The global pandemic has made it difficult for many small businesses to stay afloat, but it is safe to say that restaurants and bars have been hit the hardest. Opening a restaurant after COVID might not be the easiest endeavor, but with care you can turn it into a thriving business.
Opening a Restaurant After Covid
Now, with a vaccine already in circulation, the general consensus is that it is time to look to the future. In any given town in the United States of America, there are cafés, bars, and restaurants that have gone out of business, leaving empty buildings behind. It’s a sad reality, but it also forms the foundation of a new wave of opportunity for prospective entrepreneurs.
Looking to the Future
As a result of the failure of so many restaurants, rents are more competitive than they have been in years. A savvy new owner could easily snap up an ideal location and hire a highly competent staff with minimal effort given the wide availability of leases and potential employees. However, to be successful you will need to succeed where your predecessors have failed. You will need to form an adaptable plan that keeps your community engaged and interested in preparation for a full re-opening. Here are just a few tips for achieving those goals.
Use and Abuse Social Media
We have all been thrown through a loop this past year. We spend less time out and about, so it may be difficult to promote your new restaurant at this time. Luckily, social media provides ample opportunities to engage with your community despite pandemic limitations. Targeted ads on Facebook and Instagram are great places to start, but you need to make sure that they lead your audience to material that will actually keep their attention.
To flesh out your social media presence, build a website that’s more than just a menu and contact information. Well-written blogs about food and the travels that inspired them are a great way to show your community that you’re passionate about what you do. If you’re more technologically savvy, this approach can be easily built out into videos. You may feature your signature recipes, introduce the owners, and give people the sense that you genuinely can’t wait to meet them in real life.
Be Creative with Your Take-Out Options
Take-out is an even bigger part of the average American’s life than it was twelve months ago. And that isn’t going to fade any time soon. In order to stay competitive, you will need to be creative. Selling bottles of wine complete with a link for a video of your sommelier discussing that wine is a great way to give people the sense of a night out while on their couch. You may also introduce “family-sized” meals that require ten minutes in the oven to finish cooking. This can reduce strain on your kitchen staff. And it can give your community new, family-friendly options.
Use this Time to Renovate
Hopefully, this is the only time in your restaurant’s lifetime that you will be operating with practically no one inside. Therefore, this proves the perfect time to get work done without losing extra revenue. You can’t be sure that the previous owners did proper maintenance, so take the time to perform a full inspection. Ice machines and soda fountain equipment prove common places where mold and other unpleasant things can grow if they don’t receive regular cleaning. If you doubt that they’re in pristine condition, it is best to replace them with ice makers in Orange County prior to having guests use those facilities. For Los Angeles soda fountain installation, check out SC Beverage.
Give Your Customers Time to Adjust
Even without government mandates, it is going to take time for things to go back to normal. Don’t put time and effort into planning a big re-opening party the day after the vaccine has made it through the final tier. People may not be ready yet. Instead, stay active on social media and keep potential customers apprised of any and all changes. There will be an adjustment period, but everything will eventually return to normal.
