Hot pot is one of the easiest to copy models in Chinese food. I have also opened a hot pot restaurant for more than 10 years. I would like to share some experiences with you. I hope some preparations and procedures for opening a store can help you.

1. Psychological preparation before opening a store

To open a hotpot restaurant, you must be prepared to endure hardships for a long time. Many people who want to open a store only see "good cash flow, good returns" "more ideal" benefits, while ignoring the hardships of this industry.

2. Be prepared to "get out of the relationship misunderstanding"

Some people hold the thought of "I have many connections and friends, and how much do my friends and I eat out in a year?" "How many" and other ideas to open a store. In fact, the catering industry is a real market industry, and relationships can only be the icing on the cake, but cannot provide help in times of need.

3. Be prepared to "beware of time bombs"

There are two time bombs hanging high at all times in the catering industry - fire safety and food hygiene. Firefighting work must not be sloppy, and you must be careful when using fire, electricity, and oil in the kitchen. Once an accident occurs, you will not only suffer economic losses, but also bear criminal liability; and if you do not pay attention to food hygiene, it will lead to food safety groups. Sexual incidents, companies will also suffer disaster. Haidilao is also very cautious about food safety. My store has also been undergoing fire safety rectification for a period of time, so fire safety and food hygiene? You really can't be careless.

4. Fund preparation before opening a store

To engage in traditional catering in a first-tier city, it must have a certain scale to facilitate market competition, because the competition in the hot pot industry is becoming increasingly fierce. The size of single stores is also getting larger and larger, and the living space of small stores has become increasingly limited.

Currently, a hot pot restaurant with an area of ??400-600 square meters and 40-60 tables needs to prepare approximately 600,000 yuan of funds, including at least 7 months’ rent (including half a year’s rent and The amount is equivalent to a deposit of one month's rent), decoration, facilities and equipment purchase, staff recruitment and training, early advertising and other expenses. At the same time, about 100,000 yuan of funds for turnover must be prepared.

5. Store selection

If you choose a good store, the success rate of a hot pot restaurant will exceed 50%. However, site selection takes a lot of time and energy, because mature business districts have already been occupied, and new business districts are relatively immature and require time to be "grown."

Generally speaking, a good business district has the following characteristics:

1. Larger resident and floating population

2. Concentrated dining areas

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3. Sufficient parking spaces

Usually a 400--600 square meter hot pot restaurant requires at least 30 parking spaces. If it is not ideal, you must give up; the advertising space and door image are better; The internal structure of the house is relatively reasonable, and there should not be too many pillars, otherwise it will cause obstacles to decoration and layout and affect the effective business area; the floor height should not be too low, and should be above 2.8 meters; the distribution and income of customers within 2 kilometers around the store and Consumption habits must conform to market positioning.

After intentionally selecting a business district, a series of inspections must be conducted. It will take at least a month to inspect the flow of people and vehicles at noon and evening. Check whether the surrounding buildings have air conditioning, whether there is a lot of domestic garbage, how many lights are on at night, etc. In addition, all surrounding competitors must be analyzed, such as the size of the brand's catering, decoration style, dish quality, per capita consumption, management and service levels, and business conditions. Pay attention to the operating conditions of the catering companies in these areas at different times, and conduct careful inspections at noon and evening from Monday to weekends. In order to find out the details, you have to eat your opponents for several rounds.

6. Hot pot restaurant decoration

The environment will affect people's mood, thus subtly affecting the taste of hot pot. In the past, popular hotpots with a per capita price of less than 30 yuan often only focused on the taste and ignored the environment. Earthen stoves, earthen pots, earthen benches and cookie-cutter shops were boring or even depressing.

But as we all know, decoration is a "bottomless pit" that can be deep or shallow. For a popular hot pot restaurant, how to make highlights with limited investment and make people feel different as soon as they enter is a complicated matter. things.

A well-decorated hot pot restaurant has rich themes and connotations. Customers can feel the unique cultural influence and sentiment, combine eating and entertainment, have strong participation, and have a relaxed and harmonious atmosphere. For example, the store eliminates people’s stereotypes that popular hotpots are too generous and not delicate enough, and let people feel the fashionable changes of hotpots: fashionable and jumping appearance, using metal, glass and other materials in the internal environment and details, spacious and bright, Set off a stylish dining atmosphere; you can choose stools from IKEA supermarkets, which cost 70 yuan each, which is not expensive, but comfortable to sit on; you can also customize colorful sofas to create a fashionable and casual hot pot bar feel. This bright color, The bright space makes customers feel brighter.

