STAFF: Five Signs You Hired the Wrong Server
Hiring the right person can be a challenge in any industry. New hires require training and need to work well with the rest of the team. A mistake in hiring can be a costly one but every now and again it happens. Here are five signs that the server you just hired, you’ll soon have to fire…
DID YOU KNOWS…
Soccer’s Gender Wage Gap
Neymar plays for PSG and taking only his playing contract into account, he will earn $43.8 million for the 2017-18 season. That figure is roughly the same as the 1,693 female players plying their trade in the top soccer leagues in France, Germany, England, the U.S., Sweden, Australia and Mexico combined. Here are the total annual salary of the top-7 women’s soccer leagues in 2017.
Blue Apron Loses Its Recipe for Growth
Blue Apron co-founder Matt Salzberg stepped down as CEO of the company after six months that couldn’t have gone much worse for the meal kit delivery firm. Its growth came to a screeching halt in the third quarter. It appears as if the company’s decision to reduce marketing expenses has come at the expense of customer growth. Considering that the average order value and the number of orders per customer have been fairly constant over the past three years, the company needs to build its customer base in order to grow its business though.
Philly Chef Marc Vetri Quits Urban Outfitters
Two years ago, Marc Vetri and his partner Jeff Benjamin sold their restaurant group to Urban Outfitters. This summer Benjamin left the company; now Vetri joins him in leaving URBN. He says he’s given URBN “all the tools they need to succeed and grow this country to its fullest potential.”
IRS SENDS ACA ASSESSMENTS, PDQ
Why it matters to you: If you receive an ACA assessment, what next?
Some restaurant operators last week began receiving letters from the IRS warning of Affordable Care Act penalty assessments that can reach into the millions of dollars, according to an ACA legal expert. If you are an employer with shared responsibility for insurance under the ACA, then you are subject to revised advice from the IRS. To start, if you are under 50 employees, none of this applies to you. You can, of course, offer insurance but the employer rules don’t apply to you.
However, if you have more than 50 employees and some of your staff have taken subsidies allowable under the ACA provisions, then you may be assessed for the formula of your portion of their support. This is some complicated stuff and really requires you have an accountant or attorney helping you manage it. If you get one of these letters, you have 30 days to respond and challenge the IRS’s assessment of your business. There is a ton of confusion, even on the part of the IRS, over these assessments. Consequently, you will want to fight them as early and aggressively as possible to avoid getting stung with a bill you didn’t own in the first place.
WHAT A WASTE
Why it matters to you: Reducing waste is an easy way to lower cost of goods sold.
Undoubtedly, every operator wants to drive their food waste to as close to zero as possible. Getting there is all about planning and managing, but is zero waste even achievable? The easy answer is no, but when you look at the components of driving down waste, you sure can get close.
For example, you can’t control food waste associated to prepping ingredients that have skins that need to be removed (think bananas and mangos); however, you can turn some of that waste into other uses. Start a composting program at your restaurant and then offer the resultant compostable materials to local gardeners or farmers. This will reduce your wet trash production as well and you may even see a decrease in your hauling costs.
Real success in driving down waste can only come through planning. Actions like prep projections and reconciliation ensure you don’t make more (or less) than you need for service. By reducing errors you limit the waste of products that don’t get used.
You can also view your plates as they return. If you guests are taking home huge portions or throwing away significant amounts of food, you can reduce your price and serving to address the waste. Planning coupled with a solid method of tracking can significantly impact the waste you endure as well as the trash you create. It might take a bit to get this rolling, but the savings and the environmental impact of conserving will be well worth the effort.
