Restaurant Economics: Inside Expansion

Growing Your Business Without Adding New Locations

There are successful growth strategies that involve expanding an initial restaurant in ways you might not have considered. These include adding day parts, delivery and take-out, banquet and catering operations, increasing tables, or making the restaurant a commissary for kiosks and concessions.

Whether you add units or increase your current operations, you need to consider staffing and management issues attendant to growing your business. The following was excerpted from a conversation between contributors Jim Laube and Chris Tripoli. These guys have worked together as operators and consultants for more than two decades. In this article, they review some methods of inside expansion, and the staffing and management issues you need to address before adding a day part, leasing the space next door, or opening that concession at the food court.

Jim: I remember an operator here in Houston who has a very successful, very high-volume steak restaurant. He only has one restaurant and I'm sure he's been tempted many times to open up a second, a third and a fourth restaurant. One thing that he said, "Every time I thought about expanding, I always found something else that I could [do] around this restaurant to make it generate more money." Could you discuss ways to improve the top line, the bottom line and generate more business without the risk and investment of opening another unit?