First of all you will need to think about the type of restaurant you want to open. Primarily, restaurants are grouped into three categories: quick service or fast food, midscale where you will get a good meal for a good price, and upscale with plenty of charm and fancy cuisine. This will also be dependant upon the type of food you want to serve, and the type of customers frequent the area.

One idea is to open an ethnic restaurant such as, Italian, Mexican, French, etc.. You can open an ethnic restaurant in any of the three categories, but before you choose take a look at the demographics of your area. You may want to take a demographic survey so you can get information on:

• The ages of the customers that will eat at your restaurant business.
• What types of ethnic groups live in the surrounding area.
• The occupations and income levels near your restaurant business.
• How many people will be interested in the type of food you will be serving.
• What are the needs, in terms of services or products, of the people in your area? Will you get enough business in the area you are planning to put your restaurant business?

A competitive analysis will show you what other restaurant business are in the area and what type of competition they will give you. You can do this by going to the restaurants as a customer, and checking out the menu to see how much they charge for their food and drink. This will help you decide how much to charge for your fare. To start your competitive survey, you should check the phone book and yellow pages in that area that have a restaurant business in the same category as yours.

The type and size of your restaurant business will determine the amount or size of the following:

• What you will need in the line of equipment.
• How many pieces of dishware, glassware, flatware, linens and napkins, you will need.
• Cooler, freezer, and storage size.
• How large your building will need to be.
• How many employees you should hire.
• How much parking you will need.
• What you will need in the line of advertising.

What will you call your restaurant business? The choice of a name should be one that reflects what you sell and will help you sell your goods. You will want all of your customers to be able to pronounce and spell the name to look it up in the phone book, or when writing a check. The name should be more creative than the competition, and represents the type of menu you are offering.

Make sure you are not stepping on someone else, check to see if the name you have chosen has been registered to someone else under a trademark. If it isn't, make sure that you register the name with your county clerk. You should also check with the federal government to see that there are no trademarks registered through them with the name you have chosen. You can be sued for using an already registered name.