We think of performance reviews as being one of the tenets of workforce success, but times have changed as much as traditional review processes themselves. This month’s Talent Magazine provided us with several great insights into how to re-evaluate a business’ team members’ reviews, as well as ideas for self-checking their legality.
Expanding to multiple locations is exciting for every enterprise. But while there are many benefits to expansion, it can also bring on new operational challenges, as well. Before expanding, it is important to assess your operations. Whether you are a fast-casual restaurant, bakery, coffee bar, prepared foods enterprise, or any other type of food business, owning a multi-unit enterprise requires efficient, standardized operations that are clearly expressed and can be implemented in all locations. As you expand, you as an owner cannot be everywhere, so staff will need to rely on protocols and you will need to rely on your staff. In this month’s Enterprise Insight, we discuss key operational considerations that all expanding food enterprises should address.
The Big Picture
1) Production
If you produce items in-house, such as pastries, sandwiches, or other foods, determine how your production will work with multiple locations. Will each location set its own production schedule and order and produce for itself? Will the original location produce for all stores? Or, alternately, consider a commissary kitchen if you plan to expand to many locations.
2) Management Structure
Set up a clear structure for corporate management as well as for each retail outpost. With multiple locations, you as an owner will likely go from managing your retail location on a day-to-day basis to overseeing the broader business strategy of your growing enterprise. You may need to hire managers for each location. Write out job descriptions and responsibilities, and specify decision-making powers, for each position in your enterprise. This will keep the chain of command and responsibility clear for everyone, from your counter staff to your CEO.
3) Reporting and Sales Analysis
Consider how your POS system will function with multiple locations. You will want to be able to see the sales analysis for each location individually in order to optimize your product mix, production, and staff, for the target market in each location, as well as track revenue for each, so be sure to speak with your POS system representative to ensure you have the proper service and equipment and can retrieve and analyze the data.
The Day-to-Day
1) Steps of Service
Steps of service guide your employees through the day, from opening to closing. Steps of service should also address guest service, including in-store guests, phone inquiries, and email inquiries. They should detail how to greet a guest, take an order, ring up a guest, package products, and answer questions. Detailed steps of service will ensure your guest experience is the same across locations and that your employees know and adhere to company standards.
2) Catering and Wholesale Orders
Consider what system you will use to take and fulfill catering and wholesale orders. Will each store fulfill its own orders, or will a central location fulfill them? If the latter, consider how orders will be communicated to the producing location and delivered to the guest. Regardless of which system you choose, be sure to write a clear order form and include the procedures in the steps of service.
By addressing these key points, you will be able to expand confidently and efficiently to your second location and beyond. At the same time, you can be sure that your management and staff know what to do in all situations, so that you as an owner can focus on growing your enterprise.
Happy expanding…TaraPaige Group.
Freshii is looking to invest in companies that target health, fitness and food. The fast-casual chain has partnered with investment firm Kinetic Café to launch the Fresh Startups campaign. The program will fund businesses with missions that align with Freshii’s vision to make it easy and affordable for customers to maintain a healthful lifestyle. They’re accepting applications until October 4th. Read the full article here.
Planning to open a nutrition-led outlet? Anita Jones-Mueller, M.P.H., president and founder of Healthy Dining, a nutrition-related marketing and consulting firm, interviews Marley Hodgson, CEO and co-founder of MAD Greens, on growing a health-focused concept, on NRN.
Sometimes your next investor is a customer. In the Financial District of Manhattan, several eateries are finding the area is a great breeding ground for scaleable concepts, DNAinfo reports.
You’re surrounded by successful enterprises: since 2010, Potbelly Sandwich Shop, Clarke’s Standard, Chickpea, Red Mango, Crisp, Chop’t, Dig Inn, Yushi, Terri, GRK, Hot Clay Oven, Pret a Manger, Roti and Chipotle have opened in the area.
Hopeful operators are taking note. New fast casuals that are presenting a great product can catch the eye of customers looking for investment and business opportunities.
