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3 Reasons Why Your Kitchen Staff Are Underperforming

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | 3 Reasons Why Your Kitchen Staff Are UnderperformingCustomer wait time is one of the most important metrics in the restaurant industry. You could have everything right, but if the service times are too long, this will eventually play against your establishment. How good your kitchen staff are will have an effect on that, but you could also be making mistakes that are hindering workflow and making things more difficult for them. Here are some of the possible reasons why your staff aren’t performing as well as they should.

Your Kitchen Doesn’t Reflect Your Current Needs

If you’ve bought an old establishment and kept some of the equipment as part of the deal, then it might not fit the current demand. For instance, if your cold room is too small for your current needs, not only will it make things difficult when staff are trying to find things, or go in and out, you could end up facing some health violations because you ran out of space and had to cut corners.

If that is the case, we strongly suggest you invest in a bespoke cold room. This will allow you to build one that will take minimal space in the kitchen while still being efficient. You’ll be able to organise the storage in a way that fits your needs the most. Companies like fridgefreezerdirect.co.uk can build all types of cold rooms and walk-in freezers according to your exact specifications. Look for a provider that can build one that will fit the best within your kitchen’s floor plan.

You’re Using Time Wasting Processes

In many cases, you could get things done much faster if you reconsider some of your processes. For instance, if you only have a few burners available, but have a huge convection oven, you could use the convection oven to cook rice by using rice, water, and foil covered metal containers instead. You shouldn’t be afraid of the freezer either. There will be little difference between a frozen soup base or tomato sauce and a fresh one, so consider cooking more in batches and use the freezer when you can without sacrificing quality.

The Floor is Unsafe

If people don’t feel safe in the kitchen, they will not perform as well. They will constantly be afraid of causing an accident or seriously injuring themselves. This is why your kitchen’s layout has to be organised with safety in mind first and foremost.

With an ergonomic design, you’ll be able to reduce the amount of movement your employees have to make. Proper lighting and ventilation are essential as well. No one wants to work in a smelly, smoke filled kitchen. Your employees have to be able to see what they’re doing as well to avoid accidents.

Improving your kitchen’s productivity comes down to a few simple principles. Make sure that you take a look at how your kitchen is designed and look for possible pain points. And don’t be afraid to ask your staff for recommendations either.

The most common financial mistakes graduate entrepreneurs make

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |Graduate Entrepreneurs|The most common financial mistakes graduate entrepreneurs makeAmongst the world’s ambitious graduates are some of the next generation’s entrepreneurs and innovators. Some will have a carefully defined business plan. Others will have little more than a dream and bundles of enthusiasm.

Starting out in business straight after Uni isn’t easy. For the bright-eyed grad, a lack of life experience and industry expertise, along with a mountain of student debt can make the business journey a particularly tricky one. A recent report by CNBC warns that with graduate debt at around $30,000 for many students, starting a business is a huge challenge. It really is no wonder graduate entrepreneurship is declining.

As well as student debt, there is also the issue of financial know-how. Let’s take a look at some of the most common financial blunders graduate entrepreneurs make.

1. Not having a business plan

Accounting firm, OS Accounting, say “One of the mistakes a lot of entrepreneurs make when launching a start-up, including graduates, is to forge ahead with an idea without proper planning. Starting a business without a business plan is risky. It’s the fundamental starting point for testing whether or not a business idea is feasible.”

A business plan sets out the financial and operational objectives. With a well-developed business plan, entrepreneurs are also much more likely to attract angel investors or secure funding from venture capitalists.

2. Overestimating revenue

Brimming with optimism, entrepreneurs are renowned for overestimating revenue. In fact, for many eager graduates launching a start-up, revenue expectations are unrealistic. David Cummings, an Atlanta-based tech entrepreneur who has founded 10 companies, understands all too well the pitfalls of overestimating revenue.

3. Overspending on set up

A whopping 29 per cent of start-ups fail because they run out of cash. Early-stage entrepreneurs face specific challenges as they often lack business skills. Many entrepreneurs overspend on office space and tech tools.
With remote working becoming the norm, the virtual office, where possible, can save a lot during set up. Taking time to properly research tech tools can also save money. Various pieces of tech often overlap – as they are charged per user, spend can easily go up if this isn’t given attention.

