Making Success Out Of Your Restaurant

Running a restaurant is an apparently glamourous and inherently challenging business, which on the whole can be very exciting and thrilling for the restaurateur and her/his staff provided they have a passion for foodservice.

- Jhuma Biswas

Look Before You Invest

However, before running a restaurant comes the challenges of opening a restaurant. Before opening a restaurant several factors need to be taken into account. According to Nandini Neeraj, the Proprietor of Mother India & Bokan Cafe, “There are many factors that need to be considered before investing in a restaurant business, but the three core factors that matter the most are location, concept and a strong & experienced team.”

The right location is definitely one of the most important factors for opening a restaurant business. For example, opening a fine dining restaurant in a lower-middle-class locality or in an unauthorized colony in the city will be a losing proposition. Similarly, it is not advisable to open a restaurant focused on exotic cuisine, say Greek or French cuisine, in an area where the majority of the people are not expected to have much global exposure.

Especially, in the competitive and continually evolving organized foodservice industry of India, the concept of the restaurant also needs to be sharply defined and of course, food & beverage, ambiance, décor, music and even uniform of the staff of the restaurant operating in the organized sector should also ideally align with the concept. This holds especially true for a theme restaurant. Unless the proposed restaurant’s concept is precisely defined, the restaurateur shouldn’t embark on the restaurant business, especially if her/his restaurant is expected to operate in the organized sector of India’s foodservice industry.