Dr. Lwanga Martin Mwanje
Once he got his NSSF pay out Musa knew this was the time to launch a restaurant, as his retirement nest. However, once it opened things did not go as smoothly as he had expected. For one thing he had located a good corner in the middle of a busy street which made him feel confident that since he had the right location, sales would explode. Though the restaurant quickly built a loyal client growth stagnated and soon Musa was struggling to meet his expenses.
Frustrated, he wavered between closing or going to the bank for a loan. But just before that he decided to talk to his business consultant, the one who had advised him that location is everything when it comes to business.
“My clientele is not growing,” Musa lamented. “And all the cash that comes in is sucked into some expense that I can hardly make ends meet.”
The business consultant asked and pored over his financial records. “When you say customers do you keep a number of those who come in every day?”
“No,” confessed Musa, “but I know there are not enough. Otherwise I would not be complaining.”
“It would be helpful to know the exact numbers of customers you receive every day and the average expenditure,” the consultant noted. “And do you know there gender composition- are there more females or males?”
“Why does that matter?” Musa asked.
“Because it would help you start developing menus according to particular tastes of each gender,” advised the consultant. “You know male and female have different likes.”
“I thought they all just come do is to eat,” Musa expressed his surprise.
“And have you any idea of their age brackets,” the consultant probed further. “Do you have more of youth, middle age or the elderly visiting?”
“I would say there are largely young people,” Musa noted.
“Then are your meals prepared with that view in mind,” the consultant asked. “You know young people tend to prefer fast food. And by the way what is your peak sales hour?”
“I think it is lunch hour.”
“If it is lunch hour,” the consultant wondered, “are you adequately prepared to receive crowds with more staff on duty or you just let things happen.”
“I hadn’t thought much of that,” Musa reflected. “I think we need most staff during the lunch hour and the rest of hours we can do with less.”
“Which is your bestselling dish by the way?” the consultant asked.
“I will need to check with the kitchen,” Musa noted.
“You need to know that,” said the consultant. “Otherwise how do you plan what dish to concentrate on most!”
Through an evaluation of these numbers the consultant advised Musa to draw up a plan to adjust his management actions. He suggested he comes up a list of metrics that he would examine daily to manage the business: number of customer, gender, age bracket, bestselling dish, etc. Based on this he would then see where to focus. That way Musa’s restaurant was saved and it prospered.
Perhaps you have heard of the saying that numbers don’t lie. Managing by numbers is no longer an exception and is expected of any effective manager today. If a business takes stock of its numbers it can then formulate a plan of action. The trouble though is that many businesses have not invested in tracking numbers and breaking them into useful data which they can analyses and develop effective strategies. Should your business be struggling you can start by unpacking your numbers, analyzing them and based on the facts see what you need to do.
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