Restaurant Marketing Tragedy: Who's Running Your Restaurant?

Who's running your restaurant? Is it you the owner running your restaurant?......or is the restaurant running you? I have a recent example of a struggling restaurant owner who is to say the least, marginally making it a go. This hard working mom who moved to Canada 6 years ago with a dream to own a business and provide an income for her family is not making any money and cannot get away from the kitchen. She knows she needs to grow her sales but is at an impass on how to do that. After discussing with her on how to move forward, the first thing she needs to do is understand that she has to force herself away from the restaurant to have time available to focus on sales and marketing of her business. I even suggested sacrificing $30.00 dollars in breakfast sales on a slow Monday is time better spent on creating $3000.00 dollars in fundraising sales through the local high school directly across from her business. It has to start with the mental mind-set that I am going to spend time every week working on my business and not working in my business. It's a subtle mind shift but very important if you are focused on growing sales for your restaurant. Here's the good news about pushing yourself to stop being just an employee in your business. If you can spend more time working on sales and marketing you are putting yourself ahead of your competition who are basically stuck in the same rut as your have been.

So as I stated earlier....are you running your restaurant or is it running you? Start by truly understand what key things you need to do everyday to grow your business and never stray from those key activities.

Growing Restaurant Sales Through Cost Effective Marketing

When struggling restaurant owners ask me for advice to grow sales or traffic through their restaurant, I always start with three basic rules of thumb I have learned to live by when consulting with my customers. If you live by these three general rules I believe you will be able to weed out the bad decisions that could cost you alot of money with little to no improved results to show for it. So if your ready....here are my three rules to live by when thinking about marketing for your restaurant.

1. Restaurant Marketing Needs To Be Specific
2. Restaurant Marketing Needs To Be Measurable
3. Restaurant Marketing Needs To Be Cost Effective

Specific Marketing means to pick a target and not just say you want more customers in your restuarant. An example of specific marketing would be to say you want to drive local sports teams to your restaurant.

Measurable Marketing means you need to be able to know with 100% certainty that what ever marketing technique you tried...you are able to analyze it for a return of investment. Through this you can identify the techniques that work very well and add them to your marketing tool box to be used again and again.

Cost Effective Marketing means that you don't have to go out and spend a ton of money to do something. Some of the most cost effective techniques going for you are direct mail or news letter to a specific customer target. Another growing tool is the use of internet to reach your customers.

If you would like to learn more about this and other related subjects, be sure to visit http://www.freerestaurantresources.com/

Make More Money With Your Restaurant Menu!

Your menu is your number one restaurant sales tool for influencing item sales to your customer. If you have always thought that you want to sell everything on your menu equally....then you are not focused on maximizing your profits. Let me explain it quickly and simply. Every single item on your menu has its own profit factor. This means that every item on your menu makes a certain amount of gross profit dollars every time it gets sold. So let's pretend you have an item on the menu that makes you $10 dollars in profit and you have another menu item that makes you $7 dollars. If you had 100 guests coming into your restaurant today, which item would you like to sell them. As you can see, putting some attention on what items you truly would like to sell your guest can make the difference from a $700 dollar night to a $1000 dollar night. This is a simplified example but holds true when trying to help restaurant owners understand how to make more profits from their menu. So to maximize your menu profits you need to do the following:

Know the total gross profit dollar contribution from each of your menu items.

1. Know your profit contribution dollars on each item in your menu.
2. Review your best profit items and make sure they are in your prime menu spots.
3. Use graphic techniques to make your high profit menu items or categories visually strong and compelling to look at on your menu.
4. Make sure your staff understands what items are important to the business and encourage sales of those items.
5. Consistently update your menu to maximize these suggested techniques.

Don't Make This Mistake In Restaurant Marketing!

Would you agree that 80% or more of your restaurant traffic is coming from a repeat customer? If you are like most of the restaurant owners I meet, they will typically say at least 80% or more of their business is coming from a repeat or regular customer. In most cases we tend to ignore the fundamentals and not recognize that the repeat customer is the life blood of the restaurant. Think about it for a minute......whatever sales your restaurant achieved last year was from this majority customer. So instead of spending all your energy trying to get new customers......why not spend more energy on your repeat client. Think of ways to encourage them to come to your restaurant more often than they are currently doing. This should be an easier and more cost effective way to grow your sales than trying to entice a new customer. What this builds up to is the the fundamental rule that successful restaurant owners manage a clean database on who their regular customers. It's a pretty simple thought to say.....if you know who your best customers are...what they look like....where they live.....what they like to buy........you can build your business around satisfying these customers like never before along with using this information on where to find some new customers. The information you will get from managing a database about your customers is like a having a well of money. When you need to get your sales moving upwards....just go call on the well with your storng marketing offer. Let's face it....these regulars are a fan of your restaurant.....so they should be easier and more willing to listen to what you have to offer them.

Remember.....Database marketing is crucial in building sales!

