Price $149.00

What Every Operator Should Know About Managing the Financial Side of their Restaurant

Target Audience: Independent restaurant owners and managers

Everyone knows that operating a restaurant is about serving food and taking care of customers, but a restaurant is also a business. Success in this business is not just measured in terms of smiling, satisfied customers but also in the cold, hard realities of facts, figures and finances. There is a big difference between running a restaurant and managing a business.

This program gives restaurant owners and managers practical, common-sense guidance that?s essential in managing the financial or business side of their restaurant. In an understandable, jargon-free approach, you?ll learn practical, easy-to-implement systems and techniques. You?ll get the knowledge you need to effectively manage this critical aspect of creating and sustaining a financially viable business.

Part 1: Introduction
Time: 23 minutes

• The difference between "running a restaurant" and "building a business"
• The best way to quickly and accurately assess the profit potential of any restaurant
• The critical "check points" on any restaurant?s P&L and what they reveal
• How to size up your restaurant?s financial performance
• How to use a "restaurant industry standard" format to present and report your financial information
• How to evaluate and compare your prime cost, occupancy expenses and profit margins to other independent restaurants

Part 2: Getting the Most Out of Your Financial Information
Time: 25 minutes

• Practical ways to get more value out of your P&L
• Understanding what your accountant does and how to keep them on their toes
• The benefits of using the National Restaurant Association?s "Uniform System of Accounts for Restaurants"
• The best way to format restaurant financial projects in loan and financial packages
• How to reduce the time it takes to conduct physical inventories
• Why many successful restaurants inventory more than just food and beverages
• Why many restaurants use a 28 day accounting period, not a monthly one

Part 3: Cash Flow Competence
Time: 24 minutes

• How to understand and read your balance sheet
• What your profit and loss statement doesn?t tell you about your business that you need to know
• The difference between profit and cash
• Understanding the important relationships between your P&L, balance sheet and check book
• Why even "profitable" restaurants can and often do have cash flow problems
• How to anticipate cash shortfalls and not be "surprised"
• Effective and creative ways to prevent cash flow challenges from becoming major problems

Part 4: Key Industry Averages: How Does Your Restaurant Stack Up?
Time: 26 minutes

• How a key balance sheet ratio, the current ratio, can be very different for restaurants than other businesses & why you may need to explain this to your banker.
• Industry guidelines to quickly identify excess food, liquor, beer and wine in inventory.
• How to use the ?Sales to Investment? ratio to evaluate expansion decisions.
• The economic differences between ?leasing? a facility and ?purchasing? the land & building.
• A systematic way to estimate sales volume in a proposed restaurant.
• Why restaurants with high food costs can still be extremely profitable.
• Industry averages for liquor, beer, wine, paper and payroll costs.

Part 5: Financial Best Practices
Time: 28 minutes

• Financial and profit enhancing insights used by the most profitable restaurateurs in the business.
• How to improve your cash management skills and reduce the likelihood you?ll get caught scrambling for funds when mandatory tax and other payments are due.
• For financial information to be useful it?s got to be current. Simple ideas for getting your financial statements in your hands quicker.
• An easy method for getting your cost of sales and labor costs each week. With this report your prime costs will go down - GUARANTEED.
• How sharp operators use the break-even approach for staying on top of their restaurants? profit performance.
• A quick, uncomplicated way to calculate the break-even and profitability of any restaurant.