Where are you going to put your new restaurant? Some important things to think about that may help your business become a success are:
Traffic : Foot and motor traffic counts and surveys are an important start. You can get traffic counts from a real estate firm, demographic firm, planning commission, or highway department. You will want to pick a location that has high traffic counts at the peak times you serve your food. One way is access this is to park at the site at different times of the day, including week-ends and get some figures for yourself.
If you are in a downtown area you will need to access the foot traffic. The type of foot traffic will also have a bearing on the concept you choose.
Visibility - Corner locations are great if access from traffic is easy. End locations are the best idea for strip malls. Free standing restaurants with lots of parking are ideal.
Signs can help your visibility, but are heavily regulated by city regulations as to the size and locations they can be put.
Downtown locations should consider using sandwich board signs or easels to put daily specials on outside to draw attention to foot traffic.
Readily Accessible Parking - This is a must, customers need to be able to find a place to park or they may consider it to be more hassle than it's worth, especially if they are in a hurry.
Strong population back-up - near a high school, college, university, office buildings, dense residential areas or high traffic commercial areas.
Accessibility - Customers need to be able to get to your business with ease. Median strips that don't allow for a left-hand turn make it hard for your customers to get to your business. Highly congested traffic areas may also discourage them.
Size - Will the site handle the projected amount of customers your are planning on having?
Price - Make sure the price of the site or lease amount fits your projected break-even or you may just be buying a lot of work with no pay.
Condition of the site - How much money will it take to build there or if it is an existing building, how much money will it take to remodel or repair?
Road Construction - Always check with the highway department and local agencies to see what improvements or changes are planned for the ares. We bought an existing restaurant only to have all access roads torn-up for improvements and lost 3 months of sales.
Crime - Another thing to consider is whether or not this is a high crime area, people may not stop if they don't feel safe. Destruction of property, robbery and employee safety are other considerations.
