Step 1: Choose a storefront

Two places are the best choice

One is where there are many office buildings, and the other is where residents live densely. Choosing a place with more office buildings in the company can ensure business at noon. Some restaurants in Hangzhou often have too many empty seats at noon but not enough seats at night. Old catering is very concerned about whether the business can be done well at noon. This can ensure the benign operation of the day. In the commercial and residential area in the west of Hangzhou, big hotels are often not open well, but some small restaurants with characteristics are doing well.

there are many channels to choose a store. You can talk to the landlord through media advertisements, resale advertisements in front of stores, or directly find a newly developed house. Another way is to contact the store owner directly after choosing the general location, no matter what the other party is doing now. Although this method is tiring, it has a better effect.

You can take advantage of the effect of Duo Long.

Don't think that places with many shops are not suitable for entry. If there are many characteristic small restaurants in a street, it will cause the effect of Duo Long, and it is easier to do business than to do it alone. The key is to make a difference between so many stores and other stores.

Be careful when subletting storefronts

It is almost an open secret in the catering industry to earn part of the subletting fee when borrowing subletting. Therefore, newcomers must be careful when subletting other people's stores.

subletting stores should pay attention to some pitfalls: first, because the sublessor has encountered road demolition projects, it has been unable to open itself, and only wants to recover some initial investment by subletting. Therefore, when looking for a storefront, you must first ask the nearby stores carefully, preferably to the planning, housing management or industrial and commercial departments. If a place is about to be demolished, the local industrial and commercial office will generally be informed. Second, the original restaurant was restricted in sewage and fire fighting, and it was required by the relevant departments that it could no longer be opened, but the lessee did not know the inside story. After all the sublease fees were paid, it was found that it was impossible to open a shop here. This situation is most common in the downstairs of residential buildings. Third, if the other party can't provide the real estate license after renting it, the industrial and commercial office will not give the business license in this case. The fourth situation is that the other party sublets the store business after it is booming, and the purpose is only to earn the cost of subletting. There are some catering bosses in Hangzhou who like this operation. After taking over, I found that this store has gone into recession, and it is very difficult to make it prosperous again.

If a storefront is subletted one after another in a short period of time, you must also be very careful. There is a saying in the catering industry in Hangzhou: "A paralyzed restaurant is not good at feng shui", which mainly refers to the kind of storefront that has changed hands many times, and it is difficult to do it well again. Sometimes, this storefront looks like a lot of good features, but some hidden weaknesses are hard to see. For example, although it is located in the city center and has a large traffic volume, there are also many business buildings on the side. However, it may have problems such as inconvenient parking, inconvenient access, etc., and the result may be that business can't be done well.

step 2: product positioning

after selecting the facade, we will start product positioning. Take opening a 3-square-meter hotel as an example.

a safer way is to follow the trend of food popularity in a city. For example, Jinhua casserole was very popular three years ago. A casserole shop of more than 3 square meters can do business of 1, yuan a day. Gross profit can reach 5% and net profit is 3%-35%. Since last year, the business of Hang Cheng Restaurant has been booming. Seeing this consumer market, some bosses specialize in local spicy dishes in Quzhou, Jiangshan, Longyou and other provinces. For example, there is a "Quzhou Hometown Cuisine" at Wenhui Road, which caters to many spicy lovers and has its own local characteristics.

At present, the popular practice of small restaurants with Hang Cheng characteristics is to directly introduce local dishes from Zhejiang Province to open stores. For example, Jinhua Casserole Shop, Shipu Seafood Shop, Tonglu Restaurant, Dongyang Restaurant, Wenling Restaurant ... These characteristic small restaurants are so popular. Some are simply named after "Tujia cuisine". First, because there are many migrants in Hangzhou at present, especially people from all over the province come to Hangzhou. After opening small restaurants with local characteristics, they can attract a large number of fellow villagers first. For example, Yingshanhong Zhejiang Western Restaurant located at No.51 Stadium Road mainly serves western Zhejiang cuisine in Longyou and other places. According to the boss, home guests from Quzhou, Jinhua and other places account for two-thirds. The Green Valley family on Gudun Road is also a place where many people in Hangzhou Lishui have dinner.

if you are cooking special food outside the province, it is difficult to purchase the raw materials completely. At present, the transportation in the province is convenient and the purchase is convenient. Many small restaurants with local flavors and even common vegetables are also shipped from the local area.

with positioning, you can determine the name of the store and customize the menu. It is simple and obvious to name the store directly with the featured main dishes or place names. For example, "roasted chicken", "boiling fish" and "Tonglu hometown dishes", or directly naming the store by the place name, both of these effects are good.

