Maintain a Restaurant during Slow Business

Sometimes, the summer heat can cause your restaurant to lose some business and you need to find a way or ways to maintain a successful restaurant to stay in business. This is a very hot summer so far so you may be feeling the pinch.

Here are some quick tips to use now to help lower restaurant costs and improve sales:


     1) Cross train the staff. Each person in your restaurant should know many of the other employee's jobs so that you can keep the smallest staff on as possible.Train your brightest, trustworthy and most eager workers, they want hours and money and are usually willing to do whatever it takes.

     2) Keep the minimum amount of staff on each shift as is absolutely necessary. Watch your labor costs, they typically are the second highest cost you have.
          -- Restaurant costs are usually:   #1 Rent or Mortgage
                                                           #2 Labor (keep this cost about 20% of your sales)
                                                           #3 Taxes
                                                           #4 Food and Beverage
                         Taxes and Food/Beverage run a tight race for your 3rd highest cost in a restaurant.

 Pick up a subscription to Restaurant Startup & Growth magazine. You'll get new ideas every month on how to manage your restaurant and ways to boost your business customers and sales. 

     3) Shop for the lowest prices on your food costs. Your primary vendor isn't always the best price and you should always be looking for better prices. ** Food costs are not equal across the board - your costs are based on the volume that you order and are never a given a standard price, even from one restaurant to the next. The larger restaurants or chains buy huge volumes of food and get better pricing. Keep this in mind when you buy products and always look for or ask for a better price or find out from your vendor how to get a better price. Buy in the largest bulk you can and store appropriately.

     4) Follow our 10 Tips to Increase Summer Business. Sometimes, you need to spend a little money to make money. We understand it's difficult at times to do it but, outdoor furniture, menu changes, discounts, etc are all good ways to maintain a restaurant during slow business. Even if you only do a few of the items on this list, you should see an increase in business and therefore, these costs should pay for themselves.

     5) Do you already have a liquor license? If so, run summer drink specials now and have your staff notify their friends via all the social network sites and you do the same. Offer college specials, ladies night specials, great happy hour specials, sample drinks - we LOVE this mini martini glass for samples and mini desserts and highly recommend them. Customers love them too!  If you don't have a liquor license, you could increase your business enormously by at least 35% to 50% of consistent sales.

     6) Stay calm. Don't allow your concern to worry your staff. Ask for their ideas and input to increase business. Oftentimes, your staff has more connections and friends since they usually go out more and have more of a social life than a restaurant owner or manager - you have much longer hours and tend to socialize less. When you get a chance, try to get out and meet your neighbors and neighboring businesses to try and help each other.

     7) Host a Networking event soon - invite businesses to your place if you have a bar or banquet room, everyone brings a business card and gets to meet new people and offer their services. Create a special appetizer, quick entree or other special for your guests. Promote it on your website, facebook, twitter and any other social network site you're on. Make a flyer and post it on your front door and in your entryway. Host more networking events weekly on a slower day of business once people find it, like it and will want to tell their friends and associates.

     8) Be Unique. Find something not offered in your city or neighborhood or something that you excel in and can do superior to other restaurants. Don't copy others, you'll be competing for what they already do well. Do something different, better, more fun, more exciting. Only you know what that is. Feel free to contact us for personal help, we'll always do our best to help you and never share email addresses or put you on a list - we don't know how to do that anyway! We're at healthy1chef at yahoo.com if and when you need us.

     9) Take our anonymous survey to the right top of this blog so we know what position you hold and we can better help you.

     10) Watch your staff, your inventory and your supplies. Employees are not always trustworthy and it's up to you to be there and to watch your cash registers, receipts and make sure everything is getting charged for, minimize waste.

     11) Make your own fruit infused water or alcohol drinks with this Fruit Infusion Pitcher we LOVE! It's cheap, use any kind of fruit in the center to infuse and flavor your water or alcohol, looks great on your bar, holds over 90oz of liquid, works with fresh or frozen fruit, other customers highly rate it too and is worth the less than $20!

     12) Here are 7 More Ways to Improve your Business.

Hope this helps! We'd love your comments, stay in touch.
Cheers!