How to simplify operations and increase profit for restaurants

Last week, we took a look at some ways you can increase profitability for your restaurant. We admit: it’s a lot to digest! We thought we’d take some time over the next few months to put a spotlight on some of the subjects from that post to shed even more light on how these methods can make your restaurant profitable. This week? We’re going to talk about our first (and biggest) point from last week: simplifying your operations.

Simplifying operations for a restaurant is obviously an aspirational goal – we don’t know any restaurant that wants to make their restaurants MORE complicated. That said, if you don’t know how, or even what that means – you’re going to have a hard time doing it. For the purposes of this article we’re going to focus on three areas of operation that you can simplify: POS software, people (HR, training), and overhead costs. Here’s what you need to know. 

A robust POS system will make reporting simple

Changing your POS system is a lot of work, it’s expensive, and it can seem like a huge hassle to train employees on something new – that said, you NEED to do this. We had a client who never changed their POS system ever. Literally, they were basically using an old DOS program. The problem? Well, you won’t be surprised to hear that the POS reports never matched our numbers from the end of the month no matter how hard we tried. 

It took months, but eventually, when we switched them over to a modern POS system, it was an eye-opening experience. They saw how their business ACTUALLY ran. How? One of the biggest hurdles to any profitability is not understanding how cash flows through your business. A robust POS system lets you see where all the faults are and where cash is leaving. 

We get why a lot of restaurants put it off: a new POS system is expensive. Here’s why you need to make it happen.

Your head chef is spending too much time on administrative tasks

Your head chef is one your most important assets – if not THE most important asset – for your restaurant. Sure, they're responsible for running an efficient kitchen, reporting inventory, and creating a delightful meal experience for your patrons. But, when your POS system is essentially on paper, your chef has to devote far too much administrative time and energy to their role.  

When you switch over to a modern POS system, not only will it help you keep track of inventory, it will also help you calculate menu cost for every item. And it will let your chef get back to doing what they do best: making delicious food, not worrying about how many tomatoes they wasted.

Want a better POS system? Evaluate your options

If you DON'T have a good POS system, start there. TOAST, Restaurant 365, and Lightspeed are all great examples but are far from the only options. 

People affect your bottom line

It’s obvious when you think about it, but people are one of the most crucial areas of your restaurant to get right if you want to be profitable. Streamlining the systems for training and integrating payroll into your POS are great ways to simplify their lives while also improving your profitability. 

Creating uniform training handbooks

This is especially true for restaurant owners who own more than one location for business. One of the factors in profitability is employee turnover rate. You don’t want to train people only to have them leave after a few months. You’ve invested the time and money to train them, you want to retain them! 

Creating a uniform training handbook is a must for your employees. It will create a system that fosters new employee integration while giving long-time employees a reasonable expectation for what their day-to-day employment will look like. So how do you create a handbook like this? Ask your employees what works and what doesn’t! Listening to your servers, management, and staff is the first and best way to understand how your restaurant actually works. 

Integrate your POS system into scheduling

We know we sound like a broken record, but your POS system has the capability to integrate with many scheduling softwares (Schedulefly for example). Using this is like an instant hack for your scheduler. They’ll know how many staff they need to have on hand for any given day, it’s easy to switch schedules, and will ultimately help you keep labor costs inline by limiting stuff like overtime. 

Food wastage: when less is more

This one has been a biggie since the start of restaurants, but COVID-19 put a renewed emphasis on making sure you don’t have food wastage. Why? Because things have gotten infinitely more complicated with vendors since then. During 2020, it wasn’t unreasonable for a restaurant to eschew their traditional vendors, who were experiencing unprecedented shortages, to buy ketchup off Amazon. Today? Well a lot of that has changed.

If you’re buying from several different vendors today? Well, it might be time to analyze those vendors and consider streamlining down to one or two. Sure, you’ll want to keep local folks on that list, especially if you offer local food items that are contingent on the time of year, but for the most part, it’s probably simplest if you pare down. 

Using just a few vendors and tracking them with your POS will allow you to see what’s being wasted, what’s popular, and when to re-order. Those are EXTREMELY useful numbers for keeping costs down and profits up.

Questions? We’d love to hear from you. Let's talk.