How to Negotiate Better Deals With Hospitality Suppliers
Your suppliers can have a huge impact on the profitability of your hospitality business. Food, beverages, cleaning products, packaging, linen and other supplies can represent a significant portion of your operating costs. Yet many hospitality businesses simply accept the price on the invoice. That’s a mistake. Negotiating with suppliers isn’t about bullying someone into giving […]
How to Price Your Cafe or Restaurant Menu Properly (Without Guessing)
One of the easiest ways to get menu pricing wrong is to look at what everyone else is charging. The cafe down the road sells a bacon and egg roll for $12. So you charge $12. The restaurant around the corner sells a chicken schnitzel for $28. So you charge $28. It seems logical. But […]
Why Your Cafe Has Empty Tables at 2pm: How to Fix Your Quiet Periods
Your cafe might be packed at 8am. The coffee machine is working overtime. The kitchen is flat out. There is a queue at the counter and every table is occupied. Then 2pm arrives. Suddenly, half the tables are empty. By 3pm, the staff are looking at the clock. If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. […]
How to Control Labour Costs in Your Cafe, Restaurant or Hotel Without Cutting Staff
Labour is one of the biggest costs in hospitality. And when the numbers aren’t working, the first solution many owners reach for is simple: Cut the roster. Sometimes that is necessary. But cutting staff isn’t always the answer. If you take one person off the floor during a busy service and suddenly customers are waiting […]
How to Set Up a Speed Tray Behind the Bar for Faster Service
A well-set-up speed tray can make a surprising difference to the speed and efficiency of your bar. During a quiet shift, it probably doesn’t matter whether the vodka is 30 centimetres to your left or right. During a Friday night rush, when you’ve got six drinks waiting on the docket, those extra movements add up. […]
How to Stop Over-Ordering Stock in Your Cafe, Restaurant or Hotel
Walking into a full storeroom can make a hospitality owner feel prepared. The fridge is full. The freezer is full. The dry store is stacked. There are plenty of drinks in the cool room. Nobody should run out of anything. Sounds good, right? Not necessarily. Too much stock can be just as much of a […]
How to Set Up Your Commercial Kitchen: A Practical Guide for Hospitality Businesses
Setting up a commercial kitchen is about far more than buying equipment and finding somewhere to put it. A good kitchen should allow your team to prepare food quickly, safely, consistently and profitably. Get the layout wrong and your staff can spend the entire service walking back and forwards, waiting for equipment, searching for ingredients […]
How to Reduce Labour Costs Without Cutting Staff
Labour is one of the biggest costs in most hospitality businesses. And when profits are under pressure, the first instinct is often: “We need to cut staff.” Sometimes reducing hours is necessary. But cutting staff isn’t always the best solution. If you remove the wrong person at the wrong time, you can create longer wait […]
Why Your Hospitality Business Can Be Profitable But Still Have No Cash
You look at your accounts and see a profit. Sales are strong. Customers are coming through the door. You have worked hard all month. But when you look at the bank account, there’s barely enough money to pay the next round of bills. So you start asking: “Where has all the money gone?” This is […]
How to Get Your Hotel Rooms Full: 10 Practical Strategies That Work
How to Get Your Hotel Rooms Full: 10 Practical Strategies That Work Empty hotel rooms are one of the most expensive problems in hospitality. The room is already there. The building is already there. Your staff, utilities, insurance and other operating costs are still being paid whether the room is occupied or not. The challenge […]
How to Build a Hospitality Roster That Actually Works
A hospitality roster can make or break your week. Get it right and your team is ready when customers arrive, the kitchen has enough people to keep up, the bar isn’t overloaded and staff know what they’re doing. Get it wrong and you can end up with: A good hospitality roster isn’t simply a list […]
How to Fix Your Cocktail Menu: 10 Changes That Can Improve Sales and Profit
If your cocktail menu isn’t selling the way you expected, the problem might not be your cocktails. It could be the menu itself. A cocktail menu has to do several jobs at once. It needs to make drinks look appealing, help customers make decisions, be practical for your bartenders to execute and, most importantly, make […]
How to Keep Good Hospitality Staff: 10 Ways to Reduce Staff Turnover
Good hospitality staff are hard to find. Good hospitality staff who are reliable, capable, understand your business and can be trusted during a busy service are even harder to replace. So when a good employee leaves, the cost isn’t simply their final pay. You may also have to deal with: That’s why staff retention matters. […]
How to Decide Which Entrees and Starters to Put on Your Menu
Choosing the right entrees, appetisers or starters can have a bigger impact on your hospitality business than you might think. A good starter can increase the average spend, give customers something to share while they wait for their main meal and showcase what your kitchen does well. A bad starter can tie up your kitchen, […]
How to Get More Customers From Google: A Hospitality Business Guide
When someone wants a coffee, lunch, dinner, a hotel room or somewhere to hold a function, there’s a good chance they will search Google before deciding where to go. They might search: “Cafe near me” “Best restaurant in Logan” “Hotel near Brisbane airport” “Pub with meals near me” “Breakfast near me” “Function venue Brisbane” If […]
How to Get More Repeat Customers in Your Cafe, Restaurant or Hotel
Getting someone through the door once is good. Getting them to come back next week is better. And getting them to become a regular customer who brings friends, recommends you to others and chooses your business automatically is where hospitality businesses can really build value. Yet many businesses spend most of their marketing effort trying […]
What to Put in Your Cafe Fridge Display Cabinet: How to Make It Sell
Your cafe fridge display cabinet is one of the most valuable pieces of sales equipment in the business. It sits directly in front of your customers, often while they are waiting to order. They are already looking at it, deciding what they want and, in many cases, making an impulse purchase based entirely on what […]
How to Create a Hospitality Marketing Plan That Actually Generates Customers
Most hospitality businesses don’t have a marketing plan. They have a Facebook page. They have an Instagram account. They occasionally run an offer. Someone posts a photo of the food. Someone else remembers to update the website. Then the owner wonders why sales are unpredictable. Marketing shouldn’t be a collection of random activities. A good […]
How to Train Your Hospitality Staff: A Practical Guide for Cafe, Restaurant and Bar Owners
Good hospitality staff don’t just happen. Even the best employee can struggle if they are thrown into a busy shift with little training, unclear expectations and no idea how the business actually operates. One of the biggest mistakes hospitality businesses make is assuming that an experienced person automatically knows how you want things done. They […]
Why Your Cafe Is Busy But You’re Still Not Making Money
There is a frustrating situation that many cafe owners know all too well. The cafe is busy. Tables are full. The coffee machine is running constantly. The kitchen is pumping out food. Staff are running around. The EFTPOS machine is constantly being used. And yet, when you look at the bank account, there doesn’t seem […]
How to Make More Money With Upsells in Your Cafe, Restaurant or Bar
One of the easiest ways to increase revenue in hospitality is to get more value from the customers you already have. You don’t necessarily need more customers. You don’t necessarily need more advertising. Sometimes you simply need to give the customers already standing in front of you a better reason to spend a little more. […]
How to Reduce Food Waste in Your Cafe, Restaurant or Hotel Kitchen
Food waste is one of those costs that can quietly destroy your hospitality business. You buy the ingredients. Your staff prepare them. Some get used. Some get thrown away. And because you don’t necessarily see the money leaving your bank account at the moment the food hits the bin, it can be easy to ignore. […]
