5 M’sians Share Their Pain & Struggles of Running a Restaurant & How One App Solved Them All

For many, being in the F&B line is an absolute dream come true, while for others, it’s a means to survive. Whichever it is, managing a restaurant or café is no walk in the park. With that, we approached a couple of local restaurateurs to share some of their own struggles with us and how they managed to overcome each of them with a little help from services like Food Market Hub. If you’re in the business or thinking of dabbling in this line of work, make sure to keep reading!

1. Negotiating with suppliers for better prices

“We need reliable suppliers who can be held accountable for the delivery of our orders to avoid any delays. Besides, we also want to show suppliers our sales data to negotiate better terms with them.” — Andrew, Chief Operating Manager of myBurgerLab

Reliable suppliers will always make sure to deliver accurate orders on time and in good condition, which is crucial in ensuring the continuous operation of a business.

Solution: Food Market Hub keeps track of sales and generates useful data from businesses. By showing suppliers the sales data, Andrew can win the trust of suppliers to negotiate longer and better terms with them. 

2. Monitoring food costs consistently 

“The prices of seafood and vegetables are often fluctuating and unpredictable. This is why we find it challenging to adjust the pricing of our products without reducing their sales and affordability.” — Yen Lee, Co-Founder of Mr.Fish

Keeping track of food costs is crucial to ensure that products are sold at competitive prices without compromising the profit margin.

Solution: With Food Market Hub, you can calculate the cost of each dish by taking into account the latest food costs and supplier prices. Without the need to track food costs manually, Yen Lee requires less manpower to run her business and gets to make informed decisions on pricing adjustments. 

3. Attending to inevitable human errors

“We started off by managing our procurements and inventories manually. Besides requiring a lot of time and manpower, there are also inevitable human errors that we had to attend to.” — Jun Hoong, Co-Founder of The Fish Bowl

Be it wrong orders, miscommunication, or inaccurate stock-taking, these mistakes can cause a loss of time, and money, and interrupt workplace productivity in a restaurant.

Solution: To reduce the risks of human error, The Fish Bowl relies heavily on the procurement and inventory management services from Food Market Hub, which offers automated orderings from suppliers as well as real-time inventory updates. 

4. Keeping track of all inventories

“From disposables to consumables, there are too many goods and materials to monitor in all five of our outlets. It’s extremely troublesome if we have to keep track of them manually on paper.” — Rahmawan Andyka, Assistant Operational Supervisor at Kopi Kalyan 

From cleaning products and takeaway packages to fresh produce, it’s important to know what’s available or risk running out of essential items that could affect your business.

Solution: By inputting all inventories in the Food Market Hub app, Rahmawan has been able to visualise the cash flow better and receive real-time updates on inventories anytime, any day. This makes inventory management easier, which boosts management efficiency and data accuracy.

5. Over-ordering or under-ordering ingredients

“By handling back-end operations and calculations manually, we might not be able to gauge the number of ingredients required based on our stock takes, which can lead to over-ordering or under-ordering.” — Kok Jit Weng, Owner of Khatulistiwah Café

Over-ordering can easily result in wastage and contamination in the storage area, while under-ordering results in inadequate ingredients to serve some menu items.

Solution: To place orders, Jit Weng uses Food Market Hub for a more streamlined ordering system. The automated pre-calculations and sales forecasts allow him to restock within budget and it also notifies him when certain stocks are low to prevent under-ordering.  

As you can see, managing an F&B business comes with some challenges that are not easy to tackle. But luckily, we have services like Food Market Hub that are specifically built to solve the problems above, all using one app!

If you didn’t already know, Food Market Hub is an online business management platform designed to modernise your F&B businesses and increase your profits. If you’re in the F&B line and considering giving this app a go, you’ll be glad to know that they’re having a promotion you don’t wanna miss! 

Starting from 29th April 2022, the first 50 merchants who register with Food Market Hub can enjoy one month free + 20% OFF their first-year subscription fee! 

Wondering how Food Market Hub can help improve your business? Here are just some of the benefits you can enjoy by using the app: 

• Systemise back-end operations
  • From procurement to inventory management, Food Market Hub eases all back-end operations by promising:
    1. Easy navigation: The ordering platform and layout is designed to imitate online shopping carts, which is familiar to many.  
    2. Efficient order management: Get notified about stock availability and track order deliveries on demand. 
    3. Real-time inventory updates: All data will be synced automatically for you to visualize your cash flow.  

By systemising and automating these operations, users can manage their time better to focus on other front-end tasks. 

• Conduct an insightful data review 
  • Other than simplifying the back-end operations, Food Market Hub also provides users with useful data from their businesses, such as accounting, profit and loss. This data can be used to:
    1. Forecast restaurant sales to avoid over or under ordering.
    2. Review past performances and identify seasonal trends.
    3. Determine product costs based on the latest food and supplier prices.

• Diversify supplier options
  • The trustworthy suppliers on Food Market Hub can be contacted via multiple platforms, such as WhatsApp, email, SMS, and phone calls. This allows restaurant owners to source suppliers and track communications easily. Besides, they can also compare supplier prices and negotiate better terms for the best deals.

Are you ready to grow your business by optimising these day-to-day operations? Download the Food Market Hub app from the App Store or Google Play now! 

For more information, visit the Food Market Hub website, or follow them on:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn

Do you think the incorporation of technology can help overcome the struggles of restaurant owners? Let us know in the comments below!