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How to Increase Restaurant Sales: The Complete Guide

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Increase Restaurant Sales|How to Increase Restaurant Sales: The Complete GuideIf you run a restaurant, you’ll know exactly how competitive the industry is. There are over one million restaurants in the United States, and the projected sales for 2020 are expected to be $899 billion.

To succeed and thrive in your business, you’ll need to be savvy and innovative. You’ll need to find novel solutions to all of your marketing problems.

But exactly how do you go about building restaurant sales?

In this article, we’ll take a look at how to increase restaurant sales.

Increase Table Turnover Time

Is everyone who wants to come to your restaurant able to get a table when they want one? Having a full restaurant is great, but if there isn’t a high turnover of diners at the tables, then there’s room for improvement.

Often, the ability of a restaurant to increase sales lies in the speed of the service. If diners are coming in and it’s taking a long time to get them served, you’ve got a space in your restaurant that isn’t meeting its potential in terms of sales.

This doesn’t mean that you should rush your diners and ruin their customer experience. What it does mean is that you should be focused on taking their orders and expediting your service.

As soon as a table is free, it needs to be cleaned and reset for the next customers immediately.

Up-sell

Getting more customers into your restaurant is always going to be something that you’d like to do, but a great solution to increasing restaurant sales is to build on the size of your current customer order.

Asking your customers if they’d like to increase the size of their portion or suggesting different additional items that will compliment their meals are both great ways of up-selling and building the size of the order.

To make sure that your employees are up-selling to the best of their ability, carry out training so that they know the menu inside out. You should also teach them how to build rapport with the people that they’re serving.

Another great way of up-selling is by offering combos. If your customers are coming in and are just buying a main, get them to take a side too by creating special deals that build on their order.

Getting the Price Right

Your menu needs to be set at the right price. When you decide on the pricing, remember how much it costs to buy in the ingredients, to make the food, and serve it. In addition to factoring cost, you need to think about where your business is located and what the competition is doing.

Think about your target customers. How much do they expect to pay for a meal? If your prices are too high, you’ll miss the mark. If your prices are too low, you’ll sell yourself short and miss out on valuable profits.

Get the Decor Right

The look and ambiance of your restaurant are essential to its success. Your diners need to feel comfortable and at ease whenever they visit. If the decor and atmosphere don’t meet their expectations, it can end up ruining their meal.

Everything needs to be considered. Think about how brightly lit the dining areas are, consider whether the temperature of the room is okay, how comfortable the chairs are, etc.

Check out this restaurant furniture guide to find out more about selecting the right restaurant furniture.

Deliver the Very Best Service Possible

Things can go wrong in any dining experience, however, there is always going to be one way that you can overcome any shortcomings in your restaurant, and that is by delivering the very best service that you possibly can.

Great customer service provides a memorable experience and will leave a lasting impression on your diners.

Make your diners feel at ease. The more welcome they feel, the more they’ll relax. Impress them with the confidence that you can take their order. Suggest things that they might like from the menu and compliment them on their great choices.

When it comes to serving up the food, provide complimentary items. Bread or olives for the table or a free aperitif after the meal will make your guests feel special.

Help Your Customers Find You With Local SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a great way of improving where your restaurant’s website rankings on the search engine results pages (SERPs). But if you want people to find your business online and visit you in the real world, then you need to harness the power of local SEO.

Local SEO entails getting your business listed on as many online listing sites as possible. These include Google My Business, Trip Advisor, Yelp, Foursquare, and many more.

By getting your restaurant listed on Google My Business, you’ll appear above the organic search results in the SERPs.

When you create your listing, make sure that your name, address, phone number and opening hours are all consistent with your website and with other listing sites.

Once you’re on these sites, do encourage your customers to leave reviews of your restaurant as this will enhance your listing.

Providing Offers and Happy Hours

Promotions and offers are a great way of enticing new customers into your restaurant.

Identify the times of the day or the week when your sales are slowest and run a promo. Happy hour offers where drinks or food are reduced in price work exceptionally well for many businesses.

Think about up-selling additional items from your menu during these happy hour promos.

Now You Know How to Increase Restaurant Sales

Improving sales in your restaurant needn’t take an entire menu revamp. Often, you can achieve this goal through great customer service, the right promotions, up-selling, and making your surroundings comfortable.

