A Guide to Starting A Hospitality Business

A Guide to Starting A Hospitality Business

A Guide to Starting A Hospitality Business

For those of you who are flirting with the idea of starting a hospitality business, you have certainly come to the right place. If you’ve gained experience working in the hospitality industry before, you may feel you’ve got the necessary skills and technical know-how to launch your very own business. Whether you see yourself opening a local café or the next ground-breaking restaurant, running a hospitality/catering business can be very rewarding. With this in mind, we are going to discuss a complete guide when starting your own hospitality business and how you can excel within the industry.

Offer Something Unique

Due to unfortunate and unprecedented times, a tenth of restaurants were lost as a result of the pandemic. Because of this however, this could be your chance to break into the industry and offer something totally unique to gain the attention of potential customers. Offering something that you currently can’t find on the marketplace or updating an idea that already exists is bound to attract large sums of attention in your direction. Simply set aside some time to thoroughly conduct some market research and identify what you can offer that customers simply haven’t experienced before.

Invest in Leading Equipment 

When starting a hospitality business you will almost indefinitely need to invest in leading equipment in order to supply your products to your customers in an efficient and high quality manner. If you are thinking to specialise in selling pastry to your clientele, it is advised that you invest in a bakery oven that can bake/heat numerous items at once continuously throughout the day. In addition, by investing in high quality equipment, your staff will feel better equipped to perform their job, thus increasing productivity, and will also give off the impression that you are a well established business. 

Don’t Worry About Competition (Too Much) 

Both large and small hospitality businesses have taken a massive hit and are struggling to survive, which, although on the face of it sounds risky to enter in the market, it does actually level the playing field for everyone. If you identify where your competitors failed and create an action plan on how to improve their wrongdoings, you have every chance of excelling within the hospitality business sector. Furthermore, by not focusing all your efforts on what your competitors are doing, it will allow yourself more time to perfect your original idea for your catering business. Whether that be improving the recipe of your signature dish or taking the time to train your staff to a sufficient standard, it will no doubt assist in customer retention towards your business. 

Competitive Pricing

When starting a hospitality business, it may seem obvious to offer a cheaper alternative than your competitors, however, this is not necessarily a sustainable business model to adhere to for long periods of time. This is because established businesses will have already created a loyal customer base, will be currently reaping the benefits of economies of scale and will be able to charge lower prices (should they need to) or, on the flip side, charge higher prices that their clients will happily pay for while still making a profit. 

The benefit for start-up businesses however is that they tend to experience low overhead costs and extra flexibility, so it’s best to take advantage of this by sharing your cost savings with your customers. As the economy recovers, you can always increase your prices and offer new services that your customers will feel obliged to purchase. 

Location is Key 

Location is one of the most crucial factors to determine the success of many businesses. If you picture the scenario where a new start-up restaurant has opened in a secluded area of town, compared to a business opening on a busy high street with thousands of customers walking by each day, it’s pretty obvious that the more exposed and prime positioned restaurant will likely perform better. You’ll also want to consider the short and long-term effect on your neighbourhood. Evaluate how the current climate has impacted local businesses and what the neighbourhood might look like in a few years time. 

Finally, positioning your business next to your competitors can also be an effective way to attract customers to your business but as we have previously mentioned, you will need to offer something the customers have not experienced before in order to hook them into your services.

Invest in Your Team 

We cannot recommend this enough, but identifying talent and investing in your team is one of the most effective ways to if you want to thrive within the hospitality and catering industry.  After all, they are essentially reflecting how you want your business to appear in the eyes of your customers.

It’s important to note however that retaining good employees is one of the biggest challenges hospitality businesses face but given the industry’s booming unemployment rate, now is a great time to find and identify talent. Make sure to look for candidates with sufficient experience and a successful track-record. Once you’ve built your team, make sure to invest in regular training, fun activity days and retention programs to avoid losing time and money with high turnover rates. 

Final Point 

While we have discussed a guide on how to excel when starting up a business in the hospital sector, is it vital to understand that it won’t necessarily be an easy task. But with careful planning, determination, talent identifying, investment and strategic decision-making, there is absolutely no reason why your vision can’t succeed.