A healthy appetite for success
Constant monitoring key ingredient in restaurant biz
RUNNING A RESTAURANT is known to be a tricky proposition, but what accounts for the difficulty?
According to Christine Bower, co-owner with Lil MacPherson of popular Halifax restaurant the Wooden Monkey, the complexity of the business trips up a lot of people.
"There are just so many moving parts," Bower said. "You have your food costs, your labour costs. You can have the busiest restaurant on the street and not make it if you don’t have those costs in hand."
Bower, who has a strong business background, also cites the continual upward creep of expenses that means you have to relentlessly monitor and adjust what you’re offering.
"We have over 40 suppliers," she said. "Everybody puts their costs up, and so your food costs can slip away from you very quickly."
Restaurant owners and chefs have to change menu prices and recipes when necessary. Those skills can be honed by taking classes, which Bower strongly recommends. Food costing or menu skills courses, often taught at community colleges and in restaurant industry programs, can help you stay in the black.
Human error is another obstacle that can cause real problems, Bower said. At the restaurant, they find it useful to weigh the food that’s coming in from suppliers, and to count everything. She emphasized that all her suppliers are honest; it’s simply that everyone is busy and moving in a rush.
"People make mistakes," she said. "You may order 10 things and only nine come in."
Because the Wooden Monkey focuses on local, organic food, one slip could be a pricey mistake.
Constant monitoring is important not only for food and labour costs. Bower and MacPherson track every detail. They selected a point-of-sale system that helps them and manager Matthew Goss monitor a wide range of variables: sales during different periods of each shift, number of guests, staff break times, whether the kitchen ran out of any dishes.
They know exactly how popular each special was. They can read the data and see which direction to move in.
The Wooden Monkey’s point-of-sale system was leased from local firm AM Aloha, which serves the restaurant industry and offers tutorials and training to help maximize the system’s value.
The data can be used to assess trends and patterns, as well as to help the restaurant’s servers do a better job of meeting customers’ expectations. Understanding what people want is a huge part of making the dining experience enjoyable.
"It’s very expensive to let workers go and then rehire to replace them. It’s far better to invest in appropriate worker training and in their development," said Eric Crowell, director of the Saint Mary’s University Business Development Centre.
Bower and MacPherson have a vision for the restaurant that they want all their workers to tap into.
"The servers and kitchen people have to be passionate about what we do," Bower said. "Local and organic — we make choices based on that idea first. Those are conscious decisions."
Using business skills to underpin that vision means the restaurant has an even better chance to thrive.
Here are more tips that can help your business stay on the right track:
Make adjustments based on what you’re measuring in your business.
At the Wooden Monkey, the closing time was changed after monitoring the times when the last customers of the evening tended to arrive.
Instruct your staff to seek help early, if they need it.
You have to stay hands-on. You also have to delegate.
Having capable, dedicated employees means you can trust them to handle things for you, and it’s vital. But don’t try to delegate everything.
Source:
The Chronicle Herald
By MARTHA WILSON
