I have been seeing a lot of restaurant and coffee shop owners saying they've received the PPP (Paycheck Protection Plan) payment and now have 2.5x their monthly salary, but they're working on limited scheduling because their sales are down substantially. What can they do to give employees hours, so they don't lose out on the loan forgiveness?
What's your game plan?
1. Deep Cleaning - there is NEVER enough time to actually do deep cleaning in your store, especially when you're busy.
Clean all of your equipment (if appropriate, take it apart and clean the insides)
Move all of your equipment and clean / mop behind it
Clean out all of your coolers/freezers
Scrub grout for all tile surfaces
Clean all baseboards
Paint, touch up, any repairs/maintenance that needs to be done
2. Evaluate Inventory
For your high cost, or high usage items - have you evaluated if there is a different vendor offering a better price?
Do you use every item on your inventory list?
For low usage products, can you take them off of your menu/inventory?
Have you done your inventory count for the month?
Evaluate par levels to reduce spend / inventory costs (do you really need 8 boxes of straws on hand, or is 4 boxes ok?)
3. Evaluate Menu
Conduct a new food cost evaluation (based on current vendor pricing)
What items are selling like hotcakes? Which are the dogs that never sell?
Can you remove items from the menu that are not selling often?
Evaluate your high food cost items, is there a way to get the cost down?
Evaluate your high profit items, how often are you selling these, should you offer promotions to sell these more?
Can you create any new menu items, cross utilizing existing inventory?
Update your website to ensure it has all of your menu items, good photos of each item, a great description, and accurate pricing
Do the same for all of your delivery partners (GrubHub, Uber Eats, etc.)
If you are using the delivery partners do you price your food differently on their sites to cover the commissions you pay? People are willing to pay a little more for the convenience of delivery. If you're paying a 30% commission, consider upcharging the menu item by 25-30% to cover those costs
4. Training your staff
Do you have recipe cards for every item on your menu?
Do you have videos on how to make every item on your menu for staff training?
What add ons / upsells do you offer? Has your team been trained to offer upsells?
Through April 30, 2020 ServSafe is offering free training and certification for Food Handler and Takeout/Delivery Safety, have all of your team members certified (which will also result in higher awareness of food borne illnesses and contamination in the future)
Through April 30, 2020 American Hotel & Lodging Association Educational Institute is offering free training for Supervisory Skill Builders and Hospitality Manager - Leadership courses.
5. Strategy
Have you evaluated your marketing strategy?
Do you have a social media strategy?
What are your social media objectives?
How are you going to measure success?
Evaluate your social media presence / reputation
Review all of your guest reviews. What do people love about you? What do people hate about you? What do you need to change in your operations to increase customer value?
If you want help or suggestions on how to get started on any of these items, reach out. We're here to help! amanda@calirussogroup.com
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