If you’re reading this, chances are you’re a successful restaurant owner with an appetite for expansion.
Certainly, scaling your operations can unlock higher profits.
But managing dozens of restaurants is very different from overseeing just one or two.
With growing operations come growing pains, and you need to work smart.
So, how can you make your expansion a success?
Let’s dive into five best practices to help you do that smoothly and sustainably.
The first criterion for successful expansion is getting your house in order.
Why?
Because every inefficiency in your front- and back-of-house operations will be replicated and multiplied as you add more locations.
Issues like inconsistent training, wasteful inventory practices, or paper-based processes will hurt your business exponentially more.
That’s why streamlining your processes before scaling is critical.
By perfecting your operations now, you’ll avoid costly mistakes and set the stage for sustainable growth.
After all, we’re talking about expanding in a highly competitive and challenging industry.
Consider the current state of the industry:
Illustration: Tablein / Data: NRA
These challenges are long-standing in the industry, and they partly explain why only 30% of U.S. restaurant owners operate two or more locations.
Therefore, assessing and refining your operations before expanding is crucial.
Start by evaluating whether your existing restaurant has:
Identify operational gaps and inefficiencies, then address them systematically to create a strong blueprint for smoother and scalable expansion.
Take McDonald's as an example.
This fast food giant wouldn't have achieved such successful expansion without their well-defined SOPs.
Source: @john_lee_official
Repeatable processes are one of their 7Ps and serve as the backbone of their operational excellence.
Of course, ensuring your operations are ready for expansion requires more than having clear SOPs.
So, let’s explore what else is essential for successful growth.
Scaling your restaurant business requires more than replicating recipes and décor—it demands a strong, adaptable team ready to deliver consistent results across locations.
As operations grow, so do the challenges of maintaining quality, service, and efficiency.
This is where empowering your team for scaling becomes essential.
This is also where standard operating procedures help. So don’t just create them for service staff, create them for management too.
Without capable and empowered managers, service consistency and quality across locations would be at risk.
They are the ones who ensure that daily operations run smoothly, uphold brand standards, and create a positive work environment among employees.
Empowerment starts with trust and autonomy—managers must be equipped to handle challenges independently.
As David Scott Peters, Restaurant Expert and Coach, says:
Illustration: Tablein / Quote: David Scott Peters on YouTube
Likewise, standardized onboarding programs should ensure your new entry-level hires are trained uniformly across all locations.
Starbucks’ robust onboarding and training practices epitomize this approach.
While their store manager and shift supervisor training programs are comprehensive, the core of Starbucks' service consistency lies in its Barista Basics Training Program.
Source: Starbucks
Was this program crucial for Starbucks’ expansion?
It was, because baristas play a central role in ensuring consistent service and quality across Starbucks’ global locations.
Therefore, they need to be trained to do all of this, regardless of location:
Starbucks employs a training model known as the 70/20/10 approach, where 70% of learning is on-the-job, 20% from mentorship and feedback, and 10% from online e-learning.
Finally, Starbucks turned reinforces training with its Green Apron Book for baristas.
Source: WordPress
All of this enables Starbucks to expand rapidly, ensuring that every location delivers the same high-quality customer experience, regardless of the country or region.
Of course, the Barista Basics Training Program is just one piece of the puzzle.
It’s complemented by robust leadership training for managerial staff, highlighting the fact that management and new hires play an equally important role in successful expansion.
If your restaurant is thriving in one location, your current marketing efforts should easily translate to a new outlet.
Marketing starts before you even open the doors.
Source: Facebook
But don’t neglect to do your due diligence on a new location. That is crucial from both a business and marketing perspective.
A new location might demand different approaches due to different demographics, weather, and other factors.
So customize your marketing strategy. Don’t just copy/paste what worked so far.
With that in mind, let’s explore a few surefire marketing strategies that can give your new location the visibility it needs.
A highly effective one is geo-targeted campaigns.
These online campaigns ensure that your "coming soon," "just opened," or "grand opening 50% off" ads reach specific customers based on age, location, and other factors.
Whether you want ads to appear Google, Facebook, Instagram, or Reddit, targeting the right audience at the right time is possible.