Step 3: Decoration

After determining the storefront and positioning, the decoration can be carried out. The consumer demand of customers is rising, and the position of storefront environment in restaurants has become higher and higher. A good environment can sometimes be the key factor for the success or failure of opening a store. Three or four years ago, some large restaurants in Hangzhou won in one fell swoop with cheap and luxurious environment. Since the end of last year, many small and medium-sized restaurants in Hangzhou have also started to make a fuss about the environment.

How is the storefront environment? It doesn't mean that the more you invest, the better. It depends more on the design. Sometimes, designing a mud wall with little money to reflect the positioning of Tujia cuisine can attract customers. Since last year, there have been some high-grade and exquisitely decorated restaurants in Hangzhou, which have done well in business, largely because the environment is superior to others.

Decoration is a very complicated process. Restaurant decoration is different from ordinary family decoration, and it also involves professional issues such as environmental protection and fire protection. Please invite professionals during the decoration process, and it is best to find a chef or someone with restaurant management experience to take charge before the decoration starts. They can provide many suggestions.

Step 4: Recruit people

Talent is also a key link in the success of a restaurant. The staff in the restaurant is divided into two parts, one is the chef, and the other is the waiter, who is responsible for the kitchen production and the front office service respectively.

the number of staff in the kitchen of a 3-square-meter restaurant depends on the number of dishes. Generally, more than ten people are enough, including cooking, chopping (side dishes), loading (chores) and washing vegetables. However, some kitchens use 3 people, such as a Chinese hotel on Zhongshan Middle Road. Because of its high-end positioning, the variety of dishes ranges from Chinese dishes to various west points, and the production requirements are also very high. Naturally, the number of people needs to increase exponentially, but here, the price of vegetables is 6% to 7% higher than that of ordinary restaurants.

There are four common ways to find a chef: First, the boss orders directly. This method is mainly suitable for small restaurants. The boss goes to a restaurant that is similar to his own position. If he thinks the food is better, he tries to dig people directly in this store. The advantage of a chef is that the boss can understand the skills of each chef and maximize their respective values. In Hangzhou, the salary of a chef in a restaurant is generally around 3, yuan, while that of a chef is more than 1, yuan.

In Hangzhou, another way is through Hangzhou Catering and Hotel Industry Association, where free chef introduction service can be provided. The guild will also give simple guidance on how many people are needed in the newly opened kitchen. The telephone numbers are 87216673 and 87216674.

another way is to contract others to do it. After finding a chef, the chef is responsible for recruiting people. For a 3-square-meter hotel, depending on the variety of dishes and the positioning of grades, the monthly contract fee for the chef is 1, to 4, yuan, which is used to pay the salaries of kitchen staff. The boss will sign a contract with the chef to ensure the production and gross profit rate of the dishes, and at the same time ensure that the health inspection and fire inspection of the competent department must pass the customs. This way, it is more worry-free for the boss, as long as you control a chef. The disadvantage is that if the boss doesn't manage the chef well, once the cooperation with the chef is over one day, the whole class in the kitchen will have to change, which will have a great impact on the operation of the whole restaurant. Moreover, if someone is invited to contract the kitchen, the chef can earn more money only by deducting more wages from the kitchen staff.

the fourth way is to ask the catering management company to do it. As the catering market in Hangzhou matures, a number of professional catering management companies have emerged, such as celebrity catering management companies, which not only have their own investment in celebrity hotels, Zhonghao typhoon shelter, Piarchuan and other hotels, but also export kitchen management to more than 3 large, medium and small hotels. Hangzhou Baoshan Village Restaurant Management Company, after opening its own direct store, also began to manage the restaurants outside. The bosses of these companies are mostly chefs and have a good experience in kitchen management. Catering management companies generally have their own direct chain stores, and there is a relatively stable team of chefs below. Inviting them to manage the kitchen seems to be similar to personal kitchen contracting, and the responsibilities are similar. The advantages are: the salary of individual kitchen contractors to the following employees is arbitrary and often changes, which affects the stability of the chef team. After corporate management, this operation is more transparent, and management companies often bring in some new dishes.

Step 5: Customize the equipment

Kitchen equipment includes three major items and small items in the kitchen: electrical appliances (mainly refrigerators), stoves, and loading tables. Recommended places of purchase by senior chefs: Hangzhou Ceramics Market and specialty store on Qiutao Road.

