First-time business owners often go through an overwhelming experience. Starting a company will have a lot of difficulties, alongside factors to consider. The costs associated with this will be one of the most notable.
Restaurants are no exception to this. These can often be one of the more expensive businesses to run, thanks to all of the expenses involved. To make your restaurant profitable and to plan ahead, you’ll need to know what your costs will be.
You’ll also need to know how to reduce them. After all, your restaurant won’t be profitable if your expenses are too high. How can you keep a restaurant’s costs low? There are a few things you’ll need to know.
What Costs Do Restaurants Have?
Before you can figure out how to keep your restaurant’s costs low, you’ll need to know what to expect. While exactly what you’ll be paying will vary from month to month, there are quite a few common expenses that you’ll need to pay.
Some of these will be legally mandated, such as restaurant insurance and similar expenses. Outside of that, you should expect a few notable operating costs. These are:
- The occupancy cost of your premises.
- Food and liquor costs.
- Labor costs.
- Shrinkage.
- Marketing and advertising.
- POS systems.
There can be multiple other restaurant costs that you’ll need to pay for. Some of these could be once-offs, while others might only need to be paid every few months. You should keep these in mind to make sure that you have the money set aside for them.
Once you know what they are, how do you keep your restaurant’s costs low? There are a few tips and tricks that you can use. In doing so, you can make your business profitable, which will get your restaurant out of debt, if it has any.
How To Keep Restaurants Low
Optimize Your Inventory
Your stock and raw materials will be one of your highest costs. That makes your inventory the first place you should look when trying to keep your restaurant’s costs low. Implementing an effective inventory management system is the most effective way of doing so.
You should take inventory at least once a week. By doing so, you’ll identify any over-stocking or wastage. You can identify and implement measures that will keep your inventory costs low. Though this can be difficult, it’s worth the effort.
Without it, you could end up spending much more than you should.
Stick To A Budget
Developing a budget and sticking to it might seem obvious. The number of people who overlook this can be surprising. You should make sure that your budget is as structured as possible and that you can account for every cent. Failing to do so could lead to mistakes and overspending.
You can’t get clarity on your expenses without knowing what they are. Once you do, you can identify specific areas that you can reduce.
Eliminate Food Wastage
Food wastage is a problem for many restaurants. This is when food goes unused or uneaten and needs to be thrown out, leading to lost revenue. While you mightn’t be able to get rid of this completely, you can minimize it. You’ll have to put a significant amount of time and effort into this.
Proper inventory management will be the most effective way of doing so. You should also maximize the use of every ingredient while using or reusing everything to its fullest potential. How you do this can depend on your circumstances.
Developing ways to maximize the revenue on all of your food will keep your costs down. The less you need to buy, after all, the less you’ll have to spend on food and materials.
Optimize Your Menu
Many first-time restaurateurs believe that an extensive menu will help them bring in customers. They also think that it’ll help them make more money. The opposite of this could be the case. The larger your menu is, the more raw materials you’ll need to put everything together.
That’s an expense you mightn’t be able to afford. Quality will be much better recommended than quantity. Taking this approach will also cut down on preparation time. Cutting this out will reduce your labor costs, which could add up to much more than you’d think.
Optimizing your menu will also lead to less food waste and shrinkage, which are restaurant costs that many people fail to account for. Avoid these by keeping your menu to food that people will order.
Add The Right Technology
Technology has become ingrained in society. That’s also been the case of restaurants, as there have been multiple tools and pieces of equipment developed for it. That goes beyond the cooking equipment you’ll need. Point of sale systems, inventory management software, and much more will be required.
You’ll need to make sure that you have the right tools and technology for your restaurant. There’s a wealth of options for you to choose from. Many of these can be used to automate certain parts of the restaurant.
An online booking system, for example, could cut down on the time and effort needed to book a table. There are countless other tools you can add to streamline the process, alongside multiple other parts of your business. Take full advantage of them to keep your costs down.
Reducing A Restaurant’s Costs: Wrapping Up
Knowing how to keep a restaurant’s costs low can be difficult. After all, you wouldn’t want to simply get low-cost supplies, as this can reduce the quality of your food. You’ll need to find a balance between cost and quality, which could be more difficult than you’d think.
As your restaurant starts to grow, you could loosen your belt a lot more. That could mean putting more money into various areas. In doing so, you could find that your restaurant will be even more profitable in the long term.
If you’re just starting a restaurant, you’ll need to make sure that you can keep your expenses covered for several months. Putting the research in and keeping all of the above in mind will help you budget for that.
Once you have, you shouldn’t have a problem keeping your restaurant’s costs low.
