Happy New Year!

The world has once again gone full circle around the sun, but much is yet to be done to get us all out of this pandemic.

For all of us in the food and hospitality industry, or any business for that matter, now more than ever, CASHFLOW should be KING. That’s our lifeline and keeping it at a healthy level will definitely increase our chances of getting through this crisis still standing.

At this juncture, it’s best that you pay attention to where your business’ money is going so your cashflow doesn’t get interrupted during your survival mode.

LIMIT YOUR MENU ITEMS so that you don’t have to buy and keep a lot of raw materials in storage. Keep the menu down to a bare minimum by leaving only those you are popular for and are “fast moving”. There’s no use having a really wide range of menu items at this time when not all of them are selling out fast. You might even end up throwing some of them away when you find out the ingredients you bought were getting spoiled because they’re not being used much.

KEEP TRACK OF YOUR WASTAGE. You might be surprised at how much raw ingredients are getting wasted in the course of a month. You might not notice it on a daily basis but when compounded, it could still amount to something big. Any form of food wastage is still a waste of good money. Take for example if you’re a pizzeria. It may seem normal for your operations to dust your working table with a little flour, but if you don’t control how much flour is allotted to the dusting part of your pizza making process, you could end up consuming more than you think in a month! Yes. To save that much, you have to dig that deep.

MAKE YOUR MARKETING CAMPAIGNS LASER-TARGETED. This is the part where knowing your target market pays you back well. No matter how hard times are, you’ll still need some marketing to get the word out about your curbside pick-up, delivery, or dine-in services. To save money, of course you may opt to cut down on your marketing budget, but with a reduced budget, you can still do so much. You just have to throw your message to the right segment of your target audience to ensure that your ads don’t fall on deaf ears or blind eyes. It’s inefficient to just spend on an ad that’s aimed at the general public and hoping you hit the right people by accident. Aim your marketing campaigns right at those people whom you know will convert.

DRIVE YOUR DECISIONS WITH DATA. This might be something that you wouldn’t expect to hear from someone when talking about cashflow, but trust me, being a data-driven business has its rewards. Paying attention to what’s selling hot from your menu items, what’s going on with your raw materials in storage, and how the market is responding to your ads will make you flexible when allocating what’s left of your budget. There isn’t a strict rule to follow with saving money for the rainy days but it does benefit you if you know how your strategies are working out for you.

The restaurant industry is still in a highly volatile state. There is much work to be done. Don’t let the pressure of surviving get into your head. It’s easy to lose track of things when your head is not in the game. Take a breather, rethink, and strategize.