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Your menu ultimately determines the types of customers you will
attract, the employee skills that are necessary, the equipment you
need, and the sales and profit your restaurant will produce.
Follow these steps to develop a menu that will increase customer
satisfaction, sales, and profit:
1. Review your objectives for being in business
2. Assess your financial needs.
3. Determine the daily customer counts and check averages required
to meet your financial goals.
4. Check the capacity limiting factors of your restaurant (number
of parking spaces, number of seats, type and size of equipment
available, skill level of your staff, days and hours of operation,
menu selection, concept, location, etc.).
5. Adjust the limiting factors that restrict your ability to meet
your financial objectives.
6. Interview your staff to hear their suggestions and opinions
concerning your menu.
7. Talk to your customers. Ask them about their reasons for
patronizing your restaurant.
8. Reassess the potential of your trade area. Notice the changes
that have occurred in your neighborhood since your last menu
change.
9. Visit all the restaurants in your area that compete directly for
your customers. Note their volume of sales, the type of menu items
they feature, their price range.
10. Find some new items to place on your menu.
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Research current culinary trends.
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Review food articles and restaurant reviews in local newspapers
and magazines.
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Talk to your purveyors.
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Try new items as daily specials at varying price points to test
their popularity with your customers.
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11. Keep track of your regular menu item sales counts for a number
of weeks.
12. Re-cost your basic recipes and the plating cost of all menu
items and specials.
13. Set up a simple spread sheet to assess the sales and popularity
of each menu item.
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Multiply the number of each menu item sold by both the item's
sales price and its plating cost.
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Subtract the item cost from the item sales to determine the gross
profit contributed by each item on your menu.
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Add the totals for all items to determine the overall sales, food
cost, and gross profit produced by your existing menu.
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Compare the labor intensity involve in production and service of
each menu item to its gross profit contribution.
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14. Separate your menu items into four categories:
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Items with high sales and high profit contribution
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Items with average sales and high individual profit contribution
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Items with high sales and low individual profit contribution
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Items with low sales and low profit contribution
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15. Decide on item changes for your menu.
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Replace all items with low sales and low profit contributions
with tested daily specials, that have proven to be popular
and profitable. Plan on replacing 25%-30% of your menu items
to keep the menu fresh.
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Raise the prices of all popular (high sales) items that produce
low individual profits.
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Improve the name, description, presentation of all high profit
items items that produce average sales.
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16. Plan the layout of your new menu.
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Place the items that produce the highest profit at the beginning
or end of any group list.
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Place the lowest profit margin items in the middle of a group
list to reduce their frequency of sale.
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Box and highlight your high profit signature items.
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17. Perform a "what if" analysis of the new menu. Repeat
step number 13 to determine the theoretical sales and
profitability of your new menu. To determine the sales and profit
contribution of new menu items, use their actual costs, and
estimate their sales. If the new menu's estimated total sales and
profits do not meet the financial objectives you determined in
step number 2, continue to adjust individual menu items and prices
until they do.
18. Engage a graphic artist to help you select paper quality, type
styles, colors, and graphics that will enhance the appearance of
the menu, as well as highlight your most profitable items.
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