The best restaurants in the world run like efficient machines. Each part of your restaurant operation should have a clear and measurable goal that, when achieved, leads to achieving the overall goal of increasing profit.
Whether you are opening a new restaurant or trying to improve an existing one, check out this blog for advice on making your restaurant business more profitable.
Have Clear Goals
There’s no point in trying to increase your profit if you don’t know what profit actually is. Make sure you know how much you should be making (a net figure after all costs have been paid) as well as how much you do make on a typical week (a gross figure).
Then look at your sales figures for each week and month so that you can see where most of your income comes from. This will help you work out where to focus your efforts on increasing profit in the future.
A Good Location
This may seem obvious but many restaurants fail because they are in the wrong location. The location may be too close to other competitors or not convenient for its target market or simply not visible enough for those looking for it. Also consider accessibility, parking facilities, and space for expansion if necessary.
Quality Food
The food is the most important aspect of a restaurant. Food brings people in and makes people come back. A great menu will draw customers in and even if they don’t eat until next week, they’ll still come back to see what’s new every time they’re in town.
The quality of the ingredients you use is key to a successful operation. If you buy your meat from a local butcher, you can be sure that it was raised with care and never frozen. If you use organic produce, you can be sure that it will taste better (or at least different) than the produce grown with pesticides in your local supermarket.
When it comes to managing your restaurant’s ingredients and inventory, it’s important to catalog the quantity of each ingredient as well as the dates for each item. That is where restaurant inventory management software can really enhance your operations. This type of software can be a game changer for businesses that are struggling with inventory waste and cataloging.
Restaurant Service
The service is also important in ensuring that customers are happy, but it is secondary to food. If an establishment has good food but poor service then customers will become frustrated and look for another place to dine out. However, if an establishment has poor food but good service, customers will overlook this flaw and continue coming back for more.
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Attract Millennials
There is a lot of evidence that the days of the family restaurant are over. People want to go out, enjoy something special and leave satisfied. That goes for all generations, but Millenials, in particular, want an experience with their different, exciting, and memorable food.
First of all, Millennials are different from previous generations and want different things. The “restaurant experience” has become much more important, compared to the volume of food, price, or convenience of the past. There are many studies about how Millennials expect “good service” as a right.
If you want to attract Millennials, observe and learn from the restaurants in your city doing the best job (perhaps with farm-to-table, chef-driven creative concepts and healthy options) and avoid the 90s mistakes of high fat, pre-processed foods that were overpriced at the local fast-food chains.
Restaurant Expansion
In order for your restaurant to be able to accommodate more guests, an extension will be needed. You can rent a bar next door and connect it or make a garden that guests will enjoy on sunny days. Remember that the decoration of the exterior is very important.
In addition to choosing the best pergolas, the designers advise you to pay attention to the details, so that your guests can enjoy it when they come to have lunch.
Accepting Reservations
Accepting reservations is a must for full-service operations. But if you don’t have one, you are missing out on opportunities to maximize your profit. With a reservation system in place, you not only can ‘smooth’ the flow of diners over the course of the shift, but you will also be able to reduce no-shows, which means that your tables will turn more quickly and at an even rate throughout the day. The result is higher profits and happier guests. Here are six steps to help you get up and running:
- Implement a computerized reservation system
- Train your staff on the software
- Distribute schedules
- Get your staff on board with marketing their dayparts
- Post signs outside the restaurant
- Get customers accustomed to using a web-based calendar
Social Media
Social media has revolutionized how restaurants and brands operate. In an effort to build a strong brand, restaurants are investing time and money into their social media presence. Food and beverage businesses use social media in different ways than other businesses.
Restaurant customers have high expectations for the speed at which they receive their food, so social media is often used as a way to manage customer expectations, rather than create a buzz about the restaurant.
Your website should be dynamic and engaging enough to convince someone who just stumbled upon it to make a reservation or call the restaurant.
Smart restaurants use all of their Social Media platforms to keep people coming back again and again. We believe that these tips will help you make your restaurant more profitable!