To sustain a business in today’s time, specially post pandemic, has become a challenge. However, the F&B Industry has shown significant growth. Many outlets kept operating even during pandemic. But with increasing competition, decrease in spending power post COVID and new technologies coming up restaurants tend to lose their customers and hence revenue. Sustaining a business and keeping the growth steady is not always easy. Here are some ideas to help you sustain your restaurant:

1. Reduce Costs – A restaurant business has lot of costs involved like – Rent, Electricity, Salaries, Operation Costs, Food Costs etc. You should make a detailed analysis of where the costs are higher and how it can be reduced to not affect sales yet help the margins. For example, if the food cost is higher than 30% then some steps should be taken (in consultation with the head chef) to reduce it.
2. Meet the Demand – Conduct a survey amongst your customers and note down the changes in their tastes and preferences. Use this as a basis and alter the menu or introduce new novelty dishes that your customers can relish.
3. Convert to Cloud Kitchen – If running a dine-in area is proving expensive then you can convert your restaurant into a cloud kitchen model. This will reduce your operation costs significantly and through the delivery model you can sustain your loyal customers. However, some customers may enjoy a sit-down place more and hence may not be happy about this change.
4. Introduce Offers & Discounts – Keep running special offers and discounts from time to time like on special occasions on festivals to attract customers. These discounts not only bring joy to regular customers but also attract new ones. You can also introduce ‘Happy Hours’ in your restaurant or café. Even if you don’t sell alcohol, you can give out free dishes in that. Consider the cost of running these offers and discounts in your monthly marketing budgets.
5. Extend Restaurant Hours – If your staff is already working in 2 different shifts or a break shift then you can consider extending your restaurant hours. If you close early, then you can keep it open till midnight or if you open late then you start opening early for breakfast. Some changes to the menu would be needed if your menu doesn’t already have dishes to support this extension.
6. Additional Sources of Income – Since your restaurant already gets a dedicated footfall you can use this to your advantage and start selling some related products to get an additional source of income. You can set up shelves or a table in a visible area in your restaurant and direct your customers there. You can sell some products, dips or lavash etc made in house at your restaurant (at prices reasonable than market prices), some Planters (sourced at low prices to be able to sell at a reasonable price) as they are really in demand right now, or keep some products of popular brands like Kombucha or Tea etc. These would not only provide an additional delight to the customers but also give you more income sources.
7. Customer Loyalty Program – You can run a customer loyalty program in your restaurant to help increase your customer base. You can get a card printed which the customer gets stamped on every visit and on their third or fourth visit they get some discount or offer. This sort of scheme not only entices the customer to keep coming back but also makes them a loyal customer of the restaurant and they also spread it through word-of-mouth publicity.
8. Organize PR Events – Marketing & PR are of utmost importance nowadays. You should run an extensive marketing campaign to help increase visibility and knowledge about your restaurant. It is better to hire professionals here (like DinerGuru F&B Consultancy) to help you make an effective marketing plan. This would require some initial investment, but it is bound to give long-term results.
9. Collaborations & Tie-ups – You can tie-up with other popular brands to help increase brand awareness or to help you run your operations at a lower cost. For example, if a café serving healthy food ties up with a gym or makes a plan for their members then both the gym and the café can benefit. The gym is offering an additional service to the members and the café is getting new customers from the gym. Similarly, if a catering company ties up with a cloud kitchen, then the catering company can use the base kitchen to make their food thereby reducing their costs and the cloud kitchen gets a customer in the form the catering company.
10. Build a relationship with your customers – This also helps the customers form an emotional attachment with the restaurant which increases their loyalty towards it. Also, you get to know about the customer’s needs, and it helps you make decisions accordingly.
11. Sell Space for Ads – If you have an additional unused space in your restaurant, then you can utilize this by renting it out to brands. These brands can advertise themselves in that space for a particular time period and benefit by getting more customers. You can benefit by getting additional revenue.