Equip your restaurant to boost profitability

At the end of the month, many restaurateurs find themselves faced with a simple fact: they can't generate enough margin to keep their business going. The main reason for this is that some people confuse sales with margins. A restaurant's sales may well be increasing every month, but if the volume of expenses is also rising, the margin will still be low.

Thinking directly about increasing sales is a classic mistake when it comes to profitability. Profit growth increases thanks to your sales, but also decreases because of your expenses. This article explains how to increase your restaurant's profitability by boosting productivity.

Reduce direct and indirect costs

Direct expenses

Direct expenses" are the expenses that appear on a balance sheet at the end of the month. In effect, these are expenses that have to be paid periodically. So, the more the restaurateur reduces expenses, the higher the margin.

- On merchandise

When it comes to sourcing merchandise, restaurant managers can negotiate with their suppliers, or at least take advantage of the seasonal promotions they offer.

- On inventories

Reducing stock also means cutting direct costs. For this, a good cash register software such as Lightspeed, Zelty or SumUp will enable you to constantly monitor your stock levels.

- Operating expenses

Operating expenses are the costs associated with running your business: energy consumption, commission, staff salaries... Of course, the more your business grows, the more important these expenses become. So it's a good idea never to lose sight of this point.

Reduce overheads

Overheads can have an impact on net profit at the end of the month. It's a good idea to anticipate these expenses.

How can you avoid or reduce this kind of problem? By constantly monitoring sales of each dish, you can estimate daily or weekly consumption. You'll know which product attracts your customers the most, and be able to adapt your purchases accordingly.

Better personnel management

For a restaurant owner, managing human resources is a time-consuming task. Recruiting staff, maintaining training plans, managing vacations, sickness or unannounced absences... These are the daily tasks of a restaurant manager. This represents a significant loss of time for them, and therefore less time to participate in the proper management of the establishment.

An effective solution to this problem is to implement the HR software offered by many companies, such as Snapchift . This is a tool that enables you to create hyper-efficient schedules, involve all the restaurant's staff, prepare payrolls automatically and stop wasting time on administrative tasks. It takes restaurateurs just a few hours, allowing them to concentrate on the essentials.

Increase the average basket with an order terminal to boost your sales

Contrary to popular belief, you don't need to increase your selling prices to increase your average ticket.

With a kiosk, customers always have the pleasure of choosing what they want to eat, without feeling rushed or paying a high price for it.

Thanks to the interactive interface of the order terminals, customers can make suggestions for additional products. At the same time, they can find out about promotions and special offers. In this way, a kiosk can significantly increase your sales. What's more, investment in this type of tool no longer represents a major cost for restaurateurs. They can buy inexpensive kiosks, with prices starting from 1,500 euros.

Developing a good loyalty program

A customer with a loyalty card consumes more than a new customer. What's more, attracting them to your restaurant is far less costly than the investment required to acquire a new customer. For loyal customers, it's possible to increase their average basket thanks to points accumulated on past purchases. You encourage them to change their habits, by switching to more expensive products.

A good loyalty program, like the one offered by Pongo, is a tool whose ambition is to attract your customers on a regular basis, while encouraging them to choose targeted products. Building customer loyalty means creating a consistent look and feel throughout the restaurant. This helps forge a unique brand identity for your establishment. At a glance, your customers will always recognize you. The basis of a good loyalty program is that it should be fair and a source of recognition for the customer, as well as useful to the restaurant's development.

Analyze your results

A restaurateur should always monitor the evolution of his average bill every day. In this way, he can determine whether the trend has improved over the previous month. If so, he can analyze and highlight the products that led to this increase. If it's specifically the work of one of the employees, don't hesitate to highlight it so that the others can follow suit.

You also need to track sales to see which products are the best. Once the list of bestsellers has been established, it's time to identify all the ingredients that go into them, in order to reduce costs. This is the time to reduce direct costs, for example, by renegotiating the cost of purchasing products from suppliers to improve restaurant profitability.

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