Now that you know how to increase restaurant sales, you can put all of these tricks and tips to good use.
For more great articles, make sure that you check out the rest of the site.

How to Buy a Small Business A Step-By-Step Guide

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StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article |Buy a Small Business|How to Buy a Small Business A Step-By-Step GuideIn 2018, people sold over 10,000 small businesses. If you want a business but don’t want to start one, buying a business can be a great choice.

You can find the right company that makes you excited about running a business.

But first, you should know how to buy a small business. Here are a few things to consider.

Determine What You Want

The first step to buying a business is to decide what kind of business you want. Think about if you would prefer a product or service-based business.

Consider if there’s an industry that you would prefer the business to be in. On the other hand, think about any industries you don’t want to work in.

You should also consider the business structure. A small business could be anything from a sole proprietorship to an S corp. Each structure has unique tax codes that you should consider when buying a small business.

Work With a Broker

If you aren’t sure how to buy a small business, consider a broker. You can find a business broker to help you find the right business for you.

Brokers understand the different types of businesses, and they can help you compare different options. Your broker can also recommend a specific business that they know is for sale.

While you can buy a business yourself, having help from a broker will make buying a small business easier.

Research the Business

Once you have a prospective business that you want to buy, you should research it. Learn as much as you can about the structure and the products or services the business offers.

You should also look at any financial records regarding sales, revenue, and debt. A small business may look good at first. But if they have a lot of outstanding credit, you may not want to buy it.

This is another great time to work with business brokers. They can help you go through the more technical
information to help you decide on a business.

Negotiate the Deal

After you research a business and decide to buy it, you have to figure out a price. The current owner may have a price they want, but you should negotiate.

You can use the information you gathered from your research to help negotiate a better deal. For example, if a small business has good sales but a lot of debt, you can leverage that.

Valuing a business can be difficult, so it may take some time to figure out the right price. But once you and the seller agree, you can move forward with buying a business.

Once you’re ready to buy a small business, you can sign the paperwork. That will transfer ownership to you, and you can start running the company how you see fit.

Deciding How to Buy a Small Business

Buying a business sounds like a lot of work, but it can be surprisingly simple. If you know how to buy a small business, you will know what steps to take.

And if you aren’t sure where to start, a local business broker can help. Then, you can navigate the process much more easily.

Want to learn more about running a business? Check out our other articles for more information.

8 Ways to Protect Your Business From Cyberthreats

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article |cyberthreats |8 Ways to Protect Your Business From CyberthreatsEvery 39 seconds, there is a new cybersecurity attack. On any given day, there are around 80,000 cybersecurity attacks worldwide, equating to about 30 million attacks per year.

If you think your business is immune to cybersecurity threats, you’re wrong. Luckily, there’s a lot that you can do to protect your business from a cybersecurity attack.

Check out this guide to discover how to protect your business from cyberthreats.

1. Use Secure Passwords

A lot of times, cybersecurity attacks happen because of poorly chosen passwords. Creating a strong password is one of the easiest things you can do to prevent a breach in your system.

For a password to be strong it should:

  • Contain letters, numbers, and special characters
  • Be 8 to 15 characters long
  • Never be written down or stored in a nearby device
  • Updated frequently
  • Never contain personal information (Ie, birthdays, family member names, etc)

Make sure all of your employees know how to create a good password, and encourage them to change their passwords every 90 days or so.

2. Install Anti-Malware and Anti-Spyware Software

Installing anti-malware and anti-spyware software is another simple thing you can do to protect your business from cyberthreats.

When researching different software options, make sure you look for one that can run a full system scan on your computers. Also, you want to choose software that automatically updates itself and quarantines and removes malware and spyware.

While you may be tempted to purchase anti-virus software that comes with anti-malware and anti-spyware capabilities, it’s important to understand that a single piece of software is incapable of scanning and removing everything.

A multi-layered approach is the best way to secure your computer system.

3. Install Anti-Virus Software

In addition to installing anti-malware and anti-spyware software, you should also install anti-virus software.
This type of software continuously scans for viruses that are trying to break into your system files, emails, and operating systems. Just like quality anti-malware/spyware software, quality anti-virus software will run periodic updates.