4. Misunderstanding the difference between profit and cashflow

Things can look good on paper, but if a business runs out of cash it is in trouble. Poor cashflow planning and running out of cash is, according to Forbes, in the top 10 reasons why entrepreneurs fail.

Not all entrepreneurs have savvy accounting skills when they set out in business. Some basic accounting knowledge can prove invaluable. Most businesses record revenue and expenditure when it is incurred (rather than when invoices are paid). This means it is possible for a business to be profitable on paper, but not have any cash in the bank.
Business coach, Stever Robbins says the difference between profit and cashflow is often the difference between success and bankruptcy. Being able to read the accounts and understand the cash position in a business is vital.

5. Mixing personal and business accounts

Running a business through a personal bank account is never a good idea. Business banking should be kept separate and the importance of this is all too often ignored by eager graduates who want to avoid the expense of a business bank account.

Mixing personal and business bank accounts can also turn out to be a nightmare when it comes to tax reporting. It makes it easier to miss expenses and could be an issue if the business is investigated by the Inland Revenue.
In an article for Inc., Levi King, entrepreneur, CEO and Co-Founder of Nav, advises never to mix personal and business finances for the following reasons:

• Separating business and personal finances helps you look legit
• It helps to achieve a stronger business credit score
• It helps with tax reporting

6. Not budgeting or planning for tax

All businesses have tax obligations to the state and locally, and tax bills can hit fast and hard. Ignoring taxes is one of the top business budgeting mistakes. Seeking tax advice prior to starting a business is also something many entrepreneurs fail to do, but with the right tax strategy, tax liability could be considerably lower.

7. Not having an emergency fund

Cashflow is king when it comes to business. Many graduates finish their education in debt, not with an emergency fund they can fall back on during hard times. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that approximately one-third of all businesses fail within the first two years because of cashflow issues.

Summary

In spite of the pitfalls, there are many advantages of launching a start-up as a new graduate. New grads actually make great entrepreneurs. Many graduates are both innovative and more financially-savvy than they get credit for. The student mentality of surviving on a pittance can also bring business benefits.

There are lots of financial considerations for graduates, including how to repay student loans and finding a deposit for somewhere to live. That doesn’t mean graduates can’t start their own business. Here are 8 reasons why as a graduate you might want to give entrepreneurship a go. Remember, business planning is key!

The 3 Best Ways To Implement A Leaner Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | The 3 Best Ways To Implement A Leaner Business

When we are doing our utmost to create a flexible business, that embodies numerous characteristics that benefits the employees and the employer, this is when we have to start paring things down to the bare essentials. The concept of a lean business is something that has proven to be a very effective model for managing teams, in various industries like manufacturing and construction. What are the fundamental principles of implementing a leaner business, and how can we bring these about?

Look For Constant Improvement

Striving for a constant source of improvement is one of the key aspects, and after alleviating the bottlenecks in your process, and establishing a pull system, you need to find ways to continually improve your operations. This is all about enhancing the value while removing the waste. Automation is one of the main components that can help in this respect, and while there are numerous things that you can automate, you need to start simply, with some of the in-house processes that impact the employees directly. You can see more here about invoice automation, and this is one little thing that can make life so much easier all around. Automation is one aspect that you can implement to create constant improvement.

Setting Clear Goals

You have to understand what your end goal is, and you need to communicate this to everybody in your organization. What are you trying to achieve? Whatever the goal is, you have to ensure that it is clearly defined. A clear goal means that you will have a better chance of streamlining your process is accordingly. From there, you can learn how to improve your strengths and minimize your weaknesses. A SWOT analysis certainly provides food for thought in this respect, and once you realize l where your failings are, perhaps this could provide more clarity in setting the goals.

Adopting The Proper Culture

Workplace culture is crucial to improve your business continuously. As the organization demands a certain mindset, this is directly borne out of the culture of the company. Changing the culture from within is a long process, but you can make specific alterations to ensure you head in the right direction. You sure to start small, but also think about altering the mindset of the people that work for you. You can do this by hiring the right sort of people and then you can make those small alterations go further. A proper workplace culture provides ethics, the mindset, as well as the appropriate level of productivity.

