What are the growth opportunities for restaurants in 2020?

The new year has just begun, and big questions are starting to arise: What will the situation or direction of the restaurant business be this year? Originally at the end of last year, analysts predicted that the restaurant business would have an opportunity to expand by around 4-5%, which was an analysis based on the growth figures of the restaurant business which have been continuous every year. But after the crisis, both internal and external factors of the country all affected the overall economy and consumer confidence causing purchasing power to slow down, the question is

Will the restaurant business continue to grow this year? What are the market opportunities? And how should business owners prepare themselves to make their business profitable? We have an analysis from our own perspective to recommend. Click to read the following topics.

Many risk factors are holding back growth opportunities for the restaurant business.

 It must be admitted that at this time, domestic factors such as economic problems that have affected the consumer confidence index to decrease, purchasing power that has slowed down to the point of being noticeable, the PM 2.5 dust and smog problem, the drought problem that has a direct impact on the grassroots level, and including political problems that have caused the disbursement of the annual government budget to be delayed from the schedule, are all factors that have dragged down the overall growth of the country's economy. Especially when faced with external factors such as the Covid-19 epidemic that is spreading unceasingly and becoming a global threat, it has made the country's economic problems even worse. As soon as the number of tourists from China has dropped by more than 80% due to measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19, with no sign of the outbreak slowing down, the tourism sector has been severely affected. One part of the tourism sector is the restaurant business. Due to both internal and external factors, many Thai financial institutions have now agreed to reduce this year's GDP to only about 1. If we use the country's GDP as a criterion, it is possible that the country's overall economy will continue to slow down. The restaurant business will also be affected. From the forecast of 4-5% growth, just 2% would be considered very good. If we look at various factors, especially the effects of Covid-19, which will have many more effects on our country's economy this year,

 However, the restaurant business is a business that has its own unique strengths, which is that it is one of the basic human factors. Even though the overall economy of the country looks bad, eating is always a big deal. And with the behavior of the Thai population changing from cooking for themselves to eating out more. Including ordering food to eat at home instead of cooking it yourself. In addition, the current growth of shopping malls has expanded to secondary cities, which has caused various restaurant brands that are usually located in shopping malls to expand branches to the provinces, stimulating the interest of local people in another way. Similarly, the emergence of delivery platforms has also stimulated the behavior of eating out or ordering food from restaurants to eat in increasing numbers continuously. These are positive factors for the restaurant business directly, which has resulted in this business being able to grow through the economic crisis as it has always done.

 There is a funny saying that "I hate who encouraged him to open a restaurant." This sentence well describes the difficulty of the restaurant business. Although many people may think that the restaurant business is an easy business that anyone can do. All you need is money, a location, and workers, and you can open a shop. That is true. But in the ease of starting, there is also the difficulty of making it successful. In the restaurant business market, which is worth close to 500 billion baht, there are new entrepreneurs emerging all the time. But there are also entrepreneurs who have to withdraw with many wounds. That's because this business is easy to start, but difficult to make it successful.

Especially today, even though there is a lot of market space, the competition in this market is also very high. Competing with standalone brands of the same level is already difficult. You also have to compete with big brands with many branches (chained restaurants) that have adjusted themselves to capture the same customer group as SMEs, whether in the form of branching out into small brands. or Downsizing the store to make it easier to access community spaces No need to wait for customers to come to the mall like before. Therefore, it is a challenge for SME restaurants to present themselves in a way that will be interesting to consumers. Therefore, in order to operate a restaurant in this era and from now on, entrepreneurs must place great importance on knowledge in planning and management both before and after investing. Just having capital, location, and a team is no longer enough. Because the restaurant business is no different from the real estate business or other businesses that require specialized knowledge in management. Although the restaurant business is difficult to make successful, if it is successful, it will be a long-term success that can be easily passed down from generation to generation.

 Although many people are waiting for hope from the government's economic stimulus measures, such as the first phase of the "Shop-Eat-Use" program, which allowed a significant number of restaurants to benefit from the measure, with sales soaring at that time, after the first phase ended, the situation returned to reality where entrepreneurs had to contend with rising production costs and the tendency to continue to rise, especially the cost of some raw materials affected by the drought. Waiting for government stimulus measures may be too late because the government will be able to disburse the annual budget until the second quarter of the year, and we don't know what measures will be implemented and what the results will be. I must say that right now, it's best to rely on yourself because, as SME entrepreneurs, many of whom are not registered for business, access to government SME assistance policies is already difficult. For example, access to low-interest funding sources is almost impossible. Turning to internal management is essential for survival, such as having a low-cost source of raw materials, choosing ready-made raw materials, especially developing products that can add value, and developing production processes to reduce costs are things that SMEs can do on their own and should do.

3 classic factors that will help SME restaurant owners survive and grow in every situation. Finally, if we have to answer the question of what SME restaurant operators must do to survive and make a profit, we can’t escape the 3 basic factors that entrepreneurs need to give importance to:

Factor 1: System layout or Operation Inside the restaurant, one of the big problems for SME restaurant operators is that life is like being in prison when running a restaurant because every day you can't go anywhere, you have to be at the restaurant all the time, you only encounter problems to solve until you're discouraged. Some restaurants, the better the sales are, the more chaotic and miserable life becomes. Chefs leave, workers disappear, the restaurant can barely open because of the lack of a good management system. To run a good restaurant, the owner must have time to think and develop the restaurant. On the days the owner doesn't come in, the business must be open as usual. Whoever comes in or leaves doesn't matter. The food menu and service still maintain the same quality. The worse the situation is, having a good management system will help the business survive.

Factor 2: Cost management , which is the core of making profits. If the entrepreneur does not have knowledge in this matter, the chances of loss are high. No matter how good the sales are, they will fail. The main cost management is food cost and labor cost, which have details that need to be studied. Entrepreneurs can learn

Management and control of food raw material costs Get it at Free Online Courses!

Factor 3: Modern Marketing: Although promotions and advertising signs in front of stores are still necessary, marketing through social media channels or using Foodie Influencers is something that entrepreneurs in this era must give special importance to because it is currently found that

Consumers receive news about restaurants and make decisions to use services through social media channels more than 50% of all media channels, followed by reviews and word-of-mouth at about 23%, and the rest are through other media channels such as in-store media. This means that social media and influencers have a high influence on consumer decisions. If entrepreneurs neglect this part, it means they will lose marketing opportunities to a large group of consumers. Entrepreneurs can learn the basics of online marketing tools in the free online course! "Promote restaurants online to increase sales 10 times"

All of this is just an analysis from our perspective based on various factors at this time. If we were to conclude that in the end, will the restaurant business still be a business with a future? Will it continue to grow? I dare to answer that: This business will continue to be one of the few businesses that will continue to grow without stopping. We will definitely continue to see new things, new products, new presentations, new methods of competition emerge in large numbers. And that will be a question for SME restaurant operators: How well have you prepared to deal with the changes and competition today? “Knowledge” is the most important thing that will make SMEs survive and grow into big brands. Don't forget that most chain restaurant brands in our country started as small SMEs. They grew and developed because of their continuous learning and development.