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7 Ways to Make Your Restaurant More Profitable

7 Ways to Make Your Restaurant More Profitable

It’s tough to make money in the restaurant industry, especially if you’ve just started out. As a restaurant owner, it’s easy to overlook the key aspects that could turn your losses into gains. Check out these 7 tips to make your restaurant more profitable and stay that way for the times to come.

Restaurant

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1. Calculate Your Operational Costs

A traditional restaurant’s average food cost should be between 29-32%. The average cost for different types of alcohol is slightly less, around 21%. You need to be aware of these costs so that you can set the right menu prices.

Calculate these costs so that you can maximize your profits without charging your guests too much. It’s common knowledge that profit margins tend to be the highest when the prices range from $15 to $25.

Buy fresh food that’s locally available. It not only tastes better but is also cheaper. Have decent relationships with your vendors to ensure you can get the best of the produce at reasonable prices.

Remember to keep your books organised, realistically forecast sales and order appropriately to increase savings and boost profits.

2. Hire the Right Candidates

As a restaurant owner, there are only a few roles you can play. Your dream of running a successful restaurant can quickly turn into a nightmare if you overwork yourself.

Understand that you need different people for different roles. You can’t open the restaurant, greet, serve, cook the food, bartend, handle the accounts, clean and close the restaurant all by yourself.

Hire the right kind of staff depending on the type of restaurant you’re running. Have a manager, bartender, chef and wait staff that’s efficient and more importantly, trustworthy.

Delegate tasks so that you can focus on what’s most important and also have a work-life balance.

3. Have an Excellent Front of House

First impressions are last impressions. It’s especially true when you’re running a restaurant. Have a polite waitperson or host introduce themselves to your guests and welcome them into your restaurant.

Little things like opening and closing the doors for your guests often leave a lasting impression on them. Understand that your customers deserve nothing but the best and therefore, a little kindness can go a long way. Don’t forget to thank them on their way out.

4. Update Your Menu Periodically

Restaurant Menu

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Are there items on your menu that customers rarely order? Instead of letting such items take up space in your menu, replace them with new, unique items.

Re-work dishes and introduce newer items every now and then. Catering to your audience’s tastes and preferences will maximize revenue and turn new customers into loyal customers.

5. Advertise, Advertise, Advertise!

Have a solid marketing plan in place. As a restaurant owner, you need to have the maximum number of customers try your food. To do that, you must first be easily discoverable. You can do so by listing your restaurant in search engines, on food delivery apps, and encouraging diners to leave a review.

Additionally, you can join a local chamber of commerce. Participate in local events and set up food booths showcasing your best (and most profitable) items.

You can also stick to digital advertising on social media platforms or create an influencer marketing strategy. Connect with your potential customers via polls and quizzes on Instagram.

Respond to reviews in a timely manner because your new customer is already checking out your restaurant and deciding if they want to dine there. Remember, your goal is to let everyone in town know where they can get the best dining experience.

6. Train Your Staff Properly

Ensure that your staff is well-trained. Organize weekly meetings to review and improve performance. Ensure that they know everything about the restaurant and the items that you serve.

Allow them to taste the specials of the day so that they can correctly answer diner’s questions about the items on your menu.

Utilize suggestive selling to upsell drinks, desserts, and appetizers. This not only enhances the overall dining experience but also increase revenue and increases your staff’s tip.

7. Have a Loyalty Program

The loyalty program is an excellent way to have your customers return to your restaurant.

On average, 35% of customers are likely to spend 46% with restaurants that have a customer loyalty program. In addition, 55% of loyal customers recommend their family and friends about your restaurant!

Other benefits include: increase in the average order value, customer retention, and attracting new customers.

The Takeaway

No two restaurants are the same. What works for your competitors might not work for you. Therefore, try these tips and stick to the strategies that work the best for you. Before you know it, you’ll be the most popular restaurant in town!

 

Restaurant


Featured Image Credits: Pixabay

Shristi Patni

Shristi Patni

Content Writer

Shristi is a content writer and owner of F and B Recipes and Snazzy Women. When not writing, she can be found reading or trying new recipes.

