Anthony likes helping people reach their true potential. Being the victim of his own fears and insecurities in his own business, he has decided to help others create more opportunities.
Restaurant owners often see technology as a time waster. And in the wrong hands it can be. In the end, restaurants still rely on humans serving other humans. With some recent apps, however, you can find yourself saving a substantial amount of time.What if you could turn your smart phone into an asset for your business? From budget planning, to spacial organisation, we have listed the top 6 apps every restaurant owner should have below.
Room Planner
Most restaurant owners struggle with optimising the space of their kitchen or their room. Room Planner allows you to design the layout of a room and visualise it in 3D. It’s like having your own architect to plan ahead for the transformation of your restaurant or the acquisition of a new place.
Key Ingredient
If your chef tends to bring out the same specials every week, this tool will be a game changer. Although they don’t have an app yet, Key Ingredient allows you to browse millions of recipes to help your chefs come up with new ideas for the delight of your customers.
Like Wikipedia, Key Ingredient makes the best of the collaboration of knowledgeable people. Your chefs can share their recipes and benefit from other chefs’ expertise. The strength of this website is how it’s organised by category so that you always know where to look when you want to work on a theme or just an ingredient.
7shifts
If the very idea of planning your team’s schedule haunts you, 7shifts will change your life. It helps you manage shifts, approve shift changes and even direct message your team about punctual changes. It does require a small investment, but if you compare that to the cost of hiring a staff manager yourself, it’s actually a money saver. Not to mention the peace of mind.
Numbers
With its easy templates, Numbers allows you to follow your budget, schedule your shifts and plan ahead. While it does have a small learning curve, it can quickly become an indispensable tool to manage your whole restaurant at the tip of your fingers.
And if you prefer to manage these things from your computer, you can send your files to the cloud and find your modifications on your computer when you go back to the office.
Restaurateur
This app is the icing on the cake if you want to make changes to your business or open a new place. Especially made for restaurant owners, Restaurateur allows you to put together an easy business plan with a financial projection of your costs and necessary earnings. Sometimes knowing your numbers is complicated because customers don’t always spend the same amount. This app makes everything much simpler for your own peace of mind. You never want to wing these things if you want a perennial business.
Hootsuite
Let’s face it, social media is a free tool that can bring you hundreds of customers. Shying away from it is like saying no to money knocking on your door. However, you do have to post consistently if you expect any result from this marketing strategy.
Because developing a strong presence on social media is time consuming, Hootsuite allows you to schedule your posts so you can also focus on your restaurant. With Hootsuite, restaurant owners can schedule their posts precisely at the right time so they’re seen by their target audience. Not only is it a huge time saver, it also helps you have more impact when you post.
Wrap-up
There are probably other apps that would deserve to be included but we have chosen to focus on the most relevant for your business. The goal of an app is to save you some time, not to create new ways to make you busy. We hope you will find these apps useful for your restaurant. Unlike the majority of articles you will find online on this topic, none of the above links are affiliate links. This article was a genuine attempt to recommend useful tools. And if you want to take it a step further and integrate online ordering services such as livepepper can help as well.
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