New restaurants fail for all kinds of reasons. Some should never have been opened in the first place. Others had great plans but just fell short. There’s nothing worst than approaching a new favorite spot only to find that the doors have been closed. So, why is this happening? It turns out that restaurants that fail may have a great idea of what they are doing, but a poor idea of the context they exist within.
Where are your new customers coming from?
It’s wonderful to have a regular base. However, with new restaurants popping up all the time, it’s important to reach further than that. Think about it. When the place down the street opens and they are serving edible flowers for salads and basil crystals, your customers might just have to branch out. And if they can only afford to eat out two times each month, you might be losing your money to the edible blossoms. So, you have to work on keeping your base while rocking your gimmick to get new people in the door.
Your diners posted WHAT on Instagram?
Instagram is a curse for some restaurants and a blessing for others. If you have a microgreen growing and a beautiful, rooftop patio then Instagram is likely treating you well. If you have dirty bathrooms and a messy sous chef, that might not be the case. Big brother may not be present everywhere just yet, but he is totally present in the restaurant world. Anything awesome or aweful that happens in your restaurant is likely to end up on Flickr. When restaurants flop, you can often see why on the internet.
How much will people really pay for fancy food?
Fine dining is up by 3% over last year so that means that a lot more people are willing to shell out money for a nice meal. However, that’s not a license to price gauge. The average price per plate when fine dining in the United States is around $28. When plates sore about $50 in the wrong city, it’s a recipe for failure.
Maybe your favorite place closed before there wasn’t space for a picturesque microgreen growing Instagram opportunity. Maybe the food was overpriced. Either way, it’s important for a restaurant to know itself as well as its context.