No such thing as running a business without worrying about money. Money is the #1 concern for every restaurant owner.
It is indeed an expensive concern. In such a competitive industry, you can’t gamble your business without proper cost-saving strategies for your restaurant.
Taking small steps in your cost planning can give a huge impact on your business profit margin. You’ll feel accomplished when you start taking control of 5 things that save your money:
- Administer food portions & waste
- Conduct daily inventory checks
- Join a Group Purchasing Organizations (GPO)
- Automate manual processes
- Prevent internal theft
1. Administer food portions & waste
Take note of customer’s food waste after they’ve finished dining. If customers consistently can’t finish a dish, it’s a pointer to adjust the portion of your servings into a more reasonable portion. This approach not only helps you to control food waste, but also reduces costs in your restaurant.
Another useful approach is to reduce the size of side dishes. While waiting for their main dish to arrive, eating large portions of side dishes might make your customers feel full. This leads them to be unable to finish their main dish and causes food waste. This situation is not ideal in keeping your costs balanced.
Did you know? A Point-Of-Sale system by Slurp! can help you to administer your portions at ease. You can create, cost, and manage recipe yield easily in the system and link it to your inventory. This way, you can avoid over portioning your menus.
Besides that, don’t forget to train your kitchen staff to prepare dishes exactly as stated in the recipes. Sticking to the recipe will curb food waste issues that can affect your food cost.
2. Conduct inventory check daily
Failure to maintain an eagle eye on the restaurant inventory is the most frequent error committed by restaurant owners. You could unknowingly overspend if you don’t keep track of your inventory.
Therefore, conducting daily inventory check is a must for every restaurateur. A useful tip to check your inventory is by scheduling a consistent time every day, such as before opening and closing shift. Following a schedule enables you to gauge precisely how much of your supplies are used in a given time frame.
An inventory management tool will come in handy to assist you with this task especially when your business is growing. When you integrate your inventory with a reliable POS like Slurp! , your inventory decisions are based on accurate & logical data. Hence, you’ll have more visibility on where your money goes.
3. Join a Group Purchasing Organizations (GPO)
GPO is a 3rd party that leverages with suppliers for preferential pricing. Since suppliers respond to volume, GPOs will collect orders from small restaurants to bargain a better price for all.
The main goal of joining a GPO is to receive the best quality of products at a lower cost. And it was said that joining a GPO provides savings in cost up to 30% for restaurateurs as the organizations help to buy the products in bulk and distribute them to smaller restaurant chains.
Even though you’re buying at a bargained price, product quality isn’t compromised. Part of dedicated GPO service is to do quality checks so that small merchants are getting the most out of their savings. Therefore, you’ll gain a lower purchase risk while also saving your money.
4. Automate manual processes
Taking orders, preparing foods, checking inventory – these are all recurring tasks that require manual labor. But more labor means more hiring cost. So how do you tackle this challenge especially during the current inflation wave?
Automation is the key to making it all possible. Investing in restaurant automation can put almost all of your costly worries to rest by letting the smart system handle the labor intensive tasks.
Slurp! POS is one of the solutions that you can choose for holistic automation in your restaurant. As a cloud-based POS system designed specifically for F & B industry, it can automate your operation from end-to-end seamlessly. It can handle staff & inventory management, ordering, payments, and most importantly – data analytics.
In addition, when you let the POS run your operations digitally, lesser physical tools are needed. This means you can save costs on physical items such as ordering sheets, menu books, inventory sheets, and stationeries.
5. Prevent internal theft
No matter how much you trust your workers, you still need to be wary of internal thefts in your restaurant. Dishonest staff can eat up your profit and cause major loss in the long run.
Internal theft can be in forms of stealing products, cash skimming, or fake discounts where the hotspot is at the cash drawer. It might be too late when you recognize theft happening in your outlet. Good for you if you can recognize the suspicious employee, but it’s better to have preventive measures.
You should consider using a secured POS at your counter to prevent thefts at your restaurant. Slurp! anti-theft security features allow you to assign roles and permissions to access the cash drawers. You also can track your staff activity based on sales record and inventory movement. This way, your staff will feel more sense of responsibility and safeguard your money.
Final thoughts
Start taking proactive steps to save your money by using our tips above.
With the right system, losing money is no longer your constant nightmare. Slurp! POS has excellent solutions to save your money and handle your restaurant operations