Top brands in the fashion/retail space average 46 repins on every pin, proving that those who have a presence on Pinterest, are establishing an engaged following. (Digitas)
Pinterest shoppers are spending significantly more per checkout averaging between $140-$180 per order compared with consistent $80 and $60 orders for Facebook and Twitter shoppers, respectively. (Rich Relevance)
Pinterest’s share of referrals is highest in home and furnishings, accounting for up to 60 percent of all social traffic. (Rich Relevance)
U.S. consumers who use Pinterest follow an average of 9.3 retailers on the site. (Shop.org)
Pinterest pins that include prices receive 36 percent more likes than those that do not. (Shopify)
Moms are 61 percent more likely to visit Pinterest than the average American. (Nielsen)
81 percent of U.S. online consumers trust information and advice from Pinterest. (BlogHer)
U.S. Pinterest users are more likely to live in midwestern states than other social media users. (Internet Marketing)
Pinterest accounts for 25 percent of retail referral traffic. (Rich Relevance)
Average activity of popular pinners is 2,757 pins; 35 boards; following 355. (Repinly)
In the heat of summer, you really appreciate your ice machine. It’s also a top target for health department inspections.
Restaurant Hospitality’s Dan Belman has written extensively on the subject here and here.
As he writes, if you choose the right ice maker for your restaurant, then do a few things to take care of it, this key piece of equipment should last easily 10 years.
Groupon has been increasing its interest in hospitality since its purchase of Breadcrumb last year. Now Plumfare, the food sharing application, has been acquired by Groupon.
Plumfare prompts people to take pictures of their food and share them with friends. You’re able to gift those items to your network via SMS, email, or Facebook, only paying if your friend redeems the item.
Read the full story here.
Restaurant Hospitality, with the help of Technomic and its list of the Top 200 Leading Multiconcept Operators, has examined and established a list of the smaller players in the game— 25 of them – ones who are creating, in their opinion, the most exciting restaurant concepts that others can’t wait to copy. The “Supercool” 25.
Read the list and get a closer look at each group, here.
Meet the Owner(s) is a new column on PaigePapers featuring enterprise owners running bakeries, cafes, markets, specialty food shops, and fast casual restaurants in New York City and around the country. In speaking with enterprise owners, we hope to offer readers unique perspectives on the challenges and triumphs of ownership, as well as valuable insights to apply to their own enterprises.
Recently, we spoke with Alison Cayne, founder of Haven’s Kitchen, a specialty food shop, recreational cooking school and event space in Manhattan. Located just blocks from the Union Square Greenmarket, Haven’s Kitchen “is dedicated to the preparation and enjoyment of delicious, sustainable, seasonal food.” TaraPaige Group helped Alison and her team with the opening of Haven’s Kitchen and were thrilled to catch up with her again.
Below is an abbreviated version of TaraPaige Group’s conversation with Alison.
TPG: How did the idea for Haven’s Kitchen come about?
AC: “When I first was out of college I really wanted to open a little sandwich shop, and I always loved making food for people and thought it would be fun to do that as a job. [T]hen when I went back to school, I started teaching again. I had always given my friends cooking lessons here and there, and as I started learning more about food systems, my cooking classes turned into more of food classes…about sustainability and nutrition.”
TPG: And then you started looking for a space for the school?
AC: “I didn’t really at all envision this, I just pictured the kitchen part, and I thought there’d be a little retail…and this place came up and it was way bigger than I [was looking for].”
But after seeing the building, Alison began to envision a ground level café and school, and the event spaces on higher floors. “So the idea for the whole thing as one big business didn’t really happen until the building happened.”
TPG: What was the most challenging part of starting a new venture?
AC: “I had no idea what I was doing…It was also my greatest asset, because someone with more understanding of this business and everything that goes into it probably wouldn’t have taken this on. And it’s been challenging in that I’m a very trusting person and unfortunately I’ve been challenged with having to face the fact that not everyone deserves that trust…There have been those…typical business challenges, getting this permit or that…certificate, but all of that doesn’t really get to me in a core way, it’s more the interpersonal stuff that has been challenging.”