Starting A Restaurant / Common Mistakes

In my day to day business of working as a restaurant consultant and helping struggling restaurant owners.....I am often amazed at how so many of them come into the business oblivious to the challenges this industry presents. The input costs to start a restaurant along with rising food and energy costs are not enough to scare you away....then it's the reality that it's hard to find good reliable people to work for you can be a nightmare. As a coach and restaurant consultant, I only wish I had a chance to reach them before they put their life's savings on the line with no clear vision on how they are going to get their money back. It can break your heart when you know deep down they do not have enough knowledge about the pitfalls of this industry and how to avoid them.
That is why I enjoy my job! When I do meet that restaurant owner in time and work with them as they develop I can save them alot of headaches, heartaches and broken bank accounts. As an industry expert I can either provide my customer with the right ideas to go forward or I know where to find them to help them succeed. That is what I do and that is what a restaurant coach can mean to any struggling restaurant owner.

Restaurant Profits: Don't Make This Buying Mistake!

In my business I meet all kinds of restaurant owners. It's very easy to identify the ones that are struggling and not making much of any kind of profit. In particular, the restaurant owner who creates this false sense of financial success by getting in a car and driving down to the local cash n carry outlet to buy their goods. They think saving a few bucks every week is going to put a big chunk of money in their pocket. I always like to challenge them with the following question.......

Show me a person who can make a $100,000 a year doing an $8/hour job?

The answer to that question is none!......It cannot be done!

So why are you doing a menial job like going to the cash n carry to try and save a few bucks?

Your time and money are 100 times more valuable by working on true activities that drive more customers to your restaurant. When you are barely making a living in your restaurant....you cannot SAVE yourself into profitability. Start by changing your mindset and understanding you are too valuable to be running around the town looking to save a few pennies. There is not a national chain restaurant that thinks like this and they enjoy better profits than the independent restaurant. PT Barnum said it very well, "a funny thing happens when you don't promote.....nothing".

Three Rules of Thumb for Marketing in Your Restaurant

Have you spent hundreds if not thousands of dollars on advertising and ineffective marketing that has given you little to no payback for your restaurant? Are you trying to drive new guests or increased repeat business and not sure how to do it cost effectively? When it comes to restaurant marketing, you need to follow some basic rules of thumb to guide you. Infact, if some high cost restaurant consultant or media company wants you to invest in their media idea.....here are three basis rules of thumb to live by:

Your marketing needs to be: Specific, Measurable and Cost Effective

While these rules of thumb don't tell you what kind of marketing is going to work for your restaurant......it will help you weed out the bad ideas that will provide no return to your business.

Restaurant Profits: 5 Secrets To Controlling Your Food Costs

If you are struggling to get your restaurant food costs in line and not sure where to start or how to do it.......here's 5 ideas you can implement right now that will make a difference.

1. Downsize your menu - large menus = large inventories...thus large waste.
2. Run a weekly inventory - if you can't do your whole inventory then start with your most expensive protein items.
3. Stop spreadsheeting your suppliers - you can negotiate better pricing and support from your suppliers if you leverage your buying power.
4. Know your recipe costs per item - start an actual calculation of each recipe item to truly know your food cost on each item.
5. Engineer your menu - Readjust your menu with emphasis on your better profit items.

If the challenge to get your food cost in line continues to drag you down, then you need to consider getting some outside help like a restaurant consultant or yours truly "Your Secret Restaurant Coach"

Restaurant Menu Design: 7 Restaurant Menu Mistakes

When designing your menu.....are you making the following mistakes? While there are great graphic designers out there and menu tools available to help you....are you truly applying the rules to maximize your menu?

1. Your menu is handcuffed and too difficult, restrictive or expensive to update.
2. You do not review or update your menu often throughout the year.
3. Your menu is too large......20-24 entree selections is adequate.
4. Your best profit items or categories are not positioned in the strongest visual sections of the menu.
5. Your prices are not staggered throughout the menu.
6. Your menu lacks great menu descripters to sell the flavor of the dish.
7. Your menu lacks highlights to encourage the diner to look at your best profit items first.

For more detailed info email me to discuss further: gproko63@gmail.com

Restaurant Marketing

I am a restaurant consultant who has met and coached hundreds of independent restaurant owners. I have learned about their daily struggles, challenges, goals and dreams. 99% of the owners I meet are barely making at living at this and have no idea on how to make their business grow. The biggest reason they are not profitable is due to low sales numbers. Yes they are able to pay the bills, but they are a slave to the restaurant and cannot see anyway out to make more money. It is so sad to see how many fall into the business without alot of awareness to the reality of how hard it is to make a living in this industry. If I could only get a dollar for every owner I have met who feels that their food is the best in the area and this alone should be enough to drive customers to their doors. The hard reality to that kind of thinking is that the majority of restaurant owners need to do more than just have great food! Infact, that is a basic requirement for any restaurant I might decide to patron. The real question they need to answer is........."what do you offer that makes me want to go to your restaurant versus all the hundreds of choices I have". Stay tuned for further comments to this blog.