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Should You Hire a Restaurant Consultant?
Bianca Esmond
5 min read
Apr 4, 2023
Bianca Esmond
5 min read
Apr 4, 2023
When you’re a savvy, ambitious restaurateur, it’s natural to want to do as much as you can for your business by yourself — from planning your menu to bookkeeping. However, there may come a point when you realize it’s best to focus on your natural talents and find experts to help with the rest.
That’s where restaurant consultants come in.
While the word “consultant” can sound intimidatingly corporate, it simply refers to an external expert who can help you tackle business challenges. Restaurant consultants specialize in every aspect of the restaurant business and serve clients of all kinds, from independent operators to international franchises. If you’ve been considering outsourcing some help, this guide will help you decide who to hire and when.
Table of Contents:
A restaurant consultant is an external expert you hire to help you improve your business. Consultants offer insight, advice and guidance to either address problem areas within your business or achieve goals and objectives.You can hire them as needed or contract with them long-term for ongoing recommendations and advice.
Restaurant consultants that are generalists might help you open a restaurant while a specialist might solve a more specific aspect, such as menu development, financial planning or franchising. Basically, if you’re facing a restaurant or business-related challenge, there’s a consultant who can help you.
Restaurant consultants can help you at any stage in your business. Here are a few scenarios in which you might consider working with one:
From generalists to specialists, there are countless types of restaurant consultants. These are some of the most common types you might consider working with.
A restaurant management consultant is a generalist that advises on the operations side of your business: creating and executing a business strategy, optimizing front-of-house operations, navigating supply chain issues, training staff, identifying opportunities for increasing revenue and much more.
This type of restaurant consultant helps you identify, attract and retain your ideal customer. Marketing consultants also consider your competition and help you differentiate your business as they create your marketing strategy. They provide omnichannel marketing services, such as branding and rebranding consulting, social media marketing and traditional advertising.
You might hire a design consultant to design your floor plan and choose decor before you open. If you’re already up and running, you might hire this type of consultant to optimize your seating layout so that it boosts revenue and looks good.
A menu consultant is an expert in menu development, business and marketing. They can help you create recipes, calculate food cost percentages, price menu items, advise on food safety best practices, and engineer your menu to maximize profits.
While some restaurant menu consultants also offer beverage consulting services, many restaurants and bars seek consultants to help build out their beverage programs. Beverage consultants can help build a cocktail menu, source wines and beers and make valuable connections with distributors.
The fee structure for restaurant consultants vary depending on how you want them to help you. These are the most common pricing strategies consultants use.
Restaurant consultants that charge by the hour command rates of between $14 and $125 per hour, with an average rate of nearly $50.
An hourly consultant might be an affordable option if you’re looking for advice gained over a virtual meeting or phone call where you can ask the expert questions, like “Should my restaurant be on TikTok?” or “how can I introduce seasonal menus into my business model?”
If you need assistance with a longer-term project or issue, you might consider working with a consultant throughout the duration of the project. This is called project-based pricing. In these instances, the consultant will quote you a set project fee, which you’ll know ahead of time so you can budget appropriately.
Depending on the project’s scope, project-based work could cost anywhere from several hundreds of dollars to tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.
While project-based pricing is suitable for a project that has a defined endpoint, a consultant may charge you a retainer (a set amount every month) for ongoing, open-ended work. Managing your restaurant’s social media presence is an example of something that would likely warrant a retainer.
Retainers can range from several hundreds to several thousands of dollars per month.
Leverage these resources to find restaurant consultants:
Investing in a restaurant consultant can be scary, but you’ll increase your odds of hiring a great restaurant consultant if you consider these factors:
Restaurants are dynamic businesses. While you can tackle some challenges on your own, it’s more efficient to outsource to experts who know the best way to handle things. Working with various consultants during your tenure as a restaurateur will only benefit your business and enrich your expertise.
Restaurant consultants are external experts that identify problems restaurants face, offer solutions, and then find ways to implement these solutions. Consultants work with a business temporarily and are not considered employees of the restaurant
Restaurant consultants charge about $50 per hour, on average. For more complex projects or retainers, consultant fees can range from several hundred to tens of thousands of dollars.