A lean business is all about simplicity. This is something many of us tend to overlook. It could be a difficult thing to get started, but once we understand our set goals, this is where our inherent feelings are. And when we embrace the challenge to turn our business into a lean one, we will see the benefits, not just in terms of productivity, the culture of the organization, but we will also see the benefits years down the line. The fact is that it’s not just a process, but it is a way of life.

Should You Hire a Digital Marketing Agency?

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, Should You Hire a Digital Marketing Agency?

Digital marketing is a vital component of any modern business’ strategy for growth and development. But while many businesses recognize the importance of digital marketing, many of them are still trying to keep their costs down by doing it all themselves. Unfortunately for them, this is a recipe for disaster.

Hiring an outside digital marketing agency might seem like a more expensive option, but it offers a number of advantages.

Access the Skills You Need

Putting together a digital marketing team in-house might seem like a more cost-effective option, but this isn’t true for most businesses. In fact, for the majority of businesses, opening your own digital marketing department is going to be significantly more expensive than hiring a Digital Marketing Agency.

Not only is it difficult and expensive to bring onboard people with the specific skills that you need, these people probably won’t be needed on a continual basis. It is worth having some permanent members of your team who can monitor the progress of any current campaigns and can help you to work on your general marketing strategies. But you should bring in the heavy hitters when you really need them.

Maximize Your ROI

ROI is one of the most important things to consider whenever your business is spending money. It doesn’t matter if you are spending a couple of dollars or hundreds of thousands of dollars, you should always be making sure that money is being spent as wisely as possible and is bringing tangible benefits to your business.

Digital marketing agencies are run and staged by talented and experienced marketers; the people who are best positioned to ensure your campaign is as effective and efficient as it can possibly be. Not only this, but digital marketing agencies will know how to best allocate your available budget for maximum returns.

Gain Insight and Perspective

Any team that you assemble in-house is going to be necessarily limited by the skills and experience they possess. A digital marketing agency will be able to pull in individuals from a variety of backgrounds to ensure that they are bringing everything to the table that your business needs to make a success of your next digital marketing campaign.

Meet Your Deadlines

When you are responsible for your own marketing, there is always a temptation to give yourself a bit more time or a bit more money to achieve your goals. This means that campaigns end up being less disciplined and valuable lessons are never learned.

By contrast, a digital marketing agency will always work to the parameters that you set for them. If you tell them that you need a campaign produced within a certain budget or timeframe, they will work to your specifications.

Hiring a dedicated outside marketing agency will ensure that your business has access to all the skills, knowledge, and resources that it needs to pull off a successful campaign. Don’t be put off by the costs involved; if you want to maximize your ROI from your digital marketing campaigns, an outside agency is a much safer bet than trying to do it all in-house.

Finding More Flexibility For Your Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Finding More Flexibility For Your Business

We live in a competitive environment where the business is fueled by technology 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and because of this, we need to be flexible. The days where you could create business plans a year ahead of time and expect to be able to stick to them with nothing changing are long gone. While planning is a necessity to succeed in business, particularly for long-term vision, short-term activity and flexibility are just as important. You need to be able to move when needed and respond quickly to changes in the market.

Now that we have so much business data, there is an endless supply of information available regarding our customers, our competitors, and our business results. While this is so useful, and we have more insight than ever before, the minute you make an important decision, it’s highly likely that new data will come along and completely change your direction. Rather than seeing this as a bad thing, it’s important to see how great it is because it allows you to correct the course that your business is going and make sure that by changing strategy and adapting to new results that you get the desired results that you forecasted. This is a good thing and something to be embraced, so look at new data as a mountain of information and an endless stream of insight that will allow you to flexibly change your plan to ensure success.

Embracing these new customers from new generations who have been born with the internet and mobile phones as the norm in their lives means that you need to give them what they want and that requires flexibility in how we communicate with them. You need to be able to move flexibly with your audience and growing customer base to introduce them to your brand but on their terms, rather than how you think it should be.

