tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36432034445366719672024-02-19T23:24:30.974-08:00Restaurant Consulting NYC, New York, NJ | 4Q Consulting Blog4Q Consulting, LLC is a full service Restaurant, Catering, and Food & Beverage consulting firm in the Greater New York Market.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09735583096311699045noreply@blogger.comBlogger62125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643203444536671967.post-71941914543609524542016-10-24T07:00:00.001-07:002016-10-24T07:15:18.292-07:00Restaurant Consulting NYC | The Financial Health of Your Restaurant | 4Q Consulting, LLC<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Financial Health of Your Restaurant</span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Is your restaurant in need of a financial check-up? Many restaurant owners we work with are not aware of the financial health of their own restaurants, or know they are in trouble but cannot explain why. Having great food and service is not enough to be a good business and many restaurants struggle financially. As a restaurant owner, assessing the health of your business is an essential part of your responsibility and can often be overwhelming.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Conducting regular financial check-ups of your restaurant does not need to be difficult and can be broken down in to smaller steps. In order to give your restaurant a financial check-up, you need to do the following:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Keep Clean Books</b> - Studies find that restaurants that incorporate accounting best practices are more likely to be profitable than those that do not. Keeping an organized accounting system is the only way to have a clear idea of how cash is flowing through your business. The key elements are to know 1) where in the business your revenue is coming from 2) where you are spending your money, 3) how much you are spending, and 4) how much you need to earn to make a profit. It doesn’t matter whether you use high tech software, a bookkeeper or an old fashion ledger book, you need some kind of system for timely recording of revenue and expenditure to allow you to make business decisions and plan for the future. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Compile A Monthly P&L</b> – As we discussed in,<a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2012/11/4q-consulting-llc-restaurant-consulting_11.html" target="_blank"> <i>Does Your Restaurant Compile a Monthly P&L Statement</i></a><i>?</i>, a profit and loss statement, or P&L, is a basic financial statement that serves as a report card for your business. A crucial part to creating a useful P&L statement is monitoring your food and beverage inventory; this step will allow you to spot food waste in handling and storage, possible theft and proper ordering levels and frequency. Tracking fixed and variable costs, such as payroll, operating expenses and occupancy costs can highlight wasted resources and where you can tighten your belt.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Know Your Prime Costs Inside and Out</b> – Prime costs are the total of food, beverage and all payroll expenses including taxes and benefits, and are the most important numbers a restaurant owner should know. Once you’ve compiled your P&L, prime costs should be what you examine first, as they offer the most accurate depiction of your restaurant’s health, showing how well your business is managed day-to-day. Frequent review of food, beverage and labor costs holds your chefs and managers accountable for their work.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Adjust to Changes in Your Business Cycle</b> - Since prime costs are variable, they can and should be adjusted when your restaurant experiences changes in business levels, as we illustrated in <i><a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2016/07/restaurant-consulting-nyc-dog-days-of.html" target="_blank">The Dog Days of Summer: How to Manage During a Downturn in Business</a>.</i> Planning for or being acutely aware of a fall-off in business, enables you to scale back labor schedules properly, rotate out vacations among the staff and utilize staff that has been cross-trained – increasing productivity per work hour. Making changes to your menu can also impact food, beverage and labor costs by offering a smaller menu, consolidating the number of items on your menu and decreasing the number of steps of production.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Just like an annual physical with your doctor can lead to healthy changes in lifestyle, keeping your finger on the financial pulse of your restaurant can highlight areas of weakness. With this information you can make appropriate and timely changes to have a financially healthy restaurant. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Email us today for a free business consultation at www.4qconsult.com. We help restaurants be profitable, from start-ups to existing restaurants looking for a fresh set of eyes. 4Q Consulting, LLC can develop customized plans and operational guidelines to survive a slow period of business!</span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">All original content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2016-2017. </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Noelle E. Ifshin</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">President</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">4Q Consulting, LLC </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">noelle@4qconsult.com </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">www.4qconsult.com </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">244 5th Avenue, Suite 1430, NY, NY 10001 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(212) 340-1137</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09735583096311699045noreply@blogger.com12120, 244 5th Ave #1430, New York, NY 10001, USA40.7446271 -73.98771569999996715.222592600000002 -115.29630969999997 66.2666616 -32.679121699999968tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643203444536671967.post-26996469254526218832016-07-29T07:16:00.001-07:002016-10-24T06:57:02.174-07:00Restaurant Consulting NYC | The Dog Days of Summer How to Manage During a Downturn in Business | 4Q Consulting, LLC<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "atlanta" , "sans-serif";">The Dog Days of Summer<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "atlanta" , "sans-serif";">How to Manage During a
Downturn in Business<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "atlanta" , "sans-serif";">Summer in
the NY Metro Region is often a slow period for area restaurants – as the
temperature and humidity rise while kids are out of school, customers escape
the heat to take vacations and many leave for weekends. Being able to nimbly anticipate these slow
weeks and make changes to your operation will allow you to survive the dog days
of summer without taking a financial hit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "atlanta" , "sans-serif";">As we discussed in our last blog, <i><a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2016/06/restaurant-consulting-nyc-value-of-good.html" target="_blank"><u>The Value of A Good Business Plan</u>,</a> </i>a restaurant is a living
breathing entity that requires constant reevaluation. Now restaurateurs must
understand the value of being flexible when the thermostat rises and business
levels fall off as people escape the heat.</span><span style="font-family: "atlanta" , "sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "atlanta" , "sans-serif";">Here are
four key things to help manage your restaurant in a short downturn:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "atlanta" , "sans-serif";">Adjust Your Cash Flow</span></b><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; font-family: "atlanta" , "sans-serif";"> <b>Management </b></span></span><span style="background: white; font-family: "atlanta" , "sans-serif";">– Many restaurants fail not
because they are unprofitable, but because they ultimately become insolvent. The
single most important step for survival of your restaurant when business slows
is to rigorously manage your cash. Calculate what your cash flow needs will be
based on both your estimated fixed and variable expenses. Know what your
break-even point is, as sometimes a viable cash management strategy is to close
the business for the slowest portion of the slower season. And lastly, adjust the way you operate to
further reduce your variable expenses.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "atlanta" , "sans-serif";">Adjust Your Variable Expenses</span></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "atlanta" , "sans-serif";"> <b>– </b>Variable
expenses are those expenses that change based on your level of business – the
largest controllable categories being food and labor costs. From <i><u><a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2016/04/restaurant-consulting-nyc-where-oh.html" target="_blank">Where Oh Where Has My Margin Gone</a>?</u></i>, we know that labor is a restaurant’s
largest variable expense and is only becoming more costly. Planning for this fall-off in business is key
in being able to scale back schedules in advance, rotate out vacations among
the staff and utilize staff that has been cross-trained – increasing
productivity per work hour. If you have staff standing around staring at
the walls, you have too much staff on hand.
Lowering total payroll also lowers payroll taxes and payroll processing
fees. Other controllable variable
expenses can include paper goods, any merchandise, some utilities and
maintenance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "atlanta" , "sans-serif";">Adjust Your Menu Offerings</span></b><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; font-family: "atlanta" , "sans-serif";"> </span></span><span style="background: white; font-family: "atlanta" , "sans-serif";">– Changing your menu can also impact food, beverage and labor
costs. Consider replacing some menu offerings with less expensive items using
seasonal and local ingredients. Consider lightening your menu to offer more
salads and refreshing cold options. You
don’t want potential customers not to consider coming to your restaurant on a
hot, sticky day because your menu is too heavy.
Furthermore, less labor-intensive preparations allow you to work with
less staff. Guests, by nature, tend to
eat less and lighter fare when the thermostat rises. Cooking with what is locally in season is
always less costly than using out-of-season imported items. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "atlanta" , "sans-serif";">Adjust Your Purchasing and Inventory Management </span></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "atlanta" , "sans-serif";">– When items are not flying out of your walk-in or your stock
room, you should look at what you are buying and how you are buying it. Intelligently reducing the overall number of
offerings on your menu can increase your product cross-utilization allowing you
to carry a smaller inventory – both in number of inventory items and quantity
of each item you stock. Analyze what is
selling, at the best profit margin, and either remove the non-selling items or
find creative ways to reinvent them. By
sitting on non-moving inventory, especially alcoholic beverages, you are just
tying up your cash flow.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "atlanta" , "sans-serif";">Being aware and flexible about managing your business
in the Dog Days of Summer can help keep your bottom line from melting away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "atlanta" , "sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "atlanta" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Email us today for a free business consultation at </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.4qconsult.com/" target="_blank">www.4qconsult.com</a>.</span><span style="font-family: "atlanta" , "sans-serif";"> We help
restaurants be profitable, from Start-ups to existing restaurants looking for a
fresh set of eyes. </span><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "atlanta" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">4Q Consulting, LLC can develop customized plans and operational
guidelines </span><span style="font-family: "atlanta" , "sans-serif";">to survive a
slow period of business!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "atlanta" , sans-serif;">All
original content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2016-2017. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "atlanta" , sans-serif;">Noelle E. Ifshin, President, 4Q Consulting, LLC <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "atlanta" , sans-serif;">noelle@4qconsult.com <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "atlanta" , sans-serif;">www.4qconsult.com <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "atlanta" , sans-serif;">244 5th Avenue, Suite 1430, NY, NY 10001 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "atlanta" , sans-serif;">(212) 340-1137<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09735583096311699045noreply@blogger.com02120, 244 5th Ave #1430, New York, NY 10001, USA40.7446271 -73.98771569999996715.222592600000002 -115.29630969999997 66.2666616 -32.679121699999968tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643203444536671967.post-36403724196522862012016-06-21T12:36:00.004-07:002016-06-21T12:49:24.104-07:00Restaurant Consulting NYC | The Value of A Good Business Plan Your Restaurant’s GPS - Gastronomic Positioning System | 4Q Consulting, LLC<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>The Value of A Good Business Plan</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Your Restaurant’s GPS - Gastronomic Positioning System</i></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For many, opening a restaurant is often a romantic idea, until reality sets in of just how difficult it actually is. We advise clients that developing a detailed business plan is the first step. A great business plan becomes your navigation system (your GPS) for everything from raising funds, to fleshing out a concept, to getting open. In its simplest form a business plan is a guide for your business that outlines your goals and details how to achieve them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A good business plan should include: a summary of your concept, mission and company goals; a market analysis of where you plan to open – including a competitive analysis; a detailed description of your product and how you plan to execute that product; a labor model; several sets of financial models and an exit strategy – in the event that your concept doesn’t work.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Before and after opening your restaurant, a business plan can:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Be a pre-investment gut check</b> - Investing in the development of a business plan before doing anything else can save you money, time and often heartbreak. The plan gives you an opportunity to flesh out your concept and to investigate whether it can be profitable in the marketplace. You might just discover that what you thought was a great idea won’t work: the demographics of the area may be wrong; the rents may be too high or the financial models don’t work for your concept. Better to know in advance than risk losing many thousands of dollars after the fact.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Help you source start-up capital and financing</b> – Many independent restaurants that try to self fund their start-up, are often under capitalized and fail within the first year. A detailed plan, with several detailed sets of financial models, allows restaurateurs to secure outside monies with various types of lenders and/or through alternative sources. Your plan must be able to answer the following questions for lenders and investors: 1) how and how soon do you plan to have a positive cash flow in order to be able to repay a loan or pay out investors? And 2) what is the unique selling proposition for your restaurant – for example, why will customers come to your restaurant versus the others in the neighborhood?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Help you manage cash flow</b>- Careful management of cash flow is a fundamental requirement for all restaurants. The reason is quite simple: many restaurants fail not because they are unprofitable, but because they ultimately become insolvent. Most restaurants' cash flow can fluctuate dramatically from week to week primarily because of the timing of payments like payroll, sales tax, and rent combined with on-going operating expenses. Unexpected costs, such as emergency repairs, only amplify this fluctuation. Knowing your business cycle (e.g. busy season/ slow season) will help you be proactive in your cash flow management. The only thing worse than having a cash shortage, is having a cash shortage that was a total surprise.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Be used as an on-going road map to your success and should be updated often.</b> By continuing to review and update your plan, you can understand and develop changes to, and the growth strategy for, your business. Regularly checking your planned performance versus your actual results allows you to make the necessary changes to get you back on track. This is a living breathing document, not a book that is thrown in a drawer and never looked at again.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We see restaurants that did not start with a formal business plan struggle to be successful - they figured their passion and optimism were enough to build a successful company. Operating without a plan can prove to be more time-consuming and costly in the long run – like driving somewhere without directions and just hoping you get there.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Don’t know where to begin? Do you know how to write a great business plan with appropriate financial models? www.4qconsult.com can develop business plans to meet your needs. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>All original content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2016-2017. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">President</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">4Q Consulting, LLC </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">noelle@4qconsult.com www.4qconsult.com </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">244 5th Avenue, Suite 1430, NY, NY 10001 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(212) 340-1137</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09735583096311699045noreply@blogger.com0244 5th Ave #1430, New York, NY 10001, USA40.7446271 -73.98771569999996715.222592600000002 -115.29630969999997 66.2666616 -32.679121699999968tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643203444536671967.post-4113787309696446662016-05-26T04:09:00.000-07:002016-05-26T04:09:10.068-07:00Restaurant Consulting NYC | Are You Being Penny Wise and Pound Foolish? How to Consider Managing Your Restaurant’s Big Purchases | 4Q Consulting, LLC<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Are You Being Penny Wise and Pound Foolish?</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How to Consider Managing Your Restaurant’s Big Purchases</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you are putting off upgrading your aging restaurant equipment or are not investing in equipment that makes you the most productive, you could be harming your business while trying to save money. As discussed in our last blog, <a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2016/04/restaurant-consulting-nyc-where-oh.html" target="_blank"><i>Where Oh Where Have My Margins Gone</i></a>, the current financial challenges in the restaurant business are on the rise with increasing labor regulations, higher wages and market pressures. Many restaurateurs are thinking that with rising costs there is no way they could possibly spend for new, expensive equipment, technology or software.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before “cutting off your nose to spite your face”, analyze how you can monetize a capital investment by growing your sales, cutting your costs and delivering a consistent, quality product.