The question that often holds people back in starting a restaurant is whether or not now is a good time to do it. After all, we are in a recession and spending is down, right? Well, according to the story below spending has come back up. More importantly, my suggestion is to look at the bigger picture.
Do you plan to only be open a few months? If so, then by all means wait for those few months to happen during a boom time. But realistically, you plan to be open for years to come. Therefore, you are going to experience both good and bad times and you need to plan to offer a great and unique concept to ensure business is good regardless of the external environment.
With this frame of mind you will be less concerned about the economy, knowing that there is always potential to thrive if you aim to be more than mediocre and more importantly, in a down economy you can take advantage of favorable lease rates a large labor pool to find the very best workers.
Bottom-line, it’s not about the economy, it’s about the owner and what you make of your own abilities and opportunities.
WASHINGTON (October 31, 2011 – PRNewswire)—Buoyed by stronger same-store sales and customer traffic levels, the National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Performance Index (RPI) topped the 100 mark in September for the first time in three months. The RPI – a monthly composite index that tracks the health of and outlook for the U.S. restaurant industry – stood at 100.1 in September, up 0.7 percent from August and its highest level since June. In addition, September represented the first time in three months that the RPI stood above 100, the level above which signifies expansion in the index of key industry indicators.
“The September increase in the Restaurant Performance Index was fueled by improvements in the same-store sales and customer traffic indicators,” said Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of the Research and Knowledge Group for the Association. “Among the forward-looking indicators, restaurant operators are more optimistic about sales growth in the months ahead, while their outlook for the overall economy remains cloudy.”
The RPI is constructed so that the health of the restaurant industry is measured in relation to a steady-state level of 100. Index values above 100 indicate that key industry indicators are in a period of expansion, and index values below 100 represent a period of contraction for key industry indicators. The RPI consists of two components, the Current Situation Index and the Expectations Index.
The Current Situation Index, which measures current trends in four industry indicators (same-store sales, traffic, labor and capital expenditures), stood at 100.1 in September – up 0.8 percent from August and the first gain in three months. In addition, the Current Situation Index rose above 100 for the first time since June, which signifies expansion in the current situation indicators.
Restaurant operators reported stronger same-store sales in September. Fifty percent of restaurant operators reported a same-store sales gain between September 2010 and September 2011, up from 45 percent who reported a sales gain in August. In comparison, 34 percent of operators reported lower same-store sales in September, down slightly from 37 percent in August.
Restaurant operators also bounced back from a sluggish August performance to report net positive customer traffic levels in September. Forty-three percent of restaurant operators reported higher customer traffic levels between September 2010 and September 2011, while 33 percent of operators reported a traffic decline. In August, only 34 percent of operators reported higher customer traffic, while 42 percent reported a traffic decline.
Quoted Article Source Link: Yahoo
