Many café and restaurant owners can lose sight of how to increase sales, they get too busy working in their business rather than working on it. The value of your café or restaurant is underpinned by your sales and net profit figures, so the higher you can get them, the more the business is worth. A classic tool to increase sales, and an example of working on the business is through the introduction of effective affordable marketing. Currently there are many forms of marketing that are low cost, or even free! The single best thing an owner can do for their restaurant or café is to revamp the marketing platform, especially as it relates to online marketing. The biggest reason more independent restaurants and café owners don’t actively market the business is that they don’t have time. The second biggest is that they don’t know how. They think it is all too hard and put it off until another day. A little bit of effort in putting place the marketing can have a dramatic impact of the financials of the business and therefore make your café (or restaurant) more valuable and saleable when you chose to exit the business. There are several ideas for business owners to explore in developing the marketing platform. Among those that can have a positive impact on the business and its financials are:
- Improving social media: Daily texts, Facebook, and Twitter posts can help expand the clientele base and give local customers a reason to walk into the building.
- Providing online only deals: This can be implemented through the website or on a group discount platform like Groupon.
- Build a loyalty program: Collecting names and emails and building a list of customers can create a backbone for continuous marketing throughout the year.
- Partner with local businesses: Partnerships can include sharing online advertising space that encourages the customers of neighboring businesses to give yours a try.
In most cases, the best online messages in this business involve creating events, promoting special offers, and building buzz about the business. Business owners that improve their top line sales will invariably increase their net profit. This is a positive for the owners when they are looking to sell. The net profit figure provides the basis for a business appraisal and the multiple is applied to that net profit figure. So the higher the net profit, the more valuable your café or restaurant will be. Jo-Anne Wilson – Café For Sale Specialist
