By David Scott Peters

Restaurant Tip of the Week

There are three basic tools/reports you need to understand when it comes to demystifying financial statements. They are the balance sheet, the profit and loss statement (P&L) and the general ledger. All of these tools are intimately connected; one cannot exist independently of the others.

The P&L

Let’s make an assumption that you take a picture of the business (a balance sheet) on the last day of each month. That picture has changed from one photo to the next. Things happened to make those pictures change; deliveries were accepted at the back door, customers came and purchased your products, people worked and were paid, and so on. A P&L is like a movie showing all of those things happening on a daily basis. Simply put, a P&L is a moving picture or movie that shows everything that went on in your restaurant between the times you took the photos.

David Scott Peters is a restaurant expert, coach, trainer and speaker, specializing in teaching independent restaurant owners how to use systems for increased sales and increased profits. He is the nationally acclaimed restaurant coach whose unique “SMART Systems” approach to boosting profits has earned him the title of, “The man who can walk into any restaurant in America and find $10,000 in undiscovered cash before he hits the back door – Guaranteed!” Visit www.TheRestaurantExpert.com for more. Learn more tips, tricks and secrets in David’s free five-part e-course, “How to Explode Your Restaurant Profits NOW!” Simply sign up to receive the e-course at TheRestaurantExpert.com.

By David Scott Peters

Following a few of my favorite four-wall marketing ideas.

Have a calendar of events to tell people what’s going on in your restaurant. Include everything from live music to the night when kids eat free. Include happy hours and special event celebrations, such as a prime rib dinner for two for New Year’s Eve. Put the calendar wherever it’s appropriate in your restaurant: on the tables, in your menu, on the walls, etc. But please make sure to keep it current. Replace those calendars on the first of the month without fail.

Put a fishbowl up front to collect business cards for a free lunch. Do a drawing for one winner a day for something small. Let your frequent diners win something. They won’t want to eat their free meal alone, so they’ll be sure to bring their friends. Or go bigger and pull a card a week for a happy hour for 10 of their closest friends. Include a set number of drinks and appetizers. They’ll have so much fun; they’ll stick around and spend more money. Then post who won and bring attention to the fact that your frequent customers are rewarded.

Try a bounce-back, something that encourages people to come back to earn their reward. This is like a frequent diner card. Give customers a card and once they get 10 punches, they get a free meal, appetizer, something. But make sure it matches what they’ve been spending. If you punch the card for sandwiches, reward them with a free sandwich, not a free drink or bag of chips.

In full-service restaurants, give them a bounce-back coupon with their checks to drive other parts of the business. For example, for lunch customers, you could give a $1 off a breakfast order. Whatever your bounce-back is, make it worthwhile. Give them a reason to come back.

Marketing within your four walls to the people who are in your store is a great use of your money.

David Scott Peters is a restaurant expert, coach, trainer and speaker, specializing in teaching independent restaurant owners how to use systems for increased sales and increased profits. He is the nationally acclaimed restaurant coach whose unique “SMART Systems” approach to boosting profits has earned him the title of, “The man who can walk into any restaurant in America and find $10,000 in undiscovered cash before he hits the back door – Guaranteed!” Visit www.TheRestaurantExpert.com for more. Learn more tips, tricks and secrets in David’s free five-part e-course, “How to Explode Your Restaurant Profits NOW!” Simply sign up to receive the e-course at TheRestaurantExpert.com.

By David Scott Peters

Restaurant Tip of the Week

There are three basic tools/reports you need to understand when it comes to demystifying financial statements. They are the balance sheet, the profit and loss statement (P&L) and the general ledger. All of these tools are intimately connected; one cannot exist independently of the others.

The balance sheet

The balance sheet is a tool that shows you the health of your business. The simplest way to think about a balance sheet is like this: take your digital camera out and take a picture of your business. Print out the photo on your printer immediately. What you will see is a snapshot in time, showing what assets you have and who owns them.

David Scott Peters is a restaurant expert, coach, trainer and speaker, specializing in teaching independent restaurant owners how to use systems for increased sales and increased profits. He is the nationally acclaimed restaurant coach whose unique “SMART Systems” approach to boosting profits has earned him the title of, “The man who can walk into any restaurant in America and find $10,000 in undiscovered cash before he hits the back door – Guaranteed!” Visit www.TheRestaurantExpert.com for more. Learn more tips, tricks and secrets in David’s free five-part e-course, “How to Explode Your Restaurant Profits NOW!” Simply sign up to receive the e-course at TheRestaurantExpert.com.

By David Scott Peters

Restaurant Tip of the Week

There are only three ways to increase your sales:
1. Find new customers.
2. Increase their visits.
3. Increase their ticket size.

The most expensive and slowest way to increase your sales is to focus on finding new customers. The easiest and fastest way to increase your sales is to increase visits and ticket size. Focus your marketing dollars in these two areas.

David Scott Peters is a restaurant expert, coach, trainer and speaker, specializing in teaching independent restaurant owners how to use systems for increased sales and increased profits. He is the nationally acclaimed restaurant coach whose unique “SMART Systems” approach to boosting profits has earned him the title of, “The man who can walk into any restaurant in America and find $10,000 in undiscovered cash before he hits the back door – Guaranteed!” Visit www.TheRestaurantExpert.com for more. Learn more tips, tricks and secrets in David’s free five-part e-course, “How to Explode Your Restaurant Profits NOW!” Simply sign up to receive the e-course at TheRestaurantExpert.com.

By David Scott Peters

Restaurant Tip of the Week

Know Your Restaurant Accounting

Understanding your accounting is a building block of your success. Why? Because the financial statements are the report card for the business and if you get a bad report card, you need to know where to look to get your grades up. Your accountant is the expert, but you do need to be able to recognize if what they have produced is accurate. It’s important to know what they need to give you reports that are useful in running the restaurant. If you don’t know how to read your financial statements, ask for a tutorial.

David Scott Peters is a restaurant expert, coach, trainer and speaker, specializing in teaching independent restaurant owners how to use systems for increased sales and increased profits. He is the nationally acclaimed restaurant coach whose unique “SMART Systems” approach to boosting profits has earned him the title of, “The man who can walk into any restaurant in America and find $10,000 in undiscovered cash before he hits the back door – Guaranteed!” Visit www.TheRestaurantExpert.com for more. Learn more tips, tricks and secrets in David’s free five-part e-course, “How to Explode Your Restaurant Profits NOW!” Simply sign up to receive the e-course at TheRestaurantExpert.com.