Cohesive Menus There’s much that goes into ensuring that a restaurant is as good as can be, but the most important detail is the menu. It has to be. While customers can enjoy the atmosphere, the drinks, the price, whatever else you have going on, if the food isn’t up to standard, then they won’t be coming back anytime soon. It’s not just about making delicious food, however. A restaurant gains a lot from having a cohesive menu. Do the meals that you offer make sense when you see them side by side? Essentially, it’s about picking some sort of theme. There’s a lot of space for freedom still, of course; what we’re saying is that your menu should not be entirely random.  Finding Good Staff What do people go to restaurants for? Ultimately it’s all to have a good time. And there’s no avoiding the fact that your staff will play a big role in this. We’ve all been to restaurants where the staff seemed a little miserable or treated us like we were an inconvenience. It’s not the worst thing in the world, but it does make you think twice about the establishment. Would you visit again, if the staff hindered the experience? Probably. So when it comes to your restaurant, make sure that you’re hiring talented and likable people. If they don’t like engaging in small conversations with other humans, then they’ll be ill-suited to the world of restaurant work. Of course, finding good staff can be difficult — for that reason, it’s important to put together a hiring process, and not to rush anything. It’s better to wait for the right employee, rather than hire someone who will turn out to be an underwhelming employee. Handling the Money If there’s one thing that restaurant owners know, it’s that handling the money side of things can be pretty time-consuming. It is, however, essential. It’ll have such a big impact on the venture’s overall success or failure that it’s not something that you can avoid. If you have a solid grasp on the money side of things, then you’ll find it much easier to avoid many of the problems that cause restaurants to fall into difficulties. Take a read of some tips for restaurant accounting, and set aside some time each week. You’ll find that it’s much easier to feel like you’re on your way to restaurant success when you know that the money aspect has been taken care of.  Additional Revenue  The profit margins of restaurants can be pretty slim. For this reason, it’s important that all restaurants look at ways to maximize their revenue. Fortunately, this is something that’s possible for many restaurants. There are two primary ways to add additional revenue to a restaurant. One is to extend the hours that you’re open. Many restaurateurs shy away from opening for lunch, but it’s something that’s worth considering. There are a lot of people — more people than we usually give credit for — that prefer to go out for lunch rather than dinner, for one reason or another. Another potential revenue stream is hosting events. Could you host parties or weddings, for example? You may need to upgrade your space somewhat to bring it up to the standards of event hosting, but if you can do that, then you’ll find that there’s a lot of scope for boosting your income.   Finding Reliable Suppliers It’s not just the meals that you make; it’s the ingredients you use to make them. One of the best things that a restaurant can do is to take their time when it comes to their suppliers. This is true of all ingredients, but especially of fresh produce. It just has too big an impact on the overall quality of the meal to be left up to chance. As well as the quality, check reliability. There’s nothing worse than having to tell a customer that they can’t have their preferred dish, all because you don’t have the ingredients you need to make it. (It’s important to remember that this job isn’t just up to your suppliers: taking stock of your inventory will also help to prevent any problems from arising.) Monitoring Feedback It can be difficult to get feedback from a customer in most industries, but this isn’t the case in the restaurant world. One of the good (and bad) things about food is that everyone has their opinion, and won’t mind sharing it with you. This can help you to make any changes as you see fit. Of course, it’s not as if you should make changes based on one person’s feedback. However, if you find that you hear one thing over and over, then it’s probably worth listening! The Neighbourhood There are some highly important details that can have a tremendous impact on a restaurant’s success or failure. The location is one of them. While it is possible to succeed in a remote, out of the way location, the truth is that you have to be pretty special to succeed in those spaces. In most cases, your reputation must already be developed — the out of the way restaurants will be your second/third operation. For nearly all restaurants, it pays to be in the mix. You might have to spend more than you’d like on rent, but it’ll be worth it. If there’s a restaurant district in your corner of the world, then that’s where you’ll want to be.  Pushing Forward You might be experiencing a wave of success right now, but will it always be that way? Not necessarily. As with most industries, it’s important that you continue to push forward and develop. If you don’t, then it won’t be too long before it feels as if your best days are behind you. Pushing forward usually involves three things in the restaurant business. One is updating the menu. Another is updating the decor and your branding (for example, your signs, the physical menu, your restroom stalls, etc.).. The

If you run a business or have dreams of being a business owner, there are plenty of places you can learn from. Perhaps you know people personally who run their own businesses; perhaps you have been to college or university and have studied business; or perhaps you have worked in business all your life, building up your knowledge from experience. Whichever avenue you go down, you are bound to have formative experiences which help you lay the groundwork for your future business endeavours. Any experience with business – the good, the bad and the ugly – will form your knowledge and skill base which will help you down the line when you finally set up your own company. But when it comes to doing your own research, outside of education and personal experience, how can you learn about business? Well, look around and point to something. Nowadays, absolutely everything is wrapped up in business decisions – whether it’s healthcare, real estate, sport, technology or space travel! Even politics, scarily, seems to boil down to business decisions. While the increasing monetisation of everything around us seems frightening and isn’t necessarily beneficial for everyone, it does mean that as a prospective business owner, you can learn your lessons from the best of the best. Here are some examples of business decisions which teach a valuable lesson! Football Transfer Deals Football is one of the most lucrative industries in sport, and in that vein, you can take your business lessons from the transactional approach that footballers have to their teams. When it comes to transferring to a new team, the line between a business decision and an emotional decision becomes blurred. While some players are staunchly loyal to their teams for nostalgic or sentimental reasons, others choose their head over their heart. When it comes to learning from these decisions, it is important to look at deals that were almost made, as well as deals that were made. The biggest transfer deadline deals in football often never happened at all; reading why these decisions were not taken is just as valuable as learning from those who took the plunge. Ethical Consequences When business decisions and the media collide, the consequences can be pretty huge. Especially in today’s times, with the younger generations being keen to ‘expose’ companies who run unethical practices behind the scenes, it is hard to get away with any risky moves as a business owner. Fashion company BooHoo recently came under fire for underpaying their garment workers, which devastated their sales and harmed their reputation for life. As a business owner you can be subjected to trial by the media which can ruin your name. What’s the answer to this terrifying prospect? Simply run an ethical business, which pays its employees properly. If there are no skeletons in your closet, then you need not fear exposure.  Conclusion Learning about business can be done in your own experience or from outside research. With business decisions happening all around us every day, there is no limit to the lessons that can be learned, simply by looking around and taking notice.