The upcoming lockdown could act as a death sentence for many restaurant and cafe businesses. At a time when the hospitality businesses are already on the verge of collapsing, the prospect of total closure for a further four weeks will serve as a devastating blow.
However, I strongly believe that nothing is impossible! You can save your restaurant/cafe business from closure or going into serious debt.
Having spent time, money, and a lot of effort building your business, which provides security for you and your family, don’t let this pandemic destroy it all. Adopt an agile approach without leaving the fate of your business at the mercy of government grants and announcements.
We have been helping restaurant and cafe businesses throughout this pandemic. Profitability and efficiency – two key factors that we would normally focus on – are not what we are talking about in 2020. It’s all about surviving and saving your business. We have learned a lot this year that could help restaurants and cafes survive! I am sharing these valuable actions with you below:
- Stay in the right mindset. Don’t think (at all) about the level of sales and profit margins pre Covid-19, it will put you in paralysis mode and prevents you from taking positive action.
- Apply for your correct entitlement of grants. I have seen many businesses claiming the wrong amount of grants and losing out financially as a result.
- Explore all the grants made available. These include not only those announced by the Prime Minister on television. There are so many other small grants made available to businesses that are not available in the media.
- Turn the delivery and food pick side of your restaurant/cafe into instant cash-generating operations that are less reliant on delivery partners ( such as uber eats, Deliveroo, City Pantry, etc).
- Digitize operations and reduce costs. The use of technology is not a choice anymore it is mandatory for survival.
- Explore cash inflow generating opportunities. There are quite a few through tax credits/reliefs and through reshaping your business model.
- Prepare your cash flow and monitor it on a daily basis.
Build a resilient restaurant/cafe business to survive the current pandemic!
If you need help with any of the key actions outlined above, get in touch with us.