Get back in business as soon as possible! Yes! (But on the right foot)

Gilles Trépanier, Restolutions 7 April 2020

What a year it will be 2020 for the restaurant industry! An unprecedented temporary shutdown of all in-room service operations, a still unpredictable but certain number of business abandonments, unknown reopening dates and what do I know?

However, this pause imposed by Covid 19 could be an opportunity to start on an even stronger footing in order to consolidate revenues and profits and thus ensure the viability of the company.

As we know, everyone does their best, but what we observe most often is well imagined by the metaphor of “the tree that hides the forest”. Restaurateurs/entrepreneurs are often so involved in the day-to-day running of their business that they do not have the necessary hindsight to do analysis and comparisons to ensure that all good practices are practiced within their business.

Often best practices are developed by comparisons (benchmark) with other operators in the same business category. But how can you compare yourself when you are 110 times busy with the daily challenges of running your business? In this context, it is difficult to ask questions of colleagues or competitors to validate the different modes of operation, associated costs and expected profits.

There are, of course, the big “philosophical” questions: Do I have the right concept? The right rental? The right menu? The right service? For the purposes of our exercise, let us admit that the answers to these major questions are all positive. Wouldn’t that be a guarantee of success? Not necessarily. Again, let’s use a borrowed phrase to support this answer: “The devil is in the details.” And that’s so true in the restaurant industry! The operation of a restaurant is in itself an endless list of specific actions, in management and service, that allow to offer a quality product while achieving interesting margins that ensure the survival of the trade.

The devil is in the details, you have to look closely at it.

Ideally each step should be questioned and requested… Is the price of my rent fair? Do I have good trade agreements? Are my food and beverage ratios within the standards? What about my labour costs? Are my purchases and inventories made according to the optimal rules? This is just one example of questions that the operator must ask to ensure that the operation of his business is in line with the best practices of the industry. Many other questions will be completed to ensure that all segments of the transaction are compliant or at least approach known best practices.

It is to answer these questions and to validate that your practices are the best possible as the reference to a specialist consultant. He will be able to compare the parameters of your operations to those observed in the industry and suggest some adjustments that could make the difference, and, start off on the right foot….

Restolutions is here for you…. Our experts can help you look through the tree that hides the forest…. No fees to analyze your file….