The online space is by no means an easy place to be for restaurants… better yet, for anybody.  If you're a restaurant marketer or operator, chances are you've already taken all the necessary steps to set up your social media profiles, made sure you have interesting content to post regularly, and most importantly have an inventory of high quality photos to represent your restaurant online.

Have you always dreamt of opening a restaurant of your own one day? With over 30,000 new restaurants opening every year just in America, you definitely aren’t alone. The problem comes when you try to make this dream a reality.

You may be asking yourself ‘How can I open a restaurant with absolutely no experience?’

Don’t worry, this guide is all you’ll need. We will walk you through the nine essential steps needed to get your restaurant up and running, along with a free checklist just in case.

Is your restaurant having trouble bringing in customers? Do they often leave unhappy and with a long list of complaints? Does your restaurant's management do a terrible job of dealing with day to day operations? Maybe it's time to face the truth - you are doing something wrong.

Owning a restaurant is by no means an easy task. Owning a failing one on the other hand is even harder.

In the restaurant industry, maintaining good customer relationships is just as important as having a functioning kitchen. But between running a restaurant and managing its finances, restaurant management tends to forget to allocate the time to better understand their customers.

This is where Customer Relationship Management (CRM) can be of use. CRM for restaurants helps operators gain insight into their guests, giving them the ability to create a custom tailored experience for each of their visitors.

No longer will restaurant staff have to keep a manual log of their guests, along with birthdays, contact details, allergies, and preferences, instead all that information and more can be stored in an easily accessible database.

The data generated by a good CRM system is incredibly valuable, and with the right actions can help drive sales and increase diner retention. 

If you run a restaurant in the modern age, odds are you've gone the extra mile to put together a website that represents your business. The purpose of your restaurant's website is to educate and inform potential guests while also providing them with the means to easily reserve a table.

Social media has always been a great way to reach potential diners at your restaurant and Facebook's latest feature takes that process one step further.

Facebook now allows restaurant owners to add a 'Book Now' call to action right on their Facebook page, finally providing business owners with a means of accepting reservations from their restaurant page. 

Restaurant's partnered with a reservation provider can now embed their online booking widget into the new call to action (CTA), allowing customers to book a table within a few clicks. 

Read on to learn how you can add the new 'Book Now' button to your Facebook profile as well as a few secret tips and trips to boost your Facebook page traffic and increase restaurant reservations.

By now, it’s safe to say that Google is the most powerful search engine available. With over 40,000 unique searches made on the platform every second, it is by far the most powerful tool out there for restaurants.

Social media marketing is one of the most overlooked methods of generating restaurant reservations online. Whether you’ve already established a social media presence or not, you can guarantee that your guests are already posting pictures and leaving comments about your restaurant across the web.

For many restaurants, Instagram has essentially become their main presence on social media. This is because, despite the sheer number of other social media sites geared towards acquiring a following online, Instagram does the best job of generating interest for restaurants. 

Running a restaurant can be an incredibly exciting and rewarding endeavor. This comes at a price though. And for some, one of the most crucial elements of restaurant operation is often overlooked – restaurant accounting.