It’s Not Too Early to be planning for next year. The items that need to be addressed are as follows:
Sales & Expense Budget
Use the last 2 years of operating statements to do your budget. Be conservative in your estimates in both sales (lower) and expenses (higher).
Capital Repairs
Do you need to paint, redo the flooring, make some lighting changes, replace some equipment, change some furniture, refinish the wood work, acquire a new POS, etc? How are you going to fund this? Generally the best way to do this is out of cash flow but sometimes it stretches the operations too much so financing over a longer term is a better way.
Operations Plan
Staff training – who is going to do it? The written materials that would be helpful in the process include operations manuals, training guides, standard operating procedures and employee handbook. Are the employee files up to date? Health insurance plan in place?
Food & Beverage
What upgrades are planned for this year? What is your direction? What is your Brand? The market is evolving: consumers are asking for more. Better Flavors and presentations and of course better value. Don’t overlook your beverage lists. Martini’s are still hot and red wines continue to grow. Sometimes it is better to have someone from the outside evaluate your F & B program and then make suggestions on a direction and a plan.
Marketing & Merchandising
The first thing to assess is your sales trend. If it is up more than 3 points then continue doing what you are doing but just refine it. If not then you really need to have a plan in place and work the plan until you gain the desired increases. Did you have a plan in place over the last several years? What has worked in the past? What new items would you like to try? Remember there needs not only to be Advertising but Public Relations, Local Store Marketing and In-Store Merchandising in place to have a complete plan. Allocate 2%-4% of sales to this. Retain a pro to assist in laying out not only a plan but the objectives and strategy as well.
Bookkeeping and Management Reports
Is your information helping you manage your business? If not, you need to tighten it up. Why? Because every line item is escalating in price and you may not necessarily be able to pass this on to the customer. We believe you need to run a daily/weekly labor cost and a weekly prime cost report, assign and manage the individual expense line items, figure a monthly ideal food cost and manage the monthly budget. Do you have all of these in place? You should.
Need any help in these areas? Contact us.