The food & beverage(F&B) industry has been said to be one of the most profitable business industries, especially after the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
Have you wondered what approach you might wanna take in opening a restaurant, and ensuring you get a full return on your investment? This article mainly discusses the 8 different types of F&B approaches to maximize revenue.
1. Personal Food Stall
Many current successful restaurant owners started up their businesses by setting up only a stall. This approach is taken especially by beginners who are less experienced and have resource scarcity. Even the capital needed to set up a food stall is incredibly low.
Another advantage of setting up a food stall is operational flexibility. Simply put, when one project doesn’t go as expected, you can easily switch to another project and start over. This approach not only lets you test your product demand in the market, but also allows you to gain operational experience, and savings to lay out the foundation of the future of your business.
2. Family-run restaurants
Family-run restaurants are usually restaurants owned by a group of people comprising family members and close friends operating the store together.
It is absolutely okay for a family-run restaurant to have a small outlet, as long as it is clean and sanitary. As long as you are available daily, have good service and a simple menu, with tasty and quality consistent food, you are all set to earn some steady profit.
This approach is the best way to earn in the F&B industry. If it goes well, it can easily be turned into a chain or a franchise. Eventually, your business could grow with a promising future ahead.
3. Canteen Stall
Another favorite approach of newcomers in the F&B industry is the canteen stalls. Customer traffic is the biggest advantage of the approach. The market is already precisely segmented according to students or staff members of a certain company, making it easier for you to plan the journey of your business.
This way, beginners will be allowed to start up in either the city or school canteens. Ultimately gaining enough experience and funds to invest in a bigger store.
Hold on to these 3 principles if you want your canteen stalls to run well:
Quality and tasty food at a reasonable cost.
Fast meal preparation. Customers visiting canteens have limited time to enjoy their meals. Since peak hours are short, your speed determines your revenue.
Good service. Good service attracts more customers. Greet your customers, smile, offer them free drinks, and more to build a relationship with your customers.
Canteen stalls lean more towards personal business. It is more stable compared to roadside stalls and if done right, your profits will be higher compared to the roadside food stalls.
4. Food deliveries only
Ever since the pandemic made the world stay indoors for 2 years, food deliveries rose in fame. Many F&B business owners use this approach; food deliveries only, because it needs a small amount of investment but comes with a high return rate.
Just putting up your store doesn’t guarantee your success. In the online world, traffic matters. The traffic is controlled by the algorithm of the platform. Most platforms would require you to pay some additional money in order to enjoy more exposure to your store. Once you have steady traffic, make sure to have consistent quality food. In the long run, you will have your own loyal customer base to order your food even without paying for extra exposure.
These are the 5 main elements to consider in delivery platforms in order to maximize your profit.
Learn the traffic guidelines of the platform and learn how to wisely spend money to get more exposure for your store.
Learn the operating method of the platform and know how to operate well and improve customer experience.
Study customer group behaviors, design products, and services around them, and establish contact and interaction with customers to keep them fresh at all times.
Small profits but quick turnover, reduce costs and increase profits by increasing the volume of orders.
Use multiple delivery platforms and open multiple channels. After all, your customers will not just use one platform to order food.
Being a delivery-only store, it is important to keep all your platforms and orders organized to ensure a smooth delivery process. Having a good point-of-sale (POS) system will be a useful addition to your business. It is a system that allows you to integrate all your delivery platforms such as Foodpanda, GrabFood, ShopeeFood, and more into one screen. That makes it easier for you to manage orders across all your delivery platforms with one click of a finger. The POS system also provides real-time sales reports for your business wherever you are.
5. Brand your business
The first step in branding your business is to design a suitable logo that revolves around the brand’s image. Many business owners understand the value of preserving their brand image, whether by taking inspiration from others or using their own creativity to create something new.
The second phase in brand development is strengthening the brand’s core. This covers both positioning and developing brand uniqueness. Simply said, you must grasp how your brand differs from other brands and what your brand’s attractive attributes are. In addition to doing an outstanding job in standardizing management operations and products, you achieve the objective of providing consistent products and services to your customers. You could try out various technological and scientific methods in order to help you with the management of your store.
The third phase in brand development is exposure and marketing. Total sales volume will grow as the number of retailers expands and brand marketing increases, allowing more exposure and customer traffic to your store.
Putting it all together, however fantastic your logo or brand image can be, you need people to recognize your brand in order to be successful.
6. Franchise
There are two types of franchise models in the food industry: franchising and brand franchises.
Franchising is relatively reliable because it is considered an extension of the direct model. Many brands that do direct operations develop to a certain size, due to the limitations of capital, resources, experience and other aspects. These aspects affect the speed of brand expansion. Due to speed and size directly impacting a brand’s competitiveness and business model, franchising has emerged as a new way of business expansion.
Franchising is a partnership between 2 parties, a franchisor, and a franchisee. The stores are developed and invested in by the franchisee, but the management and operation process is provided by the franchisor. Franchisees are more like storefront investors since the franchisors work on other business-related work for expanding the business. This approach is relatively trustworthy.
The franchising concept allows investors with money, to invest their time and resources to get into the F&B industry. In this era of collaboration, the combination of brand, capital, and resources has become one of the most effective strategies for businesses to swiftly achieve a market footing. If you have a lot of money, you may join a top-tier brand and become a franchise partner; any way you put it, it is an excellent investment plan.
7. Brand franchising
Brand franchising refers to starting up a business with the name of a well-known and established brand, with prior agreement with the brand owner. The brand owner, franchisor, provides brand products, business models, and systematic training to their franchisee in order to systematically follow the standard operating procedure of the brand. The common trait of every franchise brand is its brand life. Their products last long in the market promising a high return.
8. Private Kitchen
The final F&B business approach would be through a private kitchen. The difference between a private kitchen and a home restaurant is that private kitchens only have cooking space and no dining space. This method typically starts off by promoting yourself and your cooking skills on social media.
For standardized products, this approach is not so advantageous. On the other hand, for specific product items with evident tailored demands, this approach shows potential. Cakes for example are the perfect menu for this approach as they bring fresh designs and creative ideas which go beyond the typical cake factories.
Conclusion
In the F&B industry, there is a value chain. No matter where you end up in the chain, a good foundation of experience and revenue is needed to grow your F&B business. Persistence and consistency are also vital for maximizing profits in your business.