Angela Bell

Small business, independent restaurant owners may sometimes see as little as 1% of revenue as their profit at the end of the year. If there is no plan for controlling waste, that 1% might just end up in the trash or down the drain. Here are four ways to avoid turning your treasure($$$) into trash.


Transparent trash receptacles
The first lesson I learned in culinary school, and a good habit to transfer to any food establishment, was to see what is aimed at the trash BEFORE ...

I am talking about the delivery driver, the person who brings the food and beverages, fresh to your door, and into the restaurant kitchen, or maybe not, if you are worried about varmints hitching a ride. These employees are often beaten down by sales reps, customers, dispatchers, brokers, customer service managers and executive chefs. They are treated as if they are at the bottom of the pecking order by many, but never, never by me. Here’s why.


First, delivering product ...

I recently watched an interview with the author of a book, the objective of which was the defense of the argument to raise the tipped minimum wage. The tipped minimum wage is the hourly wage earned by servers in the food industry and has remained the same for more than twenty years at $ 2.13. Yes, it sounds low and when all of the arguments for raising it compare that wage to the federal minimum wage which now is fixed at $ 7.25, it sounds even more ominous.


But, what proponents ...

I understand and empathize with the plight of state government leaders across America. I know that states need tax dollars to support their schools, roads, public assistance programs and so on. But, mandating that small business owners collect tax on sales made via the internet is not only an additional business expense in terms of human resources and systems for calculating and reporting, but logistically impossible when you consider that each state has its own department of revenue. Not only ...

How many times have you had your socks knocked off at your first visit to a new restaurant only to return the second time and be devastatingly disappointed? If you say never, then you are lying. Okay, maybe it takes two or three times, but eventually, there it is, the crab dip with a little less crab, the cinnamon bun with just a hint of cinnamon where once the aroma filled the room and the boiled lobster dinner sans lobster!

One of the top ten reasons for restaurants failing to ...