Building Restaurant Profits: How to Ensure Maximum Results

While there are several other books in this series, The Food Service Professional Guide To Series, that cover different areas of this book more thoroughly (for example, there are a few tips on how to reduce your beverage costs in this book, but Controlling Liquor, Wine, & Beverage Costs, by Elizabeth Godsmark, is flat-out exhaustive), this book is a great overview. Often, you won't need to make extensive changes in your food service operation to maximize your profit. A few things go wrong --for instance certain menu items that just won't sell or problems with a vendor who's constantly sending bad produce--and your profits disappear. Or you're in the opposite situation: everything's going wrong, and you don't know where to start. My advice would be to purchase this book first. The information here will, for the most part, give you a general idea of what you should be looking for in each area of your business. Each section contains valuable hints, but they're usually very basic ones--ones that if you aren't following, you really should be. If, after reading through the book and making sure you're following the general guidelines set out in each section, you find you're still not seeing the profitability you're looking for in any given area, take a look at the book of this series related to the topic. The other books that I've read in this series go over each area of each subject and pick apart the different areas where your restaurant can be improved for better profit and customer satisfaction--everything from employee fraud to what type of light bulbs you should consider. If you already know where your problem areas are, you may want to go straight to the book for that area, but often one problem (like excess trim from meat) can be traced back to different areas (like employee relations), so it can be a good idea to have a general checklist to work from. If you're looking to improve your restaurant/food service business profits, this is a great place to get started.