Competition in Business - Set Your Restaurant Apart from Others

Handmade Pizza image by healthy1chef

 Looking for ways for your restaurant to compete in business? There are ways to deal with your competition so that you'll come out on top and it doesn't involve copying what they do. We'll share ideas to help you compete with the best restaurant in town week after week and month after month.


Hopefully, before you even opened your own restaurant, you checked out your competition in your local area so that you were already aware of what they were doing, what they offered, what they did great and got some ideas on what you could do better. If you haven't even opened your own business yet, it's worth it to take a look at those things so that you can set your business apart from them.

There will always be times of the year when it seems that the competition is fierce when you own and operate a restaurant. You'll compete with:
          Country Clubs
          Local Restaurants
          Chain Restaurants
          Fast Food Restaurants
          Social Clubs
          Church Events
          Festivals

   How do you stand out from the crowd, yet draw in customers when other businesses are vying for the same customers? 

          Use these Tips to Set Your Restaurant Apart from Others:
   1) Do what you originally set out to do! Was your idea to be the best seafood house, steak house, pizza restaurant, best lounge bar,  family style restaurant? How is that going? Are you staying focused on your original goals?
     I'll bet you can think of a few fast food restaurants that started out serving one or two items and doing really well in that niche, only to change it to start including all sorts of items from salads and soup to fruit. They'd probably still be doing better if they had just stuck to their original premise of best burger on the fly.

   2) Make it Handmade. Think of customers and why they would want to come to your restaurant when they can do it themselves at home. Your products need to be at least as good but, oftentimes much better than customers can do at home themselves. Recheck your menu and determine what you can do to change it up to offer more handmade items and not processed/packaged. Make your own homemade salad dressings and sauces.  Check out our review on Italian Imperia Pasta Maker and see just how easy it is to make a difference, make your own unique and yummy pastas.

   3) Offer Large Portions. Customers want value for their money, just like you do. Make sure to look at your portion size and make sure it's a fair amount so customers get value. One of the worst things you will find is when customers leave your establishment complaining of still being hungry. That word will spread super fast and will be bad for your business. It is said that in business, customers will share good news with one or two friends/family but, will tell at least 10 of a bad experience.

   4) Plan in advance for Holidays and special occasions coming up in the following month. Some restaurants wait way too long to try to build their business for holidays such as Valentines Day, Mardi Gras, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Memorial Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Kwanza, Christmas, Chanuka, New Year's Eve. Learn all you can about the holidays, their significance, the traditional foods and get on board! Decide what you'll be offering for holidays and get the word out early with in-house flyers and table tents, using your Facebook and twitter pages.Use our Special Holiday Tips to increase your business during these times.
          * Case in point - when Lent is here, Fish Fry's are all the rage. If you aren't offering your own special fish recipes, fish nights, fish fry yourself you're missing out on all those customers looking for fish on Friday nights all during the Lenten season.One of my absolute favorite fish cookbooks for loads of unique ideas for cooking fish is The Encyclopedia of Fish, it's inexpensive, an oldie but goodie and highly recommend you own your own copy.

   5) Create a Customer Loyalty Program today. Read our tips on making your own business cards to do this quickly and easily. Not all restaurants offer a customer loyalty program but, for those of us that do, it's a highly successful business campaign that customers appreciate and will frequent your business as opposed to one that doesn't value their loyalty. Do it today!

White Adjustable Barstool

   6) Create a Warm, Inviting, Relaxing Space for customers. In our martini lounge, we have large soft sofas and loveseats and club chairs for customers to linger with their cocktails and have conversations with their friends and families. We highly recommend that you find an area in your business for customers to lounge and linger too.The white adjustable barstool above is a great example of simple chairs to add to your restaurant/bar area that customers will love to hang out in. You'll find that loyal customers start to 'claim' their seats!

   7) Use social media sites to inform your customers of what you do, what you offer, daily and weekly specials, all your homemade items on the menu, images of your restaurant, show your cozy seating areas and advertise your customer loyalty program. Social media is powerful and an inexpensive way to advertise your business to customers so they see how you compete with others in the industry.

  Best wishes to you as you develop more ways to compete in the restaurant industry. It's not an easy task but, it's worth every hour you spend developing and showcasing your restaurant to customers.
 Share your thoughts or concerns below.
     Cheers friends!