Profit should be very easy. The more you bring in, the more profits you have right? Well, that’s not always the case. Especially with the economy causing lots of issues. Right now the costs of food are high which means that the cost of making food is rising for many restaurants. You have probably noticed that on your end of dinner bill, but for restaurants it is much more impactful.

Even the best restaurant in town can only raise their prices so much before people start turning away, and if you are one of those restaurant owners, then you might be asking yourself how you can stay afloat?

Thankfully there are a few ways to dull the spikes of rising supply chain costs, and still get a pretty good profit too. It might seem impossible, but this article is going to tell you everything you need to know!

Find The Right Food Supplier

Just like with everything else in life, you need to strike the balance between quality and quantity. Especially, if your restaurant is known for its food. You can cut costs by buying from lower quality food suppliers, but that might end up driving away your customers instead. Try to strike a balance when finding the food supplier for your business, and always use some common strategies when dealing with them.

Doing things like buying staples in bulk to reduce cost, buying locally to reduce the cost, and working with suppliers who have stable pricing can help you control costs. All while maintaining quality as well.

Never be afraid to negotiate with your suppliers and shop around for multiple vendors if necessary. Because some suppliers might weather the rising supply chain costs better than the one(s) you are working with. You might even be able to partner with other restaurants to order in a large group.

But once the food gets into your unit, you need to focus on proper organization.

Run A Tight Ship While Organizing Your Inventory

When costs are high, every little bit counts and you don’t want to understock or overstock. Make sure to manage your inventory and ensure that you know what is coming in and what is going out. Making sure that older ingredients are used before newer ones and ensuring that you only order new stock when it is needed can help with reducing waste.

Having a proper data driven system for your inventory is going to help with this. If you have the technology to manage your inventory, then you can easily reduce wasted money and food. Being able to see everything that is in the unit in one place can be extremely helpful, and will prevent overstocking because you know how much you need at all times.

Your management platform can even help you track all of the suppliers in your area too, allowing you to get a bird’s eye view on who is selling what and for what price. All of which can and will save you money and time because you’ll have one system that gives you all the data in one place!

Change Your Menu Up

Additionally, you can take a no waste attitude into the kitchen by repurposing leftovers and taking advantage of foods that are versatile. You might be able to turn your extra stock and leftovers into things that your customers will love!

The real profit comes with the customers in the restaurant, and that will often start with the menu. You can adapt your menu to the ingredients you have on hand, and sometimes the customers will even support the change! If you’ve got seasonal ingredients on hand, be sure to promote them because they will be cheaper to purchase.

Sometimes you might even need to cut some dishes from your menu to combat rising supply costs, and a paired down menu will be easier on your chefs and your wallet! Or even do a rotational menu that allows you to take advantage of ingredient costs when they are low, and when the ingredient costs get high you can just rotate the dishes out!

Communicate To Everyone

Finally, don’t be afraid to talk. Everyone and every industry is dealing with rising supply chain costs, and your loyal customers will understand. Be transparent and price as fairly as you can, while also balancing profitability with customer affordability. It is a serious balancing act to walk, and you might make some people unhappy, but at the end of the day all you can do is your best.

Communicate to your customers and your suppliers, and that will help you build some serious relationships that can stick around long after the crisis is over. Plus, you continue to have profit without driving away the customer base you’ve already built.

Take Advantage Of What Is Going Well

It can be extremely easy to focus on all the doom and gloom with price hikes. Everything is more expensive and all the times are changing. However, the best and most profitable restaurants adapt and will continue to adapt no matter what. So instead of chafing under all the changes, ask yourself what your restaurant can do to profit. It might mean cutting down the menu, adapting to the changing market by delivery, or partnering with other local businesses to weather the storm together.

But having a ‘glass half full’ mindset can help keep you excited to run the restaurant, and that joy will translate to your customers. Maybe you can run a special dish with all the extra ingredients, or maybe the delivery service you offer will suddenly be the thing that catapults your restaurant to fame!

You will never know until you try, so don’t be afraid to make some changes in order to survive these rising supply chain costs. They might be the best thing that happens to your business, and you might even continue using them when the supply costs come back down!