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The purchase price might be a big number, but if you use the <b>4Q Approach</b>, it shouldn’t be that scary:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Quantify Your Purchase.</b> To quantify this big spend, you need to fully understand your business and the economies of the purchase. If you are buying a rotisserie for your restaurant, do you buy the small manual unit or the larger capacity, automated unit? To answer this, you need to calculate how many more chickens you need to sell to recoup the cost of the larger unit. If you can increase output – to sell more, and create a more consistent (better) product with little added labor - the increase in cost from one unit to another is easy to overcome. Additionally, you can profit by the flexibility a larger unit affords, offering a wider range of rotisserie menu items.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Qualify Your Purchase.</b> Very often restaurants put off installing new or upgraded equipment due to sticker shock. Upgraded equipment can often lower your ever-increasing variable costs, optimize work flow, or offer up solutions to operational challenges. This can lead to improved product quality and, in turn, repeat business. More efficient equipment can possibly replace part or all of your labor cost by lowering the number of man hours needed to monitor product produced on old, inefficient equipment. Think about an older rotisserie that most be continuously monitored to prevent burnt or unevenly cooked chickens – in this example both your labor and food costs can be impacted. Additionally, modern equipment can lower energy costs and replace the cost of constantly repairing older units. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Quantitative Analysis of Your Purchase.</b> Most large equipment or software expenditures can be financed in some way, so you don't have to lay out a large chunk of money all at once. When investing in your business, don’t go part way: buy the equipment you need to improve efficiency, and grow your business. When you decide to buy a new car, to replace the Junker that is constantly in for repairs, you buy the entire car - you wouldn’t buy the tires one month, the engine the following month and the chassis the third month. Instead, you would finance your large expenditure to make the price palatable. You must analyze the impact buying new equipment has on your restaurant operations. What you can potentially save in your cash flow, by being more efficient, can be used to finance your new purchase. Sometimes, new equipment “pays for itself”.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Query about Your Purchase</b> – Before making a large capital expenditure is it always a good idea to speak to your accountant or financial adviser. Make sure you understand the depreciation and tax benefit implications of a capital investment in advance. Additionally, there are often state rebates and incentives for installing new, more energy efficient kitchen equipment that can help offset the purchase price.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Making smart, planned decisions on your large capital expenditures can often help you grow, and streamline your business for the long term. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don’t know where to begin? Do you know how to and procedures in place to be as successful as possible? <a href="http://www.4qconsult.com/">www.4qconsult.com</a> can develop customized operational guidelines to meet your needs. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All original content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2016-2017. </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Noelle E. Ifshin</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">President</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4Q Consulting, LLC </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://noelle@4qconsult.com%20%20/" target="_blank">noelle@4qconsult.com </a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.4qconsult.com/">www.4qconsult.com</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">244 5th Avenue, Suite 1430, NY, NY 10001 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(212) 340-1137</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09735583096311699045noreply@blogger.com0244 5th Ave, Suite 1430 New York, NY 10001, USA40.7446271 -73.98771569999996740.7444391 -73.988030699999968 40.744815100000004 -73.987400699999966tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643203444536671967.post-44785768641662745982016-04-26T06:49:00.000-07:002016-04-26T07:20:09.646-07:00Restaurant Consulting NYC | Where Oh Where Has My Margin Gone? The Changing Labor Environment and How It Affects Restaurants | 4Q Consulting, LLC<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Where Oh Where Has My Margin Gone?</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Changing Labor Environment and How It Affects Restaurants </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">People outside the restaurant industry are often surprised by how small restaurant profit margins actually are. To say margins are razor-thin would be an understatement, as the average profit margin of a restaurant is 3-5% of total revenue. Labor expenses are a restaurant’s largest expense and the external forces on labor are keeping many restaurateurs up at night. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Labor-related issues will be the biggest challenges facing the restaurant industry in 2016 and beyond. Restaurants will need to rethink their business models to handle the changes that are coming. Here are four items that we are advising our clients to watch carefully:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Tightening of the Job Market</b> - Finding top talent is becoming increasingly difficult for restaurant operators. With the improved economy, the growth of the restaurant industry and the continued low labor participation rate, finding quality staff is challenging. According to federal data, the restaurant industry alone added 40,000 jobs, or 16% of all workers to the US economy in February 2016. With increased competition for talent, the cost of recruiting and hiring new employees has become more and more expensive. Moving forward, employee retention will be a cost saving imperative and restaurants must work to slow the revolving door of employee turnover. Conversely, working short staffed has its own costs associated with overtime pay, poor product quality and customer service.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Higher Minimum Wages </b>– Minimum wage increases <span style="background-color: white; cursor: pointer; line-height: 21px; text-decoration: none;">disproportionately</span> affect restaurants as the food service industry employs close to half of all the people in minimum wage jobs. It is therefore no wonder that operators are worried about where the minimum wage issue is going. Many states and municipalities – such as California, Seattle and most recently New York City and New York State – have passed accelerated, higher minimum wage laws that are forcing operators to rethink their labor and compensation models. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>New Regulations Governing Hourly Employees</b> – Paid sick leave, spread-of-hours rules and healthcare insurance are additional changes to the landscape that operators must prepare for now and in the near future. Ensure that you are fully versed in all the laws and regulations that affect your restaurant, so you can plan for any economic impact of these in advance. If you need help in understanding these very important rules, get it. Not planning can put your restaurant at risk for a lawsuit.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Changes to the Federal Overtime Laws</b> – The U.S. Department of Labor is working towards changes in defining who is an “exempt” vs. “non-exempt” employee. This will have a major impact throughout the restaurant industry. Traditionally, salaried employees - such as restaurant and bar managers, chefs and sous chefs - perform manual tasks throughout their day while managing their staff. New regulations may re-categorize these positions as “non-exempt” based on the job functions and entitle them to overtime pay if their salaries are below a certain amount. Should this happen, operators will be required to rewrite their manager job functions and descriptions due to the potential economic impact of these changes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With these big labor challenges, it will be crucial for operators to become more and more efficient to preserve their bottom lines – especially for smaller mom & pop operators. As discussed in <i><a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2014/11/restaurant-consulting-nyc-between-lines.html" target="_blank">Between the Lines - Operational Challenges That Can Make or Break Your Restaurant</a>:</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> “Restaurant success depends on many things, but it can all boil down to </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> one question: Where does the money go? Having a handle on your </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> operations is a key to answering this question. Have processes and </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> procedures to reduce economic drains, train your staff to follow them and </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> hold them accountable.” </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Not adapting and hiding your head in the sand will lead to poor management and poor fiscal controls – which can make those margins evaporate faster than a sauté pan of boiling water. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Don’t know where to begin? Do you know how to put policies and procedures in place to be as successful as possible? <a href="http://www.4qconsult.com/" target="_blank"> www.4qconsult.com</a> can develop customized operational guidelines to meet your needs. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>All original content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2016-2017</b>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Noelle E. Ifshin, President, 4Q Consulting, LLC </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="mailto:noelle@4qconsult.com">noelle@4qconsult.com</a> <a href="http://www.4qconsult.com/" target="_blank">www.4qconsult.com </a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">244 5th Avenue, Suite 1430, NY, NY 10001 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(212) 340-11</span>37<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09735583096311699045noreply@blogger.com0244 5th Ave #1430, New York, NY 10001, USA40.7446338 -73.9877303000000115.222599300000002 -115.29632430000001 66.2666683 -32.67913630000001tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643203444536671967.post-37843288427042443832016-02-29T10:48:00.004-08:002016-02-29T10:48:57.789-08:00Restaurant Consulting NYC | Can You Hear Me Now? Ensuring your Brand Message is Heard | 4Q Consulting, LLC<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Can You Hear Me Now?</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ensuring your Brand Message is Heard</span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Often when we review a new client’s existing marketing and branding, we find an unclear and confused message. In order for any marketing to be successful, it must find continuity and fluidity across all platforms; the message must be Clear, Concise, Consistent and Communicable. If customers can easily understand who you are, it clears one obstacle in improving your top line sales. Remember, a customer’s experience with your restaurant starts long before they walk in the door. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here are four basics to consider in ensuring customers hear your brand message: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Know who you are.</b> The reality of your restaurant has to meet the expectations you are putting out in your marketing. As we discussed in <i><a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/search?q=Know+Thyself%2C" target="_blank">Restaurants Know Thyself,</a></i> you can't be all things to all people. Know who you are, embrace it, and include it in all of your marketing. If you run a Mediterranean restaurant in name, design and decor, you should not have an Irish Pub menu. Remember, marketing your brand is not just about paid advertising, it also includes items such as menus, signage, uniforms, and scripted server approaches at the table.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Be Consistent</b>. 4Q preaches consistency a lot, in all aspects of restaurant operations. You’d be surprised how many times we see inconsistencies in basic information – such as hours of operation and menus – in different places where a restaurant promotes itself. Are the hours of operation on your door the same as on the printed take out menu? Are they the same on your website, Facebook Page, Google listing, online ordering portals, etc.? Additionally, does all of your media reflect a consistent message and communicate who you are (see above)? If customers don’t get consistent information and messaging about your restaurant, they will become confused, get frustrated and turn elsewhere to restaurants that care to get it right. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Get your message online and keep it in line</b>. Restaurants don’t always embrace their digital strategy in this day and age of 24/7 connectedness. Before the Internet, restaurant marketing was static: it consisted mainly of newspaper, magazine, radio, TV and the yellow pages ads. Today, marketing a brand message has become dynamic. There is so much noise out there in the digital/social media world with paid ads, social media pages, customer reviews, etc. that vie for customers’ attention. You have to actively manage your image with a consistent message by: producing and posting relevant content that draws new customers and keeps existing customers engaged; responding properly to complaints in a public setting; answering questions; and utilizing “Calls-to-Action”. Keeping a clear, focused message in all your online interactions, can help you stand out in all this digital noise.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Teach the message.</b> Employees are your walking, living, breathing billboards inside and outside of your restaurant; but are they putting out “The Message”? You must inject a clear, concise, and consistent message into your employees, and hold them accountable to communicating it. If your message is that you are a farm-to-table restaurant, your employees must be able to explain that to any and all customers and potential customers. Additionally, as we discussed in <a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2013/04/restaurant-consulting-nyc-employees-are.html" target="_blank"><i>Employees are Your First Customers</i></a>, “In social situations, often the first question asked is ‘What do you do?’ or ‘Where do you work?’” Each time your employee answers that question, is an opportunity to communicate your message.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Small or large, independent or chain, no restaurant can ignore how their marketing message is heard. Certain advertising campaigns still resonate in our culture, and are long remembered because they are clear, concise, consistent and communicable – you can still sing that 30 year old jingle. All of the pieces noted in this blog must work together in concert: like a choir everyone must be singing the same song, in the same key, or the audience will leave!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don’t know where to begin? Do you know how to put policies and procedures in place to be as successful as possible? <a href="http://www.4qconsult.com/">www.4qconsult.com</a> can develop customized operational guidelines to meet your needs. </span><br />
<br />
<b><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All original content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2015-2016. </span></i></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Noelle E. Ifshin,</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">President, 4Q Consulting, LLC </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">noelle@4qconsult.com </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">www.4qconsult.com </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">244 5th Avenue, Suite 1430, NY, NY 10001 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(212) 340-1137</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09735583096311699045noreply@blogger.com0244 5th Ave #1430, New York, NY 10001, USA40.7446271 -73.98771569999996715.222592600000002 -115.29630969999997 66.2666616 -32.679121699999968tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643203444536671967.post-29896381030327719302016-01-27T06:31:00.003-08:002016-01-28T06:05:47.553-08:00Restaurant Consulting NYC | You and Me and Restaurant Makes Three | 4Q Consulting, LLC<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You and Me and Restaurant Makes Three</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Husband and Wife Restaurant Owners</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As discussed in <a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2013/10/restaurant-consulting-nyc-family-owned.html" target="_blank"><i>The Family Owned Restaurant</i></a>, family business are the bedrock of the U.S. economy. Family businesses often start with a husband and wife team trying to make a better life for their families. In many cases, the marriages and the businesses become so intertwined that it becomes hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. Starting and running a successful restaurant can be more demanding than having a baby, and often couples do not survive the birth of a restaurant. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In order to ensure both the restaurant and your marriage survive, here are four important items to keep in mind when opening or running a restaurant with your spouse:</span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Treat the business like a business, not an extension of the home.</b> Draw a distinction and leave work in the business. If both husband and wife are to be partners in the restaurant, having a written partnership agreement is recommended – especially if you plan on having additional business partners. By the time you realize you need an agreement, due to a dispute, it is often too late. You should have a written agreement that includes: the division of ownership; an outline of the amount of, and stipulations for, taking salaries; and how to handle any profits or losses.</span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Don't assume that the role in the personal relationship translates to the roles in a work relationship. </b>Just as you want to define the partnership agreement, it is advised that couples decide in advance the work roles within the business – which spouse is going to do what. For example, the person who balances your personal checkbook at home might not be the best one to reconcile purchase orders and inventory. And, when defining job roles, if there’s something neither is good at, delegate it to someone else!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Couples we work with find that the key to their success as both a married couple and business partners is to continually communicate their roles and how they can help each other in those roles. In that regard: </span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Standard operating procedures (SOP’S) should be agreed upon, set and followed.</b> Understanding the task expectations of each role and adhering to the agreed upon SOP’S that meet them, removes the possibility of misunderstandings with couple business owners. Even the small tasks matter: agreeing upon how receipts are filed and the books are balanced; when cash is taken to the bank and who does it; who orders food and beverages and what levels of inventory you plan to keep; and who handles staff scheduling and how are changes to the schedule made are all examples of key items to agree upon in advance.