Small items mainly refer to hardware: stainless steel bowls and basins, chopping boards, spatulas, etc. The place of purchase is in the ceramics market and specialty store. If you want to find a cheaper place, you can go to Hangzhou East Station Commodity Market, Yiwu Commodity Market or Yongkang Hardware Market. As long as the counter-offer is in place, the prices of goods in these places can be cheaper by more than one third.

customer's chopsticks: you can go to the ceramics market or specialty store. If the restaurant has a high positioning and is good at its characteristics, you can customize the dishes and chopsticks that match the characteristics. If it is a stall-type restaurant, some people will buy second-hand goods in order to save the initial investment as much as possible. Some big hotels often change their bowls and chopsticks. These changed bowls and chopsticks are taken to some restaurants, and the goods still look good. Some shopkeepers will contact these hotels in advance and can buy them at a very low price.

for people who have never worked in the catering industry, the chef is usually responsible for guiding the equipment procurement after finding the chef. This is very important, because there are many kitchen equipments in the market. Some kitchen equipments look useful, but they are not very useful. Experienced chefs know best what equipment to use.

another thing to note is that some storefronts are equipped with kitchen equipment when they are built. Such equipment is not designed and equipped according to the restaurant you want to open, so renting it often costs a lot of money for nothing.

sublet hotels can sometimes dispense with this purchase procedure, but in many cases, when they are actually put into operation, they will find that some equipment can't be used, so they have to invite professionals to see them before making a decision. Otherwise, we have to throw away the old equipment and pay a large sublease fee for nothing.

If you want to save more money on buying three big items, one way is to go to the second-hand market on Shaoxing Road in Hangzhou, which depends on luck. Sometimes there are complete sets of kitchen equipment here, some are in stock and some are second-hand. Another way is to find kitchen equipment manufacturers directly. At present, many kitchen equipment manufacturers recycle some old hotel equipment while selling new goods. Buying these second-hand goods through them saves two-thirds of the money compared with buying brand-new equipment.

Step 6: Purchasing raw materials

After the opening of the small shop, the boss grasped the purchasing link most firmly. In many restaurants, the boss also serves as a buyer and cashier, which ensures that the money flows in and out. Even if you can't do it yourself, you should find a close friend to do these two jobs.

drinks and seasonings:

way 1: go to the food market and supermarket to buy them yourself. The freedom of choice is relatively large, because cash settlement can sometimes choose some cheaper prices.

method 2: directly let professional companies contract, which is the most common practice. All drinks and seasonings are contracted and supplied by a company, which is responsible for delivery at any time. One of the main reasons why bosses take a fancy to this method is that they can hang accounts. The general practice in the industry is to settle accounts one to two months after delivery. Professional companies also have a certain sales rebate, which depends on the difference in sales volume. If the sales rebate is added, the purchase cost will not be more expensive than going to the market and supermarket. The proportion of rebate is as low as 5% of sales, and as high as 12%. It depends on you to talk to the supplier yourself. Some restaurants do not accept rebates, but ask suppliers for entrance fees. Some people in the industry think that this practice has many disadvantages, and the interests between suppliers and restaurants cannot be tied together, and cooperation will not be as close as rebate sales.

waiters are happy to accept the delivery from professional companies, because they can get the corkage fee, which is stipulated by the industrial and commercial department as a commercial bribe. In a restaurant with four or five salespeople, if the business is good, a waiter can receive seven or eight hundred yuan a month for bottle opening. Waiters in some big hotels can't collect the corkage fee themselves, but in such small hotels, the boss will let the waiters collect the corkage fee directly, with the aim of encouraging the waiters' enthusiasm for work.

Ingredients:

Frozen shrimp, fish and other aquatic products. If you want to choose good quality aquatic products, you can go to large supermarkets, such as Metro and Trust-Mart. Most of the fresh aquatic products are purchased in Jinjiang agricultural and sideline products market and Nongdu aquatic products market. For a small shop, the daily consumption of vegetables is not large, and the owner will go directly to the nearest farmer's market to purchase goods. After a long time, the stall owner is relatively fixed, allowing the supplier to deliver the goods to the door. Some shopkeepers want to do business with regular stall owners, deliver goods to their homes, and pay their bills. However, it is best for bosses to go to the market often in person, both for replenishment and to look at the new raw materials in the market and understand the price.

Purchasing tips for food stalls: When the market goes down, you can buy some dishes at a very cheap price and take them back for sorting, which is still a pile of good raw materials.

Whether the raw materials are purchased well and the prices are cheap is very important for the operation of a restaurant. It is very important to have professional knowledge. Some bosses don't know the difference between good and bad raw materials at first, so it is necessary to bring a chef as an assistant. Especially the purchase of seafood, experience is very important. For example, the same metapenaeus ensis, different people buy it, and the price per kilogram may differ by 1-2 yuan. People who are good at it can see that metapenaeus ensis can keep these for a few days after buying them back. When purchasing seafood, many restaurant purchasing veterans will buy a small amount of seafood near the end of their lives, because the price of such seafood is two-thirds or more lower than the normal price. Buy it back as a promotional item and sell it to customers at a very cheap price. The result is often happy, which is also a business trick.

There are actually many restaurants with various flavors and characteristics in Hangzhou. How to make them authentic? Everyone began to open competition on raw materials, not only to see whose approach is authentic, but also to see whether the raw materials are authentic. In a well-done shop, most of the raw materials are directly imported from the local area.