MARKETING: 6 Branding Tips for a Competitive Market
Branding is a restaurant’s best weapon to fight off the competition. What you sell, where you sell, who sells it for you, etc., are all question that needs to be answered with thoughtful consideration. This is the responsibility of your marketing strategy to create a memorable brand that will get guests coming back to your restaurant. Let’s take a look what the aspects of restaurant branding you should think about.
DID YOU KNOWS…
The Rent’s Too Damn High
The report focuses on a central statistic, the Housing Wage, which is an estimate of the hourly wage a full-time worker must earn to afford a rental home without spending more than 30% of his or her income on housing costs. A worker earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour would have to work nearly 127 hours per week – equivalent to more than three full-time jobs – to afford the two-bedroom option. As this infographic shows, the problem isn’t just confined to workers on the minimum wage. Restaurant employees – serving staff and food prep workers – are well below even the one-bedroom housing cost line.
Who Has Qualified for the First DNC Debates?
For a crowded field, the opportunity to be broadcasted nationally is a must, particularly for some of the less well-known candidates. To qualify for the first two debates, candidates must meet either a polling or grass-root fundraising criteria. The qualifications for the third and fourth round of debates are more stringent than the first two rounds, with candidates needing to hit both polling and fundraising benchmarks to qualify. Here’s who made the first round of DNC debates.
What’s the Difference Between Tempeh, Seitan, and Tofu?
Meat-alternatives are all the rage, especially “meatless meat.” But let’s not forget the vegetarian and vegan classic substitutes – tempeh, seitan, and tofu. But do you know the difference between these three plant-based proteins? Thrillist dives in to give you the 411.
YOU ONLY MAKE HOW MUCH?
Why it matters to you: Being a restaurant owner isn’t as lucrative as the world believes.
Popular belief holds that restaurant owners make tons of money. Unfortunately, that doesn’t square with the facts. In my own experience, the first restaurant I owned NEVER delivered me a single paycheck. The factors that dictated that weren’t exotic and most owners will tell you they have had to skip a paycheck at some point to makes sure others didn’t. As it turns out, there are some metrics we can review to see what the average restaurant owner earns and, frankly, it ain’t pretty. The average salary as calculated by three wage tracking sites is $80k annually. While that’s a decent salary it certainly doesn’t justify the notion that restaurant owners are rolling in the dough (pun intended).
To make matters worse, as a restaurant owner, there are the aforementioned missed paychecks accompanied by the cost of taking as minute away from your business. Determining what your salary should be can be an exercise in frustration and completely inconsistent. Faced with the numbers, it’s hard to argue that restaurant ownership is a path to financial security. Of course, if your place is high volume or you have multiple units, the path to financial success is far easier to follow. Let’s face it, everyone gets paid before the owner and often times much more as well. So, if you are ready for unpredictable income, no time off without great expense, and to see everyone profit before you, then you are ready to join the ranks of the restaurant owner -- just sayin’.
[Source: Toast POS]
SLIP SLIDING AWAY [Song]
Why it matters to you: Avoiding injuries at work is a primary role of restaurant managers.
In 2016-17, there were 609,000 injuries that caused a staff person to miss at least one day of work. If we assign a dollar loss value of an injury worthy of missed work, the number rises into the billions of dollars very quickly. Risk management is among your basic responsibilities as a restaurant operators. Accidents in restaurants are a clear part of the territory, but we don’t have to be victims of as many of them, by simply being proactive. The most common are slips and falls followed by lifting injuries, being struck by an object, and, sadly, workplace violence.
This primer on Modern Restaurant Management delivers not only the causes, but some of the steps you can take to avoid them. For example, with slips/falls it’s can be as simple as requiring your staff wear no slip shoes or improving lighting in areas where slips may occur. Reviewing the post will help remind you of all the potential ways you can avoid these problems, rather than reminding how many ways there are to get hurt. The good news is a little effort at making your facility safer invariably will reduce your injury experience and make your restaurant a better place to work and dine.
[Source: Modern Restaurant Management]