Checklist to open your own ghost kitchen
Opening any type of restaurant can be an overwhelming process. You have to make many decisions. For example, what type of restaurant you are opening, do you have investors, the theme of the restaurant, which suppliers will you choose and why, etc. We want to help you make the process less overwhelming to save you the headaches, which is why we have prepared a list of steps you can follow to ensure you are ready to open up your Ghost Kitchen.
Ghost kitchens are expected to?hold a?50% share of the world’s drive-thru and takeaway foodservice markets . Additionally,?food delivery orders increased by 67% in 2020 , alone. This shows Ghost Kitchens have a lot of potential in the hospitality industry.?
Planning
The first stage to opening a Ghost Kitchen involves choosing the theme of your kitchen, whether you will buy or lease a kitchen, getting funding, getting licenses and permits for the kitchen, etc.??
Theme of restaurant
By choosing the theme of the kitchen we mean choosing the type of food your kitchen will serve. You could serve Mexican, Chinese, Thai, fusion cuisine, Italian, French, Greek, etc inspired food. Following that, you’ll want to choose whether you’ll be servicing all vegan dishes, a mix of vegan and regular dishes, or no vegan-friendly dishes. You don’t have to be tied down to your choice of concept, since your Ghost Kitchen restaurant is not a brick-and-mortar business, you can easily and inexpensively change the concept of your kitchen.??
Menu
Along with the theme of your restaurant, you will be required to create a menu for your Ghost Kitchen. This process will involve planning and creating a list of dishes that you will want to serve. After deciding on the list of dishes, you will want to hire a designer or design a menu yourself that fits the theme and message chosen for your Ghost Kitchen. You can create a printable and digital PDF menu, or you can wait and decide on the design of the menu once you have chosen an online ordering platform/system.
Buying or leasing
During this time you will also want to decide whether you will be buying or leasing a space for your ghost kitchen. This step can involve deciding if you will buy or lease a kitchen in a building or if you will buy or lease a food truck to have a transportable business.?
If you decide to buy or lease a kitchen in a physical building you will also need to decide in what area and city you want to look for a space. This step will save you time from looking at hundreds or thousands of options and will narrow down the locations that only interest you.?
Lastly, if you are deciding to buy or lease a food truck to operate your Ghost Kitchen, this decision will involve deciding whether you are interested in a food truck with an already functioning kitchen or one without. A food truck with an already functioning kitchen has its advantages. One of those is that you will save time and money from looking for kitchen equipment and hardware. These types of food trucks are on the pricier side compared to food trucks without kitchen equipment but it will save you time and headaches.?
Registering the business
To continue with the process, you are required to register your business to ensure that it follows guidelines like the?Charter of the French Language ?in Quebec, Canada. This Charter states that a business name must be French to comply with the Charter and be eligible to be officially registered.?
Funding
Searching for investors could help you and your Ghost Kitchen in the short and long run. Obtaining funding at the beginning stages of starting a Ghost Kitchen will help you have enough resources to get started. But also having investors that stay with you and invest for the foreseeable future will allow you to continue expanding your business.?
Licenses and permits
To open and operate your Ghost Kitchen, you are required to obtain certain licenses and permits. The type of license and permits you require will vary depending on the city, region, county, and country you will be operating your Ghost Kitchen.
The following are some of the licenses and permits that?may?be required:
To successfully open your Ghost Kitchen with no problems, you will need to ensure you have all the correct permits and licenses.?
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Staff
In this stage of the process, you will be required to begin the interviewing and hiring process if needed. You may want to run your Ghost Kitchen on your own but if that is not the case, then you will be required to first publish a job advertisement. Following that, once you have several applicants you will be required to begin the interviewing process to have staff hired before your business opens.?
If you decide that you will require additional staff, aside from yourself, you will also need to research health plans for those employees. Furthermore, this step will also include establishing proper hygiene practices and safety guidelines to prevent future injuries.?
Purchasing equipment
An incredibly important step in opening your Ghost Kitchen is having the right online ordering equipment. During this stage, you will be required to choose the POS system and?online ordering system/platform ?that you will use for your business.?
The chosen online ordering system will need to be a great fit for your Ghost Kitchen. If the system is not equipped to handle a large number of orders in a day, and that is a part of your business, you will need to reconsider the system you choose.
Marketing and operations
Operations
Following the equipment stage, you will be required to research and select your suppliers. You will need to research whether it is best to have local suppliers or not depending on your business.?
You will also need to decide on the operations hours of your Ghost Kitchen. Will it be open from morning to night, from lunchtime to late evening, only evenings, only night, etc.
After purchasing an online ordering system you will also require to ensure that your Ghost Kitchens website is working with no issues. You would not want to realize that on the day of your opening your website is down and no orders can be placed. Your online website is a critical part of your Ghost Kitchen, even more so with most Ghost Kitchens being online-only.
Marketing
To ensure the opening of your Ghost Kitchen is not a failure, you will need a marketing plan to bring awareness and customers to your business. This stage will involve hiring a photographer to photograph your dishes and other aspects of your Ghost Kitchen to create promotional content. Social media accounts will also need to be set up to bring awareness to your Ghost Kitchen. Additionally, social media provides a place where you can interact with customers and learn more about their likes and dislikes, and can make informed decisions about dishes to include in your menu.?
Furthermore, creating?TripAdvisor ?and?Yelp ?accounts will allow you to easily get feedback from customers and build a reputation.
Finishing touches
Soft opening
A soft opening is an unofficial opening of a business. Many businesses like casinos have soft openings to do additional research and test out their operations. A soft opening is a great way to work out quick and small issues before your official opening to ensure that everything runs smoothly on the special opening day.?
Hard opening
For the special day, offer discounts, specials, and giveaways to encourage customers to order from your Ghost Kitchen. For example, offer a pizza + drinks + side combo.?
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About TechRyde Inc.
At?TechRyde Inc. ?our technology helps restaurants improve efficiency by streamlining their digital menus and third-party order management. Want to read more check out our other?blogs .