How a Hospitality Degree Makes a Successful Restaurant

For those who love food, and have dreamed of opening a restaurant, obtaining a restaurant management degree should be a priority. Culinary experience and/or a wonderful idea for a restaurant are not enough to guarantee success. Many prospective restaurant owners are trained chefs, who graduated from culinary schools and/or have an impressive culinary resume. Others have business acumen and/or experience, and an idea for a restaurant niche they feel has yet to be tapped.

In either scenario, a sound education and training in hospitality management can be the key to learning about this unique industry, and will enhance a restaurant owner’s chances of success.

Three Ways a Restaurant Management Degree Will Increase Your Chance of Success

1. Envision the Big Picture. The restaurant industry is known for being a challenging business in which to succeed. One in four restaurants close within the first year (PDF), and not all of these are due to financial failure. A hospitality degree program will provide the “big picture” as to what it means to be a successful restaurant owner, in terms of both personal and professional demands. The program’s comprehensive course listings will provide a strong foundation in :
   • Employment law
   • Accounting and Bookkeeping
   • The hospitality industry
   • General management
   • Management specific to the hospitality industry
   • Ethics in hospitality

Courses that focus on restaurant management will allow chefs, food lovers, and/or business experts alike, to hone skills specifically tailored to the food and hospitality industries.

1. Learn to Impress the Banks. Banks are notoriously reluctant to lend money to new restaurant owners. Combine this with the fact that a lack of capital is one of the main reasons that restaurants fail, and it becomes a conundrum. One of the secrets to getting the loan approval(s) required to open a restaurant is to have a solid, professional, and realistic business plan. Accounting and bookkeeping courses, included in a hospitality management program, will enable students to have an in-depth understanding of the overhead costs required to run a successful restaurant. This will allow them to draft business plans with realistic projections and figures. Realistic business plans help prospective lenders to determine whether or not the client is a viable loan candidate.
2. General Management Versus Hospitality Management. Even experienced business managers, or individuals with general business management degrees, can find it difficult to be successful in the restaurant business. This is because hospitality-based companies work much more closely with and for the public, in addition to their traditional business management obligations. A restaurant management degree prepares prospective owners for the complexities that arise in an industry where one is managing both kitchen and food preparation staff, front house food service, bar, and host staff, as well as meeting the needs of each unique customer that enters the establishment.

Ready to open your own restaurant? Contact the Admissions Office at Bryant & Stratton College. We offer restaurant management training designed to prepare future, successful restaurant entrepreneurs.