Every week I speak with restaurant owners in many parts of the country. In each conversation, they tell me of their concerns in running their restaurant business. In each of these conversations they all expressed many of the same concerns and they revolve around these five issues: Growing sales and reducing cost. Rising food cost […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Is reputation management part of your restaurant marketing strategy? Recently, I was on an extensive road trip for the better part of the past month. Many nights in hotels and most of my meals in restaurants. Ah the glamour of business travel! One thing I have seen in most markets that I visit is that […]
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 […]
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 […]
I know, I know…. You are just preparing for the busy holiday season and planning for 2014 is the last thing on your mind. Unfortunately we all know that time goes so fast and January of 2014 will be here in no time. Do you want to come out of the gate fast, or start […]
With the end of the month of June approaching, it’s time for restaurants to evaluate six months of business performance and implement strategies to reach year-end goals for 2013. January through June has been a challenging time in the restaurant industry. The first quarter was impacted by payroll tax increases and rising gasoline prices that […]
An interesting week it has been! Several of my conversations this week centered on whether restaurant owners trust their food distributor. Surprisingly, each distributor I spoke with said….. No they don’t and with good reason. Do food distributors create this sense of mistrust? Broken promises, missed deliveries, and questionable billing issues are some of the […]