Running a restaurant is many people’s dream, whether they see themselves as the chef or they want to be in front of the house. However, running a business and making a profit do not necessarily go hand in hand, and if you want to succeed, you’ll need to ensure your business is as profitable as possible. This might sound simple, but when the profit margins are already fairly tight, as they can often be when it comes to food, you’ll need to have several different strategies in place to ensure you’re making money. Read on to find out more.
Reduce Food Costs
One of the best things you can do to improve your profits is to reduce your food costs. The issue, of course, is that if you do this by buying lower-quality ingredients, your customers will soon notice and you’ll lose them – and your reputation. There’s no point in paying less for food if no one is buying it.
Therefore, you need to be careful when it comes to cutting costs. Some of the things you can try include:
- Growing your own vegetables and herbs
- Training your team to make fewer mistakes (and waste less food)
- Buying in bulk (as long as you have enough storage)
- Using local suppliers
Upsell To Your Customers
Something that can easily boost your profits but that many restaurant owners don’t take advantage of is upselling. If you already have people seated in your dining room eating a meal, you can train your staff to upsell to them. This essentially means getting them to buy more. For example, you can ensure your team always asks if someone wants to see the dessert menu (which might be enough to persuade them to buy a dessert when they weren’t originally going to) or ask if they want sides with their meal. Often just the question is enough to prompt someone to spend a little more.
Of course, you’ll also need to ensure people want to stay in your dining room for longer to enjoy these additional menu items, so you should work out the best décor and make sure you use the right music streaming services for restaurants to make the place a comfortable one to be in. People are more likely to spend additional money if they don’t want to leave the dining room; it’s a good excuse to stay.
Market Well
Just because you’re not an online business doesn’t mean you can’t advertise online. It would be a mistake if you didn’t. So many people use social media and the internet to discover new things or find out more about businesses they are thinking of using that you’ll be falling far behind your competitors if you don’t utilize this particular marketing option.
Make sure that you inject some personality into your ads to show that you’re different from everyone else. People tend to buy from people they ‘know’ and trust, and if you can ensure this comes across in your online advertising, whether you use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or anything else, that will make a big difference.
The restaurant market is already difficult but there are tools available to make the process easier. PopMenu provides restaurants with digital marketing and ordering technology to engage diners and get more visibility online.