The Restaurant Bottom Line
What is a healthy restaurant bottom line? It’s a dollar figure that represents money in your bank. It’s minus your bills, loans and any other expenses that your business accrues.
A large number of restaurants and bars close their doors within the first three years. Unfortunately, the majority of failing restaurants and bars are not tracking their bottom line. You know it can be tough to run a successful restaurant and bar.
Maintaining Balance in Restaurants
Owners and managers juggle food costs, food quality, customer service, equipment, building maintenance, cleaning, payroll, employee concerns, as well as all the things happening in their personal lives. Most people want to reach a balance on all those things, but you know it is not easy.
Restaurant Management
In addition, management is held at a higher standard than employees. For restaurants and bars, managers should be trained to run every position within the restaurant. They need to know everything to do like the back of their hand. In fact, ideally, they master all positions. Managers need to know how to cook your menu inside and out. They fill in the gaps in-case there is a callout and/or if the restaurant is busier than normal.
Restaurant Training
Another necessity that often falls through the cracks is training. It is critical that your restaurant maintains a good restaurant training program. Every staff person must be trained in their position – from the Dishwashing Person to the General Manager. You may think that isn’t necessary to train on jobs like a Dishwasher, but you know there are many more standards that must be maintained for a restaurant dishwashing person. It is a lot different than what is done in your family kitchen. Every role is vital and deserves proper training.
Healthy Restaurant Systems
On another note, once you train your employees, then develop systems to help you monitor day-to-day operations. Take every step to keep your restaurant consistent and successful. Set up checklists and monitoring systems. Keep your paperwork and payroll on track. Maintain active and happy employees.
The key to your restaurant’s success is to have well-trained managers and staff and well-executed plans. In addition, try to do as much as possible to keep everything in line by making sure your systems are followed consistently. That’s a major impact to the bottom line.