Metrics are quantitative assessments used for assessing, comparing, and tracking performance or production. There are specific metrics to measure the overall health of your restaurant. Unfortunately, most restaurant owners do not have the expertise, time, or tools to check on parameters. They simply look at the bank account balance as one of the key metrics to determine the health of the restaurant.
Cost of goods sold (COGS)
Your COGS lets you know how much it costs to make each of the food and drink items you have on your menu. This is the biggest expenses for any restaurant, and most ethnic restaurant owners do not understand this metric.
Overhead
Overhead expenses consists of those fixed costs that typically don’t change from one month to the next (rent, accounting, utilities, etc..)
Restaurant revenue
Ethnic restaurant owner improves restaurant profit margin by cost-cutting. They do not understand or trust themselves to market to customers to increase sales. This is a struggle that I have with my restaurant clients for the last 15 years, although they are aware that they don’t have firm control over, such as labor, COGS, or overhead. EHLAI created “The Last Black Box” to automate and use machine learning to increase sales and control expenses.
POS is only a small part of the technology
While the POS system is suitable for accepting customer payments, restaurant owners don’t make optimal use of the POS to keep track of employee performance, manage inventory, and get business insights.
Smart calendar
Smart calendar software can help manage staff schedules, to control and reduce labor costs as well as make sure that the business is adequately staffed during your peak times.
Online ordering
Before COVID, statistics show that 60% of U.S. consumers are ordering takeout or delivery at least once a week.[1] By have an online ordering for delivery and/or takeout, is a great way to increase sales. Coming soon a blog on 3rd party ordering and why you should have your own.
Menu engineering
Items placement on the menu should include those that are profitable and those that are high sellers. You need to review this at least once a quarter. You need to replace items that aren’t selling with new items and testing them out to see how they do. Check out my blog on menu engineering.
Social media
You should consider setting up and managing social media accounts to increase local awareness that your restaurant is open for business. Customers will help you promote and bragg about their dining experience on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. This is user-generated content for your business and it comes at a minimal cost.
[1] https://upserve.com/restaurant-insider/online-ordering-statistics/