How to Start a Restaurant: Quick Guide

Everything you need to know about how to start a restaurant and successfully get your restaurant business up and running

Start a QSR

It’s time to stop searching: How to start a restaurant

When it comes to learning how to start a restaurant, it’s easy to become overwhelmed—but Table Needs is here to help. From legal paperwork and menus to processing payments and kitchen ops to marketing and finances, Table Needs helps you run the quick service restaurant of your dreams.

When you start a restaurant business, Table Needs helps you:

Step 1:
Establish your restaurant business – and make sure it’s up to code

Permits, operating licenses, business entities, trademarks — there’s a lot of paperwork and red tape that goes into starting a quick-service restaurant business. If you are wondering how to start a restaurant, you don’t have to go it alone, Table Needs can help you:

  • Trademark your name and logo
  • File for your LLC and EIN
  • Get all your necessary permits
Turn your idea into a real food truck business

Step 2:
Design and enhance enticing menus for any occasion, diet, or season

Creating enticing quick-service restaurant menus is all about balancing crave-worthy foods with a customer-friendly experience. With Table Needs’ built-in menu management, you can:

  • Design and redesign enticing menus with ease
  • Show off your food with drool-inducing images
  • Update offerings, descriptions, and prices instantly

Step 3:
Start selling with a Point of Sale system built for quick-service restaurants

Your Point of Sale system (POS) is the center of your entire business operation: from managing menus and accepting orders to streamlining kitchen operations and a whole lot more. When you want to know how to start a restaurant, Table Needs’ POS can help you:

  • Streamline orders and payments – from anywhere
  • Collect tips for your staff
  • Manage your menu, kitchen flow, online ordering, and more
Point of Sale system built for quick-service restaurants

Step 4:
Create a chaos-free kitchen with built-in Kitchen Display System

A key component of how to start a restaurant business successfully is nailing down communications between the person manning the window and the kitchen staff. That’s why Table Needs built its Kitchen Display System (KDS) into the POS and doesn’t charge extra for it. The combo of the Tables Needs POS and KDS:

  • Immediately sends new POS orders to the kitchen accurately —without human intervention
  • Compiles all orders into one system for easy, accurate firing
  • Keeps things moving with quick-glance status updates
Your QSR Needs a Kitchen Display System

Step 5:
Deliver speedy service with QR code menus and online ordering

When you’re a quick-service restaurant, customers expect speedy and easy ordering. Reduce wait times and improve customer experience with the Table Needs Scan to Order & Pay feature that comes with the Table Needs POS and:

  • Aggregates all orders into a single platform
  • Automatically texts your customers when their order is ready
  • Gives you commission-free online ordering
marketing for quick service restaurants

Step 6:
Drum up business with Grade A marketing for quick service restaurants

Menu, check. Location, check. POS, check. Once you’ve mastered how to start a restaurant, it’s time to get the word out about your new quick-service restaurant! From social media and advertisements to web pages and managing review sites, Table Needs is here to help you:

  • Create and schedule social media posts to show off your goods and generate interest
  • Launch an attractive website to host your menu, location/hours, and promote specials and events
  • Become discoverable in search results and online advertising

Step 7:
Run a tighter, more efficient restaurant team

Happy staff, happy restaurant. Your staff is a huge part of how to start a restaurant, so make sure you have the tools to take care of them, too. With the Table Needs and Homebase partnership, you can:

  • Easily hire and onboard all positions
  • Set schedules and communicate with your staff
  • Run payroll right from the app
a tighter more efficient team

The Table Needs Difference

for QUICK-SERVICE RESTAURANTS, CAFES, BAKERIES, AND FOOD TRUCKS

We know there’s a lot more to running a profitable quick-service restaurant, cafe, or food truck than just accepting orders and processing transactions. That’s why we built the complete food service operating system and provide free, ongoing training and consultations to our restaurant partners. Wonder about how to start a restaurant no more!

Simple and powerful point of sale

DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR YOU

  • First-in-kind point of sale mobile app
  • Manage multiple menus simultaneously from POS system
  • Built-in kitchen display system

FOCUSED ON YOUR PROFITABILITY

  • Cash discount program
  • Sales tax automation
  • Commission-free online ordering integrated into POS

PRIORITIZING YOUR SUCCESS

  • Premium business services, like marketing, bookkeeping, and legal filing
  • Whiteglove onboarding and training

WITH THE FLEXIBILITY YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS

  • No proprietary hardware
  • No contracts or hidden fees

Ready to start your quick service restaurant?

Sign up below for a hassle-free demo and to see for yourself why QSRs love Table Needs.