WHAT A GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO GET YOUR BUSINESSES
READY FOR A BUMPER 2010 WITH OUR 7 DAY ROADMAP TO A PROFITABLE YEAR
DAY 2 - Review & Reveal the Bar Costs &
Profits
The majority of the members of Barkeeper obtain the highest percentage of their
revenue from beverage sales (not surprisingly).
As a result, this is the area where you need to
focus your efforts on to extract the maximum return on the bottom line.
Here are some tips for your bar operation:
1. Keep it Simple
Because the Hospitality Industry relies as much on customer service as effective
cost control (neither will exist without the other), any cost control system has
to be simple for all involved. Over-complicating systems will keep your staff
from the guests as well as allowing staff the opportunity to claim the system is
too much work and difficult to complete, so keep it simple and practical.
2. Measure like against like
What I mean by this is that in order to set goals and targets and compare one
period against another, both periods need to be the same. There is no point
measuring a four week period that had three busy calendar weekends against a
four week period that had four busy calendar weekends. By keeping periods the
same (ie Monday to Sunday every week) you can start to identify trends and plan
better for future periods.
3. Insist on speedy reporting
If it takes you too long to get the vital information you need from your
business, then the chance are that any cost losses incurred during this period
have continued into the subsequent period too, before you have had a chance to
address them. Identify your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for each revenue
department and be able to extact these figures as needed to give you a snapshot
of how well you are doing and give you piece of mind until you get the report
proper.
4. Don't Stop Controlling
If you stop controlling or see it as a one-day activity a couple of times a
year, then you have missed the point. Control is a continuous action and would
be better referred to as a "Mentality" than as an action. This goes back to a
speedy reporting system and taking the time each day to review the KPIs. By
tweaking smaller parts of the operation on a daily basis, you will achieve
greater and smoother results as oppose to making large-scale changes
periodically which may meet with opposition from less-like minded staff.
5. Measure it to Manage it
When it comes to Purchasing and Receiving, think like a bank clerk who has no
allowance for cash handling errors. If he makes a mistake, he pays for it. Why
operators allow any less of a mentality at the receiving door is beyond me but
adhere to this principle and you won't go far wrong: "If it's ordered by weight,
weigh it, If it's ordered by count, count it".
6. Know what your Costs SHOULD be
I have lost count of the number of operators who when asked how things were
going, replied by saying that turnover was up which they were happy with, yet
further questions revealed that they agreed the costs associated with the
increased turnover were not proportionate and the expected profits were not
forthcoming. Why? Because all of these businesses had one thing in common, none
of them knew what it SHOULD cost to generate their turnover levels. Few
operators had costed their menus down to the sprig of parsley and fewer could
tell me the price of a loaf of bread! Surprised? Don't fall in to the same trap.
Know what your costs should be irrespective of turnover, that way, you will be
less likely to be faced with unwelcome surprises.
7. Know the Relationships of Costs
One principle which was drilled into me when I was a trainee manager was that
costs are all relative to one another and no single cost can be examined
independently of the other related costs. In other words, it's no good having a
fantastically low cost base in your beverage if it's costed you double the
normal labour costs to achieve that. Learn to relate the relevant costs with
each other and review these costs together.
By investing the time and effort into establishing a watertight but manageable
control system, you will be laying the foundations for a well managed and
successful business. I often say to dubious operators that if they think it's
expensive to setup and implement such a control system, just think what it will
cost you if you don't!
Helpful Bar Management Toolkit
Download
our Bar & Beverage Stocktaking Package and identify your profits or
losses today!
If you're not regularly conducting
inventories or paying a company to stocktake for you, you may be
overlooking some significant losses. Every bar & beverage business has
some form of losses, but as the business owner, you should know what
they are and how much they impact your business. Regular stocktaking
will allow you to identify and reduce the losses. more>>
The purpose of this Gross Profit and
Beverage Analysis Sheet is to enable you to see the cost price,
selling price, profit margin and gross profit for all your spirits &
liqueur's at a glance.
Use this Beverage Purchase Tracker
for an at a glance reference and for reconciling monthly
stocktakes and supplier statements.
Preview>>
Download: Bottled Beer Profit Analysis
Spreadsheet
The purpose of this Gross Profit and Beverage Analysis Sheet is
to enable you to see the cost price, selling price, profit
margin and gross profit for all your bottled beers at a glance.
The purpose of this manual is to
ensure that all staff are aware of the beverage control
procedures which are in place in your establishment. A must
for any hospitality establishment.
Each day, we will put another piece of the puzzle together so that
by the end of the 7 days, you will have identified your goals, overhauled
your business and relieved the stress and burden of the coming year by
having a clear, actionable plan together with the roadmap that will take
you exactly where you want to go.
Each day for 7 Days, you'll get:
A
Video Strategy Overview
I will bring you a new video every
day with instructions on how to achieve your strategy for that day. I will
talk about the overall strategy as well as breaking down each step needed
to reach that goal. You will hear about the tactics needed to achieve that
strategy and mention the particular tools that you can use to ensure your
success.
A
Step by Step Plan to Follow
Accompanying each video will be a
step by step plan that you can easily follow and tick off as you progress
through the plan. You'll be able to ensure you have each step completed
before beginning the next day.
Access
to all the tools in our toolkit that you will need for your strategy
As you can imagine, you're going to
need many tools and templates to help you in your planning. We've taken
care of that for you with links to every tool you'll need on our websites
and elsewhere.
DAY 1
P - Picture the Prize Only by seeing the end
goal and your reason "why" will you be able to set your goals in place.
Use our tools to execute your plans for 2010.
DAY 2
R - Review & Reveal the Bar
Costs & Profits On average, members of Barkeeper obtain a
higher percentage of their revenue from the bar than any other area. With
this in mind, we will show you how to identify the cost base in the bar,
seek out new streams of revenue and maximise the potential of this key
revenue centre.
DAY 3
O - Organise & Optimise the
Kitchen Don't ignore the kitchen. With so many
expensive ingredients and potential for losses, we show you how to set up
a complete kitchen management program so that at any time you will know
whether you're profitable or not. Essential stuff.
DAY 4
F - Fire or Focus your staff Whether you want to believe it or not, some
of your staff will prevent you from achieving your goals. We'll show you
how to get rid of the staff that don't fit in with your plan while
focusing those staff members you want to keep on the goals ahead.
DAY 5
I - Identify & Implement the
promotion and marketing plan Nothing will happen without telling people.
We'll show you how to attract customers to your business, build a
marketing and promotion plan for the year and take advantage of relevant
events in your area.
DAY 6
T - Taking advantage of
existing Customers and get to the next revenue level Once you have attracted customers, we'll show
you how to increase the average spend, upsell additional items, cross sell
related products and get more bang for your marketing buck!
DAY 7
S - Sealing the deal -
Achieving Business Excellence By day 7, we'll have shown you how to analyze
your business, optimize it's financial performance and attract more
customers. Next it's time to achieve business excellence-the factor that
will keep these customers coming back again and again. Without excellence,
you're just lost in the crowd.
If you have any questions about this roadmap, feel free to email me
directly at barry@barkeeper.ie
Download
our Bar & Beverage Stocktaking Package and identify your profits or
losses today!
Download:
Beverage Monthly Purchase Tracker 
A
Video Strategy Overview
A
Step by Step Plan to Follow
Access
to all the tools in our toolkit that you will need for your strategy