</span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Support each other and be unified. </b> Present a united front to your employees at all times. As basic as it sounds, do not bicker, fight or have large disagreements in front of your staff. Like another other business partner relationships, you will have disagreements on how to run the business. Remain professional at all times and take those arguments off-site or behind closed doors.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Even though you are spending a lot of time together in the restaurant, you still need to make time for each other. Find a way to have a night together away from the restaurant – even if you end up discussing restaurant business, being in a different environment changes the conversation. And most importantly, try not to go to bed angry. Fighting couples don’t work well together and can have a huge impact on how the business functions.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Remember why you decided to open a restaurant in the first place. You want to plan ahead to be as successful as possible, while ensuring that demands of the restaurant don’t pull apart your marriage!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Don’t know where to begin? Do you know how to put policies and procedures in place to be as successful as possible? <a href="http://www.4qconsult.com/">www.4qconsult.com</a> can develop customized operational guidelines to meet your needs. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">All original content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2015-2016. </span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Noelle E. Ifshin</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">President</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">4Q Consulting, LLC </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">244 5th Avenue, Suite 1430, NY, NY 10001 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(212) 340-1137</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09735583096311699045noreply@blogger.com0244 5th Ave #1430, New York, NY 10001, USA40.7446271 -73.98771569999996715.222592600000002 -115.29630969999997 66.2666616 -32.679121699999968tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643203444536671967.post-9651129159377779692015-12-07T13:10:00.000-08:002015-12-07T13:10:23.452-08:00Restaurant Consulting NYC | Restaurant Industry Changes to Face in 2016 | 4Q Consulting, LLC<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Restaurant Industry Changes to Face in 2016</b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As we ring in 2016, there are some big changes facing the restaurant industry.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Restaurants must prepare to face these changes in the year ahead to mitigate disruption to business operations, reduce costs and maximize customer satisfaction. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is good news on the horizon, as industry analysts point to a strong outlook for restaurants relative to the US economy for 2016. The bad news is the restaurant business isn’t getting any easier. Restaurants, which already operate on razor-thin margins, now face rising wages and commodity costs, increasing government regulations, and additional security and safety concerns. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Operators should focus on the following four items to move their business forward in 2016:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The Pressure of Rising Wages, High Employee Turnover and the Reduction in the Labor Force </b>will require operators to think strategically about their HR in relation to their overall operation. The economic shift from the customer to the employer to cover a living wage – increasing minimum wages and a move away from a tipping model – compels operators to reduce employee turnover and hold on to their best employees. We have discussed the cost of turnover before, but now more than ever restaurants cannot be a revolving door of hourly staff. The cost to onboard a new employee is too high and constant turnover can make it hard to maintain your desired level of product and service quality. Additionally, as the economy continues to recover, there are, and will continue to be, fewer qualified, skilled candidates to fill critical positions.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Technology can and should be leveraged in all aspects of your restaurant </b>from enhancing the customer experience, to managing products and staff, and even monitoring food and beverage storage and usage. The right investment in technology can help you be more flexible and nimble, which in turn allows you to manage what impacts your bottom line in a timely fashion. The right technology can enable you to change menus sooner to combat rising costs, launch and track promotions, and ensure that your reservation interface is in-line with what your customers want. Operationally, new technologies can improve scheduling to reduce labor costs, and increase table turnover to increase sales. Administratively, new technologies can help small businesses with their bookkeeping, payroll and sales tax processing. Lastly, you must stay compliant in all Federal, State and local technology regulations that keep your customers’ personal and payment information safe from data breeches – which can be a costly mistake.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Caring For and Knowing Your Customer</b> is crucial for your restaurant’s survival. According to a recent report by Morgan Stanley, Millennial’s’ dining habits are drastically different their parents’. Millennial’s eat out more often, view “Healthy” foods differently (they don’t count calories as previous generations), demand food from ethical sources, do not want traditional “Fast Food” and prefer Fast Casual Concepts. Millennial spending habits are expected to peak in the next 3-5 years to become one of the largest growing restaurant demographics in the United States. You must know who your customer is to be able to provide them what they want, to reach them in your marketing and keep them engaged.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In light of what we discussed above - the challenges in the changing labor market, maintaining razor thin margins, trying to keep up with technology – <b>Consistency must become your central goal.</b> As we discussed in <a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2013/12/restaurant-consulting-nyc-consistency.html" target="_blank">Consistency Is King</a>, “Customers should not have to spin the roulette wheel each time they visit your restaurant; they should experience the same quality of food and service every time.” When things go wrong, the first instinct is to completely change your operation. However, as discussed in <a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2014/04/restaurant-consulting-nyc-restaurants.html" target="_blank">Restaurants Know Thyself</a>, staying the course and perfecting your operations will dampen down the volatility of the challenges faced.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Modification and flexibility are critical for restaurants to survive in this day and age. However, adapting to the times does not necessarily mean an overhaul of your entire concept. An overreaction to big changes can often be an over correction! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don’t know where to begin? Do you know how to adapt to industry changes in a timely manner so you can be as profitable as possible? www.4qconsult.com can develop customized operational guidelines to meet your needs. </span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>All original
content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2015-2016. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="color: #948a54;">Noelle E. Ifshin, President, 4Q Consulting, LLC <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09735583096311699045noreply@blogger.com0244 5th Ave #1430, New York, NY 10001, USA40.7446271 -73.98771569999996715.222592600000002 -115.29630969999997 66.2666616 -32.679121699999968tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643203444536671967.post-65027853091905400112015-06-16T14:38:00.002-07:002015-06-16T17:10:59.216-07:00Restaurant Consulting NYC | Seven Deadly Restaurant Sins | 4Q Consulting, LLC<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: #943634; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Seven Deadly Restaurant Sins</span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Owning and running a successful, profitable restaurant is never easy. When you break down restaurant business concepts into their lowest common denominator, you are left with the “3 P’s” - Product, People, and Process. What is served, who serves it and how it is served should tell the customer the story of who you are and what your brand is.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Seven Deadly Restaurant Sins are behaviors that get in the way or prevent you from properly executing the “3 P’s”. The sins, if ingrained in your restaurant, can become barriers to change, growth and success. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Think of the sins as “land mines” which must be avoided in order to be successful:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Greed</b></span> – Greed can often get you into trouble as a business operator. In a free market economy an operator wants to be as profitable as possible. However, operators must also financially take care of their employees by offering them a fair wage, and their customers by providing excellent customer service and a product at a price the market will bear. We have all read about famous restauranteurs who are sued for various reasons: violating wage and hour laws; not distributing tips properly; underpaying illegal immigrant staff; price gouging tourists; adding gratuities to checks subjectively. The cost of this greed, in the form of PR headaches, legal fees and loss of business is almost always greater than the few extra dollars you can collect. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #990000;">Gluttony </span></b>– Gluttony is nearly synonymous with greed and is defined as “one given habitually to greedy and voracious [behaviors]; withholding from the needy”. In business, gluttony can be very destructive; it is not knowing when enough is enough and profiting to the detriment of others. Your business is a citizen of the community in which is exists; it is important to have a program that gives back to the community or to your employees. In larger companies, these types of programs can help attract top employee talent. For small businesses, an out-reach program does not have to be expensive - simple, easy and workable are often best. Try donating leftover food to community kitchens, or left over raw scraps to a company that makes mulch for a community garden; volunteer time for a local cause; sponsor the local little league team. Involve your employees and get ideas from them about what is important them. You will be seen as a good corporate citizen, which will pay you back in positive PR.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #990000;">Pride</span></b> – Pride is a double edged sword in the restaurant business. Pride in your product and staff can be very useful to help you stand out in a crowded field, however pride can also act as a hindrance to improving your business. Pride can prevent you from being able to: recognize when you are on the wrong track; change course in time to prevent a financial downfall; react to factors in the economy – such as rising food and commodity prices. If you always look with a critical eye, you will always find ways to improve.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #990000;">Sloth</span></b> – Sloth is defined in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary as “reluctance to work or make an effort; laziness”. Laziness in any business is the kiss of death, but especially in the restaurant industry. Once laziness sets in, standards start to slip, corners get cut and consistency of product and service becomes non-existent. The antidote to sloth is vigilance of even the smallest details. It’s the little things you decide to ignore that add up, causing your standards to decline. As we discussed in <i><a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2013/12/restaurant-consulting-nyc-consistency.html" target="_blank">Consistency is King</a></i>, “Customers should not have to spin the roulette wheel each time they visit your restaurant; they should experience the same quality of food and service every time.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Wrath</b></span> – Wrath is great anger that expresses itself in a desire to punish someone. Operators who yell, belittle and antagonize employees or customers won’t be open very long. In today’s world where anything can be posted on line and go ‘viral’ overnight, an operator must be the utmost professional and lead by example at all times. Once you have a reputation as being wrathful towards your employees, it will be very hard to recruit and keep top talent. Customers will avoid restaurants where the owner or manager has a reputation for yelling at guests. Your restaurant wouldn’t exist if not for the employees and customers, who should be treated as the valuable components of your business that they are. If something is wrong with your business, look at yourself first. The old proverb rings true here – “A fish rots from the head”.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #990000;">Envy</span></b> – Envy is a feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to another's advantages, successes, and or possessions. The sin of envy in a restaurant is to covet other restaurants, to worry about what others are doing and not to focus on running your own business. It makes you take your eye off the ball in your own operation, which in turn, can cause your downfall. Owners must focus on making their restaurants the best they can be, whatever they are – if you own a hot dog stand, make it the best hot dog stand you can without being distracted by what the owner of a five star restaurant across the street is doing (or wearing, or driving). With focus, you will be much more successful.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #990000;">Lust</span></b> – Lust in business is often seen in conjunction with envy. To lust is to crave or desire something, often what others have. It can be a lust for power, money, or material objects and, like envy, can lead to unscrupulous behaviors. Lust can lead to not reporting all your cash income, taking kickbacks from vendors, ordering personal items through the business, and not being honest with your partners and investors about the business’s finances. Besides some of these actions being illegal, these behaviors drain resources and break the trust of those who count on you, putting obstacles in the way of building the business to the level of success it could achieve.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What all these sins have in common is that falling prey to them is shortsighted and they get in the way of flawlessly executing the “3 P’s” - People, Product and Process. The restaurant business is not brain surgery! At a basic level, restaurants should be able to provide an excellent product at a fair price through superior customer service. Avoiding the Seven Deadly Restaurant Sins puts you on the path to building a sustainable, profitable, long-term business.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don’t know where to begin? Ask yourself, do you have the proper procedures and operational guidelines in place to help you be as successful as possible? 4Q Consulting can develop customized operational guidelines and training programs to meet your needs. Email us today for a free business consultation at <a href="http://www.4qconsult.com/">www.4qconsult.com</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>All original content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2015.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Noelle E. Ifshin, </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">President</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4Q Consulting, LLC <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">244 5th Avenue, Suite 1430, NY, NY 10001 </span><span style="color: #bf9000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.4qconsult.com/" target="_blank">www.4qconsult.com</a></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09735583096311699045noreply@blogger.com0244 5th Avenue #1430, New York, NY 10001, USA40.7446174 -73.98765459999998515.222582900000003 -115.29624859999998 66.2666519 -32.679060599999985tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643203444536671967.post-12716077602664480442015-02-10T06:17:00.000-08:002015-02-10T06:17:48.878-08:00Restaurant Consulting NYC | Why Cross Training and Creating Redundancy in your Restaurant Staff is Crucial to Success | 4Q Consulting, LLC<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why Cross Training and Creating Redundancy in your Restaurant Staff </span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">is Crucial to Success</span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As we discussed in <a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2013/05/restaurant-consulting-nyc-well-trained.html" target="_blank"><i>A Well Trained Staff is Your Secret Weapon</i></a>: “People run your business and your business is only as good as your people. An effective training program is an owner’s key tool to ensure consistency in product and customer service, which is a basic tenet of running a restaurant.” </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The restaurant business is a team sport which has specialists in certain positions – i.e. bartenders, servers, line cooks, etc. Each person on the team should know their role, be trained for their specific job and know how it fits into the team as a whole. However, what happens when the only manager who knows how to close calls out sick or you are under staffed and no one is cross trained? It becomes increasingly difficult to run a successful restaurant when you have no redundancy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here are four reasons why redundancy and cross-training in your restaurant staff is crucial to your business:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Better Productivity</b> – Cost and insufficient time are often cited as reasons why restaurants do not take the time to set up cross-training programs. Though it may increase your overall training costs, to train multiple people to do multiple jobs, you reap the benefit when pressed into action. Employees and managers who are properly cross-trained can increase your restaurant’s productivity because it allows you to make changes without disrupting service. We tell our clients that it is more costly, in the long run, to not cross-train your staff. The cost comes in many forms, but mostly in a work force that is not as productive as possible, resulting in having to use more staff per shift, expensive mistakes being made by untrained stand-ins and the possibility of a poor customer service experience for your guests.