5 Restaurant Start-Up Costs to Factor Into Your Business Plan

There should be very few surprises when it comes to breaking down restaurant start-up costs. But several costs can directly impact your ability to meet the goals in a business plan. There are steps to take to reduce costs and develop accurate data tracking to ensure your business is a success.

1. Financial Management

Keeping the numbers straight is a top priority for any business, not just restaurants. You need to stay on track with the goals outlined in the business plan to make life easier for your accountant come tax time. And, with all of the moving pieces within a restaurant that both produce or use revenue, taking the time to choose top-notch software that acts as your virtual assistant will help you achieve a highly productive and accurate financial management strategy.

The most effective technique for ensuring precision-based financial management in your restaurant is to use an all-inclusive software package. POS software can largely fit this mold and brings along with it the additional benefit of already having system-wide compatible data. A forward-thinking POS provider will have your accountant in mind when building their POS software allowing easy exporting of financial records into commonly used third-party accounting tools.

2. Automation-Friendly Business Software

Let’s face it— time is not on the side of a small business owner. The last thing you want to do with a full house on a Saturday night is hide in your office managing multiple spreadsheets. Freeing yourself from the office requires modern business software. These key automation features will ensure your business runs smoothly and leaves you to tend to the day-to-day and customer service:

POS software that is scaled to meet the demands and operational needs of a small business.Capability for seamless integration into third-party products, such as kitchen display systems or accounting software.Software is based on ePOS technology that leverages the limitless potentials of cloud hosting.

A POS provider that can provide these fundamentals will give you limitless options for running your restaurant. These tools will open the door to new ways to operate and give you automation in key business areas. 

3. POS Hardware Devices

The basic hardware tools of business will still apply to you, even with powerful POS business software in place. Payments must be accepted, receipts issued, orders entered and created, and inventory carefully monitored. Although POS hardware costs cannot be avoided, the use of cloud-based POS software will minimize the cost of the devices you need. You will need fewer pieces of hardware which reduces cost and valuable real estate in your brick-and-mortar store.

You can utilize table-based card readers which eliminates the need for counter-based order entry devices or keeping a legacy POS till in the reception area. Using web-based invoicing software as a part of your POS system makes receipts a paperless affair, and inventory can be quickly scanned into inventory using the cameras on tablets to scan items into the POS system.

4. Inventory Controls

One of the more challenging and risk-filled initial costs to understand is your initial inventory stock level requirements. While your menu tells you what ingredients are required to prepare all of the offerings, the popularity and volume of each meal will be difficult to predict. Implementing a par inventory sheet strategy is an especially ideal inventory management tool for new restaurants that will lend you a helping hand in minimizing the costs of the initial ingredient orders.

But to effectively manage a par inventory strategy, you need business software that provides the ability to be agile with business data. An innovative POS software solution should be able to provide this functionality right out of the box and be configured by a valued POS partner. This adds in-depth training and support to be leveraged for the fine-tuning of your ordering requirements and will give you a better grasp of the included and customized reporting capabilities within the solution.

5. Staff Costs

While it may be true that tipping makes up a large portion of the typical server’s paycheck, there are several aspects outside of pay that must be accounted for in a business plan. Some of the additional places to look for staffing costs will include:

Unemployment insurance liabilitiesGeneral business and occupational insurance coverageAny additional benefits you seek to provide for your employeesTraining costsCosts incurred due to under-performance or customer-facing mistakes

This is another area where the advanced data management and reporting capabilities of innovative POS software will be helpful. Charting and breaking down staffing costs will allow you to determine if you are overpaying for insurance coverage. It will also tell you if the training you provide is not in-depth enough to equip employees with the right skills for their positions or to address issues in which a staff member’s performance is much lower than expected.

Ever-Evolving Restaurant Start-Up Costs

Start-up costs have a tendency to evolve into long-term expenses, which makes it imperative to have powerful business software tools available to help you manage and track all of the moving pieces within your restaurant. Understanding from the start that you must manage your start-up costs on an ongoing basis will save you time and money.

Managing your restaurant start-up costs and goals outlined in an initial business plan is too difficult a challenge to take on alone. The technology that talech provides for start-up businesses gives you scalable and affordable options that provide you with a strong foundation for building up your business. Reach out to us today to sign up for a demo and to learn more about how talech can be your valued POS partner.