When starting a new food business, the most common question is, “Where should you put a restaurant?”
Let us tell you that starting a new business is a project that requires planning so that it can thrive quickly and safely.
It is normal to make many mistakes if you do not have the necessary information to start, and that goes from buying useless tools to choosing the wrong location.
Today, we will deal mainly with the location point because it is perhaps the most crucial thing in setting up a restaurant.
Steps to Find the Perfect Location for a Restaurant
Next, we will enumerate the steps for you and develop each one later.
- Do not let yourself be fooled by the price.
- Make a list of possible areas.
- Do a zoning study.
- Compare locations in the area you chose.
- Schedule an appointment and study the premises.
- Study the contract and conditions.
- Start the installation of your restaurant.
Do not get carried away by the price
We understand that this happens because, in the beginning, some want to save a little money and invest it in places that they think are better.
However, even if you have a well-equipped restaurant with good food or service, it will not work if you reside in a good place.
Business Without Clients
The good look of your restaurant, good service, and good food is also crucial, but in order of importance, the location is first.
Suppose many places are cheap because the area they locate is possibly unprofitable. In that case, there are not as many potential clients, and it may even be an area that is not terribly busy because it is dangerous.
So do not let yourself be carried away only by the low prices of some places, you must pay attention to these and other aspects that we will tell you about later.
Make a list of possible areas
There are always different types of zones in which you can establish your restaurant, so you must consider the following:
First. The type of people who are or who frequent the area, that is, their socioeconomic level.
Second. What kind of institutions or jobs are in that area, such as schools, universities, hospitals, government departments, commercial plazas, and subdivisions?
Third. Although we told you earlier that you do not get carried away by the price, it is something that you should consider in the background, so you should also see the average price of the rent of the premises. Eye! It is not the cheapest, but the best cost according to the area average.
Do a zoning study?
The zone study helps define a lot of where to put a restaurant and consists of the following:
- From your list of possible areas, look for available locales.
- Make a list of the available places that you are interested in renting.
- Now, organize your time and visit each location on your list three times: morning, afternoon, and evening.
Visiting the premises in these three schedules will allow you the following: To be able to realize the number of people who transit near the possible local clients.
It will also allow you to know your client’s profile, that is, to see if they are office workers, students, families, professionals, etc.
Compare locations in the area you chose
You could find a bigger room than you expected, but that would involve possibly paying more than you had planned.
For this reason, you must compare the benefits granted by one or another option, not just choose the first one you see, because even in the period you select, better alternatives may appear.
Compare Options
The most important thing is that the place fits as much as possible to what you have in mind because if you do not, you will have to adapt your project to the conditions of the place, which implies changing many things (although sometimes that also works).
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