Many people dream of opening a fast food restaurant because it’s a lucrative business. Do you also wish to open a fast food restaurant, but you’re not sure where to begin? If so, you’ve come to the perfect spot. In this blog, we’ll provide you a tried-and-true ten-step guide on opening a fast food restaurant. Don’t miss the additional insights at the end of the blog to make your fast food business a complete success.
What is a Fast Food Restaurant?
Also known as a Quick Service Restaurant (QSR), a fast food restaurant is a specific restaurant that has a quick menu – serving eateries like burgers, pizza, rolls, etc. It is characterized by limited menu, repeatable operations, and memorable products across multiple locations. Major fast food restaurant chains are KFC, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, etc. In a fast food restaurant, orders are usually placed at the counter and food is served with a short turnaround time. Customers are required to pre-pay the order before the preparation even starts. Modern fast food restaurants offer a wide array of ordering methods – like online ordering, drive-thru, and self order kiosks.
How to Open a Fast Food Restaurant?
Now that you have a good clarity on the operations of fast food restaurants, let’s get to the step-by-step process to open a fast food restaurant.
1 – Identify Your Brand
Before opening up a fast food restaurant, it is important to understand and create a robust brand identity for your business. The brand identity must be such that it resonates with your target audience. Your brand should reflect the essence of your restaurant, highlighting its unique value proposition while differentiating it from its competitors. Some of the important factors to consider when creating your brand identity include your food orderings, target market, and overall brand personality.
2 – Select a Strategic Location
As far as the success of the fast food restaurant is concerned, the location of the restaurant plays a pivotal role. It is advisable to choose a location that is easily accessible to your target audience with ample parking space and proper visibility. Some of other things worth considering when finalizing the location are proximity to competitor outlets, foot traffic, and overall demographics of the area.
3 – Get Essential Licenses and Permits
One of the crucial steps of your fast food business plan is to get all the necessary licenses and permits to avoid any unsolicited trouble later on. To comply with the rules and regulations of the location, you must secure these licenses. Some of the common permits and licenses you need include Food service license, Business License, Employer Identification Number, Building and zoning permits, Signage permits, Alcohol license (if you serve alcohol), Music license, etc.
4 – Curate a Catchy Menu
Your menu is the heart and soul of your fast-food restaurant, enticing customers with its array of delectable offerings. So, choose and name it wisely. It should primarily reflect your brand identity in its look and feel. Strike a balance between popular favorites and innovative creations, ensuring that your menu caters to diverse tastes and dietary preferences. Moreover, it is always better to regularly evaluate and update your menu to ensure it remains competitive and relevant to the industry.
5 – Streamline Fast Food Business Operations
The success of your business hinges on your systematic and organized business operations of your fast-food restaurant. To effectively manage your business operations, implement a point-of-sale (POS) system that helps you manage orders, inventory, and customer data. In addition, you should also develop standardized procedures for food preparation techniques, ensuring consistent quality and timely service.
6 – Build a High-performance Team
Behind every successful fast food restaurant is an efficient team. They are the true brand ambassadors of your brand, who are directly interacting with customers and shaping their dining experience. Hire individuals who share your dream and passion for the food service industry and align with your goals to bring innovation to this industry.
Create a high performance culture where employees with high caliber show high discipline and make things happen. Invest more in their comprehensive training to equip them with the necessary skills and knowledge required to help the business succeed and grow beyond lengths.
7 – Build a Marketing Strategy
Just like any other industry, the ever-growing food industry is highly-competitive and dynamic. That is why you need a thought-over marketing strategy in place to attract, entertain, and retain customers to make them repeat customers. Build a proper marketing strategy leveraging digital marketing, social media engagement, and targeted advertising to spread awareness and reach your target audience. To begin with, you can also offer promotional deals and loyalty programs to entice customers. Further, you can make these repeat customers as your brand advocates to spread word-of-mouth awareness about your fast food business.
8 – Maintain Food Safety and Hygiene
One of the most important things to keep in mind when starting a fast food business is food safety and hygiene. You cannot compromise on these fronts to truly build a rapport with your customers. Besides, it also helps you avoid any unnecessary troubles with food safety officers in your region. That said, you must implement strict food safety protocols to prevent foodborne illnesses. Also, ensure all your food handling practices comply with the standard health regulations. Last but not the least, you can conduct regular hygiene audits to maintain the highest standards of food safety.
9 – Customer Feedback Management
There is no denial that customer feedback is an invaluable resource to identify areas for improvement and improved customer satisfaction. For that very purpose, you must have a proper feedback process in place using surveys, online reviews, and direct interactions. Ensure feedback process comes into play as soon as someone places an order in the restaurant or receives an online order at home. Make sure you actively listen to feedback and apply positive changes and recommendations as per your customer insights.
10 – Embrace Industry Trends
One cannot undermine the importance of trends and technologies in shaping any industry, the food industry is no different. As the world is moving at a fast-pace, it is important to stay abreast of such changes to maintain your edge in the market. Some of the current trends that are swaying the food industry are online ordering, instant food delivery services, and personalized customer experiences. Not only should you remain aware of these trends, but also incorporate them into your business growth strategies.
11 – How To Run a Fast Food Restaurant Successfully?
Running a fast food restaurant is an ongoing process that requires you to learn, adapt, and refine your business as per the industry changes. Once you have your small fast food business plan in place, you must look out for growth avenues to do better in your business.
Here are a few additional tips and tricks to successfully manage your fast food restaurant:
Get an Online Website to Sell More:
In this digital-first world, it’s critical to have an online website for your restaurant to get more customers and drive more business. One option is to hire a developer to build your restaurant website, but that will dig a deep hole in your pocket. Instead, you can get a quick and efficient online ordering site within minutes with Techryde’s Orderapp.
Offer Regular Promotions and Discounts:
Who doesn’t love a discount? With that in mind, it’s always a good idea to offer special discounts and promotional offers to attract customers. You can put up exclusive discounts for first-time users to get more customers to try your restaurant, and for repeat users, you can offer seasonal exclusive promotions and discounts. You can use
Automate Administrative Tasks:
Restaurant management is changing. As a manager you can automate tasks like online ordering, order management, kitchen display management – thereby saving time and focusing more on business profitability. It also helps you to reduce order errors and table wait times, fostering better management of overall restaurant operations.
Email Marketing Campaigns:
Given the excessive competitive market, it’s not enough for your business to attract new customers, you also have to gain the loyalty of existing customers. That’s why you need to run email campaigns – making them aware about menu upgrades, new launches, and discount offers. These campaigns aim at encouraging repeat orders, reminders for card abandonment, or re-engage clients who haven’t placed an order in a while.
Create Better Engagement With Social Media Campaigns:
For restaurant business, social media is one of the best places to-be! Whether you want to spread a word about your new fast food business or expand reach for an existing restaurant business – social media is your secret weapon. You can create stories with daily offers and discounts, put out behind-the-scenes restaurant short videos, or get in touch with influencers to share your restaurant experience.
If you want to learn more about how technology and AI is changing the food service industry and online food ordering systems, head to our resource library here.
