Purchasing new furniture can be quite an expense for a new restaurant owner or entrepreneur. Many new business owners may keep their eyes peeled for established restaurants that are closing down or remodeling. These restaurants may sometimes sell their furniture at a discounted price to local up and coming business owners. There are usually many types of furniture that are available for purchase from wholesale suppliers for those that are opening a new restaurant or bar. Since there are many expenses to consider when opening or remodeling a new restaurant, most restaurant owners may research different suppliers of bar furniture or any restaurant furniture supply auctions.

The restaurant furniture that is purchased for an up and coming place should reflect the atmosphere of the restaurant and how the owner wants the restaurant to be perceived by the public. The interior design, including the tables and chairs, is important for the ambiance of the facility. In order to buy furniture that attributes to the overall desired impression of the new business, a business owner may want to consult an interior designer or expert in the field. He or she may also want to visit similar restaurants and take notes on their interior decor.

Wood furniture can be great for restaurant owners that are looking for a more nostalgic and rustic feel inside their facility. Steakhouses or smokehouses often have wood furniture because it gives more of a country and farm style ambiance that is desired for these types of restaurants. When purchasing the furniture for restaurant, a new owner may be limited to whatever is on sale, discounted or at an auction because of a strict business start-up budget. Some restaurant owners opt to have different tables and chairs in their cafe or restaurant that do not match. This can be considered an “eclectic” atmosphere and can give the facility a more relaxed atmosphere.

Business owners that are looking to buy furniture may first want to consult the classified sections of their local newspaper. This section can point the entrepreneur in the direction of warehouses that may contain restaurant furniture or businesses that are selling this furniture. By purchasing the furniture used, business owners can find that they will save a lot of money on the large purchase of furnishing the restaurant. Beautiful seating can be found at discounted prices with a little research.

Yang Anderson is a specialist in wholesale furniture and restaurant furniture.

As food prices keep rising, restaurant owners can’t help thinking about ways to deal with those eroding profit margins.

At times like this, it may seem like a good idea to shop around for better prices on your key ingredients. After all, what if you could:

* Negotiate better prices with your current supplier?

* Make several suppliers bid for your business?

* Switch to new suppliers altogether?

This is a natural response. But you could be shooting yourself in the foot.

Here’s how.

Trying to get a better price on chicken breasts can only get you so far. The benefit to your business may be short-lived and illusory: The only way food prices are going is up. And you could be trying to solve the problem from the wrong end.

Think about what you’d have to give away to get a better deal:

* Scenario #1: You sacrifice the food quality. If you are already a troubled restaurant, that could be the last nail in the coffin of your business.

* Scenario #2: You replace your old supplier with someone less reliable. Then one night you may leave more money on the table than you could have saved on the ingredients.

* Scenario #3: You throw yourself into heavy-duty negotiations that will suck up a lot of your time. You should know that your time has a high price tag attached to it and it may be better invested elsewhere.

Which brings us to the next point.

The fact that you can’t sustain the increase in food costs is a symptom of a bigger problem. If the menu is stale and unoptimized, if the concept is unexciting, and if you are doing a mediocre job of getting enough people to try your food, then don’t look for a bail-out from your supplier.

Sure, you shouldn’t be paying more than a fair market price for the ingredients. But you shouldn’t be paying much less either. If the basic economics of your business aren’t right, you’re fighting a losing battle against an enemy of your own creation.

That enemy’s name is “Poor Me” – and we’ve all met him at some point in our lives. He comes unannounced and turns a confident restaurant owner into a wimp who blames everything and everyone – government, weather, competition, economy, suppliers, even customers – for the lack of profits in his business. To have a fighting chance, you need to get out of the cost-saving penny-pinching nickel-and-diming mindset and start plugging chasmic holes in your marketing.

When you can get enough customers to come and gladly pay the prices your food is worth, then you’d better be ready to seize the night. And that’s the night when you need your supplier on your side.

Restaurant business is tricky because of the thin profit margins. Even a small fluctuation in food cost or labor cost can make the difference between making money and losing it. Contact RestaurantCommando.com to create more profits in your business.

Inventory management is a necessity in every business, but more and more restaurants are realizing that it can be the difference between success and failure.

Inventory management is the process of controlling costs and waste through effective use of on-hand product. Combine this with a reliable forecasting model and restaurants can realize dramatic reductions in their monthly spending.

Every business is faced with the unfortunate reality that employees will steal from their employer. An effective inventory management system combined with secure storage and lock-up procedures will result in far less loss due to employee theft.

In the restaurant industry there are primarily three types of inventory management systems: Manual or Limited Integration, Mixed P.O.S. or Partial Integration and Fully-Integrated.

Manual or Limited Integration

Manual inventory management refers to the process of physically counting each item every week to obtain restaurant costs. This system is more suited to smaller, independently-owned operators who purchase fewer items and maintain simpler accounting records.

Once all counting is completed, then data can then be transferred to the restaurant’s accounting system. If there are no errors, the inventory is complete. If there are errors however, the entire inventory process must start again to find the mistakes.

Mixed P.O.S.

Mixed Point of Sale (POS) or partial integration, combines the restaurant’s POS system with manual inventory procedures. Point of sale refers to the computer system used to order food and drinks as well as settling all checks.

Each time an item is ordered through the POS it is removed from the current inventory. When the items are counted during inventory, the on-hand stock should match the inventory listed by the POS. If however, there are discrepancies between the two lists, another physical count of the inventory must begin.

This method of inventory management is more effective than the limited system, and when combined with strong loss-prevention procedures can result in large cost reductions per month.

Fully-Integrated

A fully-integrated inventory management system implements three different elements into its system. It combines the restaurant POS system with an Ordering/Shipping system as well as an electronic physical inventory system. This is the most sophisticated and accurate of the three systems and results in the least amount of monthly and overall loss of product and profits.

Some restaurant suppliers will provide their more important restaurants with an online ordering system. This system is integrated with the restaurant’s POS and can accurately predict what is in on-hand inventory, as well as forecasting the size of the next supply order.

Once per week or even per month there is a physical inventory done with portable, electronic bar-code readers and electronic scales. All data is automatically sent to both the supplier and the restaurant.

Some are so sophisticated that they incorporate the recipe breakdowns, by ingredient and then calculate the inventory. This type of system will save you money in the long run but also help you run a more streamlined and efficient restaurant business.

R&I Solutions is the maker of Cost Genie, a leading restaurant costing and inventory software program. Get a free demo at: http://www.costgenie.com.