What Should an Operator Consider When Branching Out?

Any restaurateur who has opened a prosperous restaurant with a steady profit might want to branch out to capitalize on their success. However, quite a few find that opening new branches causes problems for first branch as well as the new branch because they can’t control the standard quality and manage the branches and this becomes a turning point for their business. If you’re planning on expanding your business, take a look at what you need to prioritize and do for your expansion to be successful

Your brand and concept need to be clear.

The first thing we want you to consider when branching out is having a clear brand and concept. For example, is the expansion going to be part of the first branch? If not, how different will it be? One of the factors you have to consider is the target customer group in the location where you’re planning your expansion. If the customers in that location are different from the customers in the first location, you have to research their behaviors and preferences. Can you still use the same concept as the first branch or do you need to adapt to meet the needs of the local customers?

It’s not completely necessary for the second branch to be a 100% copy of the first branch. You can make some changes, although they have to have the same branding and not turn into a completely different brand. For instance, if you own a ramen restaurant, the new branch should still be a ramen restaurant, although you can offer additional menu items and a different atmosphere from the first branch, etc.

You need a set standard with a system that anybody can follow.

Standards are very important when branching out. The reason a lot of restaurants have problems after branching out is they can’t control their standards and standards are established when you create work manuals or SOPs for each part first, whether it’s the recipe or preparation steps for each menu item, instructions for opening and closing the restaurant every day, steps for welcoming customers and seeing them out as well as how the employees conduct themselves, the sentences they have to say, how they should smile and the uniforms they wear.

You could say that you have to make an SOP for every detail in every department before branching out so that every branch will have the same work standards that you can control. You can learn how to manage your standards so your restaurant’s quality is consistent from greeting customers to servicing them, from preparing and flavoring food to get the same flavors and looks every time as well as establishing auditing standards in our free online course, click. 

Your kitchen and restaurant layout need to be completely planned out first

because the area of the new location might be different from your first branch. Therefore, you should prioritize the layout of the kitchen and restaurant. The kitchen’s layout, especially, is the number-one priority. For example, the kitchen area of your first branch might be big, allowing you to offer several menu items, even up to a hundred, but the new kitchen might be smaller, so you have to decide how many menu items you can offer to prevent problems in the kitchen and allowing for fast serving time. On the other hand, if the area is bigger, you’d have to plan which equipment you should add and where to put them to make the work flow.

The restaurant’s layout is also important. You need to decide what kinds of stations you should have and how to arrange your tables, such as tables for two, four, six or eight. Also, how many tables do you need to make moving them around convenient when you have to use them?

You can learn how to design a suitable kitchen on your own. The course teaches you the standard restaurant kitchen designs and how to arrange the kitchen area even with a small budget. If you want to sell well and branch out, you need to pay attention to the correct kitchen layout. Click to learn for free. 

Make a list of the equipment you need to buy and use.

Don’t think it’s not important to make a list of products or equipment because this is a very common problem: You open a restaurant and can’t find where anything is and the equipment is unprepared, causing obstruction of work. Therefore, don’t forget to make a list of equipment you need for the kitchen, storefront, restrooms and every station. Make a check list to make sure everything is ready.

For this issue, we want to give you a little tip: Before going out in search of the equipment on your list, take a look at your first branch to see if you have any equipment you’ve bought but don’t use that are on your list of things to buy for your new branch. Use them to save costs because a lot of times people expand and keep buying equipment without using them. That’s a waste.

Preparing Employees:

This is another very important issue requiring good planning because possible problems that can create an unnecessary financial burden include hiring employees too soon and not hiring enough employees because they apply for the job too late. Therefore, you need to make a hiring plan before opening a new branch. For example, hiring new employees for every position sixty days before opening, because you’re afraid that you won’t have time to train them if you hire them too late, is unnecessary and causes you to have to pay them unnecessarily.

You should accept applicants for some positions before opening. The restaurant manager and head chef, for example, can be hired sixty days before your restaurant opens to help you manage the work. As for the kitchen staff, there’s enough time to hire them thirty days before opening because you already have recipe SOPs. Just hire them to get them familiarized with the restaurant’s menu items and kitchen layout. As for the waiting staff, you can hire fifteen days before opening, because you already have work manuals to help speed up the training process. All of this can help you reduce employee costs before you open your restaurant to a degree.

If you want to learn how to manage your employees professionally as well as learn about the techniques for managing employees and recruiting employees, the suitable number of employees for your restaurant, the difference between service charge and incentive, the cons of docking employee

and managing your employee system and promotions, click here to learn for free.  

That’s about it for the things you need to consider when branching out. These are the major points that can affect the work we’ve provided so that you can branch out smoothly without encountering any major problems.