So, you’ve expanded to a multi-unit operation! Congratulations! Are you wondering how to run multiple restaurants without losing your mind?
Restaurant chains often start small and grow as they gain local popularity. Opening new locations is exciting, but multiple locations can quickly become overwhelming. Here are multi-location restaurant tips and multi-site management skills to help you keep all units running smoothly.
Types of Multi-Unit Restaurants
Restaurants with multiple locations owned by the same person, corporation, or group are considered multi-unit restaurants, but they are not all expansions of an original single location. There are three standard business models for restaurant expansions:
- Chain Restaurants: All different locations are owned by one restaurant owner or parent company.
- Franchise: While the corporation may own some sites, franchisees can buy and operate others.
- Restaurant Groups: Corporate entities that own several restaurant brands under one umbrella.
Even if you only want to open a second restaurant, there are ways to set yourself up for success and make future expansion easier.
Do Your Due Diligence
Restaurant location research may seem like a no-brainer, but restaurants that open in the wrong location fail frequently. Two of the most common reasons restaurants fail in the first year are poor location and high rent. Insufficient funding is also high on the list, so ensure you can survive until the word gets out and customers come in.
Before you decide where to open your next location, do your homework. Study your customer demographics. What do your best customers look like, and where will you most likely find them?
Your new location should be convenient for a large concentration of your ideal customers, primarily if your restaurant concept revolves around a specific type of food, like a high-end steakhouse or a vegan restaurant. Affordable rent is another critical factor.
Maintain Brand Consistency
One thing virtually all restaurant chains have in common is brand consistency. From decor to menu items, the guest experience should be the same in each restaurant with the same brand name. While prices can vary in more upscale locations, customers expect the same quality of food and service when they walk through your doors.
However, menu consistency doesn’t mean you can’t offer different regional or seasonal dishes. If you have one restaurant in the country and one on the beach, you may keep customer favorites as core menu items and add similar local favorites. For example, you may offer grilled seafood in the coastal location and fried catfish or grilled rainbow trout in rural areas. As long as each dish keeps to your overall concept, menu items can vary.
Or Try Something New
Want to try something entirely different? Your second restaurant can be a new concept unrelated to your original place. If you choose to open a different type of restaurant, make everything about it unique. Darden Restaurants, for example, owns a diverse group of restaurant chains, including Olive Garden, Longhorn Steakhouse, and Bahama Breeze – each a distinctive brand.
Rewrite and Recycle Your Business Plan
Since you already have a successful business model from your first restaurant operation, you can update and reuse your original plan for your new restaurant location. Reconsider what went right and what didn’t, then rewrite the plan to build on your successes. You’ve already made many big decisions and adjustments along the way.
Franchise operations succeed by repeating the same formulas and best practices in each new location. From decor to recipes, every detail is documented and duplicated. Following a successful model is smart business, assuming you have enough operating capital and a viable location.
Hire the Right Team Members
You already know that restaurants are full-time jobs, and each has problems and team dynamics. Don’t expect all in-house general managers to switch between restaurants with multiple locations. On the other hand, you may benefit from multi-unit restaurant managers overseeing operations, spotting opportunities to cut costs, and streamlining procedures.
An administrative staff managing multiple business locations can help you maintain brand consistency by training location management, developing staff orientation programs to establish day-to-day operations, and leveraging bulk ordering across locations for better pricing.
Implement Compatible Software
Using the same point-of-sale (POS) technology across all locations helps you run multiple restaurants seamlessly from a centralized location. By choosing a cloud-based service that supports multi-unit restaurant management, you can better control ordering, data, trend analysis, and sales numbers. Online systems can also allow you to address staffing issues such as underperforming servers or short-staff issues.
However, inventory management is the most significant benefit you’ll reap with a comprehensive POS system that integrates your various restaurant locations. Keep your inventory well stocked while reducing waste, monitor dishes that move and those that don’t, and negotiate bulk pricing from vendors.
TouchBistro’s 2025 State of Restaurants report found significant challenges in the restaurant industry. Over 40% of restaurateurs reported rising food costs as the biggest inventory challenge this year, and 20% said ingredient shortages are a problem. In addition, more than 80% reported staffing issues.
A good POS can help you manage all these issues – and help you make informed decisions about cutting costs without damaging your brand. For example, you can rearrange staffing schedules to maximize the help you have and fill in shortages in your other venues.
Scheduling the correct number of people based on their capabilities to keep everyone busy but not overwhelmed is good management. At the same time, you can eliminate menu items that move slowly and find opportunities to boost profits with lower-cost popular items.
Create Buzz
The most important thing you can do to ensure a successful launch is to get the word out. Work your social media, ask customers for reviews, and contact local news and business publications to run feature stories on your new venue.
Introduce your restaurant to the neighborhood and enlist service workers to help spread the word with a service industry night. Print plenty of promotional material to distribute locally, offer specials, or hold an event to kick off your launch. Start with a soft opening a week before the big launch to identify any service or team member issues and improve efficiency, then pick a grand opening date during a busy time to bring in curious passers-by.
While there’s no one way to run multiple restaurants, all owners have similar goals and challenges. They must minimize costs, maximize profits, and deliver a stellar customer experience. It’s not easy to manage multiple business locations without losing your mind, but by sticking to your successes and learning from your mistakes, you have a much better shot at a successful multi-unit restaurant launch.