5 Essential Restaurant Menu Design Tips

5 Essential Restaurant Menu Design Tips

Your restaurant’s menu is one of the first things your diners will interact with, sometimes even before a server or cashier and always before the food. This is why it’s crucial to ensure that your menu makes a stellar first impression.

Your restaurant’s menu is more than just a list of dishes you serve, In fact, it’s an advertising tool capable of communicating your restaurant’s identity and driving profits—if you design it well.

A menu with bad photos, too many items, or incongruous design, or poor wording will detract from your guests’ experience. This puts pressure on your food and service to make up for it.

Restaurant Menu

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On the other hand, an appealing, well-written menu that fits with your brand will make your diners feel like they’ve chosen the right restaurant to dine in.

A thoughtfully designed menu has the power to generate a significant amount of profits. For instance, it will focus on the profitable menu items and leave a lasting impression on the diners.

While designing a restaurant menu seems like fun and games, there’s more to it than meets the eye. You need to analyze the popularity and profitability of your menu’s items through menu engineering analysis. Once you have the data, take it to your advantage and design the menu effectively.

These 5 restaurant menu design tips and ideas will help you decide how your menu should look.

1. Use White Spaces

Did you know the human eye hates clutter? Studies show that good use of white space improves reader comprehension by 30%.

Use ample white spaces throughout your menu to ensure that the diner can read the items without getting frustrated. This also prevents your guests from feeling overwhelmed.

Keep the menu curated and short. Limit 4-5 items per section and ensure that all your items are unique and no items are stepping on the toes of another.

2. Bid Goodbye to Dollar Signs

A study at Cornell found that guests who ordered from menus without the dollar sign spent a lot more than those who ordered from traditional menus.

Your guests already know the meaning of the numbers next to the menu items mean. Dollar signs trigger negative associations about splurging money. Therefore, it’s wise to skip using them altogether.

3. Use Colour and Boxes for Visual Direction

Colorful Menu

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Highlight all the menu items that are better (and profitable!) guide your guests through the menu using design elements that help your best items shine.

Shine the spotlight on items that you want your diners to be looking at. It’s recommended that you hire an artist or a graphic designer to create such a menu.

If your budget allows, hire a menu design professional. They will help you design your menu in accordance with your brand’s image and the menu engineering data that you have. They expertly use lines, illustrations, and color to draw diners’ attention to your Star menu items (high popularity, high profit) and Puzzles (low popularity, high profit).

4. Harness The Power of Words

Use items descriptions to communicate the taste of the dishes. Words such as “crisp”. “Buttery”, and “savory” evoke a reaction of hunger. Use descriptions to convey the love you put into creating every dish and your restaurant’s personality.

An experiment at Cornell University found that descriptive menu labels increase sales of an item by 27%. This also resulted in diners feeling more satisfied with their meals. This also led to more favorable feedbacks when the items lived up to their glowing descriptions.

5. Use Photos

Studies have shown that an attractive photo next to that food item increases its sales by 30%. However, this doesn’t mean you fill your menu card with photos or use mediocre photos.

Remember, it’s better to have no photos than have bad photos.

Printing photos on menus is costly, making it another reason for you to add them sparingly. Use a handful of high-quality photos to promote your most profitable items.

If you’re not including photos in your menu, you can add a call-to-action in the menu to check photos on your social media handles. For instance, you can add a bit.ly link or a QR code and write “check out our Instagram account to preview our dishes!”

The Takeaway

When creating your restaurant menu, you want to ensure that it’s legible and usable for all your diners.

The menu’s size should be manageable, the font should be easy-to-read, and should be limited to a few pages. Hire a professional to help you design a menu strategically that boosts profits.

Once you have designed the physical menu, optimize your online menu on your website or ordering system to stay consistent. This prevents the diner from getting confused.

Restaurant Menu


Featured Image Credits: Pixabay

Shristi Patni

Shristi Patni

Content Writer

Shristi is a content writer and owner of F and B Recipes and Snazzy Women. When not writing, she can be found reading or trying new recipes.