Long gone are the days when orders are taken with pen and paper and rung up on a cash register whilst the business owner wiles away doing their bookkeeping on a desktop software accounting product like MYOB weeks after the fact. In the hospitality industry where long hours are worked and margins are tight there has to be a better way and technology is the key.
Have you noticed those hospitality businesses that take orders on digital devices? Have you met an owner that knows on a daily basis how their profits are tracking? Technology is currently transforming the hospitality industry and we know that businesses with high digital engagement enjoy a 20% increase in revenues [i].
Don’t you want that to be your business? So where do you start …
Sales is the key driver for any business so let’s start there. Utilising social media and reservation systems to get people into your establishment is great but what next? You need to be able to take orders quickly and accurately. Utilising point of sale systems based in the cloud, such as Kounta, enables you to take orders accurately (with less human error) and more efficiently. Linking your point of sale to your payment terminal by utilising products such as CBA’s Albert, also saves time and improves accuracy.
What next? Purchases are one of the highest costs in a hospitality business so another good place to get the biggest bang out of your change buck would be to improve your purchasing systems by utilising technology.
· Do you know the profit you make on every meal?
· Are you keeping track of stock?
If not you may be unknowingly watching your profits walk out the door. Track your purchases and stock and even recipes through a software product like Kounta, providing real time data on stock and profit margins, as well as tracking wastage.
Wage costs can be significant so why not use cloud software like Deputy to manage and track employee costs giving you the ability to roster staff to meet demand and customer service expectations.
Utilising cloud based accounting software like Xero which is easy to use and enables automation of your accounting back end will help to deliver real time reporting to enable better decision making.
Why cloud based products? So you can link and integrate your systems to talk to each other. The cloud is the next evolution of the internet, it’s accessible anywhere, anytime and provides low price monthly subscriptions with little to no hardware costs.
Implementing these changes in your business might seem daunting but with the right help and support it can be seamless. We know as we specialise in hospitality and have helped many of our clients move to the cloud. The time for change is now, don’t let the excuses of I’m too busy or I’ve always done it that way hold your business back any longer as it will be left behind, take up the opportunity for change today and put profits back in your pocket!
[i]: Deloitte Access Economics: Connected Small Business – How Australian small businesses are growing in the digital economy
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