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Café and Restaurant consultants can help your business at critical times!

 

As a hospitality business owner, when you are faced with serious operational problems or are about to enter a new stage of growth, it’s time to seriously think about hiring an industry expert.

 

Consultants are great resources because they provide a fresh perspective into your business. With that outside perspective, consultants can often recognize issues more clearly, and ask the right questions, to uncover the right core issues.  Sometimes owners and managers are too busy working IN their business, that they forget to work ON their business.  They also may have their blinders on when running their own operations and have their own bias.

 

Based on past experience and specialized skills, the consultant can develop an objective strategy that includes situational analysis, problem-solving, strategic planning, and execution.  More often than not, the ROI of hiring a restaurant consultant will be massively beneficial.  Their experience and expertise can help your team avoid costly mistakes in both operational effectiveness and sustainable profitability.

Here are 4 instances where you should seriously consider hiring a consultant:

Pre-open, when planning to open a new restaurant or café

  • Opening a restaurant or café can be a massive undertaking, and hiring a consultant pre-open can ensure that your concept comes to life and opens without any major troubles. Opening a new restaurant is also an incredibly costly undertaking, and no matter how successful you’ve been working in someone else’s restaurant, venturing out on your own is a very different undertaking.  Having a team on your side and the expertise of an industry expert will save you money and get you open on time.  Hiring the right consultant can help navigate these challenges, from concept development and feasibility studies to licensing and permitting.

When your business is underperforming or struggling

  • Most businesses during the pandemic have been suffering, especially hospitality. There are also businesses that have been successful and profitable during these challenging times.  Now that we are set to allow dine-in (soon, hopefully) is your restaurant or café ready with the best plans?  Have sales been slipping lately and you don’t know why? Is your food and/or beverage cost out of control or are you even sure how much your costs are?  These are great opportunities to ask for help.  Restaurant and café consultants have years of experience and have seen many different situations, so odds are they know exactly what’s going on in your restaurant.  And they can fix it for you and with you, too.  Most will start with some type of and efficiency assessment to get a clear picture of exactly what the issues are.  Then they will sit down with you and walk you through the opportunities and exactly what needs to be done to correct them.  Some will even help you implement and execute the plans to drive success.

When expanding or scaling your business

  • Do you have a very successful business that you are ready to open another location? First off, congratulations!  You have managed to buck the trend of restaurants and cafes failing in their first years.  If you have a great concept in a great location, business is booming, and you want to expand, this is the perfect time to get expert help.  One unit can be challenging enough, but having more locations can bring larger and more challenges.  When you open the doors to your second and third locations, you’ve just doubled the size of your investment, costs, number of employees, and potential risk of failure.  If done correctly, you’ve also just doubled your revenue and profit.  A consultant takes the guesswork out of scaling your business, because they’ve done it before and can provide insight on what to do and what not to do. Consultants can help shorten the timeframe from concept to reality and can help avoid costly mistakes.

Competitors entering the area

  • Your business has been doing well but will it beat out the new competition coming to the area? What is your USP (Unique Selling Proposition)?  A hospitality consultant will help you strongly position yourself and define your competitive advantage.  Your café or restaurant will benefit immensely from an outside fresh perspective on how you can improve and get ready for the pending decrease in sales.  They will help you build your team, train and develop their skills in upselling and ensure your customer service is the best in the area at every point for your guests.

Restaurant consultants are a valuable resource that can’t be overlooked if you own a café or restaurant.  They leverage their experience and specialized skills to your benefit, drastically cutting down a costly learning curve for you in a variety of different situations.  They partner with you, your management and your team to drive execution and save you thousands of costly mistakes.

For more information on how you can drive profitability in your local café or restaurant, contact one of our consultants at Morgan@hospitalityconsulting.co