New York SBDC Research Network

As supply costs in the food and beverage industry are inflating at alarming rates, now is a good time for effective food service managers to revisit their menus and develop some pricing strategies to position them for continued success in the marketplace. Quite a few operators are rightfully concerned about recent price increases. Still, this actually provides a nice window of opportunity to make some changes to menu prices and actually increase profit. While I would like to provide a tried and proven formula food service managers could use for pricing their menus, the fact is that menu pricing is more of an art than a science. There are just too many different factors that come in to play and probably one of the biggest mistakes managers make is to price their menu offerings based on formula rather than thinking about some of these factors.Any business that is considering their menu prices should not only consider their supplier costs, but also a competitive analysis and some form of

by Rick Leibowitz With all the talk about the economic slowdown in the news, businesses are scrambling to find the best strategies to deal with the challenges of increases operating costs (mostly due to inflation in the energy & commodities markets) and anticipated decreases in consumer spending. Business articles talk about how now is a good time for small business owners to tighten their belts and watch their discretionary spending. I’ve personally read a number of articles that suggest cutting advertising budgets and hours of operation as a means to cost savings. However, I caution all small business owners to think carefully about the consequences of cost cutting before you take action. Developing a contingency to deal with the economic slowdown is a very smart strategy for every small business owner, but the key to a good plan is to dedicate time to forecast the expected results of each decision. Another thing to keep in mind is that it is highly unlikely that your business ca