17 Feb Who is secretly taking money from your restaurant?

One restaurant owner once told me that he thought he would be making better profits than he was indeed making. He was even wondering if any member of the team was taking money from the business. Who is secretly taking money from your restaurant?

I asked him a few questions:

Do you calculate the costings of your dishes?

Do you check your sales mix?

Do you know your theoretical gross profit?

Do you know your real gross profit?

Do you track wastage?

Do you use measuring cups, tablespoon or scales for the portioning of your dishes?

Do you order without checking what you have on your shelves?

Do you check the weight of the products when you get a delivery?

Do you check the price of the invoices you receive from every supplier?

Do you do a stock take at least once a week?

If you don’t know the exact cost of your dishes, you will not be able to know the margins of every dish.

If you don’t know what products are selling more or less, you don’t know if your menu is working for you or against you.

If you don’t know your theoretical gross profit you don’t know what is your potential maximum profit, so there is no goal to reach.

If you don’t know your real gross profit you don’t know if you are far from or close to your goal.

If you don’ t track wastage your team will be careless and it will keep increasing

If you don’t use any measurements, your dishes will not be consistent and your standards will be low.

If you don’t check what you have in your restaurant before placing your orders, you’ll end up over ordering and with a much higher risk of spoilage.

If you don’t check the weight of your deliveries, you may not be getting what you are paying for.

If you don’t check the prices of your invoices, you may end up over expending.

If you don’t do any stock takes, you lose control over your stock, you have a higher risk of spoilage, wastage or real theft.

So secretly, the person who was taking money from his restaurant was HIMSELF!!

If you don’t have any control over your main figures in the restaurant such as food and drinks profit margins, staff costs, consumables and other operating costs, your restaurant will end up being a hobby, not a business. Take action and stop stealing from yourself! 

Contact us if you have more questions.