Halloween – An Event to Plan For
By David Scott Peters
This year Halloween is on a Saturday. Is that good or bad for your restaurant’s sales?
If you don’t know, then this post is for you.
A key part of budgeting is looking at past performance to plan for the future. In your sales log – you have one, right?
Anyway, in your sales log, every day you and your management should be tracking the things that affect your sales, such as:
- Total daily sales
- Sales by period
- Customer counts by meal period
- Weather
- Events
- Comments
Events are where Halloween would fall. Keep track of events to differentiate between trends and one-time occurrences. For example, The Arizona State Fair comes to town and kills every restaurant. I don’t know how. All over the valley, I don’t care where you are, the family dining dollars are sucked into this state fair, and you have to plan for it. There are also events such as elections, road construction, parades, big sporting events, concerts, etc. All of these kinds of events can affect your business — up or down. On a side note, you want to put some comments to serve as a reminder going forward, not only to operate, but when you’re putting your budget together. For example, Halloween on a Tuesday might not be as big of a deal as Halloween on a Saturday. Therefore, you should be reviewing each one of these days.
If you don’t currently have a sales log, I’ve created one custom for restaurants. They’re great for communication between managers and help keep everything in order. Plus, they serve as your memory from year to year when planning your budget. Visit my products page and scroll down to “Manager Logs.”
David Scott Peters is a restaurant expert, coach, trainer and speaker, specializing in systems for independent restaurant owners. He is the nationally acclaimed restaurant coach whose unique “SMART Systems” approach to boosting profits has earned him the title of, “The man who can walk into any restaurant in America and find $10,000 in undiscovered cash before he hits the back door – Guaranteed!” Visit www.TheRestaurantExpert.com for more.
