An Guide to Writing a Restaurant Mission Statement

A restaurant mission statement is crucial when starting a new eatery, upgrading your website, or revamping your marketing materials. Your restaurant is a part of you, and a mission statement adds value to your business. It reflects the core values you uphold, and communicating that to your customers helps convert them into loyal and regular clients. Here’s a quick and effective guide for you to learn more about a restaurant’s mission and vision statement!

What Is a Restaurant Mission Statement?

A restaurant mission statement helps to visualize the goals and objectives of your restaurant. It will help you establish your restaurant’s central principles and what it aims to accomplish. It also communicates what differentiates you from the competitors.

Typically, the mission statement for a restaurant describes its customer service culture, food quality, and taste. It also takes into account the decor and design choices or any other standards they want to maintain. The mission statement must align all the components of your restaurant to express one core message.

Difference Between Restaurant Mission, Vision, and Values

Mission statements frequently come with a vision statement or values statement. People often confuse the terms with one another and use them synonymously. However, a mission, vision, or value statement are three separate components which are explained below.

Restaurant Mission Statement

A mission statement conveys the reason for your restaurant’s existence and identifies a purpose it will serve. It explains the experience the restaurant aims to provide in relation to its core values.

Example: We prepare simple but high-quality food to let you experience the essence of a home-like environment.

Restaurant Vision Statement

A vision statement pictures the future of a restaurant after achieving its goal and helps to give the business a direction. It expresses what you wish to achieve. A strong vision statement promotes creativity and keeps the teams concentrated on what really counts.

Example: We are committed to uncompromising quality in our business — food, service, and people, while providing optimum care for our guests and employees.

Restaurant Value Statement

The value statement for a restaurant outlines your beliefs and the principles on which the business is built. A value statement must be timeless and memorable.

Example: Our customized decor, top-notch food, and attentive staff will give you the best dining experience in a safe and uplifting environment.

Why Does Your Restaurant Need a Mission Statement?

Do you wish to provide the best food that is absolutely fresh? Are you aiming to offer food of all kinds: hot bar breakfast, cold buffet, and even solid dishes like cheese and crackers? Do you want to provide a social space that enables people to connect and enjoy an incredible dining experience? When you’re not sure what you want to serve, your restaurant would just be another eatery with no significance in the industry.

Developing a mission statement for your restaurant can clear the confusion and guide your business decisions. Here are a few important reasons why your restaurant needs a mission statement.

Gives Your Team and Employees a Direction

A mission statement helps define and guide the direction of the restaurant. It outlines the purpose of the company and establishes a standard for what the company aims to provide to its customers and staff. If there is no clear mission statement, employees will work in silos, leave before they complete their work, or distract from the organization’s goal.

Differentiates Your Restaurant From the Competition

A restaurant, like anything, has to differentiate itself to thrive. Using a mission statement is one way to accomplish this. Every restaurant has its own unique features or personality that sets them apart from other restaurants. A mission statement helps set you apart from the competition and make sure that potential customers know what to expect from your restaurant.

Help You Hire the Right Talent

Your restaurant has to hire a lot of people. It’s easy for your restaurant to misfire on an employee selection because that one person doesn’t fit the company culture or values. However, a properly written and enforced mission statement has the potential to be an effective employee selection tool. It’s a way to ensure that you recruit someone who will fill the role and deliver the results you need.

Know the Traits of a Mission Statement for a Restaurant

A restaurant’s mission statement is a lens through which you must view the entire business operation. The mission statement is important to keep your company or business on track.

It also helps create the overarching sense of purpose that provides the energy, motivation, and enthusiasm you need as your business grows. All effective mission statements for restaurants share some common traits.

Consider the following attributes as you start writing a mission statement for your restaurant.

1. Accurate

Your mission statement should accurately portray the goals and objectives of your restaurant. You must update or revise the operating policies of the statement if it doesn’t truly reflect your restaurant.

2. Attainable

While having ambitious goals is a good thing, they should also be attainable and measurable. The world’s greatest food or the best service are two common restaurant aspirations. However, not every restaurant can be the best, so make sure to claim something achievable. You must set actionable goals and plan on how to fulfill them.

3. Succinct

Your mission statement should not look like an essay. Make sure the statement is concise with a succinct message that’s easy to comprehend. As a rule of thumb, your mission statement should not exceed five sentences.

4. Transparent

Steer clear of jargon, clichés, or industry-specific words in your mission statement that is not easily digestible by the general customers. Your mission statement should be transparent and honestly communicate the goal of your restaurant.

5. Unique

Make sure your mission statement reflects what your business does and what makes you unique. Give your statement some depth that differentiates you from others. It must not sound similar to your competition.

Conclusion

The mission statement for your restaurant is one of the most important components of your business. Make sure it is not just a line in a contract but a pillar that your entire business stands upon.

It is the reason why you choose to open a business over the other options available to you. It is one of the first things an investor will ask. How it feels to read your restaurant’s mission statement can tell how your business will fare.