Source: Google Ads
While targeted ads are effective for reaching specific audiences, restaurants are inherently communal, relying on local buzz to build excitement.
One of the best ways to generate this is by hosting launch events, partnering with local influencers and chefs, or collaborating with community organizations.
Getting local, national, or international influencers to support your new locations is a great idea, especially if you worked with them before.
Source: Petpooja
This leads us to another effective, low-cost strategy—leveraging social media to build visibility for your new restaurant.
Running promotions or contests can drive user-generated content (UGC), where customers share their experiences online, creating organic word-of-mouth marketing.
A simple giveaway or local contest can generate excitement and make your new location part of the community conversation.
Moreover, depending on your restaurant concept, you can offer discounts to local clubs or schools to encourage early foot traffic.
Overall, investing in a well-rounded marketing approach can pave the way to successful restaurant expansion.
Software systems play a pivotal role in modern restaurant operations.
But when it comes to scaling, choosing the right tools becomes even more critical.
To support growth effectively, you need solutions that are:
Think about a POS system that centralizes sales data, streamlines reporting, and provides a unified view of performance metrics across all branches.
Source: Square
Square POS enables restaurant operators to manage multiple locations from a single dashboard.
This centralized system streamlines oversight of sales, inventory, and staff across venues, ensuring consistency and efficiency.
Another example of a scalable solution is Tablein, which centralizes reservations management, regardless of how many locations you have.
Source: Tablein
These functionalities, along with a user-friendly interface and customizability, make Tablein a valuable tool for efficient scaling.
For instance, you can integrate Tablein’s reservation widget into each of your restaurants’ websites—or a unified group website—and across key online platforms.
This means your guests can make online bookings directly from wherever they discover your restaurant(s), like Google, Facebook, Instagram, TripAdvisor, or even the Michelin Guide.
While automatically receiving online reservations across multiple locations, you and your team can easily view, add, or edit bookings from a single account.
By centralizing reservation management, Tablein ensures a convenient booking experience for your guests while giving you oversight and control across all your venues.
These examples underscore the vital role of cloud-based, scalable, and easily integrated tools in driving successful restaurant expansion.
They form the infrastructure that streamlines operations for you and your team, allowing for consistent service and quality across all locations.
And some of these tools even enable effective cross-promotion.
Running multiple restaurants allows you to cross-promote them, especially when operating different concepts or introducing new ones.
Imagine this: guests at your casual dining restaurant are finishing their lunch.
After billing, your staff informs them to keep their receipt for a 20% discount.
Where can they use it?
At your new bakery café nearby, enjoying freshly baked bread and pastries the next morning.
Such cross-promotional opportunities are just one part of the broader benefits of owning multiple locations.
Multi-unit owners can leverage bulk-purchasing discounts for supplies and food, reducing costs per unit and boosting competitiveness.
As April Joy King, a former multi-unit restaurant owner with over 15 years of experience and now an Account Executive at Restaurant365, explains:
Illustration: Tablein / Quote: LinkedIn
The shared resource model goes beyond purchasing power, extending to staff-sharing, centralized accounting and marketing, and more.
Many of these resource-sharing strategies are closely tied to cross-promotion.
For example, you can promote your locations together on social media, newsletters, and blogs.
Next, your integrated reservation system can automatically offer available slots at other locations when one venue is fully booked.
Alternatively, guests can be asked to join a waitlist or encouraged to try one of your other nearby locations.
Source: Tempest On The Barn
Other effective cross-promotional ideas include:
In summary, to ensure successful expansion, it's important to encourage guests at one restaurant to explore others.
When combined with leveraging resource-sharing synergies across your operations, this helps make your growth both sustainable and profitable.
Expanding your restaurant business is an exciting yet challenging journey.
Your success hinges on readiness—from streamlining operations and empowering teams to leveraging strategic marketing, scalable tech, and cross-promotional efforts.
By focusing on these best practices, you can navigate growth confidently, ensuring consistent quality and profitability across locations.
Remember, while tools and processes are vital, it's your people—your team and your customers—who ultimately drive long-term success.
Invest in them, and your restaurant expansion will thrive.