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Better Product Quality through Consistency</b> – As we examined in <i><a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2013/12/restaurant-consulting-nyc-consistency.html" target="_blank">Consistency is King</a>,</i> “Customers should not have to spin the roulette wheel each time they visit your restaurant; they should experience the same quality of food and service every time. It should not matter which chef or server is working on any given day, the customer experience should never be a surprise.” We have all been to a restaurant that was great one day and then only so-so the next time around. Whether the staff line-up has changed due to growing the business or people calling out sick, you must have bench strength in your ranks, this way no one can tell that the Sous Chef is cooking instead of your Executive Chef on any given night. Consistency is the key to establishing regular clientele, and regular clients are the most important customers to have. Maintaining regular clientele is a critical factor in establishing a solid reputation that will attract newcomers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Better Employee Retention</b> – There are many reasons why employees leave jobs; high on the list is becoming frustrated or bored in a job. Assuming you've done everything correctly during the on-boarding process, yet you are still having large amounts of turnover, it is time to look at what type of advancement and cross-training opportunities you provide your employees. Cross-training also helps to engage the long-time employee who feels that they are no longer learning anything and feels that the restaurant doesn't invest in furthering their knowledge. At a basic level, human beings like to feel that they are continually learning new skills and will acknowledge management’s investment in them by staying with the company.</span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Better Financial Results</b>– Improved productivity, product quality and employee retention should all lead to organic cost savings. These savings, in the long run, will offset the initial costs to cross-train all of your staff. By being able to achieve the first three “betterments” stated above, you will be able to: reduce production steps and/or mistakes; run your business leaner; make time-effective market-driven changes; focus on cultivating on-going, repeat business; and lower your recruiting and hiring costs.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You must start by setting training expectations with your management team. Often chefs and managers do not want to train their staff to do their job, for fear that they will be replaced, so they leave out crucial steps or ingredients that are key to a great product or service. They must understand that they are only as successful as those they train underneath them, and they can only grow in their careers if there is someone “on the bench” ready to go! Take your best people and encourage them to share their most developed skills: Make teaching a badge of honor for employees who achieve an elite level of competence.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By focusing on cross-training your staff and building in redundancy, you can create a place where teamwork can thrive, your employees are invested and are continually learning. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don’t know where to begin? 4Q Consulting can develop customized business and operational guidelines to help you start and run your business. Email us today for a free business consultation at www.4qconsult.com.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All original content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2014-2015.</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Noelle E. Ifshin, President, 4Q Consulting, LLC </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">244 5th Avenue, Suite 1430, NY, NY 10001</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">www.4qconsult.com</span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09735583096311699045noreply@blogger.com2244 5th Avenue #1430, New York, NY 10001, USA40.7446174 -73.98765459999998515.222582900000003 -115.29624859999998 66.2666519 -32.679060599999985tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643203444536671967.post-19365870860583673522014-12-31T06:46:00.000-08:002014-12-31T06:46:30.866-08:00Restaurant Consulting NYC | Happy New Year! | 4Q Consulting, LLC<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghn9RSaOY2iVtL8QUxHUifzChwIzXJBVtUPMGAx5sCzOOE6Ug7NvVePmpJzgwOQVj_J42CRyJSYPX8vslJBzUJvwDKhSUgc1xFAZiFe4PueHQSvNsLn4A2xN7xcWwHIGYvwdIBdSKH5Hs/s1600/NYE+Wish+2015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghn9RSaOY2iVtL8QUxHUifzChwIzXJBVtUPMGAx5sCzOOE6Ug7NvVePmpJzgwOQVj_J42CRyJSYPX8vslJBzUJvwDKhSUgc1xFAZiFe4PueHQSvNsLn4A2xN7xcWwHIGYvwdIBdSKH5Hs/s1600/NYE+Wish+2015.jpg" height="250" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Best Wishes </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #141823; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #141823; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><span style="font-size: large;">for a </span></span><span style="color: #141823; font-size: large; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Happy New Year </span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #141823; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #141823; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">filled with Health, Happiness </span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #141823; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #141823; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><span style="font-size: large;">and </span></span><span style="color: #141823; font-size: large; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Spectacular Success </span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-size: large; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #141823; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">from all of us at </span><a class="profileLink" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/page.php?id=324385734302878" href="http://www.4qconsult.com/" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; line-height: 19.3199996948242px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">4Q Consulting, LLC</a></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22.1760005950928px; text-align: start;">4Q Consulting can develop customized business and </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22.1760005950928px; text-align: start;">operational guidelines to help you start and run your business. </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22.1760005950928px; text-align: start;"> Email us today for a free business consultation at www.4qconsult.com.</span><br style="line-height: 22.1760005950928px; text-align: start;" /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22.1760005950928px; text-align: start;"><br /></span><span style="line-height: 22.1760005950928px; text-align: start;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22.1760005950928px; text-align: start;">All original content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2014-2015. </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09735583096311699045noreply@blogger.com0244 5th Avenue #1430, New York, NY 10001, USA40.7446174 -73.98765459999998515.222582900000003 -115.29624859999998 66.2666519 -32.679060599999985tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643203444536671967.post-42949747341401488012014-12-19T11:43:00.001-08:002014-12-19T11:43:01.798-08:00Restaurant Consulting NYC | Happy Holidays | 4Q Consulting, LLC<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiOQg35Tl5qX29Mvk-eECVsZgKl0BZU4XBSabtETMZn4GUrl4ALFHnqN5Msfdf8H7O_Zln2Sh3uWngr0XIEIn_RbwJ7CzuGgaPukotLHTDP-TXulE7B7IzzFTYlCM3vqee3wHWimt0s_c/s1600/4QLogoBottom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiOQg35Tl5qX29Mvk-eECVsZgKl0BZU4XBSabtETMZn4GUrl4ALFHnqN5Msfdf8H7O_Zln2Sh3uWngr0XIEIn_RbwJ7CzuGgaPukotLHTDP-TXulE7B7IzzFTYlCM3vqee3wHWimt0s_c/s1600/4QLogoBottom.jpg" height="172" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Happy Holidays and Best Wishes </span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">for a </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: x-large; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Happy New Year </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">filled with Health, Happiness </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">and </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: x-large; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Spectacular Success </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: x-large; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">from all of us at </span><a class="profileLink" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/page.php?id=324385734302878" href="http://www.4qconsult.com/" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; line-height: 19.3199996948242px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">4Q Consulting, LLC</a></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFpSWCMcFYvWbRT66YsH6_Y8fZ3CO4D7gJVPsehHQVu7IwHE0slY0E0Y8MzmGl5OxbMhuL9P3yj92O4iAOi_ti6v162bZ4p-y6NIbYB78Ra542SlMbkv8b7MXFvhop6oA5LIMLl7heGiw/s1600/sugarandspice+2014+holiday.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFpSWCMcFYvWbRT66YsH6_Y8fZ3CO4D7gJVPsehHQVu7IwHE0slY0E0Y8MzmGl5OxbMhuL9P3yj92O4iAOi_ti6v162bZ4p-y6NIbYB78Ra542SlMbkv8b7MXFvhop6oA5LIMLl7heGiw/s1600/sugarandspice+2014+holiday.jpg" height="250" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09735583096311699045noreply@blogger.com2244 5th Avenue #1430, New York, NY 10001, USA40.7446174 -73.98765459999998515.222582900000003 -115.29624859999998 66.2666519 -32.679060599999985tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643203444536671967.post-79374083254273834492014-11-05T07:22:00.001-08:002014-12-19T11:43:16.582-08:00Restaurant Consulting NYC | Between the Lines - Operational Challenges That Can Make or Break Your Restaurant | 4Q Consulting, LLC<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Between the Lines - Operational Challenges </b></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>That Can Make or Break Your Restaurant</b></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;">Today’s restaurants face many challenges: intense competition; rising cost of goods and real estate; and the slow U.S. economy - just to name a few. Restaurants average profit rates of 3-5% of sales* - thin margins by any measure. However, poor management can make those margins evaporate faster than a sauté pan of boiling water. It is no wonder that 60% of all restaurants fail within the first three years<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> **</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;">As a restaurant owner, you oversee all areas of your business. These can be separated into three basics: Finance, Sales and Marketing, and Operations. Yet with only so many hours in a day, many owners neglect the breadth of their responsibilities, and only watch their revenue. Sales and marketing is important in getting customers into your restaurant, and we covered this at length in <i><a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2013/08/restaurant-consulting-nyc-attracting.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Attracting Customers</a>.</i> However, it is what happens within your operation, between top-line sales and bottom-line profits, which makes or breaks your business.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;">Here are the 4 biggest challenges that can make or break your restaurant:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"><b>Poor Financial Controls</b> – Owners often watch their sales daily, while not watching their costs and expenses as diligently. Common sense points out that if your profit margin is zero it will always be zero, regardless of sales level, unless you change something. Restaurants should measure costs in relation to sales on a weekly basis, as discussed in both <a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2012/09/4q-consulting-llc-restaurant-consulting_21.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><i>Why a Weekly Food and Beverage Inventory is Crucial to your Small Business</i></a> and <i><a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2012/11/4q-consulting-llc-restaurant-consulting_11.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Does your Restaurant Compile a Weekly P&L Statement.</a></i> Reviewing weekly statements allows you to spot problems and make operational adjustments much sooner than waiting until the full P&L at month’s end: improper product ordering and handling, waste, cash management and employee theft can be significant drains on your business, every day. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;">As revealed in <i><a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2012/10/4q-consulting-restaurant-consulting-nyc.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">How Much of your Profits are Being Eaten by Employee Theft,</a> </i>many employees steal because they can get away with it, and few restaurants have the right controls in place to prevent it. Further, <i><a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2013/02/restaurant-consulting-nyc-measure-by.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Measure by Measure</a></i> and<i><a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2012/10/4q-consulting-llc-restaurant-consulting.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"> 4 Simple Ways Your Restaurant Employees Can Help You Be More Profitable</a> </i>showed how not controlling spoilage, waste and improper portioning can decimate your small margins. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"><b>Poor Staff Training</b> – As we stated in our Blog: <i><a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2013/05/restaurant-consulting-nyc-well-trained.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">A Well Trained Staff is Your Secret Weapon,</a></i> “People run your business and your business is only as good as your people. An effective training program is an owner’s key tool to ensure consistency in product and customer service, which is a basic tenet of running a restaurant.” This is true for all staff, at all levels. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;">With a properly trained staff you have less waste in your restaurant. A short list of why this is includes: Training mangers on proper inventory and ordering avoids excess product; stewards on proper product storage and handling avoids spoilage; cooks and bartenders on proper recipe execution and production levels maintains portion controls; and servers on proper use of the POS system minimizes incorrect orders, misfires and voids.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"><b>Poor Quality Control</b> – Quality Control is all about consistency. In our experience, consistency is best achieved by adhering to standard operating procedures that are codified in writing. As outlined in <i><a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2012/11/4q-consulting-llc-restaurant-consulting.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">4 Reasons Why Your Restaurant Needs an Employee Handbook,</a></i> recipe books, job-specific handbooks, and training manuals standardize tasks and clearly communicate to employees your expectations and the standard to which they will be held. These procedures should cover, in detail, every process in your establishment, from purchasing guidelines to how to deal with an unhappy customer. As boring and unsexy as it sounds, excellence comes from consistency, which can only come from diligence and attention to detail. If customers know what to expect every time they walk in your door, they will keep coming back.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"><b>Poor Leadership</b> – Whether it is you, as the owner, or an outside hire running your restaurant, there is a big difference between being a manager and being a leader. As discussed at length in <i><a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2013/02/restaurant-consulting-nyc-follow-leader.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Follow the Leader</a></i>, “In order to lead rather than just manage, which is vital in today’s diverse, fast-paced world, one must be able to be more than a day-to-day task master. While a manager deals with the technical dimension in an organization or the job content, a leader marshals resources, human and otherwise, for the best possible results.” Leaders communicate vision, build relationships and trust, train, coach and mentor, and encourage change and risk-taking.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;">Often, managers who come up through the ranks are not properly trained as managers and make common mistakes. In the <i><a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2012/12/restaurant-consulting-nyc-top-4.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Top 4 Mistakes Managers Make in Managing People,</a></i> we discuss how “Managers are the front line representation of your business and must effectively work with a diverse group of people. They must live and breathe your company core values and practices.”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;">Restaurant success depends on many things, but it can all boil down to one question: Where does the money go? Having a handle on your operations is a key to answering this question. Have processes and procedures to reduce economic drains, train your staff to follow them, hold them accountable and have trustworthy leaders in your organization. Additionally, you must be vigilant that your standards are upheld, and make changes as needed. It doesn’t hurt to get an outside, objective opinion from time to time as a gut check whether it is a consultant or mystery shopper</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;">Don’t know where to begin? 4Q Consulting can develop customized business and operational guidelines to help you start and run your business. Email us today for a free business consultation at www.4qconsult.com.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;">All original content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2014-2015. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.1760005950928px;"> </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09735583096311699045noreply@blogger.com1244 5th Avenue #1430, New York, NY 10001, USA40.7446537 -73.987656715.2226192 -115.2962507 66.2666882 -32.6790627tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643203444536671967.post-1884663251564592482014-07-07T10:43:00.005-07:002014-07-07T10:58:27.152-07:00Restaurant, Hospitality & Real Estate Consulting NYC | We’re Having a Heat Wave, A Tropical Heat Wave… | 4Q Consulting, LLC<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>We’re Having a Heat Wave, A Tropical Heat Wave…</b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just as Irving Berlin wrote: </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“</span><span style="color: #474747; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 30px;">We're having a heat wave,</span><span style="color: #474747; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 30px;"> </span><span style="color: #474747; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 30px;">A tropical heat wave,</span><span style="color: #474747; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 30px;"> </span><span style="color: #474747; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 30px;">The temperature's rising,</span><span style="color: #474747; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 30px;"> </span><span style="color: #474747; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 30px;">It isn't surprising,</span><span style="color: #474747; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 30px;"> </span><span style="color: #474747; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 30px;">She certainly can can-can."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #474747; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 30px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With a mini heat wave in the NYC forecast for this week restaurant owners should be prepared to take some proactive steps to keep both their guests and employees safe when the mercury rises.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here are 4 areas to focus on to keep guests and employees safe in a heat wave:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Keep People Safe – </b></span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Keep guests and workers cool, comfortable and hydrated – make sure everyone is drinking plenty of water. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Either provide both shade and air circulation or close outside seating during the hottest part of the day – to ensure the safety of both your guests and employees.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Provide water and food for your staff – Hydration is vital, but so is maintaining blood sugar levels. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Monitor staff and guests for signs of distress or heat stroke.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lighten the uniforms of the dining room staff – think about a summer weight uniform, with light colors and short sleeves. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Monitor patron’s alcohol consumption as over consumption in extreme heat can be accurately dangerous.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Maintain Your Equipment – </b> </span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Service all refrigeration and HVAC units prior to summer so they don’t breakdown in a heat wave.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Instruct your staff to keep the air conditioning at a consistent level. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Turning the AC or refrigeration units down too far will overload and freeze up your cooling system, rendering them useless. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ensure kitchens are properly ventilated and have fans. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If your ice machine is air cooled and struggling to keep up, consider purchasing cubed ice for drinking; similarly, if your refrigerators and walk-ins are struggling, consider purchasing dry ice.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Monitor Food Safety – </b></span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Monitor refrigerator and product temperatures closely and take corrective action immediately. Remember, all foods must be stored at or below 41°F. If your walk-in is above 41°F, your food is not properly stored and can be a health hazard.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To keep cold food cold – </span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Keep walk in and fridge doors closed as much as possible.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Install Air Curtains to minimize refrigeration loss when doors to walk-in refrigerators and freezers are opened</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do not overload refrigerators – if the fan unit in the fridge is blocked, this will cause poor air flow and will inhibit the unit’s cooling ability.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do not block refrigerator’s external condensing unit with debris and storage items; which would inhibit the units cooling ability.</span></li>
</ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Prepare food in small batches to reduce the amount of time food is out of refrigeration and in a very hot kitchen.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Use proper thawing and cooling techniques: do not leave food out on counters to thaw; thaw all food under running cool water (water should be below 70°F).</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Modify Menu Offerings – </b></span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Offer lighter menu items for the summer – heavy sauces, stews and roasts are can be unappealing when the mercury rises. These could include cold options such as salads, sandwiches and cold soups.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Add more small plate and appetizer options as people not only eat lighter food, but they tend to eat smaller portions when it is very hot outside.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Add frozen non-alcoholic drinks, chillers and fruit flavored waters to menus.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As Cole Porter said in song: “It’s too Darn Hot!” A few proactive easy fixes can help you get through these periodic heat waves while keeping your guests and employees safe. Also, keep these changes in mind for next year’s planning.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don’t know where to begin? Ask yourself, do you have the proper written procedures and operational guidelines in place to help you be as successful as possible? 4Q Consulting can develop customized operational guidelines and training programs to meet your needs. Email us today for a free business consultation at www.4qconsult.com.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All original content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2014-2015</span>.</span></b>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09735583096311699045noreply@blogger.com0244 5th Avenue #1430, New York, NY 10001, USA40.7446537 -73.987656715.2226192 -115.2962507 66.2666882 -32.6790627tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643203444536671967.post-49554318383835167042014-06-14T05:23:00.000-07:002014-06-17T11:51:20.044-07:00Restaurant Consulting, NYC | Why the Right Restaurant Culture is Crucial to your Success | 4Q Consulting, LLC<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Why the Right Restaurant Culture is Crucial to your Success</b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wherever people live or work together, a culture develops. This is defined as “the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that [a group of people] accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation.”<span style="font-size: xx-small;">1</span> Restaurants, like any other business, engender “Organizational Culture” – a culture specific to that group, which describes everything from its approach to customer service to the shorthand jargon that develops among members.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Your organizational culture is crucial for delivering the right impression to your customers, and your customers get a taste of what your business is all about every time they interact with your staff (see: <a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2013/04/restaurant-consulting-nyc-employees-are.html" target="_blank"><i>Employees are Your First Customers – Happy Employees Part 1)</i></a>. It is important to carefully seed and nurture a culture that defines the restaurant’s priorities, but also allows for some traits to develop organically from your staff. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In our blog <a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2012/11/4q-consulting-llc-restaurant-consulting.html" target="_blank"><i>4 Reasons Why Your Restaurant Needs an Employee Handbook</i>,</a> we discussed the handbook as a central document to your business. It is where you should define and codify the values that make up your restaurant’s culture, which are imparted to employees during on-boarding, as well as the ongoing training sessions.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here are four reasons why you need to create and promote the right culture in your restaurant:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Culture Encourages Professionalism</b> – By communicating expected behaviors, actions and values to all employees, you define what your culture is and how they participate within it while in the workplace; By encouraging those behaviors, actions and values to meet your standards (whatever they may be), you create a “Culture of Professionalism”. Managers and supervisors must reinforce the culture and lead by example, not by the philosophy of “Do as I say, not as I do", as we discussed in <a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2013/02/restaurant-consulting-nyc-follow-leader.html" target="_blank"><i>Follow the Leader</i></a>. They must live and breathe your mission and values and tend this culture of professionalism in your restaurant - complimenting positive behaviors and correcting negative ones. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Restaurants, large and small, that promote a culture of professionalism, without being stodgy, have employees with high levels of loyalty toward the company. This type of business culture increases productivity, work quality and employee retention.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Culture Reduces Employee Turnover</b> – The restaurant industry is known for its high turnover rates. Generally speaking, many food and beverage industry employees aren't looking to make a career out of tending bar, waiting tables or seating restaurant patrons. However, employees with high job satisfaction tend to remain with their employers longer, thus reducing turnover. Studies have shown that a well-defined and actively maintained company culture is associated with high job satisfaction. Businesses can lower turnover rates by fostering a culture that values open communication, provides adequate training, and rewards employees for a job well done. By retaining employees, companies save resources recruiting and training a constant flow of employees; they build a higher caliber workforce that positively affects product quality, lowers operating costs and increases the bottom line.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Culture Increases Consistency</b> – By lowering your turnover rate of employees, your increasingly experienced staff becomes a well-oiled machine that improves consistency within your operation. In <a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2013/12/restaurant-consulting-nyc-consistency.html" target="_blank"><i>Consistency is King</i></a>, we discussed that daily vigilance to the standards you set are crucial in order to ward off possible problems that can impact costs or revenues: poor communication, order errors, kitchen errors, bad customer experiences, etc. Creating a culture of “Being the Best” consistently also leads to and reinforces your “Culture of Professionalism”.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Culture Improves Your P&L</b> – As we examined in <a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2014/04/restaurant-consulting-nyc-restaurants.html" target="_blank"><i>Restaurants Know Thyself</i></a>, when your culture is defined, your restaurant has a distinct identity. A well-defined culture increases both your top-line sales and your bottom line profits. When you have less employee turnover, you have a professional, experienced staff that works well together that creates a more consistent product and less waste – which improves your operating costs. You build a repeat clientele that comes back time and again to visit their favorite server and to eat their favorite dish. A successful restaurant has return customers at the core of it business, because repeat customers will attract new business and word-of-mouth advertising is the most efficient way to grow top line sales. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Creating and nurturing the right culture in your restaurant allows you to take care of your employees who will in turn take care of your guests. As a business owner, it is your job to be sure that your team has the tools it needs: Strive to be the best boss to your staff; hire only the best employees (with the right attitude) and enable them to be awesome through excellent training, to give the best customer service; have the highest possible sanitation standards; buy only the freshest ingredients; offer the best food and the best service. Be mindful of being consistent in all these things so that customers have the same good experience time and time again.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As seen in <a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2013/04/restaurant-consulting-nyc-employees-are.html" target="_blank"><i>Employees are your First Customer</i>s</a>, happy employees are engaged, exceed expectations and become brand ambassadors for your restaurant. Your restaurant will become a business people want to work for, vendors will want to do business with and the place where many want to eat – again and again.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don’t know where to begin? Ask yourself, do you have the proper written procedures and operational guidelines in place to be as successful as possible? 4Q Consulting can develop customized branding and marketing plans, and operational guidelines to meet your needs</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Email us today for a free business consultation at www.4qconsult.com</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>All original content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2014-2015. </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">1.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><a href="https://www.tamu.edu/faculty/choudhury/culture.html">https://www.tamu.edu/faculty/choudhury/culture.html</a></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09735583096311699045noreply@blogger.com0244 5th Avenue #1430, New York, NY 10001, USA40.7446537 -73.987656715.2226192 -115.2962507 66.2666882 -32.6790627tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643203444536671967.post-14866457017938676752014-04-08T15:59:00.001-07:002014-04-08T15:59:29.333-07:00Restaurant Consulting NYC | Restaurants: Know Thyself | 4Q Consulting, LLC<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Restaurants: Know Thyself</span></b></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We have all heard the expression: “Jack of all trades, master of none” as it applies to individual people. The same expression can be applied to your restaurant. Your guests should not have to guess what you are trying to master or what your brand represents. Restaurants need to decide, well in advance of product delivery, what they stand for, what their product is and what their message will be to the public. This becomes their brand’s value proposition.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Knowing what your value proposition is early on, and making that the base on which you build, is a key to presenting a unified message of who you are. It is essential not to dilute that value proposition trying to be everything to everyone: You would not offer barbeque, no matter how good, at a fine seafood restaurant; this is why well-known restaurateurs may own several restaurants, each representing a different concept or value proposition that they wanted to create. A cohesive, singular message, as we talked about in <a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2013/12/restaurant-consulting-nyc-consistency.html" target="_blank"><i>Consistency is King</i></a>, allows your guests to understand your restaurant. If your brand message is confusing, your guests will be confused, might not return and move on to another restaurant.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here are four brand values to help guide restaurants in finding out what their message and value proposition is:</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Product Innovation</b> – A restaurant that values being a leader in product innovation tends to be on the culinary cutting edge. Your restaurant is continually seeking to push the envelope and the boundaries of food, beverage and service. Whether it is exploring molecular gastronomy, sous vide cooking, rare hybrid ingredients or a new delivery system, you and your management team are never satisfied with the status quo. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This value proposition attracts the type of customers who want to take this wild ride with you. This type of customer looks forward to your ever-changing menus and new ingredients, and likes to learn about new foods. They come to expect this constant flux, and are disappointed if this level of innovation and product exploration stops.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Operational Excellence </b>– When you think of large, fast casual chains and franchises like Chipotle and McDonald’s, you envision a restaurant that is a well-oiled machine. Being consistent at what you do, from product quality and service to cleanliness, is the core value of this type of establishment. In restaurants where operational excellence is the main value, change is deliberate, well thought out and measured. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Customers who value operational excellence expect a certain level of product and service every time, whether it is a taco at a taco stand or foie gras in a fining dining restaurant. These types of customers do not like surprises; in this type of restaurant, customers know what they’re going to get. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Customer Intimacy</b> – Customer intimacy is often found in smaller neighborhood restaurants, “joints”,
diners, or coffee shops, where the staff comes to know the customers well. In valuing customer intimacy, the restaurant can cater to customer needs and desires in a way that makes them feel special. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A server who remembers your usual order and is able to anticipate your dining needs, creates an intimacy that attracts a loyal following in customers who value this – not all customers do.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These customers anticipate food at fair prices, knowing that it may not be the best (it still needs to be good!). The draw to this type of restaurant is that it is full of familiar faces, and has accommodating service. These customers seek a comfortable experience where “everybody knows your name”.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The Sweet Spot</b> – It is a rarefied place when all of the above branding values intersect, creating </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“The Sweet Spot”. These are restaurants that have harnessed their creativity, worked out the kinks in their operation and fostered an atmosphere that is inviting. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is important that you as an owner/operator understand your own strengths and weaknesses in relation to being able to hit this mark, as poorly implementing a core value can negatively impact the one(s) you are able to do well. Many successful restaurants achieve only one or two of these brand values - this is what they become known for and what their guests love about them. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9uCrUd8kGwReIT_IpKRZ0BRgpq3bG0CyABx5UJ6iVmSDJbuH-ZW_ALtQS90zxAOY1lgVBdBtJldMndsP39p7yc7ZyW53vS3BGVy3dO_ktA2TQNqD5ru7WH24PkH_XYMARD6h01QiKQ70/s1600/The+Sweet+Spot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9uCrUd8kGwReIT_IpKRZ0BRgpq3bG0CyABx5UJ6iVmSDJbuH-ZW_ALtQS90zxAOY1lgVBdBtJldMndsP39p7yc7ZyW53vS3BGVy3dO_ktA2TQNqD5ru7WH24PkH_XYMARD6h01QiKQ70/s1600/The+Sweet+Spot.png" height="179" width="320" /></a></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Product innovation, operational excellence, customer intimacy, and even “The Sweet Spot”, can be achieved at any level, from fine dining to fast food. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When you have determined your value proposition, it should become the central tenet of your restaurant and be the basis on which you build your company culture. When everything you do is focused on your value proposition, your branding message will be clearly communicated to your customers. If your guests have to work to understand what your value proposition is, they will choose to go to another restaurant that has already figured it out.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don’t know where to begin? Ask yourself, do you have the proper branding values in place to help you be as profitable as possible? 4Q Consulting can develop customized branding and marketing plans, and operational guidelines to meet your needs. Email us today for a free business consultation at <a href="http://www.4qconsult.com/">www.4qconsult.com</a></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>All original content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2014-2015. </b></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09735583096311699045noreply@blogger.com0244 5th Avenue #1430, New York, NY 10001, USA40.7447025 -73.98785520000001315.222668000000002 -115.29644920000001 66.266737 -32.679261200000013tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643203444536671967.post-5669058714626325032014-02-26T06:28:00.001-08:002014-02-26T06:50:37.069-08:00Restaurant Consulting NYC | Location, Location, Location...| 4Q Consulting, LLC<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Location, Location, Location...