How Your Restaurant Or Bar Can Survive The Slow Months

There are thousands of people around the world who dream of running their own restaurant. The thrill of people enjoying your food and drink, your service, and the overall customer experience at your restaurant is enough to provide them with a sense of joy. In fact, it is one of the reasons why they decided to open their own restaurant in the first place. A person in the hospitality business might have also taken up a few quick learning lectures such as responsible service of alcohol course, barista course, and many more. These can also help in improving business services during slow times since such lessons can teach marketing and promotion strategies.

Of course, a lot of planning and preparation needs to happen before you can open a restaurant. From making sure that you have the staff, the equipment, and the relevant restaurant insurance (browse around this site to learn more) to reaching and retaining new and existing customers all year round, it is no easy feat and is not for the faint-hearted. In order to be at the head of a successful restaurant, you need to know how to handle everything, and that includes what to do when business drops.

Most restaurants experience seasonality or slow periods. That’s why succeeding as a restaurant or bar means anticipating these fluctuations.

What are the vital steps to survival in a dynamic industry such as food service? How can you steer through the ups and downs of foot traffic and revenue? To answer those questions, there are a few tips worth remembering:

  1. Expand your service. Certain times of year will naturally be slower at a restaurant. Whether it’s bad weather, college towns, or other circumstances that slow down business, you can make the most of it by offering delivery or carryout options. Promote your delivery services so people know they can order in for the holidays or a weekend storm. This, at least, can encourage more purchases through convenience.
  • Create promotions. Sometimes, running promotions can be just the ticket to draw new customers – whether it’s loyalty programs or buy-one-get-one-free wings on Thursdays. It doesn’t have to be discounts, either. Other strategies to build buzz include using live music or local community events. These give you an opportunity to positively interact with your community.

  • Think lean. Another way to make strides during a slow period is to lower overhead. Cutting overhead refers to the costs of the business excluding the direct fees of developing the product. This might mean lowering marketing expenditures, automating sales and labor reports, cutting work hours, etc.

To learn more about how to make it through slow periods at a restaurant, take a look at the accompanying resource.

Author bio: Dana Krook is Content Marketing Specialist at TouchBistro, a POS solutions provider for restaurants. She focuses on sharing tips for and stories of restaurateurs turning their passion into success.

Infographic created by TouchBistro, an epos hardware provider

Benny
Latest posts by Benny (see all)