For many restaurant owners, your business is like your baby, a very expensive and temperamental baby. You’ve spent years building up your profile, from the early stages of raising capital to hiring staff and attracting loyal customers. If a disaster strikes your business, it doesn’t just leave you in a financial crisis, but it also causes emotional distress. While you might end up deciding to take the insurance payout and change careers, there are many reasons to want to rebuild. Keep reading to learn about the important steps you need to take when you are rebuilding your restaurant.
Diversify Your Capital
The process of rebuilding takes time, effort, and a large amount of capital, which is why it’s important to lean into diverse sources when it comes to your cash flow. If you want to keep some of your staff while rebuilding, this will increase the amount of capital you need.
One option you might want to consider is applying for a small business loan. You don’t have to go through a bank to find funding to rebuild your restaurant. Many restaurants tap into a wider range of funding options by using an online loan marketplace.
Salvage What You Can
Though it may feel upsetting to sort through items after a disaster or accident, it’s important to salvage what you can to help you rebuild. Of course, the first thing you will want to look at is the equipment in your restaurant. If any of the machines are salvageable, then keeping them and repairing them will save you money. Restaurant equipment is expensive because the machines need to handle a massive workload and perform perfectly every time. It’s better to salvage and repair equipment than to have to buy completely new machines.
Work With Your Provider
Your insurance provider is an important partner in the rebuilding process. When disaster strikes, your provider will send someone to investigate the issue and assess the damage, or they may have you send photos and complete a claims process online.
Make sure you understand your claims process early so that you know how to handle a disaster or accident such as a flood or a fire. Your insurance company may request that you leave the scene exactly as you found it so that they can investigate the source of the accident or disaster. In serious cases, you must follow the guidance of your insurance provider so that you can complete your claim and receive your settlement.
Use a Cloud Kitchen
If the rebuilding process takes more than a couple of weeks, you can use a cloud kitchen to continue to make the food your customers love. Cloud kitchens are fully functional catering spaces that you can rent for a designated amount of time. These spaces generally have all of the equipment you would need to produce your food as normal, including ovens, burners, fridges, freezers, mixers, and more.
In an ideal situation, you can retain a few key back-of-house staff members who can run your restaurant from a cloud kitchen until you get back on your feet. You can use the cloud kitchen as a base of operations and do catering and delivery orders.
Lean Into Transformation
During times of hardship, you do have the opportunity to lean into transformation. If you saw weak points in your business before, then when you have the chance to rebuild, you can address the issues that have always bothered you. You can actually look at the disaster as an opportunity to reinvent the restaurant.
You might want to completely upgrade your branding or overhaul your interiors. Maybe you always wanted to knock down a wall and have an open kitchen, but you never had the time before. If you see a chance to transform for the better, there’s no reason not to take it.
Rebuilding a restaurant after a disaster or accident is no small feat. Make sure to ask for help when you need it and network with mentors and industry friends to discover opportunities for disaster-related funding and assistance.
