What is a restaurant consultant?
A restaurant consultant is an industry expert who provides professional advice to help you improve your restaurant operations. Consultants can either act proactively or reactively, that is to say:
- A proactive restaurant consultant will be brought in to suggest new ideas and improvements that the current management team hadn’t thought of
- A reactive restaurant consultant will be tasked with a specific issue, such as fixing the menu or improving staff retention rates
What do restaurant consultants do?
There are many facets to running a successful restaurant. Therefore, restaurant consultants can provide consultancy services in a variety of ways, including but not limited to:
- Market research
- Location and property
- Staff hiring, training and retention
- Commercial feasibility
- Competitor Analysis
- Financial planning, forecasting and accountancy
- Brand design and concept development
- Market positioning
- Menu engineering
- Growth and expansion planning
- Publicity and marketing
- Supply chain management
- Technology suggestions
- Fit out and interior design
- Equipment and tableware
Do you need a restaurant consultant?
Not necessarily, many restaurants open up and operate without the guidance of a hospitality consultant.
The purpose of working with a restaurant consultant is to receive the expertise and wisdom from a tried and tested industry professional. They can help you to see potential shortfalls in your plans, make actionable suggestions on where to improve and implement new strategies to boost the profitability and operational efficiency of your restaurant.
Some restaurateurs will enlist the services of a restaurant consultant before launching a new restaurant. The consultant will help them to understand the necessary steps they will need to take to ensure they hit the ground running with their restaurant launch. This is especially valuable for restaurateurs opening up new restaurants for the first time – the sheer scale of things to sort out before launch can be overwhelming. Restaurant consultants can help you to avoid any blindspots that would potentially derail your smooth launch.
Restaurant consultants can also be useful even if you’re operating a successful, long-established restaurant. In these instances, the consultant will often be tasked with identifying and suggesting ways to rectify problems that might be hurting the restaurant.
If you are looking to work with a restaurant consultant for your established restaurant, they will first spend time understanding your restaurant, focusing on the day to day operations both front and back of house. They’ll likely sample your menu, speak to your customers and spend time with your staff, helping to get a deeper understanding of the ins-and-outs of your business. From there, they will offer suggestions they deem feasible, realistic and beneficial to your current situation and available resources for change. Some consultants will just provide the recommendations, others will help you to implement the suggestions.
How much do restaurant consultants cost?
Every consultant will charge according to their own expertise and experience. The service you will receive from each consultant will vary significantly from one another, so comparing just on price will not necessarily lead to you finding the best solution for your requirements. Working with a bad consultant could be worse than just not working with one at all. Prioritise getting recommendations from trusted industry sources and ask amongst your network if anyone has a restaurant consultant they would recommend.
In terms of fee structure, there is often flexibility in the marketplace for restaurant consultants in terms of how they charge. Some will charge hourly, some a day rate, a monthly retainer whilst others will look to charge per project or on a success-based scheme.
To maximise the value you receive from working with a restaurant consultant, remember that you are paying them for their time. Be prepared in advance for what you want to achieve from working with them, and have everything ready that you think you might need. If your consultant is waiting around for whatever reason, you are wasting your own time and money. If you come prepared with an idea of what you want to achieve, all the relevant documentation and answers you might need, then you will stand in good stead to benefit from working with a restaurant consultant.
How to choose the right restaurant consultant
As with all advisory services, do not just compare based on price. Bad advice can be detrimental.
The best restaurant consultants have often walked the walk, as well as talking the talk. Research into the direct experience they have in the restaurant industry, such as whether they have successfully run their own restaurant business.
Decide whether you want a restaurant consultant to provide a holistic overview of your restaurant as a whole, or whether you are seeking specific expertise to do with one particular aspect of running a restaurant, such as your technology stack or staff retention.
Recommendations from trusted sources are worth their weight in gold, especially from restaurants who have used consultants themselves.