How to Join
Among the best investments you can make when starting or expanding your restaurant is to join a restaurant association. Local, state and national restaurant associations represent owners at all levels, provide rich benefit programs to members, and offer invaluable industry contacts and a knowledge base that can help you be more efficient and profitable. Talk about a great deal!
The real value of a restaurant association far exceeds the cost of dues, even if you only consider the lobbying and representation, which is not available from any other source. This is in addition to the many tangible benefits. Indeed, restaurant association membership can be the difference between success and failure in starting a restaurant.
No two can dispute the fact that starting or expanding a restaurant in today’s business environment is a complex and time-consuming task. For one thing, laws related to such investments are largely various, distribution channels may fluctuate, and just staying abreast of regulations and how they affect your business can be daunting.
Restaurant association membership can help you navigate the entangled bureaucratic and regulatory environment with information and assistance on legal and risk management issues, such as workers’ compensation and liquor control. Helping you dodge obstacles and challenges, restaurant associations help keep your business on course towards financial success with return on investment profiles, profitability targets, special vendor arrangements, and a host of other advantages and tools.
Restaurant association membership keeps you in touch with your industry colleagues, both down the street and across the country. You can learn what your peers are doing in a collegial setting. These associations, however, are far more than just social clubs. They give restaurateurs a collective voice that is absolutely necessary in today’s special-interest.
But that collective voice is only as loud as the number of individual voices. More members mean greater representation and bargaining power, as well as better, broader and more affordable benefits.
Participation in your restaurant association not only makes sense, but, indeed, it is the right thing to do — for your investors, your employees, your fellow restaurateurs, and for you.
One network, one voice, and a rich supply of business resources are ingredients for success in the restaurant business.
