Starting and Running a Restaurant (Idiot's Guides)

Description

Around 90% of all new restaurants fail in the first year of operation. Many owners think they have the perfect idea, but they have terrible business plans, location, or other issues. Idiot's Guides: Starting and Running a Restaurant shows budding restauranteurs the basics of honing in on a concept to gathering start-up capital to building a solid business plan. You will also learn how to choose a great restaurant location, select an appealing design, compose a fantastic menu, and hire reliable managers and staff. In this book, you get: • Introduction to basic requirements of starting a restaurant such as time management, recognizing your competition, choosing your restaurant concept, and making it legal. • Information on building a solid business foundation such as a solid business plan, a perfect location, where to find investors, and securing loans. • Suggestions on how to compose the perfect menu, laying out the front and back of house and bar, and choosing the must-have necessities such as security alarms and fire prevention. • Techniques on how to hire and train your staff, purchasing or renting supplies, understanding costs and setting up your financial office, and using social media as a marketing tool. • Secrets for keeping your customers returning, running a safe restaurant, managing employees, and building your PR sales plan. • Pre-opening checklists to ensure everything is ready by opening day. Operational checklists and forms a successful restaurateur will need to manage their restaurant. Review: I hoped this book would be useful to help my husband and I understand the basics ... - Preparing to open our own small venue, I hoped this book would be useful to help my husband and I understand the basics of the industry. Flat out, the book exceeded my expectations, and I highly recommend it to anyone embarking on starting their own restaurant. WHAT I LIKED: The book outlines step-by-step what a new restauranteur needs to know, what to expect and how to accomplish the myriad tasks of opening a restaurant. It's really well organized and intelligently written, outlining the necessary tasks, in order. And there is a ton to know! Each element of the process is colored by the experiences of expert restauranteur Jody Pennette (a restaurant consultant with over 300 restaurants to his credit). Unlike other books I've read -- where the expert is god-like and infallible -- this book uses Pennette's successes AND failures to illustrate its points. It provides call-outs, defining industry terms, noting potential pitfalls and includes sidebars with extra facts/important items of note. WHAT I LOVED: The book is knowledgeable, super easy to read -- and entertaining. I felt like every paragraph offered great insight and advice. Especially noteworthy: The chapters on choosing a location and negotiating your lease. And the appendices-- which include a preopening checklist and other operational checklists and forms. If you're thinking of opening your own venue, buy this book. It's a great investment. Review: Great item - Just as described and a great read