BUSINESS: 10 Ways to Improve Your Bar's Profitability
With tight profit margins seemingly getting tighter and tighter every year, restaurant and bar owners and managers are increasingly faced with the dilemma of improving their profitability. Profitability has many aspects, including hiring the best staff, filling shifts, using the proper restaurant technology, and more. To maximize their business’s profitability, operators need to look at issues effecting all aspects of their business and find ways of improving. This article will outline 10 ways restaurant and bar operators and boost their profits.
DID YOU KNOWS…
Have We Gone Too Far?
September is just around the corner which means we can smell the pumpkin spice already. And while we joke about there being pumpkin spice everything, we actually might think that’s true. Coming September 23rd, Spam is release a limited-edition pumpkin spice. There’s no pumpkin on the pork, mind you. The pumpkin spice is a mix if cinnamon, clove, allspice and nutmeg. Spam recommends pairing their pumpkin spice pork with some waffles or baking into a cornbread.
CEO vs. Avg Worker Pay Growth
While the CEO-to-typical-worker compensation ratio stood at 278-to-1 in 2018 when realized stock options were factored in, it was just 20-to-1 in 1965 and 58-to-1 in 1989. CEO pay has grown 1000% since 1978 while your average Joe and Jane saw just 12% growth. Yikes. The report states that exorbitant CEO pay is a major driving factor behind rising inequality. Most CEOs do not earn their huge paychecks through increased productivity or due to specific or demand skills. They are rather able to pocket large sums of money due to their own power to set pay levels. The analysis adds that if CEO compensation was reduced or taxed more heavily, it would not have any economic impact.
5000-Year-Old Beer Recipe ‘Absolutely Delicious’
A brewer, food historian, and beer expert teamed up with the British Museum to recreate a 5,000-year-old beer recipe from ancient Egypt. They used historical brewing vessels such as clay pots as well as historical brewing methodology from the period. The group brewed several versions – one unflavored and others including ingredients like pistachio, rose petal, cumin, coriander, and sesame. And while one would expect ancient beer to beer tasteless sludge, the brew team found the end result to be “absolutely delicious.”
YIELD CURVE INVERSION
Why it matters to you: Leading indicators are pointing to recession, are you ready?
Technical financial terms like the “yield curve” can cause most people’s eyes to glaze over, but economists rely on them to understand the direction our economy is headed. To explain, the yield curve is the difference between long-term and short-term US Treasury Bond returns. This happens when 10-year US Treasury rates of return drop below the two-year yields. This indicates that investors don’t have confidence in the long-term health of the US economy and has consistently accompanied the last six recessions dating back to the 1970s. Given the role that consumer spending plays in the overall health of our economy, it should come as no surprise to restaurant operators that this might spell the beginning of our next recession. Traffic has already been a problem for most operators nationally and now even sales growth has slowed. With the presidential election cycle already underway, we are going to hear a lot about the economy of the next 15 months, but shouldn’t we try to understand how we got here?
The answer is yes we should and here’s our analysis. Our economy depends on an enormous about of integration and synergy between its components. When you stress one part of our economy, it has far reaching affects throughout the entire ecosystem. So, whether you want to point to an ill-advised trade war with our biggest trading partners or bad trade deals that have shed good middle class creating jobs to other countries, you would be right. Unfortunately, being right doesn’t avoid the oncoming disaster which may dramatically change our industry, but it can help you to be prepared. We aren’t suggesting hoarding water and digging a bunker, but we are suggesting now is a good time to be conservative financially and waiting to see what the next few months bring. Fall is when we have experienced our greatest economic drops and it’s only a scant few weeks away.
[Source: The Hill]
GET THAT LADY A BOURBON
Why it matters to you: Don’t prejudge what the women who visit your restaurant want.
We all have biases, but perhaps there are no more pervasive ones than those about how to treat women in our restaurants. If I told you women prefer lower alcohol spirits or that they want mixed drinks over straight spirits, would you agree? Turns out that those of you that do agree are actually way off the mark. In fact, a survey of women that drink bourbon by Bourbon Women (yup, that’s a thing) discovered that 68% of women prefer their bourbon straight or with water and the two favorites of the accompanying tasting were both over 100 proof. The past few years have seen a resurgence of amber spirits like bourbon, whiskey and scotch which should track well with these results. The bottom line is that more of your female guests are consuming spirits in ways you thought were reserved for men.
That’s where the bias comes in and why it’s crucial not to prejudge your promotions targeting women with what this blog post refers to as pinkification. That’s the one where you attempt to make something more palatable for girls by watering it down or hiding it in some concoction. Sure artisanal cocktails have their place for your female guests, but you shouldn’t limit yourself. Here’s an idea, why not take the results of this Bourbon Women survey and advertise a women’s-only bourbon tasting. Here you can pander to women by making it tasteful and safe, while simultaneously satisfying their curiosity about spirits they have been told only belong to men. Now that would be a novel ladies night if you asked us.
[Source: Nightclub & Bar]
