If You Plan to Succeed in the Restaurant Business, Perseverance Must Be Your Middle Name

June 26, 2012 - PRLog -- Regardless of your restaurant’s menu, category, or concept, if you are competing near the top of your segment with great products and services, you will always have a chance. Customers will frequent the restaurant that delivers the best products and services at the right price in a given market area. If Bill’s restaurant is all that’s available, that’s the place people will spend their money. If they have two or three choices, they will spend their money at the place providing the best food and service at the fairest price. The restaurant business is a fun, competitive environment—if you’re great. And, you must be prepared to persevere.

The marketplace has plenty of room for new and innovative concepts as well. "Our society has shown great interest in making a dining experience like a short vacation," says Howard Cannon, CEO of Restaurant Consultants of America. "If you have new products or services to bring to the market, you may very well find consumers who will buy," he adds. "Plus, if you bring old products and services to the market, but deliver them in a new way, you may find a niche in today’s competitive restaurant environment as well."

Although the restaurant business is difficult, new people are always stepping into the industry wanting to compete. Some want to compete with the big boys, some want to compete with the mom ‘n pop places, some want to compete with new concepts, and some want to compete by improving on what has always been done, but they come in busloads ready to compete. The question that you must answer for yourself is, do you have what it takes to stand out from the crowd and succeed?

Mr. Cannon urges those who want to start a restaurant to research their concept, believe in themselves and their ideas, and look for funding – in that order. "Colonel Sanders spent seven years traveling the country selling his chicken out of the back of his station wagon before he found someone to fund his secret recipe. He didn’t care who said, 'No.' He knew the only right answer was, 'Yes!' If you don't have that kind of passion and belief in yourself and your ideas, it won't work."

Howard Cannon is a highly-recognized restaurant expert witness, consultant, analyst, and speaker. He is the author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Starting a Restaurant© - found in 76 countries around the globe. Mr. Cannon is the CEO of Restaurant Consultants of America and Restaurant Expert Witness, and can be reached at 800-300-5764 or via the web at RestaurantConsultantsOfAmerica.com or RestaurantExpertWitness.com.