How to Improve Profit Margins

From a cost perspective, puzzles are engineered to make money, but guests just aren’t ordering them. Maybe they’re priced too high, and people don’t see the value. Perhaps the portions are not enough. Or they have a flavor profile that your guests don’t expect from your restaurant. Compare your puzzles with your stars and see if you can modify them to excite your guests. And if all else fails, consider removing them altogether.

Dogs are costing your restaurant double. They’re expensive to make and they don’t sell. Take a hard look at your dogs and ask yourself a few questions. How long have they been unpopular? Have their ingredient costs recently gone up? Why are they on the menu? If you need to downsize your menu, dogs should be the first place to start. It’s always hard to get rid of menu items, but it’s even harder to keep losing money.

In the back of house, technology has revolutionized managing the cost of goods sold (COGS), through inventory, recipe management and comprehensive expense reporting. With digital solutions, restaurants can monitor inventory levels, track expenses and streamline purchasing. Solutions like MarginEdge have profoundly transformed restaurant operations by enhancing efficiency and effectiveness. Traditionally, restaurant operators faced the tedious task of manually entering and interpreting COGS data, which was both timeconsuming and prone to error.

Now these processes are streamlined, significantly cutting back on labor hours required to manage financial data. Its real-time insights allow operators to instantly access up-to-date information on sales, inventory and expenses, enabling them to make informed, data-backed decisions that can maximize profitability. This proactive approach fosters more strategic financial planning and agile responses to operational challenges, ultimately leading to more successful and responsive businesses.