Hey Hot Potatoes,

A big welcome to our first ever newsletter, I am super excited to embark on the journey of becoming the go to place for all things hospitality.

After five years in the hospitality industry, I felt there was a need for a comprehensive, easy-to-access resource for restaurants, cafes, coffee shops, and other hospitality businesses. This newsletter aims to provide you with essential industry updates, valuable insights, and practical tips to support and grow your business. Whether you're a seasoned restaurateur or a new cafe owner, our goal is to be your go-to source for all things hospitality.

As this newsletter hopefully flourishes, I’d love your feedback on how I can make this more valuable and insightful. So please don’t be shy to tell me what you think works well and what we could add or take away.

In today’s email: Why you need to keep things simple.

Become more Recognisable

The saying ‘less is more’ couldn’t be more true. Steve Jobs said ‘simplicity is the ultimate sophistication,’ and I think he’s spot on. When thinking about your brand and identity, having a clear and refined concept such as a menu that’s easy to digest, or a memorable and eye catching brand, couldn’t be more important.

Why?

🎯 Recognition & Memorability - Clarity cuts through the noise.
🤔 Easy Comprehension - Overwhelming branding and concepts can lead to confusion.
📈 Brand Loyalty Boost - 64% of consumers are more likely to recommend brands with simpler experiences.

Let’s be real, hospitality is a competitive place and in order to stand out you need to have a clear and unique offering. You also need to be the best at what you do to give customers a reason to return. With a clear and unique offering, you give yourself the best chance of standing out.

Improve your Operations

Keeping it simple when it comes to your menu and restaurant layout will have a number of operational benefits.

Reduce Costs 🔽 and Optimise Profitability 🔼 - When you focus on fewer ingredients you can reduce costs due to economies of scale, as there is less risk buying larger quantities for ingredients you know will be used.

Less Waste 🗑️ - From an environmental perspective, having fewer ingredients on your menu makes it likely you will reduce your food waste. Stock management becomes easier and your forecasting accuracy will be better.

Better Service and Operations 🛎️ - Too many ingredients will likely slow down the service in the kitchen. Smaller menus mean less food prep and cooking time, resulting in an efficient kitchen service. With a well thought out layout for your restaurant or cafe, service can run much smoother and we all know better service = a better customer experience!

Quality Focus

I don’t know about you, but when I go to restaurants and see A LOT of different menu items with varying cuisines, as a customer I get put off; I find it a little suspicious and am convinced something I’m eating is what I like to call ‘fresh frozen’… I understand though, it is much harder to be good at several things than just one thing right?

It is much easier to maintain high standards and produce quality tasty food when you focus on a smaller selection of dishes and ingredients.

With the increased cost of living, when consumers do decide to go out, they really want to make it worth their while and go somewhere of high quality.

When you do focus on the quality of your food across the menu, I guarantee the plates you clear will be clean, glasses will be empty and customers will leave satisfied 🏆

Have you found keeping things simple has benefited your business, or do you still believe it’s important to have a diversified offering? I’d be interested to know your thoughts 🤔

Thanks for reading through our first newsletter, any feedback would be much appreciated. See you this time again next week.

Bon appétit,

Max Shipman, Editor-in-Chief, Hot Potato

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