As a restaurateur, you could be overlooking certain areas of your business. Simple changes when implemented effectively could save you money in your pockets. This article talks about just 3 areas to be focused on cutting costs in your business while keeping your customers happy. Labor cost, Food cost and Menu cost falls out to be the three major areas on which money is overspent and reevaluating them with simple tips and with the use of technology might end up with amazing results.



LABOR COST

Hiring your staff
Follow an efficient hiring procedure. Because it is not just a matter of filling the vacancies but hiring the right person that plays a major role in your entire business process. Hire efficient people from culinary schools and set a note of qualification and experience to be met by the candidates who walk in. You can use iApplicants software that helps you right from customizing your career site to attract job seekers, screening the right candidates, assessing and delivering the final report to your manager and makes the hiring process easy.

Training your staff
Your growth partly depends on how much your staff can do for the business. Train them to have cross functional skills where every staff can perform any of the tasks during peak hours. Teach them effective ways to sell more of the specials, desserts, appetizers and drinks during slow hours. Sometimes you can hire a part timer when there is a need for working on extra hours and holidays whom you can satisfy with paying low than asking your full time weary worker who can only contribute less to productivity and expects more benefit in payment. Try Apploi software that helps you train the employees in handling the various tactics in this customer contact intensive business.

Effective staff scheduling
Have only the required number of staff and don't overcrowd your place wasting your money on paying laborers who are not working during non-peak hours. Have a thorough knowledge of the peak hours and non-peak hours and schedule staff accordingly. Irregular scheduling ends in high labor cost. Use Hotschedules software that prevents you from the errors of spreadsheet scheduling and prevents you from paying non-working employees.

Value your laborers
Reward them periodically for their good performances. Let them know the money spent on purchasing items and get them involved in cost cutting ways. Ask them for ideas and encourage them to find ways to avoid wastage and help in reducing cost.

Technology
iApplicants, Apploi, schedulefly, hotschedules, PeopleMatter and ZipSchedules are some of the effective labor cost management softwares that can automate tasks like recruiting, training, optimized scheduling, tracking, real time reporting, finger print scanning, sending message alerts about shift to all the employees at the same time and employee-manager communication. Thus reducing expenses.



FOOD COST

Almost 9 out of 10 failing restaurants are not aware of how much their food costs. Knowing food costs is critical to ensuring that you are serving the right portion at the right price so that you make a profit. Food cost involves purchasing items, transportation, preparation methods, food delivery, spoilage and even theft.

Purchasing cost
One of the effective ways to be followed is, purchasing ingredients at bulk from domestic vendors resulting in negotiation for lower prices. With this you are also free from transportation cost. Don't purchase items that aren't mandatory thinking that you may use them sometimes later when necessity arises. Take hold of a software like Syrus that keeps track of the quantity of items purchased and the cost associated with it.

Preparation cost
Always pay attention to portion size while preparing food which is sometimes overlooked and feels to be the reason for high food cost in the kitchen. Use a scale for all the ingredients.

Spoilage
The amount of spoilage in a restaurant is astonishing. You want to keep your wastage low to keep your costs low. Restaurateurs should use an Eco-friendly approach involving waste reduction technology like eCorect food waste recycler and FoxSMB2 that lessens the weight of the wastage from 60 to 90% of the original weight and helps in reducing the waste removal cost and also contributing to sustainability.

Theft
Unfortunately, theft takes place in the food business. Theft involves employees stealing items and not recording the food cost for their friends and relatives. Installing security cameras is a practical way to identify the root cause of the problem.

Technology
Using softwares like shopkeep, Syrus, Aspect and CostGuard for managing inventory and tracking variance helps you measure the amount of food used, supplies and how much is left. It keeps track of the ingredients that are used and the ones that are going to expire and helps in identifying areas of problem and theft. Tracking food waste helps in reducing purchasing cost and widely reducing the food cost.


MENU COST

The well planned menu is essential as it very well helps in balancing cost. Be consistent with your portion size. . Always trim the items that are non-selling and which people rarely order for. Having too many items in your menu may just cause your inventory costs to be high. Include a profitable item in the menu and using seasonable vegetables may fetch you with some reduction in cost. Try to move your customers in buying high margin items. Keep modifying your menu which greatly helps in saving your dollars.

Technology
The implementation of Digital Menu System gives you the flexibility to add or remove specials in your menu dynamically. The digital menu system doesn't have to replace your paper menu but can complement it by providing visually enticing Hi-Def food images that can help with selling your appetizers and your high margin items. Check out www.thetouchmenu.com to call for a free demo.


OTHER SIMPLE WAYS

There are other simple ways that go unnoticed, which may add up in increasing your cost. It includes infrastructure, environment, marketing, paying the vendors and spending on laborers medical needs.

• Invest in infrastructure that is well serviced and functional to the greatest extend. Do not overspend.
• Ensure that all the equipments are carefully handled and well maintained.
• Install motion sensor and timers for security, automated lighting controls and energy efficiency.
• Observe green practices like recycling bins, devices for saving water that could make sense in reducing cost.
• Don't overspend on marketing instead take advantage of social media, which is cost effective.
• Giving gift cards to your workers as a token of appreciation is cost effective than a pay increase.
• Injuries caused during working hours can be expensive. Use free technologies like MEDCOR where the employees can contact the nurses over the phone and get self treated without spending money on travel and consultation.

Take a strong grasp of ideas and technologies. Train your employees as well in knowing and handling them. Receptiveness to new technologies and methodologies might turn out to be a great way in cutting cost therefore attaining upthrust in your financial statement.