The goal of most restaurateurs is to maximize profits. Most want to avoid wastage and encourage guests to spend more money on dishes. Ensuring your restaurant business is profitable can help pay its expenses.
However, there are instances when keeping up with the rising costs of operating your restaurant takes plenty of work. The main reasons are the increasing food prices, payroll costs, and rental fees. Hence, being mindful of your expenses is a must.
Noting how much you’re spending can help you identify the areas where you can cut costs. For instance, checking the efficiency of refrigeration monitoring systems can help reduce food wastage. You can also train your staff members who aren’t performing well to improve their service level.
Here are some ways to ensure your restaurant remains profitable with less expense and better gains:
1. Prevent Food Waste
One common problem most restaurants face is food wastage. Some purchase raw supplies excessively, leading to overproduction and spoilage. Restaurateurs don’t often have an effective inventory management system. Ignoring this issue doesn’t just affect the restaurants but the environment as well.
A simple solution is to implement inventory forecasting. Reviewing past sales data can help you project and quantify future demand for raw materials. It lets you determine how much food to purchase and when to order it.
For instance, suppose potato skins, rib-eye steak, and sizzling fajitas are the top three crowd favorites. In this case, prioritizing the ingredients for these food items is essential to ensure they always have available running stock.
As for the dishes that don’t sell well, consider menu engineering to maximize the use of their ingredients. You may also consider phasing them out of the menu. Doing so reduces your worries regarding cost, labor, and deliveries. Most importantly, you’ll have more storage space in your pantry, making room for ingredients that are popular with consumers.
2. Upsell
Most restaurants offer complimentary glasses of water for their guests. While this shows hospitality, they’re losing sales opportunities on other beverages. What you can do instead is to improve your strategy. Waitpersons can encourage the guests to order a paid drink with their meal rather than serving water for free.
An excellent example is to ask the customers if they prefer wine, milkshakes, or soda. Likewise, if a diner chooses grilled glazed chicken or pasta with creamy mushrooms, why not offer champagne? That way, you allow your consumers to choose what they like while increasing your sales.
3. Reduce Hours Of Operation
The operating hours of your restaurant directly affect its utility costs. If you operate 24 hours a day, your electricity, water, and staffing expenses are high. It can be more problematic if you’re located in a small town where most consumers are asleep by 11 p.m.
Cutting back on operational hours can reduce your operational expenses. It might be best to operate from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. If you serve breakfast, consider starting at around 5 a.m. and ending by 8 a.m. Ensure you have enough cooks, waiters, and bartenders during peak hours. This way, you can minimize labor costs without compromising the service quality.
4. Consider Local Ingredients
Local ingredients help your restaurant reduce its carbon footprint. Instead of sourcing food supplies from miles away, your sources come from local farmers. Hence, you save on transportation fees while keeping your food fresh.
Aside from its cost-effectiveness, you may use this initiative to make your restaurant branding more eco-friendly. People love eating local products, which are also better for the community. Try using this in your marketing campaign and see consumers flock to your restaurant, driving business growth.
5. Control Portions
Portioning is a method of determining the right amount of food to serve. Effective portioning can help you save on ingredients while still satisfying your customers. A good rule of thumb is to let your chefs identify the proper size of food items.
Every time they prepare a dish, they can measure the size of the ingredients. You can also use separate plates to improve your food portioning. For instance, you can assign various vessels for fruits, grains, veggies, and proteins. It gives you a visual representation of the adequate portions while remaining presentable to your guests.
Summing It Up
Ultimately, the success of your restaurant business lies in its cost-effective practices. Minimizing expenses can help increase your profit. It’ll also allow you to improve your operations while keeping quality standards high. Following these tips is vital in maximizing revenue without sacrificing customer satisfaction.