I would like to emphasize that a hot pot restaurant with an area of ??400-600 square meters usually takes 2-3 months to install. When renting a house, be sure to agree with the landlord that the rent will be free during the 3-month renovation period. In addition, the clothing of hot pot restaurant staff must be consistent with the decoration style.

7. Recruitment and training of employees

Catering is a labor-intensive industry. Recruitment is difficult and employees are not very skilled. Therefore, a hot pot restaurant of 400--600 square meters requires About 50 employees are prepared (normal configuration requires 50-60 people). Moreover, in order to save time, the recruitment and training of employees must be carried out while the decoration is being carried out.

The first thing to recruit is management personnel, including store managers, front office managers, supervisors, chefs, finance, warehouse management, and purchasing. To examine their work experience and experience, try to go to the places where they have worked. Because some people are good at talking but not good at doing practical things, while some people are not good at expressing but are very capable. Therefore, it is necessary to go through many aspects of inspection to fully understand their work ability and professionalism.

After the management personnel are determined, other personnel such as greeters, bar staff, waiters, waiters, cooks, parking attendants, cashiers and cleaning staff will be recruited.

After recruiting employees, they also need to solve the problems of food and housing. It is necessary to rent several houses for 50 employees near the hot pot restaurant, with bunk beds. Generally, a house with three houses can accommodate 10-15 people; for meals, staff meals are made or packed lunches are purchased.

8. Purchasing

There is a saying in the industry: "There are money everywhere, and there are holes all over." The previous sentence means that the water and waste generated by a hot pot restaurant after normal operation Cardboard, wine bottles, bottle caps, etc. can all be exchanged for money; the latter sentence means that if you waste a little money and use a little oil in all aspects of the kitchen, and "go a little further" in the purchasing process, it will lead to "looking like a good business." , but the boss can’t make money” phenomenon.

Purchasing is an important link in catering management. Usually, the purchasing personnel are usually the boss’s relatives or close associates. However, Red Meal Micro Magazine believes that the most important thing is the management system and methods. Otherwise, it will take a long time. Anyone who can be trusted will have problems. In the early stages of business opening, it is best for the boss to do the purchasing work himself. There are four benefits - understanding various products; understanding the conditions of various markets; clarifying prices; and learning to identify the quality of products.

Due to the alarming increase in raw material prices in recent years, as an operator, you must go to the market at any time to understand the market situation to understand price changes, and you must also pay attention to the yield rate of raw materials. For example, enoki mushrooms with the same price and weight may sometimes have different quality due to different manufacturers, resulting in different servings. The same product will also have different production rates in different hot pot restaurants.

9. Hot pot pricing

The catering industry has long bid farewell to the era of huge profits and has become a low-profit industry.

In the past year, in some first-tier cities, not only the cost of hot pot dishes has increased by 30%, but the raw materials have also increased significantly. In particular, the raw materials for hot pot bases have increased significantly. The price of dried chili peppers has doubled, and the price of dried Sichuan peppercorns has also increased. 30%, coupled with the increase in cooking oil, it used to cost only 7 or 8 yuan to fry a pot of hot pot base, but now the price of a pot of base has exceeded 10 yuan, but no hot pot restaurant dares to risk losing customers. Risks arising from the source have taken the lead in raising prices, and the gross profits of hot pot companies have dropped significantly. In addition, in recent years, rising housing prices, rising wages for service industry employees, and rising water and electricity prices have further compressed the profit margins of hot pot companies.

In the case where the gross profit margin of popular hot pot is not high, the pricing of dishes has become a very sensitive issue. If the price is too high, although most customers will not speak up, they will be dissatisfied and will not be satisfied next time. I won't patronize it anymore. Here is a method for reference: the dish evaluation team decides whether to promote and price each new dish. This team is amateur and changes at any time. It is composed of taxi drivers, factory workers, housewives, white-collar workers, private enterprise bosses, government officials, etc. It is composed of officials, famous gourmets, etc., who have full right to make suggestions on the portion size and price of the dishes.

