Restaurants Need to Adopt Green Conservation Techniques

Restaurants across the country gained the momentum love brings this past weekend as many locations reported substantially increased sales and volume attributed to the long holiday weekend. Now is the perfect time to begin conserving that green.

 

Eateries struggling to make it through the winter months reported record business. One Dallas restaurant quadrupled weekly sales and did over $40,000.00 in volume. In San Francisco, the newly opened Ristobar on Chestnut St. experienced shoulder to shoulder crowds. In Corte Madera, Sea Thai Bistro, opened just ten days ago, played to a packed house each evening, and in Yountville, Michael Chiarello's Bottega Restaurant was completely booked until the last reservation, last night.

 

Restaurants not only increased customer counts throughout the weekend, but loving couples took advantage of wine, appetizer and dessert specials many owners offered. At Norman Rose in Napa, California, patrons were offered dessert immediately following brunch. The suggestive selling proved to add dollars to the bottom line for many owners and their staff.

 

For many restaurant owners the holiday weekend was a chance to breathe easier and to temporarily detach themselves from the life support techniques needed to survive.

 

The real work, however, begins today. Vendors have been on the phone since the sun came up looking to catch up on past bills and to secure as much of the weekend's cash as possible. Jimmy Linen has called. Bobby London expects a check, and Danny Romaine is looking for some c-notes. Owners are already contemplating the meeting with the book keeper and have probably postponed it until tomorrow.  Everyone needs the day to figure things out, to juggle cash and to find the list made last week with the vendor promises on it.

 

This is where the experiences restaurant owner rises to the occasion - of survival. The problem everyone faces after a bail-out weekend is the abundance of cash and receipts seem like a financial windfall. And, it is. But now is the time to budget that windfall, conserve cash, and stash away a small amount for a back up. The weekend was just a teaser. Realize that.

 

The reality of this past weekend's business is that we will all experience a dip in business. The influx of cash that seems so plentiful today will diminish and could disappear by month's end.

 

Last week I wrote about ten tips on conserving cash and trimming costs after the long weekend. Take a look at the list if you haven't yet. It may help with the costs that have been eating away at your profits, or your ability to make a profit, at all.

 

In the meantime, remember, the c-notes wrapped in the rubber band in your pocket belong to somebody else. They're only on loan until the vendor stops by.