Follow these tips to help manage your food business effectively.
Managing a successful food business entails much more than just knowing prepare delicious foods for customers. Good management should include setting and maintaining standards as well as running the business side of the operation with profitability in mind. Sometimes the balance of the two can be difficult to maintain, but following the best tips for managing a food business will set you on the right path.
Food Safety
Food safety is atop the priority list for any food business manager worth his salt. Serving or otherwise distributing food to customers that is unsafe and that may result in food-borne illnesses can be a nightmare. The success of the operation may depend on making sure serious violations of food safety never happen.
Make sure everyone on the staff knows the importance of keeping foods at proper temperatures. According to AllFoodBusiness.com, foods should be kept below 45 degrees F or held at 145 degrees F to remain free of bacteria that could cause someone to get sick. Keep properly working thermometers available at all times and regularly track temperatures of foods to minimize the risk.
Equal care should be taken to avoid cross-contamination of foods. Preparing raw meats in the same area as uncooked vegetables, for example, can lead to bacteria on the meat transferring to salad greens.
Employees should wash their hands regularly and always prior to handling food. Food contamination is commonly traced back to employees who do not wash their hands after going to the bathroom.
Cleanliness
Any business involved with food service or production should remain as clean and sanitary as possible. Cleanliness will make the business more enticing to customers.
Keeping all areas in a food business clean and sanitary will dramatically cut down on the chance of transmitting a disease from the source to the food or to the staff or customers. Even in times during the day when business is slow, there is likely to be something that can be cleaned by the staff. Instill the belief and expectation in the staff that "if there is time to lean, there is time to clean."
Labor Cost Control
Controlling labor costs in the food service business, especially in restaurants, is tricky. You may staff up for a big weekend only to find that few people made their way to your establishment. On the other hand, you may run with a skeleton crew on a Tuesday afternoon only to be swamped and wind up putting impatient guests out front on a half-hour wait. There are some ways to help control this problem, even though the unpredictable will continue to happen.
Create a database that tracks the trend of business you have on a given day and continue to track the trends each day throughout the year. Eventually it will become apparent how much labor you really need to handle expected business, according to FoodAndBeverageUnderground.com.
Another good tip is to figure out which employees can handle the most work. Schedule these people while cutting back on the ones that get the least done. Use fewer hours by scheduling people who simply get more done than others. Cross-training people for different positions is also a great idea for covering yourself during unexpected rushes.
Tags: food business, clean sanitary, food service, their hands, there time