When you find that strategic site, the perfect location, you’re already halfway to achieving success. It’s important to remember that a restaurant’s location is as important to its success as great food and service.
While still in the business planning stage, it’s important to take the time to consider just what and where your ideal place should be. You should really put location at the top of your to to-do list and start looking right away.
Bearing this in mind, here are seven key factors in the search for the best restaurant location for you and your successful business.
1. Accessibility
The perfect restaurant location is not necessarily the city center or near a tourist attraction. One critical factor to incorporate in your search is that — depending on your location — your restaurant should be easily accessible by car and/or has plenty of foot traffic as well.
Another consideration is that your restaurant location should be easy to explain on the telephone as well as in your advertising and posters (Not more than two lines!). Make it easy to find.
2. Parking Lot
You need to attract new customers, but if you don’t have a parking lot nearby, your restaurant will suffer the effects. Few customers will consider the presence of a parking lot a determining factor in choosing one restaurant over another, but nevertheless, when a customer has a hard time finding a parking spot nearby, you’re losing out.
And it’s important to remember the difficulties disabled people in wheelchairs may encounter trying to get to your restaurant.
As a final consideration on parking, remember: Customers want to feel safe, and added to that, they want to park their car where they can have little worry that someone will dent or scratch their vehicle while they’re dining. A scratched vehicle means you’re unlikely to see that customer again.
3. Is your target there?
If you have read “How to identify a restaurant’s target customer“, you should know about the focus on finding the right niche for your business. You have to be sure that your niche is right for the people who are likely to come to dine at your restaurant.
If you want to open a classy restaurant, does it make a lot of send to open it in an area frequented by young people? If you put up an informal restaurant and entertain customers with live music until late at night, would you open in a quiet residential area?
4. Competition
Stores with plenty of competitors around can create foot traffic. In the case of restaurants, this can affect your revenue. It’s a good idea to check out the neighborhood to see if there are other restaurants nearby.
It’s important to avoid price wars or other conflicts and trouble. Furthermore, being compared to another restaurant day after day is exhausting. The best way for you is to try to have your own personality and differentiate your restaurant from all the others. In that way, you not only have a unique business but show respect for the other enterprises in the area.
5. Transportation
If you’re seeking your fortune in the food and beverage field in a large city like London, you’re fortunate in that just about any place has nearby transportation. But if you choose to locate in a small city, it’s important to consider public transportation.
Not everyone drives a car, and even vehicle owners often prefer to leave their car at home to avoid parking problems. They come to the city center area via public transportation.
Many tourists too, use public transportation so you want to locate where customers can have easy access to your entrance.
6. Size does matter
The size of your restaurant should fit in with your concept.
If you plan to open an informal fast pizzeria, a small space may be just right. If you’re planning a classy restaurant with more expensive menu offerings, then a dining room that is too small with crowded tables may spell doom from the start and you’ll quickly become another bankrupt statistic.