Hi Guys,
Are you planning to start a restaurant business or you are already into the business? How has it been? Are you struggling or enjoying the business? Remember it is what you know that gives you an edge above others.

Food is regarded in many quarters as the number one basic need of every human being; Everyone irrespective of your social status would eat at least once in a day. Food is something; none of us including animals cannot do without. While some eats more, 3 or more times in a day, some less, owing to reasons best known to them. The fact is that every human being must eats in order to keep themselves alive.

A lot of Nigerians for who we are, claims to be busy, occupied, to the extent that we can’t make out time to visit the market talk less of preparing our own food. This ‘so busy’ syndrome cuts across all genders, married or unmarried. Its synonyms with our hustling and bustling, more common among people living in big cities, that has to wake up very early to get to work, and most times due to traffic comes late at night. In the midst of all these hustling and bustling, one call we can’t ignore is the call to eat, hence the need for a place outside the home, where they can be assured of getting good food. A Restaurant is a place outside the home, where one can relax, eat good food, snacks, and drink mostly at a price determined by the Restaurateurs.
Restaurant Business in Nigeria has been around for ages in different settings. Over the years a lot of modernizations have taken place in that segment of the food industry. This is mostly due to exposures and education. People are now more conscious of the environment they eat, and what they eat.

Restaurant business is indeed a lucrative investment that can change for good once financial status, if a lot of planning goes into it. It indeed has it own challenges, I was told recently by a friend of a restaurant owner that came to him, she was shedding tears, because she had cooked and customers had failed to turn up. What could be responsible for such things?

There are four (4) basics things that determine the success of every restaurant. Failure to get these things right from onset could lead to failure in the business. These are:

1. Quality/Quantity of Food
2. Location/Staff Friendliness
3. The Environment
4. Price

Quality/Quantity of Food
Restaurant business exists mostly because of food, not snacks, not drinks. One can easily get drinks and snacks from the road side shops, but as a busy executive or a responsible family man, you won’t want to be seen eating by the road side with your family, neither will a guy trying to woo a lady will want to take her to a road side shop to eat.
The quality of the food served should be superb, and the quantity should be commensurate with the bill. The food should be hygienic prepared, there should not be traces of human hair, stones, burnt food, etc in the servings.
As an Owner, you need to know how to prepare good food, and also get people in your team that can equally do this, especially when you are away. This is one of the things you can do to make people ‘travel’ from far away locations to your food place.
The quantity of the food should be taken into consideration. Customers these days are more demanding more than before. They want quality and quantity. If the food appears too small, that might discourage some of your customers. There is need to strike a balance between quality and quantity. This is the more reason you need to seek for places where you can always source for your food items at the best possible price. This would definitely be from the villages.

Location/Staff Friendliness
Where you site your business is usually a function of the caliber of people you want to attract. If for instance, it is located in the car park, most of your customers would definitely be people that work in the park, or customers on transit. Locations play a very important role when it comes to succeeding in this business. Irrespectively, where you decide, the business place needs to be easily accessible, either by foot or by road.
It is advisable for better result such is sited in an environment where there is high traffic of working class people. People that in most cases that would come around to have their breakfast or lunch, or both at your place.
A campus environment is equally okay, but the drawback is when the students are either on long vacation, or there is disruption in the academic calendar due to lecturers strike, and other students’ unrest.
The perfect place is an environment that commands high volume of both of residential houses and offices.
Another thing one cannot ignore in this business is the attitude of the staff to customers. This can easily be seen even in their appearances. If you can afford it, your staff should be on branded T-shirt, or something clean. Starting from the staff that welcomes customers in, they need to be friendly and hospitable. Customers should feel at home while waiting for their foods to be served. Customers should not be ignored, if for any reason, the food requested would take a longer time, they should inform the customer.


The Environment

Next after the quality/quantity, and location, is the environment of the restaurant. No reasonable person would want to eat in a unhygienic environment, where we have lots of flies flying about uninterrupted, and too much noise. Where the food is prepared should be concealed away from the customers. The kitchen should be in a closed unit.
Hand washing basin where a customer can easily wash his/her hands should be strategically located, and unwashed plates should not be left unattended to on the tables.
Providing thing like a Television set/ Newspapers/Magazines can go a long way in helping your customers feel relaxed while he/she waits for his/her food to be served.

Price

While this is important, but not all that important depending on where your business place is, the quality/quantity of the meal served, and the environment. A lot of people would not mind so far they can get good value for their money.
But if the price is outrageous, the environment, and most especially the quality of the food is poor, a lot of people would not want to make a repeat visit, and might discourage any of their friends who intends visiting your place. The other three factors listed above should in a way determine the price you charge.

What You Need To Start

 Find out, which food is common where you want to site your restaurant in. There are actually some foods that are common to all tribes in Nigeria, while some are peculiar to some tribes. Foods like Rice, Beans, Gari (Eba), Amala, Pounded Yam, are common to all tribes. Your focus should be more on these kind of food.

 A good location, preferably on the road that is easily accessible. It should be spacious enough to contain at least forty customers at a time, with chairs and tables inclusive.

 After securing a place, you need to approach one of these soft drinks manufacturer ( NBC, Seven up, Nig.Breweries, Guiness, etc) for drinks. Its advisable you go directly to see their sales manager to request for their drinks. The reason is this, you would use the opportunity to inform them of your new business place, they in turn in most cases would help you in branding the place with signboard. Etc. They can easily give you things like chairs, tables, fridge to add to what you have already. This is always a function of the volume of their products you are buying.

 Good staff. – Three people at most are okay for a start. They need to know how to prepare good foods, tidy the place, and treats customers very well.

 Market your new business: Don’t wait for customers to come to you. You need to go to them. Let people know there is a new place in the neighborhood where they can get good food and have good value for their money. You can distribute flyers to shops and offices around you.
Things you would need includes:
• Deep Freezer
• Kitchen wares
• Gas Cooker/Gas cylinder
• Cutleries
• Tv set
• Chairs and Tables
• Pots
• Miscellaneous ( Napkins, serviette papers, tooth picks, etc)

Money: I would not be able to tell you categorically how much it would cost you. First, I don’t know where you intend locating your restaurant, but with N 500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira) you can kick this business.

Conclusion

There is no doubt this business is lucrative. If you are already into this business, and you are not making it, then you need to look at those four basic things I listed above, but if you are thinking of investing in this business, don’t entertain any fear. You cannot fail, just make sure you put a lot of things right , most especially the basic things listed above.
If at all, you have gained one thing or the other from this , kindly share such with your friends.
Wish you all the very best.

source:http://www.Hustlersblog.com.ng/how-to-make-good-money-from-a-restaurant-business-in-nigeria

summary pls... I'm too busy to read

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This post is really good! Thanks @HustlerBlog for writing such an informative post. I have started a restaurant business and this really added value. It's been 5 months since I opened my restaurant but the business had been slow in the first couple of months. I had hired a marketing team so that more people are aware of my place. My brother actually helped me out with setting up the space with some really good restaurant furniture. I got this really funky furniture which gives the space a retro vibe. I think this can be a selling point for me because most of my customers do give me this feedback that they love hanging out here due to the vibe. Your point on friendly staff was an amazing one. I had visited a cafe a long time ago which left a great impression on me. It was due to the staff that were so engaging and lively. It really made me want to keep going back there. Hence, that is what I have been trying to incorporate in my staff members. But sadly I couldn’t help the location of my restaurant because this was the only

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