Article contributed by Mike Berman, COO, Day & Nite/All Service, with Tia Tassava
Just as a foundation built for a three-bedroom Cape Cod will not support multiple additional stories before it collapses, this weekly column has been built upon proven crisis management foundations to ensure you successfully navigate through 2020’s unprecedented events.
Even if you scrupulously followed each necessary fundamental, the trek from April to July has been anything but easy. All public health, economic and social indicators point to more challenging months ahead; restaurants benefitting from permitted outdoor dining need only look at a calendar to recognize the weather won’t be overly cooperative soon. Thus, revisiting and updating these necessary fundamentals more urgent now than even early-mid spring.
Planning for a remainder of this year thru spring 2021 (at least!) where May thru July 2020 represents the apex of your receipts and profits (such as they are) is everyone’s smartest way to manage a business. This approach will allow you a margin for error far more comfortable than the current dental floss thick edge everyone has unfortunately grown accustomed to. Given the clear dangers ahead, anything short of aggressively managing to deeper levels of austerity will come at ultimate great risk. Everyone has already reduced expenses on the most prominent and glaring things, leaving precious little to further cut without deeply slicing into the core business. It will require creativity and analytic depth far beyond anything you have thus far experienced. Yes, every bit that challenging and then some, but if you do it right, it needn’t be nearly as painful!
Landmark Joey’s Italian Restaurant in DeWitt, NY is hardly the only restaurant now spending thousands of dollars a week on items that once occupied 3-figures or less of a weekly budget. Just as the immediate 9/11 aftermath forced enhanced security with a knee-jerk reaction to unprecedented conditions with highly manual and costly measures, hospitality finds itself in the same position regarding hygiene today. Arguably far worse for the simple fact virtually everything done thus far has been unsustainable. So, where managing to austerity is essential, you must lead the business with pure strategy. And strategy demands a far more comprehensive, thought-out view.
In this regard, a 600% price increase in jugs of hand sanitizer will be the least of one’s worries. Without approaching environmental, workplace, guest, employee, and food safety in a far more holistic way from a far more strategic vantage point than has been understandably necessary yet is entirely unsustainable.
As if 2020 hasn’t been fast-moving enough, expect a surge in business fluidity where the fluid will be ever more toxic if you do not get ahead of the next phase now by going back to the fundamentals by reinforcing your business foundation.
In world history, technology has proven to be the great equalizer and accelerant. Hospitality is one of the few remaining industries where everything is a capital expenditure; little or no lease options exist. Given the gravity of all issues, Day & Nite Performance Solutions delivers an unrivaled, comprehensive, carefully curated, independent laboratory tested >99.92% effective against coronavirus in precaution, prevention, sanitization and sterilization under far more economically viable leasing terms. No capital expenditure headaches, no major hit to your already stressed finances but one gigantic leap forward for ensuring true environmental, workplace, guest, employee, and food safety. This more favorable option also provides much-needed relief to our very industry with 10% of all new Day & Nite Performance Solutions revenues going directly to the James Beard Open For Good campaign.
Help yourself, protect your employees and patrons, reduce your expenses, and have a donation in your name go to helping our nation and industry get past these troubled times by emailing jbf@wearetheone.com.
