On Thursday, October 30th, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and Washington State Governor Jay Inslee launched a new state-wide initiative called Restaurant Success at Stateside, a new restaurant initiative set to open later this year. The initiative is aimed at providing better resources for restaurant startups, which have a long-standing history of high failure rates in their first year of operation.
“Restaurant Success is an important milestone in our ongoing efforts to improve the regulatory environment for startups and existing businesses across the state,” said Gov. Jay Inslee. “Our partnership with Seattle, King County, and the restaurant industry has made it easier for prospective local restaurateurs to navigate the permitting and licensing requirements so they can do what they do best: cook delicious food and create jobs.”
The restaurant industry employs approximately 86,000 people across King and Snohomish county and over 222,000 statewide, and 50 percent of all restaurants go out of business or change ownership over five years. This is why Governor Inslee and the Mayor’s office have begun Restaurant Success with the stated purpose of making the process of opening a restaurant in Washington State easier for restaurant owners, while also endeavoring to conduct outreach with restaurateurs to determine how to improve regulations and policies to bolster the industry’s success rate.
“Making it simpler for restaurant owners to navigate the regulatory process will help the local small businesses that are so important to the vibrancy of our region,” said King County Executive Dow Constantine. “I believe this initiative will create a model for how city, county, and state agencies can work together to improve the customer experience.”
Image: growseattle.comImage: growseattle.com
The initiative’s main feature, developed in conjunction with 17 agencies and organizations, will include a new online portal designed to create a compendium of resources for restaurateurs in order to streamline the opening process.
According to Eric Johnson, the first-time restaurateur behind Stateside, who has begun working with Restaurant Success, the initiative will help keep small business owners from being bogged down in the red tape commonly associated with starting a small business.
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