business plan Articles

Can a Restaurant Coach Help Your Business?

Most restaurant owners are faced with problems every week. There are a lot of balls juggling in the air every day. Some are handled flawlessly; some balls are dropped. The question remains how can you become a better juggler. The best jugglers practice a lot and have coaches to help them perfect their act. If […]

What is the Financial Impact of Restaurant Review Sites?

Over the past few years, many restaurant owners I have met with have been very skeptical of review sites such as Yelp or TripAdvisor.  They contended that the reviews are false, misleading or competitors just writing bad reviews about them. In some cases they claim that Yelp was misleading in its representation of reviews. Recently […]

2015 Vision for Restaurants. Seven Steps to Meet your Business Goals.

November is upon us and the holiday planning is set in place for most restaurants. Gift card promotions in place and holiday parties are booked. Fortunately gasoline prices are dropping which will free up discretionary spending. The challenge is to drive traffic into your restaurant and away from the big box stores. Promotions on social […]

Would 4% Points Make a Difference To Your Restaurants Bottom Line?

With food costs rising every week are your restaurants profits taking a hit? Almost every day there is something in the news about the price of something going up. Beef, pork, dairy, and coffee are all going up. As a restaurant owner, what is your strategy to handling these increases? Some chains will be raising […]

What Does Brand Reputation Mean?

Recently I came across a study that was done by Deloitte consulting on loyalty within the restaurant industry.  It is a very good analysis of loyalty in the industry, but another fact caught my attention. The study looked at driving factors of why consumers go to restaurants. There are many factors that drive our decisions […]

Are Your Restaurant Marketing Programs an Expense or Revenue Generator?

How do restaurant operators look at the cost of marketing? The NRA’s guidelines for restaurant marketing says that restaurants should allocate anywhere between two and four percent on restaurant marketing.  Do restaurant owners follow this model when budgeting for their business?  Like many families, the budget sometimes goes out the window when juggling expenses.  The […]

Are First Time Guest Part of Your Restaurant Marketing Strategy?

Understanding the lifetime value of your customer is important part of restaurant marketing. What is a customer worth to you? 2014 is off to a crazy start. A recent article on Fox Business News cited that the winter weather has impacted small business by as much as 13% in the first two months of the […]

Top 5 Concerns for Your Restaurant Business Plan in 2014

As we go into a new year, restaurant owners should be developing their restaurant business plan for operational efficiency and marketing strategies to increase sales. A recent study of restaurant owners in Columbus Ohio cited the top five concerns to be dealt with in 2014. Outlined below are their thoughts. How will I increase sales and […]

5 Steps to Consider In Your Restaurant Business Plan For 2014

2013 is done! 2014 is here…. Now what will you do? At the beginning of every year it’s always good to take a step back and see what worked and what did not work over the past year in your restaurant. Here are four quick easy categories to help you figure out your restaurant business […]