Sooooo is business slow for you too?

That's an understatement in this economy, everyone is struggling with slow sales rising labor cost "because as soon as you send them home you will be slammed" :) so what do you do to make it though these times? that's the million dollar question and I am going to help you answer it right now!

have you checked your food cost lately? spoilage? phone bill? garbage bill? cable? lease cost? guess what!!!! your throwing away money right now!!!!!!

Lets start with your fixed cost! Rent the quickest way to improve your cash flow is ask your landlord for a temporary reduction in your rent, be prepared to address this with factual information that is direct and to the point, in other words SALES RECEIPTS, sales have slowed for most everyone but I can guarantee you that your landlord will NOT come to you and say "hey how bout I reduce your rent?" go to them and ask for a 6 month reduction, start at 20% and negotiate from there, most landlords will work with you as they certainly do not want to lose tenants and try to fill space in this economy.

Food Cost: in Pizza you should be running about a 22-25 % food cost depending on your menu, KNOW YOUR FOOD COST is is vital to your existence, and make sure your measuring out all your products that go on your pizzas, this will create a consistent product that your customers will love and assure that you have your monthly expenditures in check

Labor Cost: this is a big one because you do not want to be understaffed and you certainly do not want to have people standing around doing nothing right? so check your order flow and make sure you are optimizing your opening time and closing time, check your hourly sales and adjust accordingly.

you might be saying "how do I do these things? opening times against hourly sales and such? you should have a Point Of Sale System in your store, if you are still using a cash register for sales then it will be a lot of work to get this information, that is why every consulting gig I do and the restaurants I open have POS systems in them, it keeps all of your sales information at your fingertips and allows you to know exactly what your costs are related to your cash flow, I cannot stress this enough, call me if you need a referral on a great POS system I do not get paid to refer customers to Revention POS but it is the BEST system on the market!

call your phone company, call your cable company call all your vendors and ask them to lower your prices at least for six months, saving money NOW will help you weather the sluggish cycle we are in, and if you need help evaluating your business to see if it is even viable then do not hesitate to call me 707-774-1668 I can look at it for you FREE, no charge for an evaluation, the more restaurants that keep there doors open and thrive the better for ALL of us so if you need help then just ask!

good luck and I will post more on how to beat the recession and create sales out of $100.00 and a little foot work!

Cheers, Chef Glenn