Recently in These Articles Might Able to help you Category

"This is a article from Mr Joe Dunbar which I found can express my message to those food operator who might lost their direction during this critical period" _elvan

Whenever the economy turns down and discretionary income declines, the advantage shifts from hot new concepts to established names. The recent strike in Hollywood left many new programs without writers. These shows were just starting to build an audience. The strike put plenty of these shows out of the lineup when the strike ended too late. Previous winners survived. Our industry is similar and the current downturn certainly hurts the hot start ups with huge recent cash outlays. Established restaurants, hotels, resorts and caterers have had years to help cover their start up investments.

Well established operators need to listen to their guests. Competition is fierce in many markets. This is an opportunity to regain lost market share. Broaden your base by listening to your loyal guests. If you know everyone by name, be sure to ask friends about lost regulars. Try to find out why you lost their loyalty.

As many operators fight to make their business model more profitable, the number of operational changes is high. Companies are adjusting staffs, menus, suppliers and equipment. This is a great time to fine tune your operation. Plato stated: '...the true creator is necessity, who is the mother of invention.' over 2,300 years ago. Restaurant operators see lower check averages, lower mid-week guest counts, higher cost of sales and higher energy costs. The world is thinking green and the term "carbon footprint" has entered the lexicon. Your patrons and employees are more sensitive to the impact of energy on the environment. Take a look at deliveries. You are paying more for each trip each supplier makes to your restaurant. Their trucks are burning much more gas for those who insist on daily deliveries

Waiting for fuel costs to fall? Dream on.

There's a fundamental shift underway in the cost of doing business: this could be the greatest challenge of the decade. Attention has to be focused on three areas: direct supply costs, customer experience and the impact on staff.

Costs go under the microscope
Last time there was high inflation (in the 80's), much of it could be passed on to customers - raising prices was a sport. But when fuel prices multiply by four, this is not a game. Even cheap consumer goods and machinery will take a hit. As an example*, it now costs $8,000 to send a container from Shanghai to the US East Coast, compared to $3,000 in 2000, and similar rises have hit Australian and European importers. Goodbye cheap tableware, furniture and linen.

Delivery charges are now a cost centre. Free, fast delivery used to be the norm. Now there are minimum orders, fuel surcharges and other add-ons. Have another look at minimum quantities and par levels. Do methods that relied on 'a little and often' still make sense? Does everything have to be delivered within 24 hours?

In order to survive or even thrive facing today's economic conditions, which may even see gas prices hit five dollars a gallon, it will require sticking to the basic principles of running a well managed business. Some economists say we are definitely in a recession even though the actual numbers don't really validate their opinion. The question is.... Does it really matter? Personally, I believe what really matters is what is actually happening in the market place. We are going through a mortgage crisis meltdown in the housing industry, gas prices are going out of sight and that fact alone is impacting the cost of nearly everything we purchase in this country from our vacations plans to the food we eat.

Facing Reality

Let's face it. During the past five years prior to flirting with the 'R' word --- Recession, it wasn't extremely difficult to make a profit. The market forces have been very kind to the majority of us through 2005, 2006 and 2007. However, 2008 is a brand new year and the wave we have all been riding has shrunk in size at varying levels in our industry. The success we have enjoyed in the past will not be as easy to accomplish in 2008 & 2009. In fact, we may have to adjust our expectations as the rising energy costs will have an impact on every aspect of business in general. Past successes may have camouflaged internal problems and annoyances that could become a crisis in 2008 and 2009 under different circumstances.

Conducting surveys is a science. Since poorly designed instruments waste organizational resources, this article teaches you the fundamentals of survey strategy. Surveys are competitive advantages only if you can act with confidence on the data. Understanding the important aspects of surveys can make the difference between success and failure of your survey project - and even of your overall organization. In this article, you will learn the fundamentals of creating or identifying good survey projects.

Questionnaires are popular tools for gauging internal and external performance and predicting future purchase behavior of customers for many organizations. There are many inexpensive do-it-yourself survey tools available to organizations wanting to save money on survey initiatives. While it is understandable that organizations may consider creating and administering surveys in-house, there are several good reasons to reconsider. Getting help from an experienced and objective (impartial) survey team can help organizations turn their survey projects into powerful business tools.

The most successful restaurants are successful because they provide consistent value to their customers. It's important to create consistency, but how does one go about it? Often restaurateurs believe that creating that consistency is very difficult, but with proper training, it's very achievable. The first step in creating consistency is to both create your company's core fundamentals, and then repeat those fundamentals. At Logan's Roadhouse, our core fundamentals include: great tasting food in a timely manner, serving hot food hot and cold food cold, clean and safe restaurant environments and great, warm, friendly service.

We use three tools to teach our team and managers daily. They are: purpose, values and brand. If you put together the communication of core fundamentals with these tools it inevitably leads to lower turnover.

In order to teach your team and managers daily every restaurant organization needs to come up with the purpose of their training department. At Logan's, purpose is: 'We are committed to training Logan's values every day. We learn, live and teach a culture and passion for 'Guest First' thinking, which will be a distinct competitive advantage and support the growth of the Logan's brand.

More Info at :Daily Restaurant Industry News 2008-05-15

You need figures that are easy to find, easy to interpret, and make sense to the people they affect. Managers need them to benchmark rostering and hiring decisions. Staff need to understand the productivity that's expected, and how they contribution to the business.

These figures are a small selection from the new resource:

KPI's to Measure Staff Costs, Productivity and Workforce Quality.


Key Figures on your Weekly Sales & Costs Dashboard

• Total cost of labour - wages plus all on-costs. Some are not paid at the same time as wages, but are still a part of the weekly cost eg workers compensation premiums. Generally, your payroll package will not produce all these figures.

• Labour cost per hour: how much is it costing for each hour you are open?

• Fixed and variable wage costs: the staff you must have, and those you can call in as needed. For a large business, a flexible and permanent workforce gives the greatest productivity, but it needs work to create the structure. The old days of turning on and off the supply of workers, like a tap, are almost over.

More info at :Daily Restaurant Industry News 2008-05-07