</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Everyone has heard the expression: “Location, Location, Location”. A restaurant's site selection is as crucial to its success as great food and service. However, many restaurants that open in “great locations”, fail because they don’t adjust their business model to the particularities of that location. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Choosing a location involves more than picking a place and signing a lease. Your location selection will influence many parts of your business plans and operations. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is highly recommended to work with a licensed real estate broker who knows your local market as well as an attorney who specializes in real estate. They will best be able to guide you to appropriate properties, and to negotiate the best possible deal on your behalf; be patient as this process takes time. If you already have a certain location in mind, you shouldn’t become too attached until you know it meets your needs.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before you create a business plan, write a menu, or dash off to the bank to apply for a loan, here are 4 essential elements of a location to consider:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Population Base/ Demographics/ Foot Traffic</b> – There needs to be enough people who live or work in, or pass through, the area on a regular basis to keep your restaurant busy. The population base and the different types of traffic will dictate some of your operating procedures. For example, if you are in a thriving downtown commercial area, you might only open for breakfast and lunch but close for dinner, as there is not enough foot traffic to stay open. Your location, and its demographics, may influence your menu design, as well.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To analyze the population base of a particular area fully, you can commission a site study. A reputable local real estate broker or the local chamber of commerce can also provide some of this basic information. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Financial Realities</b> – Rent is usually your largest fixed expense, and you will probably have significant capital investment to prepare the space to be operational, therefore your business plan must account for covering and recuperating these expenses. In building your business plan, you will have to budget several scenarios to determine how many guests you will have to serve, at a specific check average to be profitable at a given rent; you will also need to determine if the plan is sustainable over time, to meet your financial obligations. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Buying real estate might be cheaper in the long run than renting space in major markets where rent is high. By purchasing real estate you might be able to: create a rental income stream; realize large tax deductions on your property taxes; and take deductions for your mortgage interest payments. Purchasing works well for those with investors or large capital reserves that are not needed to run the day-to-day business operations. Consult with your attorney and accountant.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Accessibility</b> – There is a reason that major restaurant chains are often located near main intersections or highway and freeway exits. Most successful restaurants, whether in urban or suburban areas, are easy to find. Your restaurant should be street-facing and not tucked away in a building or set back. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How your customers get to you is also a consideration. A parking lot, easy public or street parking, and nearby public transit all improve accessibility; alternately you might offer valet service. The bottom line is that your customers need to be able to find you, and should be able to get to you - make it easy for them!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Operational Restrictions</b> – A space that does not immediately accommodate or restricts your operational needs is not a bad space, it may in fact be a very good space; it just changes your operational and financial plans. A few examples of restrictions on property that can affect the capital investment or the targeted cash flow of your business: Many office buildings do not allow cooking in the attached retail spaces, as they do not want smells permeating the building; if they do allow it, you may have to build out proper ventilation. Ensure the space is ADA compliant, and meets local public safety codes; if it is not, you will have to alter the space to adhere to regulations. The zoning of a location is vital; some municipalities may limit sidewalk or outside seating, or may not issue liquor licenses if you are located near a school or house of worship. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Additionally, many leases contain conditions, covenants and restrictions (CC&R’s) issued by the landlord. Know what these are before signing a lease, as these CC&R’s can affect your business just as much as public zoning regulations and can cost you precious capital.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do your due diligence. By understanding each of these elements, and how they may affect your business plan, you can better choose the right location for your new restaurant.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4Q can provide restaurant site selection consulting services and works with New York’s best commercial real estate brokers to find a location that meets your every need. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don’t know where to begin? Ask yourself, do you have the proper business plan in place to help you be as profitable as possible? 4Q Consulting can develop customized business plans, and operational guidelines to meet your needs. Email us today for a free business consultation at <a href="http://www.4qconsult.com/">www.4qconsult.com</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All original content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2014-2015</span>. </b><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09735583096311699045noreply@blogger.com0244 5th Avenue #1430, New York, NY 10001, USA40.7447025 -73.98785520000001315.222668000000002 -115.29644920000001 66.266737 -32.679261200000013tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643203444536671967.post-27569600851624745332014-02-16T13:50:00.001-08:002014-02-17T08:24:32.615-08:00Restaurant Consulting NYC | The Value of An A on Your Next Health Inspection | 4Q Consulting, LLC<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The Value of an A on Your Next Health Inspection</b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many operators view the health inspection process as a burden, however it is a big part of owning and running a restaurant. Inspections tend to be broad, intrusive and include many aspects of your business. Inspections review your physical plant (i.e. plumbing, equipment and flooring); licenses, permits and paperwork; food handling including delivery, storing, cooking, holding, serving and discarding; and finally, cleanliness. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Successful operators have always spent time and money to incorporate food safety and sanitation programs into their daily operations to avoid the monetary fines, legal fees and bad public relations that can result from critical violations.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Additionally, we now live in the age of the educated consumer who has more information at their fingertips than ever before. Often in major cities there are websites and mobile apps that allow consumers to look up health inspection results before making their dining choices; not having an A grade can dissuade potential customers from visiting your restaurant.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here are 4 basic steps to institute a food safety and sanitation program in your restaurant:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Know the Code</b> – The food safety and sanitation code is set at the federal level by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is usually updated every three years. The FDA codes are then interpreted and regulations are set at the state and municipal level. These local regulations are often more strict than the federal guidelines and can change frequently. Also, local health departments tend to focus on hot-button issues such as recent Trans fat bans, ice as food and consumer allergy notifications. It is your obligation as a restaurant owner to know the most current regulations in your county or town, and remain in compliance. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Work with your Local Health Department</b> – Ignoring your local health department won’t make them go away or make your life any easier. Quite the opposite – fighting with the health department can make your life miserable. Actively work with your local health department to ensure you are in compliance from the start, which can save time and money during construction or renovation. If your local health department provides training and audit programs, take advantage of these offerings. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">During your inspections, do not be adversarial or belligerent with the inspector – they are just doing their job and following objective standards. If they cite you for a violation, fix it immediately, in front of them if possible. If you do not understand why something is a violation, ask. The inspectors should be able to give a full explanation to you and your staff as to why a certain action has the potential to make a guest sick.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Train, Train and Retrain Your Staff</b> – As we have discussed many times before, proper staff training is the key to any restaurant’s success; food safety and sanitation training is no different. While some critical violations can come from your physical plant, the vast majority of violations result from employees’ improper actions. Though it is not necessary for everyone on your staff to hold a food handler’s license, your entire team from dishwasher to bartender is responsible for food safety and sanitation in your restaurant.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A strong food safety and sanitation module during employee on-boarding is crucial to reduce behaviors that result in critical violations. Additionally, restaurants should be incorporating daily food safety and sanitation reminders into regular meetings, pre-service meetings and debriefings after every shift. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Hold Your Staff Accountable</b> - Create a culture of accountability in relation to food safety and sanitation in your restaurant. Daily checks and walk-through’s by managers keep this important issue top of mind for everyone. As unsexy as food safety and sanitation is, repetition is the only way to make changes in behavior stick. Repeatedly explaining to employees why an action or inaction can make a guest sick will eventually change their behavior and allow them to know when to take self-corrective action. Incorporating food safety and sanitation into opening and closing duties, job responsibilities and performance reviews holds everyone accountable.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Passing your health inspection with flying colors takes hard work and dedication. The return on your investment is worth every minute and penny, as we see a direct correlation between great health inspection scores and an increase in restaurant sales. Don’t let something that you can directly control be the downfall of your restaurant. The bad public relations of a health department violation or shut down, often highlighted in your local newspaper, are nearly impossible to recover from.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you are doing all of these steps, but still struggling with food safety and sanitation, consider hiring an outside consultant. A consultant can often see through the emotional drama of your business to find the root cause of your problem. Consultants can also perform regular sanitation evaluations or walk-through’s to get you ready so your inspections aren't a surprise.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don’t know where to begin? 4Q Consulting can develop customized business and operational guidelines to help you start and run your business. Email us today for a free business consultation at <a href="http://www.4qconsult.com./">www.4qconsult.com.</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>All original content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2014-2015. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Noelle E. Ifshin, President, 4Q Consulting, LLC 244 5th Avenue, Suite 1430, NY, NY 10001 </span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09735583096311699045noreply@blogger.com0244 5th Avenue #1430, New York, NY 10001, USA40.7447025 -73.98785520000001315.222668000000002 -115.29644920000001 66.266737 -32.679261200000013tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643203444536671967.post-7221017340547262952014-01-10T11:26:00.000-08:002014-02-07T07:21:55.646-08:00Restaurant Consulting NYC | The Big Chill | 4Q Consulting, LLC<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The Big Chill</b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The coldest air in almost 20 years has swept the nation this week with 90% of the country being issued freeze warnings. Combine record snow falls from Storm Hercules last week, a vicious cold snap and the Farmer’s Almanac’s 2014 forecast for a colder and snowier winter than the average, and we have a recipe for rising commodity prices now and well into the spring.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Food and commodity prices are driven by basic supply and demand and tend to be inelastic – once they rise, they are slow to fall below the increased level. This means that prices continue to go up, driving up operating costs.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These price increases can and will affect all aspects of the restaurant business, and operators must pay close attention to commodity prices and availability. Now is the time to start planning for your spring menus and pricing levels, so as not to be caught off guard. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here are 4 possible increases to watch out for:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Meat Prices</b> – According to Bloomberg, “Cattle futures reached $1.371 a pound this week, the highest since Chicago trading began in 1964.” This increase in futures pricing is due to several factors, most of which is uncertainty in yield levels at slaughter houses. In colder months, and in harsh weather, livestock need more feed to keep warm, increasing livestock farmers’ operating costs. Since livestock use more of their energy to stay warm in these conditions, they do not gain as much weight, resulting in a decrease in supply.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Dairy Prices</b> – Dairy cattle, like beef cattle, will also use more energy to stay warm and have lower weights. Lower weight dairy cattle produce less milk, which in turn lowers supply and raises prices. Additionally, the on-going debate in the US Congress over the Dairy Policy portion, of the yet-to-be passed Farm Bill, is causing more uncertainty in the dairy market. Unless a new Farm Bill is passed before March 1, 2014, the odds are dairy prices will fluctuate significantly until the un-subsidized dairy market can settle into normal supply and demand patterns.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Produce and Grain Prices</b> – A deep freeze obviously harms produce crops. Usually, these disruptions in the planting and growing seasons are contained in a few specific regions of the U.S. This week all 50 states issued an unprecedented number of freeze warnings, affecting all regions of the U.S. In Florida, the world’s second largest citrus-producing region after Brazil, this week’s freeze potentially harmed up to 15% of the citrus plants. This can have resounding impact for pricing going forward.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade climbed as much as 1.2% this week, Bloomberg reports: </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“ 'As much as 15% of winter-wheat plants in the Great Plains face damage’, as stated by Kyle Tapley, a senior agricultural meteorologist at MDA Weather Services in Gaithersburg, Maryland.” This has implications for all grain-based products well into the spring and summer months. Expect increases in raw cereals and flours and possible increases from your Bakery and Bread suppliers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Energy Prices</b> – Energy prices are on the rise due to demand and scarcity. When the temperatures drop, demand for energy increases as we turn up the thermostat, while production of gas, oil and coal slows and can even stop, driving up prices. Increased energy prices affect all other commodity prices, as it is more expensive to bring those products to market. Additionally, increased energy costs affect restaurants by increasing the costs of product delivery and fuel surcharges, heating your restaurant space, heating your hot water and using your kitchen appliances.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">During a cycle of limited energy supply and increased energy prices, farmers who grow corn may get a better price for their limited crop selling it for Ethanol production rather than feed. This in turn can drive up the price of feed and the cost of raising farm animals, pushing meat and dairy prices up, as well as cutting the supply of grain on the market with the price impact there as well . . . It is all connected.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As a business owner, you must be aware of all of the external economic forces that affect your business and be able to plan for them. As we head into this very cold and snowy winter, keeping an eye on costs and energy usage, and appropriately adjusting your menu and offerings, to maintain your quality and profitability will be a must for operators.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don’t know where to begin? 4Q Consulting can develop customized operational guidelines to help you manage your costs through all stages of your business. Email us today for a free business consultation at <a href="http://www.4qconsult.com/">www.4qconsult.com</a>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>All original content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2013-2014.</b></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09735583096311699045noreply@blogger.com1244 5th Avenue #1430, New York, NY 10001, USA40.74461 -73.98770819999998615.222575500000001 -115.29630219999999 66.2666445 -32.679114199999987tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643203444536671967.post-81317254742861380552013-12-23T05:05:00.000-08:002013-12-23T05:05:10.654-08:00Restaurant Consulting NYC | Happy Holidays! | 4Q Consulting, LLC<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" id="templateContainer" style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); color: black; text-align: left; width: 600px;"><tbody>
<tr><td align="center" style="border-collapse: collapse;" valign="top"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" id="templateHeader" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; width: 600px;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="headerContent" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #202020; font-family: Arial; font-size: 34px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 34px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;"></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-collapse: collapse; text-align: center;" valign="top"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" id="templateBody" style="text-align: center; width: 600px;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="bodyContent" style="border-collapse: collapse;" valign="top"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="text-align: center; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr mc:hideable="hideable_repeat_1_1" mc:repeatable="repeat_1" mc:repeatindex="0" mchideable="hideable_repeat_1_1"><td style="border-collapse: collapse;" valign="top"><table border="0" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" style="text-align: center; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="border-collapse: collapse;" valign="top"><div style="color: #505050; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">