When choosing an ant-virus software program, make sure you look for one that has daily-anti virus updates and a good reputation. You also want to double-check that the software program is compatible with your computer.

4. Use Email and the Internet With Caution

If your business does a lot of communication with email, then you especially want to be careful about what emails you open. While hackers can exploit an email in a variety of different ways, one of the most common things they do hide viruses in attachments.

If you receive an email from an address that you don’t recognize, don’t open it. Instead, delete it from your inbox immediately and add the address to your spam list.

You also need to take extra caution when using the internet, as even the safest websites can contain malware and spyware. One common way hackers lure internet users is by creating a fake website that looks just like a real website.

When entering a website URL, make sure to double-check the name of the website and make sure you’re spelling it correctly. Also, you should avoid clicking on graphics, popups, ads, and links to other websites.

5. Secure Your Wifi Network

Securing your Wifi network is another simple thing you can do to protect your business from cyberthreats.
If you leave your Wifi networks open, you’re giving hackers an open door to infiltrate your network and access your private information. So, make sure all of your business’ Wifi networks are private.

If you have a brick and mortar business that is frequented by customers, you should also create two Wifi networks: one for your business and one for your customers. This way, you don’t have to worry about your Wifi password getting into the wrong hands.

6. Backup Important Business Data

No matter how many steps you take to protect your business from a cybersecurity threat, cybersecurity breaches can still happen. Therefore, it’s important that you prepare your business for the worst-case scenario.

You should back up all of your critical business data and information. This way, if there is a cybersecurity breach, your business flow won’t be interrupted and your bottom line won’t be affected.

7. Train Your Employees On the Best Cybersecurity Practices

Knowing all of these cybersecurity protection tactics won’t do you any good if your employees don’t know them as well. As we mentioned earlier in the article, your employees should know how to choose a strong password and how often to change it.

But, the education shouldn’t stop there. You should also educate your employees on how to protect their data, set up a firewall, and how to recognize a security breach.

The reality is that most cybersecurity breaches are the result of human error, and all it takes is one mistake from an uninformed employee to compromise your business. While you can take on the cybersecurity training yourself, we recommend bringing in experts to help you, as they’ll be the most informed on the latest strategies and threats.

8. Conduct Penetration Testing

Last but not least, your business should conduct penetration testing on your computer systems.

Penetration testing involves simulating a cybersecurity attack in order to check for vulnerabilities in your computer system. Penetration testing comes with many benefits, including:

  • Detecting and avoiding security threats
  • Protecting customer loyalty and your company image
  • Evading penalties associated with breaches
  • To conduct penetration testing, make sure you work with a reputable company.

Are You Ready to Protect Your Business Against Cyberthreats?

Now that you’ve read this guide, it’s time to put these tips into action so you can protect your business against cyberthreats. Pretty soon, your business will be more secured than ever before.

Be sure to check back in with our blog for more cybersecurity-related tips and tricks.

Where Professionalism Is Important In Running A Business

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Professionalism in Business|Where Professionalism Is Important In Running A BusinessSure, you can be as free and liberal with your brand as you want; you can present a silly and non serious front, or you can present a laid back and easy going front. Branding is all about what you want it to be, and who you want to attract!

But even with this in mind, even with the kind of customers you’re pulling in, when it comes to certain areas of running your company, there are quite a few factors in which you’re going to have to be professional. Here are three key components of business that require you to be skilled, experienced, and professional in your manner.

In Customer Security

Your customers need to feel secure when they’re shopping with you. They need to know their payment details are safe and will never fall into the wrong hands. And seeing as you’re the retail portal they’re relying on, this is up to you.

Both online and offline, you need to be professional about security. Sure, you lock up your shop and make sure there’s no cash in the till at the end of the day, but what about your website? Is it even encrypted, when the time comes to put in card details to pay for items? It’s time to check on that.

In Shipping and Delivery

You need to be very professional about the way you pack, ship, and deliver any and all products and services. You need to have a safe and secure way to get your packages from point A to point B, and without professionalism to guide your way, there’s a good chance your delivery options will be subpar for the time being.

It’s why you might want to look into courier services; this will allow you to have more control over the process, be able to bundle your shipping needs, and with a handy Transport Marketplace to make use of, you’ll have a surefire way to chop and change your delivery services as you need to. There’s nothing quite like speed to show off your professionalism!

