Saturday, 22 June 2013

Searching For A Good Food Service Consultant

By Lila Barry


When a new restaurant first opens, their business is usually quite busy. A few weeks later, however, they will likely see a sizable decrease in the number of customers they are serving each day. There are still a few customers coming in sporadically, but the number is a decrease drastically, instead of increasing. Owners often find themselves struggling with kitchen management and the total cost of labor is taking a significant portion of their profit. Now is the time to hire a food service consultant to help find a solution to these problems.

Advertising efforts have been less than helpful, especially since the owner has no real experience in this area of business. They are working many long days and putting in a lot of hours, but business just isn't picking up. A consultant can provide the help needed to get a new restaurant growing and allow the owner to see an increase in profits.

Most new restaurants owners don't have an interest in hiring yet another person to help them. Sometimes this is because they don't like the idea of someone else make changes and sometimes it is purely because of the cost. What you must realize though, is hiring a consultant is a small investment toward building a better business and not having to do it by trial and error.

There are a surprising number of restaurant owners who have no prior experience in the food industry. They don't realize, until they are already having problems, that there is a lot of work involved in running a successful business. Once a new owner embraces that realization and accepts it, they are usually ready to have someone with years of experience step in to help.

A consultant's expertise can be useful in many areas of daily business operations. They can help choose a prime location if the owner is only in the planning phase. They can even assist with the designing and branding of the business. They might also offer helpful advice from a financial standpoint as well.

If your business has already been open for a little while, they can help develop a plan for more efficient operations. They can assess your hired management and provide their suggestions as well. They can even helps with the design of a better employee training program, if it is needed.

When you begin your search for a consultant to hire, take your time. Attempt to recognize the problems you are dealing with first. By knowing what problems you need to work on, you can focus your search for a person with a lot of experience in that area of business.

If you know there are issues with your business, but just can't pinpoint what they are, you would need to look for a consultant who is willing to do an overall assessment first. Their expertise will allow them to quickly identify any types of issues the business is having, that might be damaging how effective operations are. They will also be able to quickly identify what can be done to increase the profit margin.

When you are looking for a good food service consultant to hire, always do a background check before hiring. Review the other businesses they have helped and inquire about how many years of experience in the industry they have. A basic interview should enable you to gather this information easily.




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