Starting a food business can feel like a leap into the unknown. It's probably known as one of the hardest and most stressful industries to turn a profit in, but here are 4 handy tips to help your food business improve its profits and become a successful venture.
By Team Savant
Image: Toa Heftiba
Invest In Better Equipment
It's all well and easy in the short term to try to save money by buying second-hand hand but long-term this can end up costing you. Newer equipment is going to be much more reliable and dependable. Find a food machinery supplier who will provide your business with modern and more energy-efficient equipment to cut your bills.
You could also consider renting equipment from suppliers rather than buying. It's not always worth buying outright, especially if your business is only using a piece of equipment once or twice a month.
Buy Seasonal Produce
Seasonal menus will give your small business a variety of benefits but especially cost. It's typically cheaper to buy in-season ingredients as they tend to be in large supply and don’t need to be shipped long-distance — reducing delivery costs for businesses.
Opting for seasonal ingredients gives your chefs the ideal opportunity to experiment, creating new dishes and to have a continually shifting menu. This will seem exciting to customers, especially those who have visited before as they get to try something new each season they visit.. With dishes being seasonal, it creates a limited time urgency for customers to come and try before the dishes are gone.
Keep A Smaller Menu
You might think a restaurant having a smaller menu is a bad thing, but it's very much the opposite. It allows for a smaller, more condensed food inventory, which means you haven't got to source as many ingredients and it reduces the amount of storage required for each ingredient, lowering costs.
Fewer dishes mean fewer ingredients, which also helps to minimise your business's food waste. You save money buying less and save money binning less — and this happens to be great for the environment — so it's a win-win.
Reduce Energy Usage
Just like any business you’ll want to reduce all your costs overall, including your energy bills. Opt for more energy-efficient lighting, like installing LEDs, which are just as bright (important for being able to cook safely) but will save you money long term. You could also make switches to more energy-efficient equipment (as mentioned earlier) choosing appliances with higher energy ratings.
Something super easy that might just require a little bit of training is reminding staff to turn off or power down unused equipment. Businesses are wasting huge amounts of energy by leaving equipment on overnight, so it's worth spending a bit of time reminding staff to switch off what they can before they head home.
Making sure your food business is successful can be a challenge. There's a lot for you as an owner to keep on top of and ensure your customers are happy without getting into debt and hemorrhaging cash. Follow these useful tips above to help improve your businesses profitability and ensure that it remains a success well into the future.