</div>
<div style="color: #505050; font-family: Arial; line-height: 21px;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbifo1mcrvxZAUoFa8PtJYxbbRaO_Qsmp2B5_y_Ps7fV9Tsm3dObcQ880FgnMaO4m7RBmEe-AbxHQomoj1QX-zsc7Kn1SW06fhyphenhyphenDeLo4f3cempO9i6vzPCCqSnUgYaDuDZuPrb4Hvk4Rc/s1600/4QLogoBottom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbifo1mcrvxZAUoFa8PtJYxbbRaO_Qsmp2B5_y_Ps7fV9Tsm3dObcQ880FgnMaO4m7RBmEe-AbxHQomoj1QX-zsc7Kn1SW06fhyphenhyphenDeLo4f3cempO9i6vzPCCqSnUgYaDuDZuPrb4Hvk4Rc/s1600/4QLogoBottom.jpg" height="172" width="320" /></a></div>
<h1 class="h1" style="color: #202020; line-height: 34px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, baskerville, georgia, serif;"><em><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></em></span></h1>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf2vgqj2SupMPgVEtP9Upn6nD8V0zH8uE6fiaW7UwFE5oJ3Sa__6OPE1aBrkxEIBqQXUgpxHs234EiReK-dPS7FmjgL2EQe_DTodeDqaRWSJT9wDDUSYXRd891PW42ywX-cEPDkZpKt5M/s1600/sugarandspice4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf2vgqj2SupMPgVEtP9Upn6nD8V0zH8uE6fiaW7UwFE5oJ3Sa__6OPE1aBrkxEIBqQXUgpxHs234EiReK-dPS7FmjgL2EQe_DTodeDqaRWSJT9wDDUSYXRd891PW42ywX-cEPDkZpKt5M/s1600/sugarandspice4.jpg" height="200" width="320" /></a></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, baskerville, georgia, serif;"><em><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></em></span></div>
<h1 class="h1" style="color: #202020; line-height: 34px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, baskerville, georgia, serif;"><em><span style="font-size: large;">Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for </span></em></span></h1>
<h1 class="h1" style="color: #202020; line-height: 34px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, baskerville, georgia, serif;"><em><span style="font-size: large;">a New Year filled with </span></em></span></h1>
<h1 class="h1" style="color: #202020; line-height: 34px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, baskerville, georgia, serif;"><em><span style="font-size: large;">Health, Peace and Spectacular Success </span></em></span></h1>
</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
<tr><td align="center" style="border-collapse: collapse;" valign="top"><table border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" id="templateFooter" style="border-top-width: 0px; text-align: left; width: 600px;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="footerContent" style="border-collapse: collapse;" valign="top"><table border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" style="text-align: left; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr><td colspan="2" id="social" style="background-color: #fafafa; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px;" valign="middle"><div style="color: #707070; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.twitter.com/4QConsultingLLC/" style="color: #336699;" target="_blank">follow on Twitter</a> | <a href="https://www.facebook.com/4QConsultingLLC" style="color: #336699;" target="_blank">friend on Facebook</a> |<a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/" style="color: #336699;" target="_self"> </a><a href="http://us3.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=cc7563dc48426bf30ebaf4e56&id=c6793d58de&e=[UNIQID]" style="color: #336699;">f</a><a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/" style="color: #336699;" target="_blank">ollow our Blog</a></div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-collapse: collapse;" valign="top" width="350"><div style="color: #707070; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">
<br />
<span style="font-size: 18px;">Noelle E. Ifshin<br />President</span><br />
<br />
<em><img align="none" height="61" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/cc7563dc48426bf30ebaf4e56/images/4QLogoSide.1.1.1.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: inline; height: 61px; line-height: 12px; outline: none; width: 200px;" width="200" /><br />Copyright © 2013-2014 4Q Consulting, LLC, All rights reserved.</em><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong>Our mailing address is:</strong><br />
<div class="vcard">
<span class="org fn">4Q Consulting, LLC</span><br />
<div class="adr">
<div class="street-address">
244 5th Avenue, Suite 1430</div>
<span class="locality">New York</span>, <span class="region">NY</span> <span class="postal-code">10001</span></div>
<br />
<a class="hcard-download" href="http://4qconsult.us3.list-manage.com/vcard?u=cc7563dc48426bf30ebaf4e56&id=e20ce4fd4a" style="color: #336699;">Add us to your address book</a></div>
</div>
</td><td id="monkeyRewards" style="border-collapse: collapse;" valign="top" width="190"><div style="color: #707070; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">
</div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2" id="utility" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px;" valign="middle"><div style="color: #707070; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09735583096311699045noreply@blogger.com0244 5th Avenue #1430, New York, NY 10001, USA40.74461 -73.98770819999998615.222575500000001 -115.29630219999999 66.2666445 -32.679114199999987tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643203444536671967.post-84468824516624284622013-12-16T06:35:00.001-08:002013-12-16T06:35:40.594-08:00Restaurant Consulting NYC | Consistency is King | 4Q Consulting, LLC<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Consistency is King </b></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Customers should not have to spin the roulette wheel each time they visit your restaurant; they should experience the same quality of food and service every time. It should not matter which chef or server is working on any given day, the customer experience should never be a surprise. It is one of the reasons McDonald’s is the number one restaurant in the world – you know what you’re going to get whether in New York, Los Angeles or Chicago.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Consistency is the key to establishing regular clientele, and regular clients are the most important customers to have. Maintaining regular clientele is a critical factor in establishing a solid reputation that will attract newcomers. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Assuming you have hired the right employees and trained them properly, here are 4 points to focus on to ensure consistency:</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Consistent Messaging</b> - Your food isn't the only thing you provide your guests; you also give them an experience. A lack of consistent messaging can turn customers off and stop them from coming back. Your brand’s message has to extend to every single aspect of your restaurant, from the persona of your servers, uniforms, type of music playing in the dining room to the logo on your napkins. Also, all of your advertising, marketing and social media campaigns must be aligned to accurately depict what your restaurant is. Customers trust you to deliver on your promise and they want to know what to expect.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Consistent Food</b> – Beyond reducing waste, as referenced in Measure by Measure, consistency produces the same appetizer, entrée and cocktail every time. For this reason, written recipes and standardized kitchen and bar procedures are essential. You want your signature Salmon entrée to taste the same on Monday night as it does on Friday night. Additionally, establishing correct production levels ensures menu items are available when your guests want them.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Consistent Service</b> - Whether you are fine dining, casual table service, or a neighborhood dive bar, guests have certain expectations as to the service they want to receive. How guests are greeted at the door and at the table, when and how their orders are taken, how they are served and treated, are all essential “Steps of Service”. By having these service steps codified, and adhered to, in conjunction with your brand image, ensures a uniform delivery of your product. Great service is achieved by knowing the basic steps of service that guests expect and being able to repeat them time and time again.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Consistent Vigilance</b> – You and your manager’s daily vigilance to the standards you set are crucial in order to ward off possible problems. This can be done by getting ahead of any potential issues through proper planning, training, and constant communication. All employees must know their roles, how to execute them and what to do should they run into problems. As discussed in our previous Blog, Are Your Pre-Service Meetings a Waste of Time?, pre service meetings are the appropriate time to reinforce your expectations and standards with your staff. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As an owner, you should know what’s really going on in your restaurant from the guests’ point of view. Consider using trained mystery shoppers from firms specializing in this service, or recruit your own shopper from your pool of friends, acquaintances and even regular customers. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Monitor and engage in on line review and social media sites, such as Yelp, Trip Advisor and Facebook to see what your guests are saying about you. These observations can serve as a way to identify where improvements need to be made and can be used to retrain, tweak and change as needed.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Great dining experiences can be easily cancelled out by one bad experience and one bad experience will cause a customer serious hesitation when deciding whether or not to return to an establishment. You have thoughtfully created a product and image for your restaurant. It is imperative that you preserve that identity. Consistently providing the same quality product can determine the success or failure of your restaurant. This does not mean that your product must be high end or gourmet; it just has to be the same product day in and day out.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don’t know where to begin? 4Q Consulting can develop customized business and operational guidelines to help you start and run your business. Email us today for a free business consultation at www.4qconsult.com.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All original content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2013-2014. </span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09735583096311699045noreply@blogger.com0244 5th Avenue #1430, New York, NY 10001, USA40.74461 -73.98770819999998615.222575500000001 -115.29630219999999 66.2666445 -32.679114199999987tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643203444536671967.post-87210152542849144762013-12-03T10:24:00.000-08:002014-01-10T11:26:38.765-08:00Restaurant Consulting, NYC | Harassment – It’s Not Just For Supervisors Anymore! | 4Q Consulting, LLC<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Harassment – It’s Not Just For Supervisors Anymore!</b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From time immemorial, the restaurateur has held to the adage that the customer is always right. But what if the customer is wrong by grossly misbehaving toward your employees? Employees always have to be polite and helpful to customers, but they don’t have to tolerate unwelcome flirtation, verbal abuse or physical injury. Most business owners are familiar with the idea of eliminating harassment between supervisors and subordinates in the workplace; however, it is important to protect your employees from harassment in all its forms, which can come from anyone with whom they interact while performing their work duties. In a restaurant setting, once you throw alcohol into the mix with harassing customers, difficult situations can escalate quickly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Deciding when a particular customer’s behavior crosses the line and makes for a hostile work environment may be a judgment call; however: "Once an employer is put on notice that any of its employees are being subjected to sexual harassment, it must take prompt corrective action to stop it," according to Lynette A. Barnes, regional attorney of the EEOC's Charlotte District Office, whose jurisdiction includes the state of Virginia. "This is true regardless of whether the harasser is a co-worker, there [sic] supervisor or a third party.”<span style="font-size: xx-small;">1</span> Ms. Barnes made this comment summarizing the 2012 ruling of EEOC v. Southwest Virginia Community Health System, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which awarded $30,000 to a receptionist who complained of sexual harassment by a patient.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Other EEOC lawsuits have been decided that all forms of harassment (sex, race, religion, sexual orientation, etc.) in the workplace can be committed not just by supervisors and coworkers, but by third parties such as customers, vendors, delivery people, or repair workers, and the employer can be held liable. Harassment can even happen outside the workplace while work duties are being performed – think about your delivery people.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These lawsuits can be costly to defend and the awarded damages can be a huge financial burden, enough to put you out of business.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here are 4 ways to keep your employees safe from the threat of third party harassment and protect you from lawsuits:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Formal Written Policy</b> – As discussed in <a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2012/11/4q-consulting-llc-restaurant-consulting.html" target="_blank">4 Reasons Why Your Restaurant Needs an Employee Handbook</a>, “having a well written manual in place can protect your business from potential labor disputes and costly legal fees, which can destroy your business.” Your manual must have a section that addresses harassment, both within the organization and from third parties, and how to deal with it. It must include clear guidelines outlining: how an employee can escalate a situation to a manager, supervisor and/or the owner; what steps will be take once a complaint is made; and a non-retaliation clause.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Train Employees on How to Handle Situation</b> – Once you have a written policy, this policy must be included in your employee training for all positions. Train your staff on how to stay safe from aggressive or harassing customers. Often situations get out of control quickly and your staff must be able to remain calm throughout. Have safety systems and protocols in place should these situations escalate. Additionally, your managers and supervisors need a higher level of training than your front-line staff to be able to deal with these types of complaints. Managers should be sensitive to situations that they can diffuse before they become reportable problems, or aware of situations that employees do not report.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Safety Systems and Protocols Protecting Employees</b> – Have safety systems and protocols in place should these situations escalate. Regardless of how management learns about the harassment, you should immediately re-assign an upset employee, so as not to have to deal with or talk to a particular offending individual. Then the manager must address this with the offending person. This can be a difficult conversation, but no customer, vendor or repair person is more important than the legal rights of your employees. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Consider these additional steps: having an employee buddy system for closing, so no one person closes alone late at night; putting notification of unacceptable employee behavior on your website, on POS computer ‘pop up’ messages; and including a term in all contracts with third party vendors and service suppliers notifying them of your policy on harassment and requiring them to adhere to it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Remove or Ban the Individual from your Establishment</b> - If the behavior doesn't stop, the owner or manager needs to take such action as removing and possibly banning a customer, vendor or repair person from the restaurant. Many Restaurant owners do not want to take such a drastic step and lose a customer, but the cost of losing a customer is much less than the cost of an EEOC lawsuit.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Like many other issues we have addressed in our blogs, the keys to protecting your employees are: training, communication and vigilance. It is important that your employees can feel safe in reporting a situation to management and know that you and your team “have their back”. Keeping a comfortable work environment allows your employees to do their best, provide the best service and keep your customers happy. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The people whom you hire can be your biggest asset. It is easy to forget that <u><a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2013/04/restaurant-consulting-nyc-employees-are.html" target="_blank">Employees are Your First Customers</a></u>, if you do not take care of their well-being, they will not be beneficial to your business.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don’t know where to begin? 4Q Consulting can develop customized business and operational guidelines to help you start and run your business. Email us today for a free business consultation at www.4qconsult.com.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Footnotes:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">1. </span><a href="http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/9-6-12b.cfm" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/9-6-12b.cfm</span></span></a><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>All original content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2013-2014. </b></span><br />