TPG: What has been the most exciting part?
AC: “Honestly, every day is exciting. That there are people changing the way that they eat and understand sustainable and local, that chefs come to us because they like our coffee and our granola…We work with JustFood [where Alison is on the board], we work with Rural & Migrant Ministry, we work with Edible Schoolyard, we work with FarmAid. We’re actually doing very cool stuff, and that’s exciting. [P]eople have responded so well and I’m so honored.”
TPG: How have things changed now that you’re past your first year?
AC: “I’m less challenged by the interpersonal stuff now. I think I’ve gotten a little tougher skin, and I think I’ve learned how to not personalize things that are not personal. But the excitement grows. It just gets bigger. It’s still all really exciting.”
TPG: What about your day-to-day?
AC: “I taught more at the beginning…And I don’t have the time really to do that [now]. I was behind the counter a lot more at the beginning, too. I’m still behind the counter, but it’s not probably the most efficient use of my time. Although I do love our regulars and they all know me.”
“My days change from day to day. We are still dealing with contractors, we’re still growing our website. I do the Pinterest. I do the Instagram. I’m writing for the Huffington Post. I’m still in school. I still end up talking to customers because I’m always sitting in the front. I do the flowers for every private event. Every day is different, which is really fun because it keeps it very exciting.”
TPG: Sustainability is a core value of your enterprise. Can you talk a bit about building it into your enterprise?
AC: “If you’re a values-driven business, you’re going to have questions every day…My primary goal is yes, to keep the lights on, but my very, very close secondary goal is to represent the values that I am espousing. So every day is a decision, [for example when a private event] really wants to have Coke at their party, but we don’t support Coke, generally, as a business. And they don’t understand why we would prefer to serve Boylan’s…Everything is a case-by-case, and that’s the good news about being a very small team is you get to make those decisions. But they’re constant…You constantly have to keep checking yourself against that mission…We keep checking against [a set of questions]–‘are we who we say we are; are we who we want to be; have we lost something because we’re so busy.’”
TPG: You have 3 revenue streams at Haven’s Kitchen (classes, retail, and events). How do you manage all three under one roof?
AC: “It’s been and asset and it’s been a liability… Our ricotta is a perfect example. We make the ricotta from the unused milk from the coffee [bar], so that’s a really good way…to have the businesses feed off of each other. We have really good ways of being more sustainable in terms of food waste.”
But she noted it does have some challenges. “The private events right now support the whole building. We would like each business unit to be more self-sustaining. I thought the school would be more profitable. As it turns out, right now I think we have about six classes a week. I thought we’d have three classes a day, six days a week.” Furthermore, Alison noted, “Figuring out what the costs are for retail and the school are actually challenging because so much of it is tied in [to the other revenue streams].”
TPG: What are some things you wish you had known before starting your enterprise? Is there anything you would do differently?
AC: “It would be great to [have known] what COGS [Cost of Goods Sold] are. I kept looking at sales, and [saying] I don’t get it. We have such great sales, why are we losing money? And I didn’t really understand that …[y]ou can have a program where you figure out your margins. And you should run everything through that program just to know where you are. It’s the same thing with management. It’s about if you’re bringing out the best in people that you’re managing… That’s something that I wish I had known earlier on because I think that I was very nice, but I don’t necessarily think that I was as helpful as I could be. And I thought that I was giving people autonomy, but I probably wasn’t giving people enough leadership.”
TPG: What’s your favorite product or class that Haven’s Kitchen offers?
AC: “I really love everything. I happen to love our granola cookie. And I love our ricotta. And I love our pancake mix. No one would ever say that [our food is] health food, because we use butter. It’s not a quinoa-chia-date raw bar. But it does have good quality ingredients; it is made with everything you would want your food to be made with. It’s just real food and it’s really good.”
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