09 Nov, 2021
How to Start a Mexican Restaurant Business
With proper planning, quality ingredients, and the right menu, a Mexican restaurant can be a lucrative business venture. It’s important to start out the right way to increase chances of lasting success.
Apply for and receive all the permits you will need to operate a food business. The rules vary by city and state, but typically, food handler permits, inspections, and liquor licenses will be needed. It is important to get a liquor license, as patrons at a Mexican restaurant will likely want to order tequila, margaritas and beer from the menu.
Ensure you have enough money to operate. Some people start their Mexican restaurants with as little as $50,000, but having more money will help you stay afloat while trying to turn a profit. Earning a profit can take as long as one or more years. Keep in mind that you will need to furnish the restaurant, pay for food, and pay your staff.
Develop business and marketing plans. These need to be well thought out, because it is likely that you will seek funding from a bank or investors. If you have no experience writing a business plan, hire a business plan writer or marketing consultant to help you.
Decide on a target market or niche. This will guide your menu, location choice and even how and where you advertise. Niche ideas for a Mexican restaurant: authentic cuisine, family style, upscale, fusion, organic-only, vegetarian, vegan, Tex-Mex.
Choose a location. This will depend on the city zoning as well as your target market. Seeking the help of a commercial real estate agent can save you time and provide important information.
Hire staff. You will need servers, door attendants, cooks, dishwashers, a head chef and possibly parking attendants. Make sure that you have an established employee conduct code and that you pay fair wages so that you can have a low staff turnover rate.
Appetizing menu is a lure for customers
Depending on the focus of the restaurant, recipes are selected according to the following criteria: availability of raw materials, specifics of the clientele, service time, cost, uniqueness, delivery costs, rent and wages of employees.
When choosing a kitchen equipment should take into account all these features of the menu, as well as listen to the recommendations of the chef, which is especially important when opening a restaurant of high price category.
Mexican cuisine is a perfect example of how to treat one’s traditions. Modern Mexican cuisine is a perfect example of the culinary heritage of two cultures that were once at odds with each other, the Indian and the Spanish.
Musical accompaniment
Live music is a huge advantage for any decent restaurant. Ethnic music is especially valuable and unique. Imagine a Mexican guitar or maracas playing in your restaurant. They say it has the power to whet your appetite, and the more your customer eats, the more profit you make.
The incendiary national motifs will give each visitor a wonderful mood and a pleasant experience at your restaurant. Hire musicians to play. You can have live music nights on the weekends if your budget doesn’t allow you to do it daily.
In any case, music is beautiful, and hardly anyone would not love a life-affirming and positive tune from such a passionate and fun country as Mexico.
Observe sanitary regulations
- In the performance of their duties, staff must always remember about personal hygiene: come to work in clean clothes and shoes, cut short fingernails. Smoking in the workplace is forbidden at all.
- Regular insect and rodent control measures are necessary.
- Kitchen equipment and appliances must be serviceable and clean. Work surfaces must also be treated with sanitary products.
- As for food, it must be fresh and preferably have certificates confirming the quality of products.
- The presence of ventilation is strictly mandatory.