In Running Your Sales

And finally, you need to be very professional about the amount of sales you’re bringing in. After all, when it comes to building a customer base, and then ensuring you’ve got plenty of return sales to make profit off of, you need to cast a sure and professional eye over your books.

And being able to balance your books is another area that requires professionalism; if you can’t do it yourself, be sure to outsource your issues here to a trained and experienced accountant. Bring in the skills you need to ensure there’s plenty of professional talent behind the scenes, and your business will steadily climb up the profit margins.

Professionalism is something every single business needs. If you’re not sure about what you can manage in terms of bringing the right experience to your customers, make sure you’re working behind the scenes first, and then brand yourself second.

What Motivates You In Your Business?

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | What Motivates You In Your Business?What motivates you in your business? What do you strive to accomplish? Answers to these pivotal questions reflect the character and personality of the business owner. As a woman of Asian ethnicity, an immigrant, in a highly competitive, male-dominated printing and publishing field, my answers rose to the surface after receiving discriminatory and stereotypical mistreatment while on the job. Instead of defeat and victimization leaching and sucking the life out of me, I chose to rise above. Discrimination motivated me and I pushed harder, worked tirelessly, looked past boundaries, dug into my creativity, and became a top salesperson in the first company, and opened a business in the printing/publishing field with my specific niche some years later.

I left that traditional printing company to start my own printing business TSE Worldwide Press, Inc., and in that process, realized as an entrepreneur I had to reinvent myself. My beginning in printing coffee-table style books of the highest quality caliber stood above my competitors in the field. My ability for meticulous precision, to spot issues and correct them quickly and before printing, gave me the business edge.

Entrepreneurship excites and invigorates me. As a graphic artist, to create products and services with ingenuity starting from zero to completion thrills me and makes me more than satisfied to have left the “traditional” behind. The ability to take a client’s dream, an image in their heads, and fashion it into a completed product while solving problems along the way, makes my life work fulfilling! I knew I had struck gold when my products sold out repeatedly, and my customers kept reordering. Their feedback crucially contributes to my achievements. Customer feedback should be carefully listened to and learned from. This may make or break your business.

However wonderful operating my business may be, there are times in which I am left wondering what had I done wrong. Jumping feet first into this opportunity, I felt like I would drown. The fear of the unknown, lack of experience, lack of strength caused problems at the beginning. I suffered huge losses from not knowing how to handle dishonest customers. The difficult realization that “honest” customers turned into “dishonest” customers, those who took advantage of my naivetés and trustworthiness, eventually toughened me up. I learned to listen to my gut, which would warn me, and to advisers, friends, family, business associates who gave input into my life. I constructed guidelines, terms, procedures to protect my company and myself, and became increasingly selective of customers. I also made the same choices for hiring employees. Not only did these steps accelerate my business, they accelerated my personal growth. In addition, I learned to stop and take a break, and implement self-care. The temptation to overwork increases as passion increases, but soon you find yourself burnt out. Solve the question, where do I want to go? Find a mentor or two who will guide and give input into your life. On my website, I include tips for new business professionals looking for guidance.

Today, my definition of success focuses on helping others succeed. The joy I receive when my happy, satisfied, and financially successful customers see their dream project become reality compares to no other. Furthermore, it is extremely rewarding when my staff members and employees excel under my mentorship. Corporately, as a group, we contribute a section of our revenue to charity in giving back to the community which supports us. These define success for me.

My advice to new entrepreneurs: find a passion, a trade, that you genuinely enjoy and that does not feel like work. Think of something that you absolutely love to do and make a product out of it. Ask for input about your ideas from family, friends, people who know you well in business and as acquaintances, to obtain an objective perspective. If you are a female entrepreneur, take any negativity and obstacles thrown at you and use them as opportunities to improve yourself. Those who doubt you now will one day respect and trust you. If they do not in the future, put them aside for they are not worth your time or energy.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Sarah Y. TseSarah Y. Tse is founder and CEO of United Yearbook Company and co-founder and CEO of TSE Worldwide Press. Her new book is 7 Years on the Front Line : True Stories and Tough Lessons about a Small Business that You Won’t Learn in a Classroom.

For more information, please visit www.sarahytse.com or www.tseworldwidepress.com.