Managing a restaurant can quickly become a headache, especially for a restaurant owner. There are many factors to take into consideration when you are running a restaurant.
It becomes paramount when you want your business to thrive and becomes profitable.
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Fortunately, there are technologies that are available to help automate some of the crucial processes as well as help you become noticed in a crowded space so you can focus on making your business a success.
With the advent of mobile devices and cloud technology, various solutions that we dreamt of years ago are now a reality. These solutions enable owners to run their restaurant business smoother and with greater efficiency.
Let’s take a look at some of the elements that are essential to a restaurant success in this digital era.
4 Things you Need to Know Before Becoming a Restaurant Owner
1. Point-Of-Sale (POS) System
Nowadays, every restaurant owner who aims to be successful needs a POS System. Having a POS System enables your restaurant to track your sales and discover how you can improve to keep your customers happy. This is critical to the success of your business.
Happy customers = Growing Business
There are many types of POS System out there and looking for one that suits your needs can quickly become a headache.
An example of a modern POS System is Slurp! iPad POS system. One of the benefits of Slurp! iPad POS system is that it can track your restaurant’s sales. Better yet, it can also compare sales performance across any time period that you wish.
By having the sales data at the fingertips, your restaurant can come up with various strategies to ramp up profits and at the same time cut down on the cost.
Most of the restaurants tend to offer discounts in order to generate quick sales, however this strategy will not work in the long run. It might even end up costing the restaurant even more.
It is a better idea for your restaurant to look at data trends and decide your marketing and food menu strategically. For example, by looking at the data, your restaurant will be able to identify low performing menus.
So your restaurant can take action and change it up in the menu department. This is just one example of many ways that you can do to improve sales.
We have also written an article on how to choose a POS system that is perfect for your business. Read it here.
2. Inventory system
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A lot of restaurant owners experience waste because they do not know how to properly manage their inventory. For instance, many of them waste the ingredients because they don’t keep track of the expiry dates. You always need to ask yourself these following questions:
- Which ones are nearing their expiry and which ones are the freshest?
- Are you wasting money by over-purchasing your ingredients?
- Worse yet, are you wasting a lot of food?
Inventory system is also an essential software that every successful restaurant owner needs. Keeping track of your inventory will enable you to systematically organise your restaurants flow in terms of food and ingredients.
Read about the secret benefits of inventory systems here.
There is a massive food waste in the food industry and underutilizing ingredients is one of the many causes.
With an inventory system, you can minimise this problem. Your restaurant will also cut down on cost as you are now well informed on the amount that you need to purchase based on data analysis.
Slurp! Restaurant POS has an inventory tracking feature that enables restaurant owners to know exactly what they have in real-time. They are also able to detect under utilised ingredients and perform an audit trail.
By doing so, your restaurant will strategically decide on the course of action. Whether to purchase certain popular ingredients in bulk (saves money), stocking up on ingredients before they run out (keeping customers happy with your menu) or tweak the menu by using the under utilised ingredients (avoid food waste).
3. Employee management
Let’s face it, employee management is key to any business success but most restaurant owner would rather overlook this part of the business. It is understandable. Restaurant owners and managers would rather use their energy making the restaurant successful and profitable.
However, it would be such a lost if employee management is neglected. Tracking employees proves to be crucial in any type of business. It is even more important in a restaurant business because most of your employees will be directly interacting with the customers.
By tracking your employees punctuality and their average orders processed, you can decide to reward the performing employee while removing (or re-training) the underperforming. The reward system is good for morale of the employees and will increase the general happiness of your workforce.
Tip: Remember, a happy workforce leads to a better customer experience. This will in turn leads to returning customers.
For a complete employee management solution, check out our friends at bepunct.com and request your free demo today.
4. Website
We want to highlight the importance of having an online presence for your brick-and-mortar shop in this digital era. An online presence, if done right, means that the business is innovative and are willing to evolve to explore new opportunities.
Lost are the days when you set up shop and wait for customers to pour in. Today, there are a lot of factors that is involved in customers decision.
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Having a website to showcase your brand, menus, business location(s), customer reviews, and a place for your marketing campaign would be vital for your restaurant’s success.
However, restaurant owners often times have no idea where to start in regards to web development. In the quest for lowest cost, they would hire freelancers and more often than not, they would end up with a product that is half-baked.
TIP: It is wise for you to invest in a proper web development company to ensure that you get the proper consultations and the right type of website that goes well with your brand.
To inquire about website services, please register your interest here.
Conclusion
By no means that this is an exhaustive list of things you need to make your restaurant business a success. However, these can definitely help alleviate some of the burden of running a restaurant.
Incorporating the latest technologies and strategies can help your business standout in a crowded market place.
Your data driven decisions will make your customers happy and keep coming back to your restaurant and brand. Your marketing efforts can also improve as you learn about what your customers really want.
If you are a restaurant owner and you need to increase your restaurant’s sales, sign up for a FREE demo session of Slurp™ POS by filling up the simple form below.