10. Cost Control and Energy Saving and Consumption Reduction

Friends entering this industry are reminded to proceed with caution, especially when opening a single store. The expenses of a hot pot restaurant include rent, water and electricity, employee wages, taxes, miscellaneous expenses and advertising expenses. Every method must be used to save energy and reduce consumption and reduce some controllable expenses. For example, after guests in a certain area leave, lights, air conditioners, and exhaust fans should be turned off without affecting other customers. Miscellaneous expenses including office, purchasing, transportation, transportation, maintenance, etc. should also be saved as much as possible. Before making publicity, it is necessary to discuss repeatedly with senior food journalists to determine the publicity plan, media and price. While ensuring the effect, ensure that every penny is spent wisely.

11. Reference for flow design of hot pot restaurant kitchens

1. Transparency of the production area

Many concepts in Western food can be applied to hot pot The wide and fully open product display cabinet makes the kitchen no longer a place to avoid guests, but has become the best platform for interaction and improving the restaurant's confidence.

Each hot pot ingredient, such as enoki mushrooms, lettuce, seafood, etc., is served in a regular plate, with pictures and texts, and the outside waiter prepares it according to the order, which not only saves dedicated service personnel, but also saves kitchen time. Labor costs.

2. Detailed design of food delivery

Put a stainless steel sliding stem next to the display cabinet, and put the carriage directly on it. The products can be easily and effortlessly placed on the tray after taking out the food. , thus reducing labor intensity and improving work efficiency.

3. Connection between various areas of the kitchen

The back of the operation area can be a refrigerator and a freezer, and the front can be a material display area. The operating staff can completely control the entire food supply based on the sales situation. .

On one side of the display area, you can place warm products, such as sweet soup or soup. On the other side, you can steam snacks, which echoes the operating area, and the entire product is in order.

The dishwashing area and the rough processing area are together, and the entire vegetable cleaning and dishwashing area staggers the work peak, which saves space.

4. Self-service of sauces and drinks

You can enjoy all kinds of special sauces, drinks, and fruits in a self-service way, which will attract many customers to return. The unique decoration style of the restaurant makes the dining environment more relaxed and free, which is more in line with the style preferred by young people today.

12. Relevant documents required

"Catering Business License", "Business License", "Health License", "Health Certificate", and other requirements for opening a hotpot restaurant Certificates issued (according to different places, legal registration procedures and procedures for fire protection, environmental protection, urban management, etc.).

But first, the poster needs to determine whether it is a self-employed business license or a corporate business license.

If it is a self-employed business license, the general steps are as follows:

1. First go to the industrial and commercial department to get the "Name Pre-Approval Notice" (confirm the name of your hot pot restaurant), and consult at the same time To the industrial and commercial department, tell them the business area of ??your hotpot restaurant and see if fire protection is required.

2.. Take the original and copy of the "Notice of Pre-approval of Name" and other information (the real estate certification document of the hot pot restaurant business premises and a copy of the lease contract, ID card and copy etc.), go to the local health and epidemic prevention department to apply for a "Catering Business License" (or "Food Hygiene License"). The person in charge on the business license needs to obtain a health certificate. At least two people in a hot pot restaurant need to obtain a health certificate. Health certificate (this is very simple)

If it is a company business license, the general steps are as follows:

The first step of the application process is to approve the name

Time: 1-3 Working days

Operation: After determining the company type, name, registered capital, shareholders and capital contribution ratio, you can go to the Industrial and Commercial Bureau to submit an application for verification on-site or online.

Result: The name verification passed, if failed, the name needs to be re-verified.

The second step is to submit information

Time: 5-15 working days

After the name is approved, the address information, executive information, and business scope will be confirmed. Submit a pre-application online. After passing the online pre-examination, go to the Industrial and Commercial Bureau to submit application materials according to the scheduled time.

Result: Received notification of approval of establishment registration.

The third step is to obtain the license

Time: On the day of the appointment

Operation: Bring the notice of establishment registration and the original ID card of the person in charge to the Industrial and Commercial Bureau to collect the business license Original and copy of license.

Result: Receive business license.

Opening a hot pot restaurant probably involves these tasks. The more important thing when opening a hot pot restaurant is to operate and market your hot pot restaurant. You need to learn more. There are many online learning platforms now. I am using the Good Kitchen Alliance. Mini programs and public accounts are pretty good, the information above is relatively comprehensive, and some marketing methods are still practical. You can search for Good Kitchen Alliance on WeChat and use it yourself. The above information courses are all free. You can see if they are helpful to you.