How to Manage Inventory for Increased Efficiency and Profit

As a restaurateur, you probably struggle with inventory on a regular basis. Balancing walk-in space, fast-selling menu items, and slow moving items can create a constant headache. Some of your product moves quickly, some does not, and inevitably some ends up sitting in the walk-in for far too long. That sitting product is costing your restaurant money, because you’ve already invested money in it but you aren’t seeing any return in the form of sold entrees to customers. Even worse, it’s taking up room in your walk-in while it costs you money. So how to turn frozen product into dollars in the cash register? Some tips to help you manage inventory:

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Coupon Blizzard Comes to Restaurants

Restaurants and their managers are in the middle of a revolution - a couponing revolution that is happening on a faster pace than many traditional businesses may be used to. What’s happening? Web sites like Groupon and Living Social have started a stampede to what’s called “social couponing,” in which deals are brokered by the sites, offered to their daily subscribers, but only become active if orders from customers reach a certain threshold.

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Hollywood's Restaurant Managers and What They Teach Us

Restaurants are a huge part of American popular culture. In movies and on TV, restaurants are the scene of first dates, where friends go to relax and hang out, and where many an unfortunate soul has dinner with their in-laws. While these restaurants may exist only on screen, as restaurant managers, we can still learn a lot from their triumphs and foibles. Here are five famous restaurants that exist only in Hollywood, and the good and the bad lessons they can teach us.

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Digging Deeper to Discover Employees’ Personalities

More and more, companies are taking some rather deep steps to determine if their next important hire is someone who is going to fit well in the present and the future. Personal finance guru Dave Ramsey is one of the experts touting this approach and some of the steps he takes may seem extreme. But if you are looking for a long-term, loyal and high-level restaurant employee, you could consider adding these steps to a more intense screening process:

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5 Tips for Constructively Managing Customer Feedback Online

Not too long ago, HeadHunterBrian posted an article about a case in which the popular review site Yelp was used as a vehicle for extortion. While this is a pretty extreme scenario, Yelp and other sites like it are quickly becoming the most important source of customer feedback and word-of-mouth advertising. Positive reviews are always great to receive, but negative reviews can be more helpful for the growth of your restaurant as a whole. Here are a few ways to deal with negative feedback tactfully, along with a couple of pointers for understanding how you can transform both poor and laudatory reviews into a positive learning experience.

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What is Your Restaurant Management Team's Media Diet?

The world of work is changing, both in how companies interact with their customers and with their employees. But are the potential management hires you talk to about important jobs at your restaurant keeping up with the latest? While it may not be a make-or-break question in an interview, finding out just what kind of media a job candidate is consuming will give you quick insight into what they know about managing, marketing and other elements of your business. But instead of asking a potential manager about what the last book they read is, ask them to explain their daily media diet.

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