One thing’s for sure: you’re getting into the restaurant business because you love it. For many people just like you, opening a restaurant the ultimate dream — combining a love of food, hospitality, people and entrepreneurship. It will be a lot of work but it will be worth it.

But while passion is the glue that will hold it all together, we’ve already mentioned the most important ingredient: hard work. It’s not just about choosing great staff or even about coming up with a great restaurant business plan (though of course, both help) — opening a restaurant also requires fantastic accounting.…