As per the statistics, in 2014, the total number of establishments in the Food and Beverage Sector in Singapore was 6,871, which increased to 7,229 in 2015 and further grew to 7,679 in 2016. Considering the growth of the restaurant industry in Singapore, it is not very difficult to presume, that many want to venture into this lucrative domain, to grasp a share of the profit that this industry holds in abundance. However, only starting a restaurant will not ensure that you will have a booming business unless you manage your restaurant well enough. Here comes the importance of a proper restaurant management system that will ensure that your business stays afloat, and hence you garner the profit that you expected out of business. Here are some great restaurant management tips to help you run your business better!
Restaurant Management Tips for Running a Successful Restaurant Business
It takes a lot to run a successful restaurant. From ensuring the backend operations such as purchasing, preparation, and the delivery of food is streamlined, to managing the customers, everything needs to be taken care of. Here’s how you can do it just right by following these stellar restaurant management tips.
1. Managing Restaurant Employees
Hiring, training, retaining, and managing the staff is an integral part of restaurant management. Considering the shortage of labor in Singapore, it is even more critical to have the right people on board. The first step to managing your employees is hiring the right people. Hence, have a proper human resource structure that will help you in recruiting and retaining your restaurant employees. In addition to this, have a stellar incentive program for your employees that will help them to choose your restaurant over the others in the market.
While training makes sure that you provide your employees with a training manual, which must contain all the tasks in details and which should ideally be a go-to for any employee when they face a problem while working on the floor. In addition to this, you must organize training sessions, for your new and your old employees which will help you to refresh the memory of the old ones.
Creating checklists can come in handy when you have a comprehensive one in place, and all your employees are aware of how to use it to the fullest. This will make sure that none of your staff misses out any of the tasks that have been assigned to them.
Including your restaurant staff in the decision-making process is by far the most important, since it makes the employees feel needed and valued, which eventually plays a vital role in retaining them. Making your employees stakeholders in your restaurant increases their sense of ownership and accountability, which in the long run helps you to build a band of loyal employees, who treats your restaurant just like their own.
2. Delegation Is A Very Important Part Of Restaurant Management
As a restaurant owner, you will have various things to look at, to run the restaurant seamlessly. Hence, you cannot work efficiently, unless you have a band of competent and dedicated employees on whom you can depend. The delegation of work is one of the essential prerequisites of restaurant management. Start by delegating the less critical chores to your trusted employees, who you know can get the job done. This makes you available to focus on the more significant, more important issues that your restaurant might face. Also, the delegation of work helps to get your employees involved in the day-to-day operations, thus reduces the scope of turnover and trains them to take up more responsible tasks in the future.
3. Streamlining the Operations Through Technology
While legacy POS has dominated the Singapore restaurant industry for long, there has been a sudden shift towards a more automated technology. This is one of the primary things that a restaurateur needs that helps him to streamline the entire restaurant operations and have tight control over the business.
A robust restaurant management software will not only help you in billing, but it will also help you have complete control over your stock and inventory, enable your front and the back of the restaurant talk to each other.
Your restaurant POS must come along with modules like table reservation that will help you manage the queue at the restaurant, order taking app that will augment the servers upselling techniques and also improve the table turnover.
Considering that the restaurant industry is notorious for internal thefts, it is essential that you install a restaurant management software that is exceptional in keeping such activities under control. While it is important to monitor the number of bills generated and the number of discounts and offers conferred, one should never neglect the possibility of theft and pilferage in the kitchen and in the stock and inventory section.
4. Keep the Costs in Check
Most of the raw materials in Singapore are exported from foreign countries and this naturally increases the food cost of the restaurants and in turn, increases the expenses of the restaurants. The major part of the increasing expenses is related to the high cost of the raw materials. Hence, you must employ effective ways to control the rising restaurant food cost. Here comes the importance of menu engineering, this essentially means that your menu must be reviewed on regular intervals and all the appropriate changes must be brought forth. For example, if you happen to see that there are a few items that are rarely being ordered you can think of scraping them off the menu. In addition to this, it is advisable that you have multiple menu items which require the same ingredients. This will help you to keep your restaurant expenses and your food costs under control.
You must also try and reduce the generation of wastage. Have a proper recipe a management feature in your restaurant, have portion control systems, check inventory religiously so that no item gets wasted being unused in the stock for long. These will play a significant role in reducing your overall costs. These restaurant management tips help in improving wait staff productivity and keep your costs in check.
Proper restaurant management is critical to the success of a restaurant. Follow the tips mentioned above diligently and see how it streamlines your entire restaurant operations which in turn helps you to have overflowing cash registers in your restaurant. Hopefully, we have given you the answer on how to improve restaurant operations!
