Do We Lose Focus? Restaurant Profits Aren’t Dirty Words
Occasionally, we all lose focus of our goals. A couple of recent events have reminded me it is easy to forget that at the top of the list of goals, things to do and immediate tasks must be producing a profit. The events that spurred me to post this article were:
- I recently reviewed a business plan mission statement that was very eloquently done, brief and to the point. I missed one thing. There was nothing in the mission statement that said anything about accomplishing their goals profitably.
- In another inquiry, a restaurant entrepreneur asked about his plan to offer his quick service menu at an extremely reduced price to get immediate volume. He stated a “consultant” suggested this to build opening traffic and slowly increase prices over the following weeks and months. Not a very wise idea for long term success, if you manage to stay in business and pay your bills.
- Over the last few weeks there have been a number of ads in the newspaper offering coupons for everything from numerous restaurants. In some cases, the offerings were at or below cost. They looked like desperation advertising. You cannot operate without making a profit – period! There are no quick fixes that don’t have negative consequences. Consistent restaurant marketing with a plan is the only way to get proven results.
Why we, as restaurant owners, lose focus is beyond logical reasoning. Is it the pressures of the economy, too much focus on food and not enough on business, just plain laziness – who knows, but we all do it.
With consumers spending less money on eating out, spiraling food costs and general inflationary trends, we should be:
- Revising our menus monthly.
- Comparing food and beverage costs between suppliers monthly.
- Refining our daily labor scheduling.
- Comparing costs for insurance, credit card fees and other administrative expenses.
- Finding higher margin menu items to replace low margin proteins.
Instead, some of us are:
- Offering discounts.
- Promoting 2 for 1 deals.
- Running loss leader specials.
On the other sales side of the coin we should be:
- Implementing every low cost (and free) marketing tool we can find.
- Taking advantage of the consumer’s “feel good” attitude with food.
- Using available staff hours for local visits to businesses delivering menus and food samples.
- Getting regular customers to be our ambassadors to talk about us and help bring new guests in the door.
Most of us know what should and shouldn’t be done, but we lose sight of the necessity of profits to fuel our survival and growth. It’s much easier to ignore the obvious than pull our head out of the sand and other less attractive places!
I spoke my piece, not let me get the sand out of my eye and ears.
Larry Edger
Author
The Restaurant Ebook and The Restaurant Marketing Plan Handbook
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