3 Ways to Boost Your Restaurant’s Revenue Next Month
The long-term affects that COVID will have on restaurants and other small businesses is truly just being realized now. With many businesses having gone into debt in order to survive, it will take a long time to recover and, truly, get back to normal.
This leaves a lot of restaurants struggling to figure out a path to get there.
None of this should be construed as financial advice. I am far from a financial advisor (although I am married to one). By all means, if you’re in a tight position with your business, talk to your financial institution about what can be done.
On the more practical side, here are 3 ways that I’ve got to help your restaurant boost its revenue as early as next month.
1. Launch a new dish
It seems simple. It is. But it isn’t, all at the same time.
Launching a new dish gives your followers something to be excited about. It gives the impression your establishment is not only surviving, but thriving. Dying businesses don’t debut new products. While the financial health of your business doesn’t matter a whole lot to its patrons, it sends subliminal signals to your customers that “This restaurant is a place I should keep my eye on.”
There’s one important caveat with this suggestion though: it has to be incredible. Sometimes it’ll be a wacky idea (like dill pickles on a pizza), and other times it’ll just be a really high-end take on an old favourite.
You want the conversation around town to be “You gotta try this!” about your new dish.
If you launch something that’s only really average, you won’t see the spike you’re looking for at all. It needs to be memorable, it needs to be easily explained. It needs to be something to write home about.
Swing for the fences here!
2. Promote it
Sorry if this seems like a cop-out of an answer, but it’s a problem often enough that it bears its own discussion.
This should be a no-brainer, but for at least a month after launching your new dish, it should be talked about in the following ways:
Repeatedly posted about on social media
Visible very clearly on the front of your website
Something servers or staff mention to new customers
It’s all too common that restaurants think launching the new product is the equivalent of promoting it. It’s not. The vast majority of your patrons won’t follow you on social media and might not be aware of your new menu addition until someone mentions it.
If you think you’re becoming annoying with how much you’re talking about your new menu item, that’s probably when you know you’re discussing it often enough.
That is to say: until you’re blue in the face, it’s important you keep talking mentioning the new menu item. Again, we want it to be the talk of the town.
3. Stop offering cheaper or worse-profit dishes
There are dishes on every menu that either require more prep time, a more-expensive list of ingredients, or are otherwise not as profitable as other dishes.
In the same month you launch your new menu item, take away at least one of these other options.
Launching new dishes can build a culture of a rotating menu. A rotating menu is a reason to come back. There’s nothing quite like the experience of trying something incredible for the first time. If your menu hasn’t changed in 25 years, you might be losing that opportunity.
Of course of course: if you’re a steak place, it doesn’t make sense to eliminate steak. If you’re a pizza place, you still want to offer a cheese pizza.
I’m not advocating for absurdity, but I am advocating for regularly examining your menu to see where you can afford to trim the fat.
Bonus: 4. Limited time offers
Consider this making up for #2 if you felt like it was too obvious.
Make your new dish a limited time offer. What this does is creates a sense of urgency and FOMO — Fear Of Missing Out.
Urgency and limits drive sales.
People don’t want to be left behind as having missed their opportunity. You—as a restaurant owner—can take advantage of that by putting an end date on when that new dish comes off your menu.
When that deadline approaches, you have four options about how to handle it:
Take if off the menu forever (as promised)
Extend the length of it being offered “due to popular demand”
Make it a permanent fixture on the menu if it’s a good seller + profitable
Take if off the menu but bring it back again in the future
What of those approaches you decide to take depends entirely on how well it sold, how well it integrates into your kitchen, and how well you think it will perform long term.
The takeaway from this is: nothing is permanent. You have the right to change your mind. Just because something was limited doesn’t mean it has to be forever. You have lots of options. Exercise them as needed!
In conclusion:
These are the big ways that I know of to help bring in new revenue to your restaurant sooner than later.
Of course, none of these things are going to be an overnight success. There’s no such thing.
But I’d encourage you to experiment and try out something new. It could be the very first step in helping your restaurant earn more money!
