Is Your Restaurant Struggling?
You are not alone, according to a recent report one-fifth of the UK’s restaurants are on the verge of insolvency, in recent times we have seen many formally successful brands and popular casual dining chains in trouble, with closures and sell offs buying time.
The expectations of dining out are changing, and restaurants need to change with it in order to survive. Large chains may struggle to do this, as their size makes it difficult to change without a large amount of planning and extensive restructuring. However, smaller restaurant businesses do not face the same issues, and are free to adapt to the changing industry.
If your restaurant is struggling,
DON’T PANIC! – you can fix things.
First you need to figure out where things are going wrong –
· Be prepared for business growth – Sometimes a restaurant can be a casualty of its own success. They see a sudden influx of business and are unable to react fast enough to meet the increased demands. As a result, customers are left unhappy and the restaurant suffers a blow to its reputation, which means working even harder to rebuild your reputation and consumers faith in you.
Ensure that you have a detailed plan for business growth: set out clear business goals and financial targets, and make sure you’re prepared to achieve these goals.
Monitor and if you miss them adjust your plans and strategies.
· Embrace the competition – Competition is fierce. The restaurant market is so heavily saturated at all levels that you now need more than just good food and service to attract and keep customers.
Consumers are now looking for an experience as much as quality food and excellent service.
What is your Unique Selling Point (USP)? Is your message and USP clear to the consumer? The extras and uniqueness of your offering, venue and service will help you stand out from the crowd.
· Be Instragam-able – Make sure you are social media ready not just with your design and presentation but also your marketing strategy and promotional plan.
· Poor accounting and financial analysis – As an owner, you should be managing your business and while it is very important to keep an close eye on your figures it is also wise to hire professional bookkeeping accountants in order to crunch the numbers, saving you both time and money. Freeing you up to monitor performance and develop new strategies.
· Location, location, location – When it comes to the high street, location is everything. If your restaurant is out of sight or catering to a demographic that isn’t common where you are, then your marketing needs to be on point as you can’t rely on passing footfall.
· Correct staffing – Both with numbers and personalities. Over staffing and understaffing can have terrible impact on your business. Just the same with poorly motivated and badly managed staff.
You not only keep your staff retention high and build an environment that staff want to be in and stay in but also train your staff to perform at optimal
Exploring your options
If you tackle these hard business issues early on, there may be a possibility to restructure your business and turn things around. If you can survive this rough patch, the possibilities are immense, as the once fierce competition will have dwindled significantly.
At PJM Hospitality Solutions our team of experienced hospitality experts can help you understand what you are facing and can provide specific help.
We’re also experts in business growth strategies – we can discuss your business plan and make sure it’s right for your restaurant’s vision, so you can avoid the common pitfalls.
The sooner you talk to us, the better. Once we have worked out a plan of action for your restaurant, we can support you through the process of implementing it.