How to handle sudden restaurant growth?

The sight of your restaurant packed with customers is like a dream come true. It may seem like you have reached your ultimate goal and can finally kick back and relax. However, this is the start of another challenge: How to handle your fast-growing restaurant? 

Poorly managed restaurant growth can lead to its downfall. Here are some tips to avoid that. Read on!

Develop Standard Operating Procedure

In the beginning phase of your restaurant where you have fewer customers, you may be able to get away with operating without a clear standard operating procedure (SOP). However, as your customer volume increases, it is important to develop an SOP so that your staff know their scope and the best way to perform each task.

A clear SOP can greatly increase your operational efficiency, thus shortening service time and reducing wastage.

Budgeting

Set a realistic budget based on your profits and stick with it. With the newfound increase in profits, there is a high chance that you may over-commit on things such as opening up a new outlet, over hiring or getting systems that you may not use.

Thus, setting a realistic budget is important to ensure that your restaurant does not go into the red.

To hire or to digitalize and automate?

The first thought that comes to mind when your restaurant business picks up is to hire more staff to cater to increased customer volume. While workable, it may not be the best way to handle restaurant growth.

In Singapore, manpower for F&B is scarce and wages are high due to levies. These costs will flow over to your increased revenue, reducing your profits. 

Instead, look around for productivity-boosting solutions such as QR ordering, self-ordering kiosks, online food ordering systems, etc. These solutions help reduce manpower costs and accurately handle high order volumes.

While digital solutions may require an investment to implement, the costs are subsidised by government grants and will help reduce costs in the long run.

Your hiring efforts can be focused on non-repetitive areas of operations such as kitchen staff or operation managers. 

Adopt a secure cloud Point of Sale (POS) system

As your restaurant grows your Point of Sale (POS)  system has to grow with it. Restaurant POS systems are not only cash registers but are capable of centralizing your operations into a single unit.

An enhanced cloud POS system will provide you with the connectivity you need to manage your restaurant online. Inventory management, updating your POS menus, studying performance reports and dashboards will be available to you through an online portal.

Productivity boosting solutions such as QR ordering, self ordering kiosks and online food ordering systems can also be seamlessly integrated to your POS system. This provides you with a centralized order management system.

On top of that, your data and POS settings are backed up into cloud servers, making it effortless to set up a POS at your new outlet with just a click of a button to download your POS settings. Hard drive failures will also be the least of your worries as your business data are backed up on the cloud server.

To enjoy the benefits of an enhanced cloud POS system, simply leave your contact details below with MEGAPOS and we will be in touch to arrange a free demo.