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Money Saving Tips for Bars and Restaurants

October 5th, 2018

Owning a bar and restaurant can be exteremly tough! It seems the competition is getting better every day and profit margins are shrinking at the same time. Don’t forget that customers are wanting more and at better prices at the same time. Yikes! So here are some restaurant and bar money saving tips to help your bottom line and give you some ideas to implement into your business.

What many managers complain about is that they are over worked. Not only that, but they have to wear more hats than what they used to 5-10 years ago. With the advent of websites and social media, managers are spending countless hours each month updating, posting and making sure their clients have all the up to date information. On top of this, no offense to most managers, but they aren’t website or social media experts. So, it’s tough for them to complete this task effectively. One simple solution to save money being spent on your managers is having a management system in place to help out with this.

Products such as Brand IQ, Harbortouch’s Lighthouse system or City Cheers not only handles most if not all of these tasks, but will tell you if you are doing well and what you need to improve! This will save hundreds of dollars a month and not only that, give your managers or you time to focus on more important things around the business.

Pay attention to waste in your business. Overuse or making of garnishes, straws and other items that might be over looked that your servers may not pay attention to quickly can hurt the bottom line. Make sure before shifts to make sure all staff is aware of these little things that can improve and save your business money.

Take a look at the products that you are using for your food and drinks. Try substituting other items in a drink for example and see if the quality is as good. If so, test it out with your customers. Can they tell a difference? If not, substitute and there is a great way to save!

Be smart with your liquor as well. Make sure there is no over pouring of drinks or free drinks in general being handed out. This is something that is over looked at many places. An extra ounce here, extra pint there adds up in the hundreds if not thousands a month in lost profit! There are many liquor measuring systems out there, some that even connect to your POS system and reporting tools. Continue to hammer in with your servers and bartenders that this is a business and not for profit!

With little tips and ideas such as this, hopefully you can make the end of your year more profitable!