Project management for your restaurant: the way to do it efficiently
Sustainability
Cooking Europe.Tilburg, April 26th 2023
Tips to follow to make your business successful.
Today we come to talk about how to manage a food business. It is very important to have a creative and innovative idea, but it is of little use if we do not have a good organization and a clear idea of how we will manage our restaurant.
The first thing to keep in mind is that it is very important to diversify the sales channels, this way we will ensure that if something fails we can still get income from other sources.
You must take into account the objectives that your restaurant has, each gastronomic concept that you are going to carry out must have clear two types of objectives, to survive in the short term and to grow in the long and medium term, respectively.
These objectives are divided into general and specific objectives of a restaurant, and in turn can be understood as short, medium and long term objectives of a restaurant.
We will develop the 3 M’s: menu, marketing and management.
First of all is the food or menu. The first differentiator of your restaurant business is the type of food you offer. Whether your specialty is haute cuisine, or you have invested in a fast food restaurant, you must serve fresh food, prepared with care and presented in a neat and appetizing way. The menu is not only the menu, but also the quality of the ingredients, the plating, the variety of possibilities offered, and of course the physical menu.
The second is the restaurant marketing plan, which is not limited to external advertising, but to everything the customer sees. If the customer can see it, feel it, smell it or touch it, you are marketing it and therefore it is marketing.
Within this section we give importance to a good branding, our gastronomic branding team meets to analyze the appropriate image that the gastronomic concept needs.
The brand comes to life by designing and representing all the necessary elements, such as the name, the logo, the color palette… The branding of the brand is key to create a powerful communication in each gastronomic project.
In terms of f&b management, something extremely important is the recruitment of personnel. You start by defining a recruitment strategy, analyze the situation of the company to create a successful strategy, after this you attract the right candidates for the job, it is important the restaurant training for all your employees, by starting with employees with a solid foundation, you will be investing in the future of your restaurant.
Also, by taking the time to train your new employees, you are showing them that you respect them and their place in your establishment. This will make them feel valued, which will make them more invested in the business. A trained employee is much more likely to be loyal to the restaurant and stay through the good times and the tough times. By having a large number of employees, there will be less turnover, and this will reduce the overall costs of the restaurant.
Besides the food, the main reason a customer returns to a restaurant is because they feel comfortable in the restaurant interior. So when you welcome a customer, they should feel important and valued. Restaurant design encompasses different sensory aspects that make up the experience of being in a particular restaurant. These are made up of the decoration, music, ventilation, even the aromas, as well as the space between tables and the privacy
To create a cozy atmosphere it is necessary that the area where the diners stay has the mandatory health safety measures, that it is clean, harmoniously decorated according to the concept of your business and where customers feel well attended by your service staff, without being too insistent on this. If the customer feels comfortable and your products are good, he will be inclined to spend more in your business.
Improve your restaurant’s profitability:
The big question is, how do I get higher profit margins? Every business finds its own balance as the operation progresses. However, some important points that you should not overlook are: inventory costs, shrinkage, logistics, storage, taxes and reinvestment. Sometimes keeping track of these factors is a complicated task, but with a point-of-sale program this is much easier.
Be aware of finances and laws: Despite their importance, finances and laws are often neglected aspects in the operation of gastronomic businesses. Knowing and respecting the laws of the city or cities where you do business is your obligation. It is necessary to be informed and up to date regarding land use permits, operating requirements, employee registration and tax payments. Remember that not being up to date in your fiscal contributions, or not having the necessary permits to operate, can generate many complications and unnecessary headaches.
As for financial management, don’t overlook the importance of having a restaurant business plan, a sales projection, or some kind of tool that will help you chart a course for the future of your business. By producing income statements and determining your fixed and variable costs, you will be able to understand exactly where your business is profitable, or how you can better invest your available resources.
There are many reasons why a restaurant can fail. Lack of knowledge and bad practices are key aspects for the deterioration of the momentum of a good business. If there is no clear or well-defined strategy, there is very little that the work team can do to promote good management.
Among the most common mistakes that deteriorate the management of restaurants we have the lack of knowledge, it is not enough to be an excellent cook if you do not have basic notions of personnel management, commerce and finance.
Not seeing the restaurant as a company, without an analysis of the real situation of your business it is unlikely that you can manage your company with total professionalism, it is necessary to know the opportunities, strengths, weaknesses and threats to establish the keys to success.
Not having any training or experience for this type of business. It is a misleading statement to say that opening a restaurant is simple and makes a lot of money. Profitability is obtained with hard work and good decisions; which brings to the forefront the proper training of the person in charge of commercial management, who must be prepared to have a strategy and a management model that promotes the success of the restaurant.
Keep in mind that restaurants are not profitable businesses overnight. Opening a restaurant can bring you high income, but it also faces a number of difficulties, as well as a very competitive environment.
Before setting up a restaurant, you should draw up a plan of action and conduct thorough research on the industry, trends, customers and the market to achieve maximum potential. Look for useful technology such as restaurant software to get even more bang for your buck. We hope these tips will guide you in putting together the perfect business plan for your restaurant that will allow you to achieve success in the short and medium term.
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