Growing a bar or restaurant chain in the middle of a pandemic seems counterproductive. Rather than expanding your business and generating new revenue, you may end up focusing all your efforts on juggling the difficulties of managing a new business.
But you don’t have to do it alone. Utilizing technology properly can help make scaling easier than ever. Below are some tips you can use when you’re ready to launch a franchise or open a new restaurant location.
Evaluate Your Current Structure
Before you take on a new endeavour, check to see if your current business structure can handle it. If business is doing great, replicate your success by pinpointing what works and figuring out how to channel it into your expansion efforts.
To do this, start by auditing your business and identifying your competitive advantages. Audits provide a comprehensive overview of your business, giving you access to possible loopholes and bottlenecks that can stymie your expansion plans.
A good auditing and analytics platform will reduce errors, save time, and simplify the process. For example, it used to take FARSH restaurant, an average of four hours to complete a routine audit. But with the help of an automated platform, this process has been slashed in half, while still providing a comprehensive picture of their business.
This will give you an idea of the feasibility of scaling your business from an internal perspective. This brings us to the next step.
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Review External Factors for Potential Growth
After completing the necessary internal audits, your company might seem capable of handling its expansion, but you still have to review external factors that impact potential growth. This includes checking the market, finding a suitable location, and researching financing options.
Assess your target market and conduct a demographic survey to determine if your audience is ready for your expansion. And if they are, you can learn how to accommodate their needs. Another benefit of doing market research is being able to find a location for your new restaurant. If your restaurant caters more to after-work gatherings, find a location close to office buildings and business centers. If you operate a family-focused brand, a residential area would be more appropriate.
In the same vein, keep an eye on your competition. Leverage what you know about them. Analyze their competitive strengths and weaknesses, and use that to inform your own strategy.
If this seems like a lot, it’s because it is. If you’re doing it manually. Automation has streamlined the market research process by allowing more accurate repeatability of survey research. You can get feedback quickly by filling in a few parameters on an online survey template, rather than manually creating the survey time and time again.
Set Up a System of Consistency
Consistency is a key component of successful expansion. You need to ensure the same quality and experience for staff and customers across all locations.
Using the same tech stack across your operation will increase efficiency – just make sure to choose tools that support scalability. That means your tools can grow with you.
Give your employees a digital checklist they can use for managing business operations, maintaining food and service quality, and ensuring a clean environment. It will dramatically lower their chances of making mistakes, while also enhancing their efficiency and collaboration.
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Staff & Train Your Team Properly
Restaurant employees hold the key to your success. You need to find the right team to carry out your operations.
Hiring enough staff, and training them effectively, is essential. Great food won't matter if the service is poor. Below are some ways to find the right staff:
- Work with recruitment consultants. Recruiters can vet candidates and run background checks, saving you time and effort.
- Post on social media channels, such as LinkedIn. Try running ads to attract potential employees.
- Use job portals. These platforms attract candidates looking for immediate opportunities.
- Ask your current staff. They may know qualified candidates they can vouch for.
To deliver a first-class customer experience, hire qualified personnel, teach them, and provide them with the proper tools. Aside from doing valuable onboarding training, look into a task management platform to make collaborative work easier for everyone.
Embrace Innovative Marketing
Now for the fun part: Find creative ways to attract foot traffic to your new restaurant and stop relying on old-fashioned flyers. You can tap the power of the internet by having a solid social marketing presence.
Platforms like Facebook and Instagram have so many benefits from a marketing standpoint. For one, they can strengthen your local SEO, and even jumpstart word-of-mouth marketing. Imagine the impact of having one person rave about your stellar dish on Facebook and tag your page.
Their Facebook friends will be curious, and will check out your page. Make sure you have all the information they want readily available, including where your current (and upcoming!) locations are. If people have to hunt down information, they’ll never find it. Consider working with local social media influencers to gain online traction. Their content will reach a new audience, and hopefully encourage more people to check out your venue.
Other platforms, such as TikTok, allow you to post videos about your brand and update your existing fans. One good idea is to show your audience the process behind opening your new branch.
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Stay Committed
Early on, new locations tend to be less popular than the original location. But, if you nurture the outposts they’ll develop their own following. Give each restaurant or bar outlet the same attention, whether it’s your first, second, or twentieth.
Because you can’t be in every place at once, you can rely on a mobile retail management solution to keep tabs on your business, even from afar. This tool will ensure your establishment is sustainable and scalable, because you want your restaurant to operate on its own. While you wouldn't be able to monitor all the locations physically, the restaurant chain could still thrive.
Boris Shkolnikov is Chief Technology Officer at QVALON, a SaaS solution for retail companies that provides checklist automation and tracks store issues and tasks on mobile devices. Boris has more than 10 years of experience as an engineer and self-appointed serial entrepreneur, having previous roles with CROC and T-systems, as well as founding his own company, Mobile Dimension. He attended Moscow State Technical University and is the father of two amazing children and a competitive Ironman.
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