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09735583096311699045noreply@blogger.com1244 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA40.74461 -73.98770819999998615.222575500000001 -115.29630219999999 66.2666445 -32.679114199999987tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643203444536671967.post-40893672203702266142013-11-13T09:03:00.000-08:002013-11-13T09:40:17.698-08:00Restaurant Consulting NYC | Between the Lines - Operational Challenges That Can Make or Break Your Restaurant | 4Q Consulting, LLC<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Between the Lines - Operational Challenges </b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>That Can Make or Break Your Restaurant</b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today’s restaurants face many challenges: intense competition; rising cost of goods and real estate; and the slow U.S. economy - just to name a few. Restaurants average profit rates of 3-5% of sales* - thin margins by any measure. However, poor management can make those margins evaporate faster than a sauté pan of boiling water. It is no wonder that 60% of all restaurants fail within the first three years<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> **</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As a restaurant owner, you oversee all areas of your business. These can be separated into three basics: Finance, Sales and Marketing, and Operations. Yet with only so many hours in a day, many owners neglect the breadth of their responsibilities, and only watch their revenue. Sales and marketing is important in getting customers into your restaurant, and we covered this at length in <i><a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2013/08/restaurant-consulting-nyc-attracting.html" target="_blank">Attracting Customers</a>.</i> However, it is what happens within your operation, between top-line sales and bottom-line profits, which makes or breaks your business.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here are the 4 biggest challenges that can make or break your restaurant:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Poor Financial Controls</b> – Owners often watch their sales daily, while not watching their costs and expenses as diligently. Common sense points out that if your profit margin is zero it will always be zero, regardless of sales level, unless you change something. Restaurants should measure costs in relation to sales on a weekly basis, as discussed in both <a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2012/09/4q-consulting-llc-restaurant-consulting_21.html" target="_blank"><i>Why a Weekly Food and Beverage Inventory is Crucial to your Small Business</i></a> and <i><a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2012/11/4q-consulting-llc-restaurant-consulting_11.html" target="_blank">Does your Restaurant Compile a Weekly P&L Statement.</a></i> Reviewing weekly statements allows you to spot problems and make operational adjustments much sooner than waiting until the full P&L at month’s end: improper product ordering and handling, waste, cash management and employee theft can be significant drains on your business, every day. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As revealed in <i><a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2012/10/4q-consulting-restaurant-consulting-nyc.html" target="_blank">How Much of your Profits are Being Eaten by Employee Theft,</a></i> many employees steal because they can get away with it, and few restaurants have the right controls in place to prevent it. Further, <i><a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2013/02/restaurant-consulting-nyc-measure-by.html" target="_blank">Measure by Measure</a></i> and<i><a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2012/10/4q-consulting-llc-restaurant-consulting.html" target="_blank"> 4 Simple Ways Your Restaurant Employees Can Help You Be More Profitable</a></i> showed how not controlling spoilage, waste and improper portioning can decimate your small margins. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Poor Staff Training</b> – As we stated in our Blog: <i><a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2013/05/restaurant-consulting-nyc-well-trained.html" target="_blank">A Well Trained Staff is Your Secret Weapon,</a></i> “People run your business and your business is only as good as your people. An effective training program is an owner’s key tool to ensure consistency in product and customer service, which is a basic tenet of running a restaurant.” This is true for all staff, at all levels. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With a properly trained staff you have less waste in your restaurant. A short list of why this is includes: Training mangers on proper inventory and ordering avoids excess product; stewards on proper product storage and handling avoids spoilage; cooks and bartenders on proper recipe execution and production levels maintains portion controls; and servers on proper use of the POS system minimizes incorrect orders, misfires and voids.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Poor Quality Control</b> – Quality Control is all about consistency. In our experience, consistency is best achieved by adhering to standard operating procedures that are codified in writing. As outlined in <i><a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2012/11/4q-consulting-llc-restaurant-consulting.html" target="_blank">4 Reasons Why Your Restaurant Needs an Employee Handbook,</a></i> recipe books, job-specific handbooks, and training manuals standardize tasks and clearly communicate to employees your expectations and the standard to which they will be held. These procedures should cover, in detail, every process in your establishment, from purchasing guidelines to how to deal with an unhappy customer. As boring and unsexy as it sounds, excellence comes from consistency, which can only come from diligence and attention to detail. If customers know what to expect every time they walk in your door, they will keep coming back.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Poor Leadership</b> – Whether it is you, as the owner, or an outside hire running your restaurant, there is a big difference between being a manager and being a leader. As discussed at length in <i><a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2013/02/restaurant-consulting-nyc-follow-leader.html" target="_blank">Follow the Leader</a></i>, “In order to lead rather than just manage, which is vital in today’s diverse, fast-paced world, one must be able to be more than a day-to-day task master. While a manager deals with the technical dimension in an organization or the job content, a leader marshals resources, human and otherwise, for the best possible results.” Leaders communicate vision, build relationships and trust, train, coach and mentor, and encourage change and risk-taking.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Often, managers who come up through the ranks are not properly trained as managers and make common mistakes. In the <i><a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2012/12/restaurant-consulting-nyc-top-4.html" target="_blank">Top 4 Mistakes Managers Make in Managing People,</a></i> we discuss how “Managers are the front line representation of your business and must effectively work with a diverse group of people. They must live and breathe your company core values and practices.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Restaurant success depends on many things, but it can all boil down to one question: Where does the money go? Having a handle on your operations is a key to answering this question. Have processes and procedures to reduce economic drains, train your staff to follow them, hold them accountable and have trustworthy leaders in your organization. Additionally, you must be vigilant that your standards are upheld, and make changes as needed. It doesn’t hurt to get an outside, objective opinion from time to time as a gut check whether it is a consultant or mystery shopper</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don’t know where to begin? 4Q Consulting can develop customized business and operational guidelines to help you start and run your business. Email us today for a free business consultation at www.4qconsult.com.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All original content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2013-2014. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Footnotes:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">*<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>2005 Cornell Hotel and Administration Quarterly, <a href="http://cqx.sagepub.com/content/by/year">http://cqx.sagepub.com/content/by/year</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">**<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>NRA’s Restaurant Industry Operations Report 2013</span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09735583096311699045noreply@blogger.com0244 5th Avenue #1430, New York, NY 10001, USA40.74461 -73.98770819999998615.222575500000001 -115.29630219999999 66.2666445 -32.679114199999987tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643203444536671967.post-34486276560666723212013-10-29T05:58:00.000-07:002013-11-06T07:28:56.087-08:00Restaurant Consulting NYC | The Family Owned Restaurant | 4Q Consulting, LLC<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The Family Owned Restaurant</b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Family businesses are the bedrock of the U.S. economy. <i>“Family owned businesses contribute 57% of the U.S. GDP, employ 63% of the U.S. workforce (FEUSA, 2011), and are responsible for 78% of all new U.S. job creation. (Astrachan & Shanker, 2003).”</i> * Business schools have entire courses dedicated to examining the dynamics of family businesses. According to Rocki-Lee DeWitt, Professor of Management at the University of Vermont’s School of Business Administration:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <i> “When family and business are ingredients in a restaurant </i></span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> business,</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">be ready for some tasty treats and momentous</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> flops. The family must </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ask themselves ‘What would this </span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> business look like, and how would it </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">run, if my family wasn't </span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i> involved in the business?’'"</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Psychologically, families tend to be driven by a deep concern for both the well-being of individual family members and the family legacy. When a family works together, normal family goals may come into conflict with the economic goals of the business. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With proper planning, many of these challenges and conflicts can be avoided. Here are four “must-haves” if you are considering owning or currently running a family-owned restaurant:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Have a Written Partnership Agreement</b> – Many families assume they do not need to formalize their partnerships with family members. By the time they realize they need an agreement, due to a dispute, it is often too late. You must have a written agreement that should include: the division on ownership; an outline of the amount of, and stipulations for, taking salaries; and how to handle any profits or losses. Additionally, and possibly most importantly, family partnerships must have defined job roles – who is going to do what? Just as a corporation would have specific written job descriptions and job roles for executives, so should a family-run restaurant. Do not assume how the responsibilities and work load will be divided up. If you are formally registering your company as an LLC, a Corporation or a Partnership, some of these factors will impact how you structure your business.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Have Written Standardized Procedures and Strict Internal Controls</b> – The challenge of any family owned business is how not to run it as the family unit. Standard operating procedures (SOP’s) should be followed by all employees, whether or not they are family members. Having written manuals outlining SOP’s for all procedures in the restaurant, ensures that all employees are held to the same standard. For example, the owners or family members should not be doing their personal grocery shopping intertwined with the restaurant’s food ordering.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Furthermore, if a family member has always been great with money, you still need internal cash controls in place. Ensure that your policies and procedures are just as stringent as they would be if an outsider was doing the work, and have your cash and internal controls reviewed by your CPA.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Have a Higher Level of Professionalism</b> – Just as family members must be held to standardized procedures, at minimum, in their duties, they must be held to a level of professionalism to keep personal matters out of the business. Family members typically have insight into each other's personality and thought process that non-related business partners wouldn't have, making crossing the professional line into personal terrain tempting. While lashing out at a co-worker would not be acceptable in most corporate positions, it's easier to lose your cool when there's a personal relationship involved. I hear from many of my clients in family-owned restaurants “you say things to your relatives that you wouldn't say to anyone else, or you would land in court". Leave your emotions at the door and remember your family members are your co-workers when you're at the office.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Have a Succession Plan</b> – A comprehensive written succession plan is crucial for all businesses, especially family-owned restaurants, to avoid disputes and misunderstandings. First and foremost, have a plan should one of the partners or family executives decide to leave the business: how will their role be covered and how will ownership be re-allocated? Consider including estate planning in your partnership agreement for an older partner to protect the family and restaurant from estate taxes and probate costs. Further, don’t assume younger generations will want to come into the business or that they will know how to run it when they do; start grooming your successor several years before you plan to retire. Lastly, if no family member wants to run the business and you don't want to bring in an outsider, start to put together a detailed plan, sooner rather than later, to sell or merge.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whether a restaurant is family-owned and operated, it is still a business and must be set up properly with clear, well-defined goals and objectives and be operated with the same standardized procedures as any other business.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don’t know where to begin? 4Q Consulting can develop customized business and operational guidelines to help you start and run your business. Email us today for a free business consultation at www.4qconsult.com.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Footnote:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">* University of Vermont School of Business Administration, Family Business Facts <a href="http://www.uvm.edu/business/vfbi/?Page=facts.html" target="_blank">http://www.uvm.edu/business/vfbi/?Page=facts.html</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>All original content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2012-2013.</b> </span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09735583096311699045noreply@blogger.com0244 5th Avenue #1430, New York, NY 10001, USA40.74461 -73.98770819999998615.222575500000001 -115.29630219999999 66.2666445 -32.679114199999987tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643203444536671967.post-63858708825158715292013-10-14T07:53:00.001-07:002013-10-14T07:55:03.305-07:00Restaurant Consulting NYC | Seasonal Restaurants - Preparing for the Off Season, Part Two - Marketing | 4Q Consulting, LLC<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Seasonal Restaurants - Preparing for the Off Season</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> Part Two </b></span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Marketing</b></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In our last Blog: <a href="http://4qconsult.blogspot.com/2013/09/restaurant-consulting-nyc-seasonal.html" target="_blank">Seasonal Restaurants - Preparing for the Off Season, Part One</a>, we looked at what businesses can do, focusing on their operations, to survive through their off season. Just as seasonal businesses need a long-term plan for their year-round operations, so do they for their marketing. Beyond marketing to the local client base, as we discussed, the off season is valuable time to market to in-season customers as well.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whether you own a seasonal clam shack on the shores of New England or are the General Manager of a ski resort in Colorado, you have experienced the challenges of a seasonal business. The old adage “out of sight, out of mind” is the scourge of your year-round marketing: though you are out of sight you want to stay on their minds.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here are four things you should be doing to keep your business on people's minds year round:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Grow Customer Database</b> – A robust database of customer contact information is an important tool in marketing. Capture guests’ information in the height of the busy season, when you have the most foot traffic. Getting a strong list of past customers and people who've expressed interest in your business will enable you to maintain contact and stay top-of-mind during the off season, as well as convert new leads into customers during for next season.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Further, Open Table or other cloud-based reservation systems are great tools to grow your database, while driving foot traffic to your restaurant. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Call to Action</b> – Use calls-to-action (CTA’s) on your website and in your social media that reward customers for interacting with you. This serves two purposes: collection of customer data and creation of content. For example, offer a free glass of wine on their next visit to customers who subscribe to an email list or blog, or a free t-shirt to customers who write a review on a linked site. Even when you are closed for the season, new reviews are a way to get your seasonal guests thinking about you and elicit feelings of nostalgia for your restaurant during the off-season. This new content can easily be leveraged in your off-season email marketing, website, and social media updates, making customers eager to return.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Stay Social</b> – As mentioned above, out of sight is out of mind. You want your customers and tourists thinking about your restaurant even after they have left town, or to know about you before they arrive. Consider social media your virtual, year-round storefront. Even if your customers or potential customers aren't in your seaside town or visiting your website, you can reach them through social media. Posting consistently to all of your social media feeds such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest, is a great way to offer special discounts, gather and publish reviews and testimonials, share new content, run contests and polls, and generate hype for the next season.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Generate Hype</b> – Generating excitement for your business throughout the year is a great way to stay top-of-mind for your guests. If you are a seaside restaurant, why not engage in the dead of winter when it is 5°F outside? Content showing a beautiful beach and ocean, with an offer for holiday gift certificates, is a great way to have your customers daydreaming about the excellent times they had in your restaurant. If your content plays upon the nostalgia of good times and the excitement of things to come, you'll have an audience engaged in planning for when they can enjoy your restaurant again.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Maintaining a seasonal business has unique challenges beyond those faced by other restaurants and food service operations. By properly planning a year-round marketing calendar, you will be well positioned for the next busy season, with customers anticipating their return to their favorite restaurant.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don’t know where to begin? 4Q Consulting can develop customized operational and marketing guidelines to help you grow your business. Email us today for a free business consultation at www.4qconsult.com.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>All original content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2012-2013. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Noelle E. Ifshin, President, 4Q Consulting, LLC </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">244 5th Avenue, Suite 1430, NY, NY 10001 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="mailto:noelle@4qconsult.com" target="_blank">noelle@4qconsult.com</a></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09735583096311699045noreply@blogger.com0244 5th Avenue #1430, New York, NY 10001, USA40.74461 -73.98770819999998615.222575500000001 -115.29630219999999 66.2666445 -32.679114199999987