How to Expand Food Business: Actionable Steps to Increase Revenue

Some restaurants never make it past the first year. Yet, some who do their due diligence and find their food niche, do so well that they must expand to meet the customer demand. If you find yourself in the second category, this article is for you.

Below, we’ll show you how to assess if you are ready to take on more responsibilities and how to expand your food business with sales-generating ideas.

How to Assess if You Are Ready for Expansion

Before we get into how to expand a food business, you must first analyze these key factors to ensure you can successfully grow your restaurant:

• Market demand: you can only grow if there is enough demand for your products. You must do some market research to see if your new revenue streams are what customers are looking for;
• Financial stability: if are constantly making a profit and have a good chunk of money saved for expansion, go for it. If you have to take out loans, it may destabilize your business and even affect your current restaurant;
• Efficient operations: is your food business running smoothly and are all your processes streamlined for optimal performance? Then you will be able to scale your operations or replicate them for a new location;
• Productive and reliable team: do you feel you can rely on every employee to do their job well during an expansion? If all your staff works together to achieve your restaurant’s goals, you can trust them to train newcomers to become valuable members of your bigger team.

How to Expand Food Business: 8 Revenue-Boosting Ideas

Are you ready for a new challenge? Then you must learn how to expand your food business starting with these eight efficient ideas:

1. Start selling your food online

You can only serve a limited number of people in your restaurant, no matter how fast your table turnover is. The first step to growing your restaurant sales is to start selling your food online.

If you want to keep all your profits, stay away from third-party delivery apps and get an in-house online ordering system that has multiple benefits:

• Streamlines your online ordering process: an efficient online ordering system will help you create an enticing menu, publish it on your website, and give you the means to control the orders. You can accept orders with ease and monitor your sales;
• Makes your staff’s jobs easier: taking online orders by phone is not only extra work for employees but can also lead to mistakes. With an online ordering system, your team can accept an order with a simple click in the online order-taking app;
• Allows you to have control over your reputation: if problems arise, you can instantly contact the customer and solve them. With third-party apps, you risk getting negative reviews that will be hard to counteract;
• Helps promote your business: if you choose an online ordering system with marketing features, like the one from GloriaFood, it will also help you reach a new audience and attract more customers to your restaurant.

Read more: 7 Reasons Why an In-House Online Ordering System is the Best Choice

2. Increase your delivery areas

If you are already selling food online and feel like you are ready to take more on, it is time to increase your delivery area to allow more people to order from your restaurant.

Ideally, you should also analyze your actual delivery area and identify the ones where you could use some improvement. You can do so easily by using the Delivery Heatmaps feature from GloriaFood that shows which area brings you the most and the least orders:

After you identify the delivery areas where you need to encourage more people to place orders, follow these tips:

• Offer promotions only for that area: such as free delivery for the first order or 5% off for the first order;
• Share flyers: go old-school and get the word out about your food business with a trusty flyer. Print out a promotion on it to make it more tempting;
• Invest in paid ads: on Google and social media, targeting the specific area, to persuade people to browse your attractive menu and order.

Read more: How to Increase Restaurant Delivery Sales Fast

3. Expand your location

Sometimes, the answer to how to expand a food business is not as complicated as building a food empire. It is actually as simple as taking up more space around your existing location. You have two options:

• Buy or rent a space right next to your restaurant: you can use it as an event space or just as an expansion of your restaurant. More space for tables, more profit!
• Add a patio: inquire with your local authorities if and when you can expand your space outside. It will be a great addition that will increase the customer experience. Furthermore, you can also protect the space from the outside weather to be able to use it rain or shine.

Read more: How to Boost Restaurant Sales During Patio Season

4. Rent out your space for events

Is your restaurant open at all times? Or are there times when you are not producing money, such as in the morning or the late evening? Don’t let the space sit empty, use it to increase your profit:

• Offer it as a coworking space if you are not open during the morning hours;
• Rent it out for parties and gatherings where you can supply the food and drinks;
• Consider organizing events yourself such as live music or wine tastings.

Read more: 15 Restaurant Event Ideas to Get Customers Through the Door

5. Open a food truck

A food truck is not only an opportunity to sell more but also a great way to market your business. It has the big advantage that it is on wheels, and you can move it to all the crowded spots such as office buildings.

You can also use it to participate in events, like concerts and festivals, where hungry people will be delighted to try your restaurant-quality food.

Read more: 10 Food Truck Marketing Ideas That Are Guaranteed to Work

6. Try pop-up restaurants

Are you looking for answers to how to expand your food business but are not yet convinced that this is the best choice for you? Pop-up restaurants can be your beta testing!

You can contact food halls, department stores, and bars that don’t have in-house cooking and establish the term for your pop-up food business. Pop-ups are temporary so you can experiment with new menu items or prices. If it doesn’t work out, you won’t lose much!

Read more: How to Start a Pop up Restaurant and Promote It Online & Offline

7. Consider catering

Your customers are bound to have important events in their lives like weddings, birthday parties, office parties, etc. And they will need food for the event to be successful. What if they could order your delicious food to enjoy at their events?

If you want to considerably increase your revenue, consider offering a catering service. To get people to order catering from you, mention it on your website, Google Business Profile, and social media profiles.

Read more: How to Attract More Customers to Your Restaurant Using Social Media

8. Add new locations

This is probably the most obvious answer to “How to expand food business?”, but it is also the one that involves the most effort and financial risk. You have the advantage that you already have the experience of opening a running a successful restaurant and you can use its image to promote the new one or ones.

But you will still have to go through the same initial processes, like:

• Creating a restaurant expansion business plan;
• Hiring a productive team and training them;
• Purchasing all the equipment, décor, and supplies;
• Getting the necessary permits;
• Building an efficient marketing plan.

Check out our in-depth guide for opening a second location:

Your Complete Guide to Opening a Second Restaurant Location

Final Words

When your restaurant is doing very well, it is natural to ask yourself “How to expand my food business?”. If you don’t want to risk your financial security, start slow with extending your existing space or opening a pop-up restaurant, and, if all goes without problem, go for another location.

You might also like:

• How to Easily Master Restaurant Franchise Marketing & Management
• Restaurant Expansion Strategy: How to Take Your Business to New Heights
• Advantages of Using Our Multi-restaurant Ordering System [NEW]