IBA, as the premier business brokerage firm in the Pacific Northwest, is firmly established as a respected professional service firm in the legal, accounting, banking, mergers & acquisitions, real estate, and financial planning communities.  Periodically, we will post guest blogs from professionals with knowledge to share for the good of owners of privately held companies & family owned businesses.  The following blog has been provided by Faith Munsell on behalf of Delta Administrative Service (https://www.deltapeo.com/contact-us/):

 Increasing Profits in a Multi-Restaurant Operation

How do you make more money without simultaneously creating more stress? This is the age old question that restaurant owners everywhere have been dying to figure out. Thankfully, it’s easier than you think.

Several factors can cause low profit margins, including:

• Payroll problems, such as overtime being paid inaccurately, tax issues, and pay rates. It all costs you extra money and results in compliance issues
• Handling your employees’ benefits manually takes up too much of your time, causing pricey errors along with wasted time
• Copious knife accidents in the kitchen cuts more than just fingers–it cuts your profits as well

All of these things just add more stress and aggravation to your plate, and prevent you from doing what you do best–managing your restaurant. With the proper help, you can define what exactly is causing your low profit margins and turn this around.

Outsourcing your payroll to a third party organization will allow you to let someone else shoulder the burden. A Professional Employer Organization, like Delta Administrative Services, can offer solutions to your unique problems and become a part of your team–in fact, they will play a role similar to that of your kitchen staff. The PEO will let you run the front of the house, while they handle the cooking, dishwashing, ordering of supplies, food prep, and more.

Working the front of the house again will allow you to concentrate on increasing your profits and making your customers happy. Here’s how a PEO can help fix the problems we discussed earlier that result in low profit margins:

• If you struggle with inaccurately paying overtime, a PEO can provide you and your team with the training and support needed for overtime rules. This will save you from DOL audits and potential lawsuits down the line.
• If manually handling your employee benefits is resulting in costly errors and wasted time, a PEO can help you input an electronic enrollment system to save both time and money. This will also allow you to offer better benefits, and in return, attract better employees.
• If you find that there are far too many knife accidents in your kitchen, a PEO can perform a mock OSHA audit to determine why this keeps happening. They can also provide safety training for your employees that teach your employees how to properly handle knives and even order cut-proof gloves.

These are only a fraction of the ways that a PEO can help increase your profit margins and eradicate errors. While they handle the burdensome tasks that used to consume all of your time, you’ll be free to concentrate on running your business again. You will also find that your compliance issues disintegrate and that pesky fines no longer interfere with your profits. If you’re ready to make this your reality, contact Delta Administrative Services today!

If you have questions relating to the content of this article, Jodee Carpenter at Delta Administrative Services, would welcome inquiries. Ms. Carpenter can be reached at (504) 274-3400, or jcarpenter@deltapeo.com. 

IBA, the Pacific Northwest’s premier business brokerage firm since 1975, is available as an information resource to the media, business brokerage, and mergers & acquisitions community on subjects relevant to the purchase & sale of privately held companies and family owned businesses.  IBA is recognized as one of the best business brokerage firms in the nation based on its long track record of successfully negotiating “win-win” business sale transactions in environments of full disclosure employing “best practices”.