White Paper: Starting Your Own Restaurant

More than 20% of restaurants close within the first year. It’s a demanding business with many pitfalls: poor location, underestimating operating costs, a poorly defined concept, and sloppy paperwork. Opening a restaurant also means starting a business, with all that entails.

This guide starts from scratch and covers every step in order. First, choosing the concept and target audience—a step that’s often overlooked, even though it determines everything else. Next, drafting the business plan, including the key ratios you need to know: food cost, prime cost, and rent-to-revenue ratio. Legal status, mandatory licenses depending on what you serve, hygiene and signage standards, choosing a location, and space layout.

Then there’s the operational side: suppliers—how to find them and negotiate with them—building a team, managing schedules, and calculating payroll taxes. All the things we often don’t learn until it’s too late.

It was developed in collaboration with professionals who have opened their own businesses. It includes statistics, real-world examples, and step-by-step guides —so you can arrive on opening day without any unpleasant surprises.