A SWOT analysis is an extremely popular way to create a business plan. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. A comprehensive analysis of these factors will help any business to identify its place in its respective market, and how best to move forward.
Creating a SWOT analysis for your restaurant requires a specialised approach. This guide will provide the information restaurant owners need to conduct the perfect SWOT analysis and hospitality business strategy.
A SWOT analysis is a chance for you to step back and investigate the internal and external factors that are driving the performance of your business. By analysing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats relevant to your business, you will come away with a series of actionable steps you can take to improve the performance of your restaurant.
Starting with internal factors, the strengths of your restaurant are the things you do best – the things that keep your customers coming back for more. It's very important that you have a strong understanding of your restaurant's strengths so you know which elements of your business to hone in on and improve even more.
If you're struggling to identify the specific strengths of your restaurant, look into channels of customer feedback, like online reviews. Side note: Beginning a SWOT analysis is the perfect time to improve your processes for soliciting customer feedback. Set up QR codes around your restaurant and contact loyal customers asking for their thoughts on your business.
Some examples of your restaurant's strengths could include:
Once you've finished patting yourself on the back, it's time for some introspection. What could your restaurant be doing better?
Again, customer feedback is your best source of information when it comes to identifying the weaknesses of your restaurant.
Examples of common restaurant weaknesses include:
Strengths and weaknesses are the internal factors of a SWOT analysis. Opportunities and threats refer to external factors.
To begin analysing opportunities and threats, you'll need to start doing some market research on the broader restaurant industry. Are there any gaps in the market that you and your competitors are not seizing upon? How can your restaurant do a better job of standing out from the crowd?
Some opportunities you might come across when conducting a restaurant SWOT analysis are:
The final component of a SWOT analysis is threats. What external forces could pose an issue to your business' performance? Analysing threats your business faces can be daunting, but it's a crucial component of your SWOT analysis.
Here are a few examples of threats your restaurant business might be facing:
The difference between an opportunity and a threat is often a matter of perspective. Take the example of a new food delivery service becoming available in your local area. This might at first appear to be a threat to your business, but if your restaurant partnered with the service and began to deliver with them, it might instead be seen as an opportunity.
Now that you understand what goes into a SWOT analysis, it's time to begin the process.
Here is a step-by-step guide to conducting a restaurant SWOT analysis.
A restaurant SWOT analysis can be a good way to develop a business plan for a new venture. However, creating a SWOT analysis for a brand-new business is different in several ways.
Your analysis of strengths and weaknesses will be far more simple when dissecting a new business concept rather than an up-and-running business. You might only have a business name, a menu and some interior design concepts. However, it's still perfectly possible to conduct an analysis of these elements and discover the strengths and weaknesses of your new restaurant business as a result.
Analysing opportunities and threats can be conducted in much the same way as an established business. Even with only a business idea in hand, you can figure out which external factors will be relevant to your business.
Conducting a restaurant SWOT analysis for a new business is a great idea as you will be able to enact your insights from the very beginning of your operations.
A SWOT analysis should be among the first steps you take when creating your new business. A comprehensive analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of your business concept, as well as opportunities and threats presented by the broader market is a great way to kick off your new venture.
Your SWOT analysis should be followed up by the creation of a mission statement summarising the core goals of your business. Once your SWOT analysis and mission statement is in place, you can create your comprehensive business plan) to present to investors, building managers and prospective employees.
To give an idea of how a restaurant SWOT analysis looks in action, here are examples of mock SWOT analyses for 3 different types of hospitality venues.
A SWOT analysis is all about finding the best path forward for your business. Once you've identified the steps you need to take to level up your restaurant, you'll need some help bringing it all together.
That's where ResDiary can help. ResDiary boasts features to help you conduct events, implement loyalty programs and simplify your ordering processes. That's not to mention over 60 integrations that can help your business operations in a whole host of ways.
Discover how your team can work more happily and efficiently with help from the right technology, like ResDiary's restaurant booking system. We've created a great guide to help you optimise operations in your restaurant, bar, or hotel.