Strategic Steps to Starting A Restaurant In 2025?

Significant and multiple locations exist for restaurant operators to consider when planning their setting up phase across cities in Nigeria. Situating your restaurant at the right location is critical to its success. The restaurant business thrives in high traffic regions where commuters stop by to shop for their breakfast, lunch or dinner in the course of going from point A to point B. So, carefully brainstorm to choosing the right location to site your restaurant in order to maximize your opportunities.



i.)   Setting up your restaurant in a business district will sure provide good flow of traffic for the restaurant.

ii.)   It has also proven to be lucrative siting your restaurant in prime areas of a city like Lagos. There also exist further prime locations within prime locations such as Lekki, Victoria Island, Ikoyi, Ikeja and many more.

Locations where business owners have sited their business premises such as bankers, lawyers, accountants, dentists, insurers, industrialists and largely staffed organisations can provide your restaurant a steady flow of patronage.

iii.)   You have a choice of also siting your restaurant in residential settlements with great potential for growth where jobs are available for their economic migrants.

iv.)   You may target travelers as a niche and site your restaurant in locations where travelers population is constantly available all year round. Locations such as Ibadan in Oyo state; Ore, in Ondo State; Umunede in Delta State; Onitsha in Anambra State; Owerri in Imo state and Aba in Abia state. Just to mention a few for the Lagos - South Eastern travel route. A restaurant operator must be strategic in his approach to drawing traffic to his business and sustaining it.

v.)   You may also create special restaurant that serves only breakfast or lunch or dinner - or any two combination of these. This may reduce your length of hours you may have to put in compared to a full fledge restaurant. This is also taking into consideration your target customers, ensuring the numbers turnover are significant to make you a significant return to justify your being in business.

vi.)   You may also consider setting up a single take-away meal business such as Sharwama, tea or any other indigenous meals across Nigeria as they are just endless. Such as Calabar cuisine, etc.

vii.)   How you want to reach your customers can inform your business model. Reaching a wider customers number through home/office delivery services is a good approach to also growing your business fast and easy. You can squeeze your start-up cost with this strategy. You may consider this option as a larger part of your strategy if you are starting your restaurant business from home.

viii.)   Who do you want to meet their food needs? The high or low income customers? Corporate customers through canteen service?




ix.)   The often neglected but very important is the first impression you create with your customers. You must seize the opportunity to make a right first impression with customers as they may not give your business any opportunity if their assessment of your business is below expectation.

Working longer hours than most other business types for restaurant operators is important in meeting the food needs of the clientele. Begining earlier than your official opening hours and closing later than the customers closing hours is part of the restaurant business operational model.

So, integrate it as part of your overall work procedures and communicate same to new employees. This way, each one can fit into the plan of building upon every previous days' successes. A restaurant requires a great degree of continuity to sustain your successes.

In formulating your overall strategy and to design your restaurant model you need consider factors such as the size of the restaurant you have in mind, the type of restaurant you have chosen, it's number of staff, the restaurant fixed asset (including the building), any renovations required to have it fit in your brand offering.


All these and more will revolve around your finance availability. You must find all if not significant answers to these questions arising here before you open your restaurant doors to customers. Strategy isn't only about what you must do but also will include what you must stop doing that makes little or no contributions to your end financial goal. This way you see the success before you start...

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