Quick service restaurants (QSRs) are a great way of serving the public with tasty treats in an informal setting. What's more, for many people who want to get into the catering industry, they offer a simple method of doing so. This is because so many QSRs are run as franchises. Therefore, entrepreneurs get all of the established marketing they need to get going for a minimal fee.

If you are thinking about opening up a QSR without relying on a pre-existing business model in a franchise, then you can still do so. If so, the big question to decide will be what sort of food you will serve. What are the options open to entrepreneurs who wish to operate a QSR? 

• Fried Fish QSRs

A traditional meal that you can buy in virtually any town and city in the UK, fish and chips is a business model that more and more Australian entrepreneurs are taking up. Deep-fried, battered fish along with potato chips is a hearty meal that provides lots of energy and nutrition. One of the key factors to consider when opening up a fish and chips restaurant is the amount of energy it takes to heat up all of the oil that is needed for this sort of business model. Therefore, you need a decent footfall of customers to make it work. However, the profit margin on fried fish served with chips is relatively high.

• Burger QSRs

Burger joints may be one of the most popular forms of QSR franchises in the world, but that does not mean that it doesn't make sense to open your own. One of the reasons that preparing burgers in a fast food set up is so popular is that it does not take long to cook them. Indeed, you do not need to employ anyone with specialist culinary skills in order to operate a burger restaurant successfully. This is one of the simplest approaches to opening a QSR you could take despite the relatively high competition levels.

• Pizza QSRs

Pizza restaurants are sometimes operated outside of the QSR business model in more of a fine dining experience. However, selling individual slices of pizza to customers is a very viable QSR option. One of the great things about a pizza QSR is that you can partially prepare your pizzas beforehand and then finish them off in the oven to order. This means that you can make basic margarita pizzas and then allow customers to choose their own toppings and have their order ready to go within a few minutes. What's more, pizza QSRs have one of the highest profit margins of any type of hot food.