Attention Restaurant Owners - How to Create a Menu for Success

By Jeffrey Hauser

This is addressed to the one million plus restaurant owners in the US. You are in business to make a profit. Sure, you also want to pass on your great recipes, watch happy people eating and create a legacy for your children. But, when all is said and done, you are in business to make money. Doing so is another issue.

It begins with a plan, including the type of food, location, and marketplace. Who will eat there and how much will they pay? How will you attract them? What are your long-term goals? How about a short-term goal of creating the restaurant and surviving the first year?

There are so many elements in the process, yet it’s fairly easy to list them, not necessarily in order:

• The basic business plan
• Arranging the financing
• Securing the property
• Seeking out a contractor
• Creating the cuisine
• Looking for employees
• Obtaining insurance, accounting and legal resources
• Planning the marketing approach
• Setting a timetable
• Designing a menu

The last one is not the least, in order of importance. It might even be the first. Without a menu, you have no restaurant. Why? Because it sets the tone for the whole operation.

It lists all the items you have for sale. It shows the public your pricing structure. It gives other information such as payment types, catering, banquet facilities, delivery or takeout, and other details about your business. If it doesn’t, it should. It’s a mini-advertisement or billboard, that eventually ends up in the hands of every single customer, therefore it’s terribly important. So, how much time did you spend on it’s content and design? Probably not nearly enough, but now you have some food for thought (pardoning the pun).

Now, a few words about my background. I worked as a sales consultant for the Yellow Pages for 25 years and encouraged all my restaurant accounts to place their menus in the directory. The problem was the need for a full page to accommodate the menu. That proved to be rather expensive and therefore, not an option, for many family-run restaurants.

Today, there are several online versions of the directory that allow this feature. Luckily , there are some more specialized sites only list restaurant menus, but they also retype them for some reason. I prefer an online copy of the actual menu, which helps display the flavor of the restaurant. I think most people prefer to see the real menu for that reason. One such site even asks for restaurants to post them on their site for free. Menuelephant.com is my choice for placing your free menu. It will gain you maximum exposure with a zero cost investment. You have no excuse not to go there and try it. Where else can you get free advertising and a purple pachyderm as a business partner?

Jeffrey Hauser was a sales consultant for the Bell System Yellow Pages for nearly 25 years. He graduated from Pratt Institute with a BFA in Advertising and has a Master's Degree in teaching.
He had his own advertising agency in Scottsdale, Arizona and ran a consulting and design firm, ABC Advertising. He authored a book about his directory years, "Inside the Yellow Pages" which can be seen at his website, http://www.poweradbook.com and he is currently the Marketing Director for http://www.thenurseschoice.com a Health Information site and http://www.menuelephant.com which posts restaurant menus on the "site you'll never forget."