Jayanth Narayanan - Start Up Your Restaurant: The Definitive Guide for Anyone Who Dreams of Running Their Own Restaurant

START UP
YOUR
RESTAURANT

The Definitive Guide for Anyone
Who Dreams of Running Their Own
Restaurant

JAYANTH NARAYANAN
PRIYA BALA

For our parents, families, friends and everyone
who has contributed to this book

CONTENTS

I f youve always dreamt of having your own restaurant, then you are not alone. Running a restaurant is on the bucket-list of an astoundingly large number of people. You could, in fact, say its the food lovers equivalent of I must go bungee-jumping or I want to climb Machu Pichu. The restaurant business is a beguiling thing, luring people with the promise of adventure and euphoric highs. Even as you conjure up images of your own restaurant, you are most likely picturing it packed with happy people having a great time. What other workplace could be as much fun? In your dream restaurant scenario, while the gaiety swirls all round, youll be raking in the money as well.

In reality though, running a restaurant is far from the romantic, glamorous, cool pursuit its frequently made out to be. Weve learned that from our combined experience, coming from actually running restaurants and reviewing them for more than a decade.

There is no denying that owning and running a restaurant can be exhilarating, giving you the sort of gratification few businesses do. Those rewards, though, are hard won and belong only to those restaurateurs who convert that gleam in the eye into a successful business. Clearly, passion alone no matter how ardent is not enough to start a restaurant and make a success of it. Too many people, labouring under the misplaced notion that a love of food eating, cooking, serving it is the key to having a restaurant to call their own, dive in unaware of all that it really takes to start and run it as a profitable project.

In the course of our association with the restaurant industry and on account of our own forays into the business one which didnt quite take off and another which did and is growing apace we acquired sharp insights into the things that successful restaurants almost always get right, not to mention the mistakes most first-timers tend to make. It was to share these learnings with aspiring restaurateurs that the blog, The Restaurant Business in India, came into being. Its purpose was to help people avoid the early mistakes many inexperienced restaurateurs are prone to make. We have also seen big corporates investing in the restaurant business only to pull out a while later. Reliance Industries shelved their quick-service restaurant foray a year after making the announcement. Cavinkare from Chennai opened and shut down their restaurant business, Veg Nation, in about eighteen months. Seeing entities such as these failing in the restaurant business, despite having access to cash, resources and influence, made us realize that those getting into the business were making some wrong assumptions and underestimating the complexity of operating a profitable restaurant business. This, coupled with the huge interest in the blog and the flurry of questions it attracted from restaurant entrepreneurs, became the inspiration for this book.

We have written this book so that it can serve as a practical guide for anyone who wants to turn that oft-expressed desire of I want to have my own restaurant into a reality and make a success of it, while averting the errors of judgement new restaurateurs frequently display.

So if you are thinking about starting your own restaurant, heres what you need to do. The first step is to define your purpose, for this will determine the sort of restaurant you wish to create and the amount of time, effort and money you will invest in it. Once youve decided whether you wish to run a homey caf, launch the next big quick-service restaurant chain or build a temple for the worship of gastronomy and even gluttony! you will require an unambiguous concept for your food business. This book outlines all the options that are worth exploring.

The newbie restaurateur is bound to be overwhelmed by questions. How important, for instance, is a restaurants location and how does one pick the perfect spot? Our book will offer you some guidelines to help you choose.

An important question: who will put in money to help you set up? With start-ups and internet-first restaurants attracting enough venture capital to make news, how likely is it for a new business to get funding? We provide a reality check and point you to the most feasible options.

Come to think of it, finding the money is possibly an easier aspect of restaurant finances. How should you spend that money to run the business efficiently and profitably? Thats the tough part and well tell you how to create a business plan.

Ambience and interiors are crucial in attracting the right customers. While the design of your restaurant will vary based on the concept or the cuisine, weve also outlined the basics for the architecture and seating, with special emphasis on the layout of the kitchen and service areas.

Manpower is the next crucial aspect a new restaurant must address. How many people do you need and from where will you hire them? Headhunting in this business doesnt exactly happen in an organized way as is the case in sectors such as IT, manufacturing, sales, etc. and our tips and tricks for hiring will certainly come in handy, as will our guide to putting your supply chain in place.

Licences and permissions are crucial for your business to take off. You need the right paperwork, approvals and documentation before your restaurant opens for business. Some of these are complicated, and vary across cities. We tell you how to get these as well.

And since were in the twenty-first century, you might as well use superior technology to run your operations. Well give you a primer on improving efficiency in your day-to-day operations.

In totality, Start Up Your Restaurant will hand-hold you through the entire process, right until the launch of your project, and follow it up with the nuances of operating the restaurant efficiently and the various avenues you can explore to market it and grow your business.

In the following pages, youll also discover words of wisdom and mantras for success from some well-established names in the business. They speak from experience, offering valuable pointers for first-time restaurateurs on how to avoid the pit-falls and survive the vicissitudes of this trade. Their observations cover everything from financials to menu planning and standing up to competition.

We also interviewed restaurant entrepreneurs owners of multi-outlet chains, chefs-turned-restaurateurs and architects of hole-in-the-wall hits and had them recount their journeys from concept to creation and eventual success. These first-person accounts will certainly inspire everyone who wants to take this route, tricky as it may be to negotiate at times.

And now that eating out is clearly becoming a major lifestyle choice almost a weekend habit the food business in India is poised to skyrocket further and is brimming with possibilities.

Start Up Your Restaurant is your dependable board for riding this wave.

I should open a restaurant.

How frequently have you said that? Few people feel the same desire to start, say, their own bookstore, Montessori school or laundry. There is clearly something fascinating about owning and running a food business, be it a quaint caf, a take-away outlet or a gourmet destination. Its not unlike the hard-to-explain attraction one feels for someone else. Why does this infatuation happen and why are so many people drawn to this business?