Technology has also meant that there has been a huge shift in the traditional business model; just look at the number of brick-and-mortar stores which are closing each week. The way we do business has dramatically changed, so if your business isn’t flexible enough to keep up with the changing times, then it will get left behind. You need to be flexible enough to shift your business model as you need to, and you can do this by using your customers and their needs as your guide. As things change, you have to get used to the fact that your old habits probably won’t work anymore, so it’s important to change them in order to create new ways of driving your business forward. Again, this isn’t a bad thing, as a change in the business model just means a new opportunity for growth. To succeed in business, it is more important to be flexible right now than it ever has been and what this means is that you may just have to make newer and bigger decisions on a daily basis to keep your business fresh and up to date as you gather new information. It might seem like a lot of hard work, but at least it makes things interesting, and if you get used to this way of working then you will easily attract new customers, and find it easier each time you need to refresh your business model for continued success.

Flexibility in the way businesses operate can take many forms, but adaptability and agility are increasingly becoming key attributes in competitive enterprise scenarios. There is a real need for flexibility at a strategic level, both in terms of the way in which businesses operate and from the perspective of individual employees. Here’s a look at some of the essential ways in which businesses can look to make their operations and their workforces more flexible:

Remote working

Through technological advancements, remote working has been made increasingly possible over the past decade or so, and it’s now an accepted part of the way many organizations operate. Different roles bring particular demands on individuals, but virtually all businesses stand to benefit from giving members of their workforce the chance to function as normal from almost anywhere.

Deploying new solutions

Equipping staff with the smartphones, tablets, and laptops they need to operate seamlessly on the move or wherever they might be is vitally important in the context of enterprises becoming flexible. But new software solutions and cloud-based business applications can be crucial too in giving businesses the best chance to be flexible and more efficient in a variety of valuable ways. There are also more physical ways to ensure flexibility, for example, if your business manages a fleet of vehicles then look at getting a Watchcard which allows you the convenience and flexibility to fuel anywhere in the U.S. with the control and security to monitor and limit purchases, track suspicious activity, and access fuel data about your fleet. This flexibility means you can manage your fleet effectively while saving time and money and gives you the power to drive your business forward and save.

Flexible hours

The advance of communications technologies of different sorts has opened up the prospect for employees of working from home and in patterns that suit their individual needs. Businesses that embrace flexible working are seeing benefits in terms of employee morale and staff retention but also from the perspective of meeting customer needs. Companies of all sizes increasingly need to be operational around the clock and having resources’ out of hours’ has become an integral part of how service providers deliver what their customers want without disruption.

Cash Flow Options

As we all know, cash flow is the lifeblood of businesses big or small and ensuring financial flexibility can be the difference between a company remaining operational and biting the dust. For small to medium-sized operators, in particular, financial margins can be tight and unforgiving. So, being aware of, and having in place, a number of emergency financing options can often be essential in keeping companies afloat during times of acute pressure on cash flows and income streams.

Be Flexible With Flexibility

While many think of being flexible in business as offering flexible hours and working from home, there is actually a lot more to making a business a flexible one. Have a look at where you can make differences to your employees, for example; you could introduce secondments, career breaks, and volunteering opportunities. All of these opportunities will make you a far more attractive employer for the new generation of employees to work for. You have to be flexible in adapting to what prospective employees are now looking for in the workplace and take these needs and wants into account. If you are good to your employees then, in turn, people will be loyal to you as an employer. If you can be understanding that your employees need breaks; they might want to explore, volunteer and travel and shouldn’t have to lose a job they love and are good at just because of having interesting outside of work. If you are the employee then again, speak out and tell your employer what it is you want, they either want to lose you, or they don’t, but any career break or secondment will only be good for your career and experience so they’d be silly not to offer you the chance to come back.

Flexibility is something of a buzzword in business at present, but it isn’t necessarily worth pursuing its own sake. What flexibility really means and why it’s important is that it makes businesses more robust, more adaptable, more competitive, and better prepared for whatever opportunities and challenges the future might bring.