Compile Your Restaurant Opening Checklist

If you are thinking about branching out into the world of food service and getting ready to set up your first establishment, you need to compile a restaurant opening checklist to make sure that you do not miss anything during these vital stages. Extra preparation now will really pay off when you open the doors, as when the pressure is on you do not want to be thinking about fundamentals, but rather focusing on daily operations.

Once you have decided your location and theme, high on your restaurant opening checklist should be an analysis of your menu compilation. Not only will recipes allow you to calculate the real cost of the food that you need, but it will also determine the exact specification of your kitchen equipment and gear. Make sure that you have been comprehensive at this stage, as you will not want to buy or lease gear and find that you have misinterpreted and have to refit.

To operate efficiently any business must be orientated and laid out correctly. Your floor plan should be designed on paper to ensure that you have the most efficient flow of traffic to maximize potential revenues. Make sure that you have the maximum number of tables, but that they are laid out so that guests may come and go without any feeling of constraint and so that the staff may do their work efficiently.

You need to compose a comprehensive and sensible business plan and attach it to your restaurant opening checklist. Once you have your floor plan, menu, equipment and layout settled, your stakeholders will be very interested in your plans. Always be sensible and realistic when presenting to your investors, financiers or other stakeholders.

Whatever business you choose to operate, you will find that cash flow is a very important element. Some people do not realize that it may take up to a year before you see a positive cash flow and will come under close scrutiny throughout this time. Therefore your restaurant opening checklist must incorporate a sensible and workable financing plan as a priority.

As you want to make sure that you do not open yourself to particularly bad publicity, you must be sure that you are in compliance with a variety of county, local and state code regulations. Attach these, together with all your professional licenses to your restaurant opening checklist and make sure that they are comprehensive and inclusive before you start.

In a restaurant, you need to avoid downtime as much as possible as this can be very problematic as you can imagine. Therefore, when you are ready to open, make sure that you have surrounded yourself with as many advisers and professional contractors as you can. These need to be solid and reliable and people who you can tune to at short notice. Your restaurant checklist should have names and direct phone numbers at the top.

Sometimes the restaurant opening checklist is the most confusing element of this operation. If you find that you need advice, especially if this relates to publicity and marketing, you should seek out one of the qualified and skilled online consultants to help you put this all together.