Tips for Successfully Scaling Your Restaurant

If you’ve found success in the restaurant business, it’s natural to want to capitalize on it. Scaling your restaurant can be exciting but requires careful planning and timing. You don’t want to rush into things and ruin the progress you’ve made or tank your new ventures. When you scale your restaurant, you should have a strategy that optimizes your chance for success.

If you plan to scaling your restaurant, we have some great tips to help you get there. Remember to contact Superorder if you want an easy way to manage your restaurant operations and grow successfully.

Don’t Rush It

Rushing the process is one of the worst things you can do when trying to scale your restaurant. You want to time the market and do this the right way. If you give yourself a good foundation, your future efforts will be easier to manage. Make sure to take your time whether opening a new location, adding a delivery service, expanding your current space or any other expansion method.

It would help to ask yourself a few questions to ensure you’re ready for the demands of scaling your restaurant. Here are some questions that are worth asking to see if the timing is right:

• Do you know how you want to expand?
  • As mentioned, there are various ways to expand. Opening a new location is common, but it’s far from the only one to grow your restaurant business. Scaling up could mean serving breakfast when you previously only served lunch and dinner. Adding that service could be considered scaling if you don’t have delivery operations. It would help if you decided how you want to scale before enacting a plan. Some methods of expansion carry more risk than others, so it’s worth sitting down and considering your option
• Are you cash-positive?
  • If you’re not running a profitable restaurant, it’s likely not the best time for expansion. Your new venture will probably take some time to get off the ground, and it will take months or years to become cash positive. Ensure your current efforts are profitable before adding more to your plate.
• Is there a demand for expansion?
  • Are you constantly booked for dinner? Are you busy throughout the week with plenty of customers? If there isn’t demand for your current place of business, trying and drum up interest in a new venture won't make sense. If opening another location, you must ensure your current site is popular enough to warrant the expansion. You’ll also need to research the area you plan on opening a new restaurant to see if the demand is there for that location.
• Are you staffed for growth?
  • Remember that you will need to have enough staff for your new expansion. If you’re having trouble holding on to staff, that will not change for your new venture. It’s good to have a reliable team to start with, so you can start your further expansion. If you have happy employees, you can count on; it will be much easier to get through the early stages while hiring new staff. This is especially relevant to management. You’ll want a solid manager to run your new restaurant venture. This will make sure your new opening goes as smoothly as possible.
• Have you developed customer loyalty?
  • Loyal customers will help you get the new experience and make money early. If you have customers who love what you’re doing now, they will be interested in anything you do next. Market your new venture correctly so your loyal customers know you’re expanding. They will be the first people interested, so you want to hook them early.

If you confidently answered the above questions and feel optimistic about where you stand, you’re ready to move on to the following stages of growth planning. Let’s take a look at some other tips for scaling your restaurant.

Do Market Research

Before scaling up, it’s essential to do market research. You likely did plenty of market research when you opened your restaurant, but times have changed. Competitors expand into your area, and new trends emerge. Market research conducted years ago will no longer apply, so it’s essential to find out what the demand is like in your area. What are people interested in, and what are they wanting? What areas of your city would frequent your establishment?

Remember, expansion can mean a lot of different things. Maybe you’ve learned there’s a niche in your area that isn’t being filled. Just because your current restaurant isn’t filling that niche doesn’t mean you couldn’t try opening a new concept when you scale. The market research stage is your time to prepare and learn everything you can before making a significant investment in your expansion. As with every step of the process, you want to make sure you aren’t rushing here, either. Taking your time and making informed, data-driven decisions is going only to benefit you at this point.

Streamline Your Current Operations

When scaling up, you will be taking a hard look at your current operations and implementing some of your processes at a grander scale. While you’re making these changes, it’s the perfect opportunity to streamline things and fix anything that needs fixing. 

Are you finding that your delivery operations aren’t efficient? Or that your customers complain about long wait times? Now is the perfect time to dive into those issues and make actionable changes. Since you’re already investing time and money into a new venture, you might as well make things run as smoothly as possible in your already working restaurant. Plus, you can implement these changes as you scale up and open new restaurants, applying them everywhere.

You will also want to consider what operations and equipment your further expansion requires. If you’re implementing a new delivery menu, ensure your staff can execute it. The last thing you want to do is scale up and find yourself scrambling. Preparing your team will ensure things go smoothly and you can get off to a great start.

Find the Right Location

You will need a new location if you’re opening a new restaurant. Site is one of the most important considerations when scaling up because you’ll be locked into your lease for a set amount of time. Once you’ve started operating out of that location, it will be tough to pivot until later in the year. This is why it’s essential to scout out the ideal areas and ensure your concept will appeal to residents.

There are plenty of metrics to consider when determining your target market. Consider their age, income level and other considerations when trying to pick your location. For instance, if you want to open a fine-dining lunch restaurant, you may consider opening around businesses that need a place to bring clients. If you know your area well, this may be an easy step. But it’s always worth dedicating time to research to ensure you make the best decision possible.

Invest in New Technology

Finally, you will want to consider investing in new technology when scaling up. The right POS system can make a difference when you’re expanding. If you don’t already have a quality POS solution, now is the best time to upgrade. Even if you have a solid POS, you may want to look at other options. Your solution may not have the tools and features needed for more extensive operation.

There are numerous POS solutions, so you want to weigh your options and choose one that provides you with advanced features and benefits. A good POS should provide you with data, analytics, reporting, payment processing, delivery management, back-of-house tools and much more.

If you need help scaling your restaurant and choosing the right tools, Superorder can help.

Easily Manage your Operations With Superorder

Superorder is here to make managing your restaurant operations a breeze. We can help you choose the right technologies, implement them and get your restaurant running at maximum efficiency. Increase your profits, scale up and get the support you need with Superorder.