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.