ed kitchen
Redmako newsletter for QLD hospitality professionals
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“I AM your local hospitality specialist.” Hi! We hope you’ve had a great month. Our team has been busy. A few cold snaps left some of us home in bed sick and two of our pet fish died. But on the up side, we recently finished our latest marketing campaign and we’ve had a couple talented people join our Redmako team. What a month! And of course, we’ve been busy putting together this edition of Red Kitchen for you, bringing together the most important industry news and resources for you. So grab a coffee and enjoy the latest issue. From the Redmako Team
Hospitality Industry News Menu Surchage Laws Changed Recently the Australian Government announced a change to the menu surcharge laws that have frustrated hospitality business owners for years. Under the changes, restaurants and cafes no longer have to create separate menus on weekends and public holidays to apply surcharges. The announcement was made just in time for Brisbane’s Royal Queensland Show public holiday. Queensland’s next public holiday is on the 7th October, for Labour Day. Although you will not need to create a special menu for the public holiday (or for weekends too), you still need to tell customers there will be a surcharge.
In the issue:
A simple ‘10% surcharge applies on weekends and public holidays’ sign suffices, or even a sticker on each menu. The Government wants to reduce ‘red tape’ for restaurant and café owners, but still make sure customers are aware of the costs. If you’d like to know more about the law changes, visit the News section of our website.
Menu surchange laws changed.................1 Test-tube beef - way of the future...............1 Marketing tip: online reviews......................2 The 2013 Redmako Latte Artist of the Year ..............................................................................2 How much is your business worth............3 Interest rate cuts.............................................3
Test -Tube Beef - Way of the Future? The world’s first ever test-tube grown beef was cooked and eaten recently in London by a panel of food experts. The panel said the meat tasted alright, although a little different to natural beef. The meat was grown in a laboratory from the muscle cells of a cow, which means there were no fat cells present. In other words, the test-tube beef was also fat free. ‘Sustainable farming’ is being investigated more and more, with population growth, increased eating, and limited resources putting pressure on agriculture. In fact, in the next 40 years the world will need to produce as much food as it has produced in the last 8,000 years! So whilst the current trend is ‘organic’, perhaps in the future customers will be amazed to find ‘real beef’ only in a select few restaurants or cafes when they head out on date night...
www.redmako.com.au
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Marketing Tip Online Reviews When was the last time you did an internet search for your business? Even if you don’t have a business website, it’s likely that there is a page for your business somewhere that a customer has made. Common online review sites are Yelp.com.au, TrueLocal.com.au and UrbanSpoon.com. Your fans might have even tagged your business on Foursquare, Google Plus or Facebook. If this is sounding a bit overwhelming, don’t worry. Simply do a Google search once a month and just click on any relevant links about your business. Online reviews are a great place to collect genuine feedback and see how your business is doing. Sites like UrbanSpoon give you a rating out of 5 stars, which is averaged from every review. You might even see photos of your business, your menu and your meals online. Why does this matter? Often, when customers are looking for a local restaurant, they go to these review sites. On these sites, local restaurants and cafes are listed in order of the best rankings. So customers can immediately see what is the ‘best’ restaurant, café or takeaway store in the area. Having great customer reviews online can go a long way in bringing new customers into your store. If you see any reviews that you know aren’t genuine (e.g. disgruntled ex-employees often post bad reviews to ‘get back’ at the business), simply contact the site directly and let them know. Otherwise, do your best to learn from the feedback, encourage your customers to rate you online, and make sure you keep watch.
Find our latest articles on our blog! www.redmako.com.au/blog. Our team of experienced hospitality specialists often write helpful, engaging and interesting articles. Here’s a sneak preview of our latest articles: choosing between different RTOs, how to show your customers you care, combining passion with commitment to achieve success, making a difference through your work, and the importance of accountability.
Redmako Learning The 2013 Redmako Latte Artsist of the Year The 2013 Redmako Latte Artist of the Year competition finished early in August. We are pleased to announce the winners of the competition:
• Melissa Zulch, Gloria Jean’s Garden City • Phillip Tan, Home Store + Cafe • Cassidy Oxley • Bella Wellsmore, Coffee on the Way Ferny Hills • Dee Lean, Bowerbird Café, Wavell Heights
• Breanna Sumner, Michel’s Patisserie Capalaba Central • James Vaughan-Pow, Funk Coffee and Food • Zoe Rendall, Gloria Jean’s Sunnybank • Karah Baxter, Toast at Oasis Broadbeach • Vanessa Nguyen, Gloria Jean’s Kiosk Upper Mt Gravatt
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Redmako Learning Congratulations to the winners and their stores! A few of the winners were Redmako trainees and graduates, so we’re very proud too. To be honest, we aren’t surprised though - our Certificate III in Hospitality trainees can do up to two units of learning on espresso (SITHFAB012A and SITHFAB016A), making them very skilled and knowledgeable around coffee. So if you want to win next year you might need to enrol in one of our traineeships! Or better yet, make sure your staff have all signed up to do their coffee training with us. Hopefully we’ll be sending you a prize next year!
Redmako Business Sales How much is your business worth? Would you like to know how much your business is worth? There are many factors which contribute to the value of your business. Things such as the market price, the location of your business, and annual turnover are well known factors. Some lessor known factors include:
• Up-to-date and well-kept financial records and business activity statements • Assets such as equipment and stock • The length of a lease if your business is on leased premises • Partnerships and alliances with other businesses/customers/suppliers • Brand recognition (how well known/popular is your brand?) If you’ve considered selling your business, or would like to investigate buying a new business or franchise, please talk to us first! As hospitality specialists, Brendon, Angie and Jason have true insight into how much a business is worth. They’d love to help you get the most value.
Redmako Finance Interest Rate Cuts The Reserve Bank of Australia recently announced an interest rate drop to an historical low of 2.5%. This is lowest the official interest rate in Australia has been since 1960. All the major banks have dropped their rates as a result. Interest rates have also been discussed in the Federal Election, and many industry experts have commented that the rates may rise after the election on September 7. Now is a great time to investigate refinancing and locking in your interest rates on your commercial loans. Please call Rod for any queries you have on interest rates, new loans, or re-financing your commercial loans.
If once a month isn’t enough for you, we’ve now combined all of our articles from across the net into one online magazine, Red Kitchen. It’s free, and you can download it on your Ipads and other devices through the app called ‘Flipboard’. View Red Kitchen online here: http://flip.it/FgsO5.
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Learning Business Sales
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