If you’re running a restaurant, catering service or food cart, efficiency is key to the success of your business. Every dollar spent on labor and ingredients counts against your bottom line, so it’s important to get the best possible bang for your buck if you want to maintain a reasonable profit. Here are four tips that will help you make the most of your resources in the food business.
Order Your Supplies in Bulk
Even though it costs more up front, you can get a much better per unit price when you order non-perishable ingredients and supplies in bulk. Storing them may present a bit of a challenge, but you can substantially reduce the cost of making and serving food by doing so. This will translate to higher profits and a more successful business overall.
Automate Wherever Possible
Even though the food business is a labor-intensive one, you should still try to automate processes whenever you can. If you serve burgers, for example, you could consider buying hamburger moulder equipment so that your staff don’t have to spend time making patties by hand. Small changes like this can pay off in the long run by keeping your employees working on more useful tasks.
Keep Your Menu Simple
Many restaurant owners make the mistake of creating a complex, difficult to deliver menu. This means more work in the kitchen, more staff and more ingredients. Keeping your menu simple, though, will make sure that your kitchen remains efficient. The fewer menu items you have, the more focused your staff can be on making those items to the highest possible quality standards. If you have an enormous menu, on the other hand, you’ll likely end up sacrificing at least some quality as your kitchen attempts to serve up dozens of dishes at once.
Prep Ahead of Time for a Smoother Workflow
Although you don’t want to be serving reheated food to your guests, coming in a bit early and getting some basic prep work done can make a day’s service go much smoother. Laying out portions, getting sauces prepared and other essential preparatory work can take pressure off your team when guests begin to come in. The more you can do in advance, the better off you’ll be.
These are just a few of the ways you can make your food business more efficient. Running a restaurant is extremely difficult work, but a little thought and prior planning can make it much more manageable.
Lizzie Weakley is a freelance writer from Columbus, Ohio. In her free time, she enjoys the outdoors and walks in the park with her husky, Snowball.
