It is one thing that you love good food and love it even more to cook your specialty food items for your friends and family. And it is completely a different thing planning to pursue this interest professionally and take it up as a full-time entrepreneurial option. With a commercial setup comes plenty of challenges that involve managing finances, getting capital for the start-up, finding the right team, understanding the market need, knowing what others in the market are doing, deciding how to reach the right group of people, etc. So, when it comes to opening up a restaurant business, you need to pay attention to lots of minute details – it is not restricted to only deciding the menu and the price. There are aspects related to designing the restaurant, selection of a suitable location, keeping costs under control, choosing sustainable methods of operation and so and so forth.
While every situation will have its own set of factors to consider, here are few that apply generically to all situations pertaining to a food and beverage concept development:
1. The market segment that you plan to cater to. It has two aspects to it –
The first one is the locational aspect which means that you should be convinced of the locality that you chose to open your restaurant business. Remember, most of your customers will be from this area or nearby.
The second aspect is the customer profile that you want to target – because that will decide the type of restaurant business that you would eventually open up – whether it will be a food truck or a fine-dining restaurant or a bistro or a mid-scale dining option, etc.
2. The taste, preference and expectations of your target customers. While it is true that in modern times most people like to experiment with lots of different cuisines and food items, it is also equally true that you need to be completely sure that your cuisine and menu items will be able to attract customers time and again, on a consistent basis so that you are able to get good yield. You should ideally spend some time researching this or involve a trained agency to do so.