Cutting Costs: 7 Ways For Restaurants To Lower Expenses

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Are your restaurant’s expenses eating away at your profits? Cutting costs could be the recipe to success, but it’s important that you choose the right costs to cut. Below are a few ways in which you can trim the fat from your budget without sacrificing food quality or service.

Optimize opening hours

There’s no point in staying open on a Wednesday between 2pm and 5pm if it’s unlikely you’re going to get any customers walking in. Shutting your restaurant during quiet hours or even on quiet days can help to eliminate unnecessary energy usage and reduce the cost of hiring staff during these hours. Yes, you may lose out on the odd customer, but it’s possible that you may not have made a profit out of that customer anyway had you been open. Just make sure that you are open during busy periods.  

Reduce food waste

While using fresh ingredients can attract customers, you need to be wary of their expiry date. Constantly letting ingredients expire will lead to heavy financial losses. This is why so many restaurants choose frozen ingredients – you can get great deals by using frozen vegetables suppliers and your veggies can be kept much longer without having to throw them out. While using frozen ingredients can reduce flavour in some instances, this is not always the case. Know when to go fresh and when to go frozen to reduce food waste. Offering discounts on dishes made from ingredients that are going to expire soon can also help reduce waste. 

Use local seasonal ingredients

If you’re determined to use fresh ingredients in dishes, try to consider recipes that use seasonal ingredients. Such ingredients won’t have to be shipped from abroad and therefore could be cheaper to purchase. You’ll also be supporting local farmers and producers. 

Negotiate with suppliers

Many restaurant suppliers are open to negotiation on prices. Don’t be afraid to collect quotes from different suppliers and ask for discounts and price matches. You could find that you’re overspending on certain ingredients.

Embrace automation and self-service

There may be certain processes that you can automate to reduce time and reduce costs. An example includes using a commercial dishwashing machine instead or washing dishes by hand. Similarly, you may be able to encourage customers to do things themselves in order to reduce labour, such as installing a self-service coffee machine or even switching to a buffet-style restaurant.

Consider removing low profit dishes

You should consider whether low profit dishes are worth preparing. If these dishes are very popular, it’s possible that you may still make a decent amount of money out of them. However, less popular low profit dishes should be removed from your menu. Meanwhile, you should consider promoting high profit items.

Explore ways to boost revenue

Making cutbacks isn’t the only way to improve your profits. Consider also finding new ways to increase revenue such as increasing prices on certain items, hosting parties and classes, or upselling certain items like sides and dishes.