One of the saddest sights is when a well thought-out restaurant in your neighborhood-one with great design elements, friendly atmosphere, and wonderful, unique food-goes belly up. It is a sight that we are more and more used to seeing, mostly because almost 90% of all new restaurants fail in their first year. The only thing is, it does not have to be that way.

The things that set the restaurants that succeed apart from those that fail are very subtle. Often people say that some locations are just cursed, as one venture after another in the same venue collapses. Perhaps these locations have poor parking access, but could that really be the only thing stopping such restaurants from succeeding?

Experts agree that the food and the ambience rarely have as much to do with a restaurant’s success as you might think. They say that the key to making it past your first year in the restaurant business hinges on two important factors:

• Finding a suitable location for your restaurant. This, of course, includes adequate parking, or barring that at least plenty of foot traffic. Many times it is the random walk-ins that keep you afloat, especially in the first year.
• Making sure that you are marketing yourself in the best possible way.

So, once you have your location all figured out, it is imperative to start advertising your restaurant as much as possible. Restaurant marketing can include putting ads in the local paper, sponsoring community events, or donating dinners for two to local school raffles (sometimes repeat customers are developed out of just that scenario), and placing ads on the Internet.

This last item may seem like it is a little ahead of its day, but with 100 million people logging on each day, it is one of the best kept secrets in restaurant marketing. Putting your ad online where all the people in your community can see it is a great way to expand your clientele.

But it is imperative that you make sure that your ad is going directly where the people you want to can see it. Indeed, setting up a search-based online advertising system is the best way to see a physical return on your advertising dollar.

And remember, always make sure that your have plenty of capital, there are always unforeseen risks during the first few years of running a business, and having the capital on hand is a good way to ensure that you make it over the rocky points.

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