Have you ever thought about opening your very own restaurant? Opening a restaurant can come with numerous perks and benefits, but it’s worth keeping in mind that opening a restaurant shouldn’t have to be difficult. With this thought in mind, today, we’re looking at how much does it cost to open a restaurant – and how you can estimate this cost before getting started.
How Much Does it Cost to Open a Restaurant?
The exact cost to open a restaurant isn’t always clear, but it’s worth considering that most restaurants will usually cost approximately $200,000 to $300,000 to launch. However, it’s worth noting that some smaller types of restaurants are much more cost-effective to launch, such as pop-up shops. However, large restaurants can easily cost in the region of $500,000 to launch or more, depending on the amount of equipment you need and the like.
With this thought in mind, we strongly recommend that you consider carefully whether you could cut the costs of opening your restaurant by keeping the scale down a little. Remember: opening a new restaurant shouldn’t have to be hugely difficult, but you may need to
There are numerous costs involved in this, however. As such, when it comes to opening a restaurant, you will need to keep in mind closely that certain factors could make your launch costs significantly higher than the norm.
Common Expenses to Open a Restaurant
There are countless different expenses that you will need to keep in mind when opening a restaurant. These include purchase and hiring costs as well as potential service charges.
Indeed, when you launch a restaurant, you’ll likely find the most immediate concern is finding your premises; even if you operate a pop-up restaurant or ghost kitchen, you’ll still need to pay out for the kitchen (and potentially dining areas).
In addition to this, you will also need to purchase any equipment needed for the new restaurant. For example, you’ll need a huge array of often costly kitchen equipment, as well as workspaces, dining facilities and furniture, order management equipment, kitchen smallwares, and the like.
But that’s just the obvious costs you will need to pay to open your brand-new restaurant. Once you have the basic equipment and furniture, you will need to invest in additional services and products such as signage, marketing & advertising, security systems, office supplies, accounting services, and so much more. Check out our article on some of the best tips to market your restaurant.
Finally, don’t forget about the costs needed to obtain licenses, permits, and staff for your new restaurant. After all, unless you’re licensed, you can’t serve any customers legally. However, without an excellent team of staff members, you’ll likely struggle to offer a great service that keeps people coming back anyway! It’s well worth considering here that recruitment services will often charge up to one-third of the employee’s annual salary in fees alone, so you may want to look at whether this is worthwhile or not for your business.
How to Calculate Costs to Open a Restaurant
At this point, we have outlined some of the main things you need to know about how to calculate the costs of opening a restaurant. However, working out how much you will need to spend can be tough, which is why our friendly team can help. So, if you’re not feeling traditional calculations, don’t worry – OrderAx has the tool you need.
Putting Pen to Paper
The most obvious way to calculate the costs of opening a restaurant is simply to put pen to paper and add the costs up manually. Researching each individual cost that you will likely face can allow you to write down the different factors at play.
The best way to do this with pen and paper is to create a table or chart, then list each of the factors in individual sections. Once you have done so, you can then easily research and write down the associated costs with each activity, which should allow you to estimate costs.
For the most accurate calculation here, it’s important to list each purchase, such as ovens, refrigerators, and so on, rather than list them as a group. While listing these as a group may seem quicker, it’s unlikely to give an accurate estimate unless you’ve based this on the requirements of your business.
Then, add all the costs associated with opening your restaurant to get a final cost calculation. You may want to check this calculation against estimates for other types of new restaurants to see if it’s likely to be an accurate estimate overall.
Using the OrderAx Restaurant Costs Calculator
Working out costs by hand is simple, for the most part, but it can be frustrating. With this thought in mind, if you’d like to streamline working out the potential cost of launching a new restaurant, our OrderAx Restaurant Startup Cost Calculator tool could work excellently.
The OrderAx restaurant startup cost calculator is extremely easy to use, and you can get an estimate for your new restaurant within a matter of minutes. If you don’t have much time to spare or simply want a more seamless experience, the OrderAx calculator could help.
The OrderAx calculator considered fourteen different metrics to help estimate the final cost of launching your restaurant business. Some of the largest costs involved with launching your restaurant business include purchasing the property and so on; equipment costs can also be estimated in a matter of moments thanks to the OrderAx tool.
Not sure what your costs are likely to look like? No problem – OrderAx also includes numerous estimates pre-formatted on a sliding scale. So, if you’re currently unsure about what sort of equipment (etc.) you will need to launch your business, the tool includes average equipment estimates to give you a rough idea.
Final Thoughts
If you’ve been planning to open a restaurant, the costs can quickly skyrocket! However, if you’re not sure how much this will likely cost, today’s guide will have helped. After all, launching a restaurant is a hugely exciting process, but it doesn’t come without its challenges. So, starting out with a clear insight into how much this costs can definitely help.