Industry Center Archives

Ways Restaurants Can Get Back to Financial Health

April 1, 2022/in Featured Stories, Industry Center/by Vince Calio

The eagerly anticipated $1.5 trillion Omnibus spending law turned out to be a dud for small businesses, especially for restaurants that were served up a new wave of suffering due to the delta and omicron variants.

Before the bill was passed, there was talk that the new law could re-fund the $28.6 billion Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) – a much-needed program that was created in January 2021 as part of the American Rescue Plan. The fund, which was administered by the US SBA, ran out of funds at the end of June 2021 amid a multitude of lawsuits from individual restaurant owners alleging that the SBA was guilty of discrimination in choosing which restaurants got funding.

Hopes of re-booting the RRF were dashed when Congress ultimately decided to completely cut COVID-19 relief funding from the Omnibus bill. Instead, the bill earmarks money for increased defense spending; revamping Congressional hiring practices; modernizing the IRS, and putting in place federal election security measures, among other items.

There’s Still Hope

Private grants such as the Farmers Market Promotion Program can give restaurants some relief as the economy gets back on its feet.

While restaurants and food service trade groups were bitterly disappointed that the RRF was not re-upped, there are federal and privately backed grant programs that are still offering financial relief to restaurants being battered by the pandemic and it’s after-effects. Additionally, state and local grants such as the Restaurant Resiliency Program in New York and the Texas Restaurant Relief Fund are still offering some money to struggling restaurants.

Some of the federal and private grant programs still available to restaurants, especially those owned by women and minorities, include:

The Merchant Maverick Opportunity Grant Program, a two-year-old fund that will be giving $10,000 grants to AAPI-owned restaurants, food carts, kiosks, grocery stores and other food service businesses. If you plan to apply, you should do so soon as Merchant Maverick will only accept the first 5,000 applications.
The Farmers Market Promotion Program, operated by the US Dept. of Agriculture, gives financial aid and training to direct producer-to-consumer products and marketplaces, including restaurants, as a way to support their growth and expansion. Applications are being accepted through May 16.
The Backing Historic Small Restaurants Grant. The fund is a partnership between American Express and the National Historic Preservation and plans to give 25 restaurant owners grants of up to $40,000 this year to help improve, upgrade or preserve their physical exteriors and online presences. It focuses on restaurants that have been operating for at least 25 years.
The GoFundMe Small Business Relief Fund. This fund will give $500 matching grants to small businesses that have been affected by the pandemic (which certainly includes restaurants) and have raised at least $500 through a GoFundMe campaign. Small businesses can use the hashtag #SmallBusinessRelief to their campaigns or existing GoFundMe efforts.

Increase Your Customer Base

The best way to achieve financial health for your restaurant, of course, is to increase your customer base.

Running up fun contests can increase the customer base for your restaurant.

Even as the omicron variant continues to play out, consumers still want to eat at a nice restaurant after being cooped up for nearly two years. Employing post-pandemic marketing techniques could boost your restaurant’s volume of diners and increase your business. Some marketing techniques you could use:

Search Engine Optimization. If your restaurant has a website, make sure it is appearing in local searches on Google and other search engines.
Focus on existing customers. Customer lifetime value is one of the most important metrics for any small business, and its importance has been amplified by the pandemic. Offer special deals, discounts and promotion to loyal customers through email marketing and social media.
Run contests. Everyone loves a good contest, especially when the prize could include a free drink or beverage. You can pretty easily do this on social media or your restaurant’s website. Contest ideas may include:

A) Asking your customers for suggestions on what your restaurant’s next new entrée should be, with the winner getting a free meal. Perhaps this can be done on an annual or bi-annual basis so you’re not giving away too many free meals.

B) Send a message out to customers on Facebook telling them that if they like your page, they will be automatically entered into a drawing for free food or drinks. Again, this can be done once or twice per year.

C) Run the name contest. On your social media platform, randomly pick a common name and offer free drinks to anyone who has that name when they come to your restaurant.

Creatively Battle Inflation, inventory Management

As inflation and supply chain disruptions continue, you need to come up with creative ways to make your restaurant more efficient. Additionally, finding ways to keep costs down for your customers will go a long way to increasing business. Examine your operations from top to bottom to see if there are any ways to cut costs. Perhaps you need to cut staff or use third-party vendors for certain operations. You could also battle inflation by making menu changes and swapping out ingredients that are rising in price. For example, if chili is on your menu, you may want to offer vegetarian chili that uses tofu instead of beef.

Practicing good inventory management will also go a long way in making your business more efficient. Now may be the time to stock up on ingredients for your most popular menu items, and perhaps cut or replace certain items from your menu that are the most expensive for you to make. By tracking your usage and waste to find out which menu items are bringing your inventory costs up, you’ll be able to fine tune your operations.

Don’t Count on Pandemic Relief

Finally, it’s looking more and more like the government isn’t going to provide further relief for the struggling restaurant business. Therefore, now is the time to really examine the efficiency of your operations, your inventory management and your marketing plan to increase business and get back on the road to success.

How Retailers and Restaurateurs Can Boost In-Store Sales Through Specialty Leasing

October 19, 2016/in Industry Center/by Wil Rivera

Patrons at Irvine Spectrum Center, an upscale open-air shopping center in Irvine, CA, were surprised to see a familiar face in a brand new form. This summer, Japanese company Sanrio debuted the first Hello Kitty pop-up café in the U.S..

The company operates a chain of retail stores in the U.S. that sell kawaii (cute) novelty items with the likenesses of it’s many characters, including Sanrio’s most famous, Hello Kitty. Sanrio detoured from more traditional marketing methods. Instead, they embraced experiential marketing by launching a pop-up café and traveling café truck. Both the cafe and truck serve a selection of Hello Kitty refreshments and wearables.

Irvine Company, the shopping center’s owner, is one of several property owners that offer specialty leasing programs as an effort to maximize rental income. Hello Kitty’s creative marketing campaign is one example of how retailers can capitalize on these programs.

How Established Retailers Can Create Their own Pop-Up Stores

Specialty leasing is a different animal. Specialty leasing programs are primarily found in high volume traffic areas such as shopping centers and districts, strip malls and airports. These programs can only offer a small number of spaces. Therefore, prime locations are widely sought after. Leasing managers don’t allow too many competitors in the same shopping center. And they’re always looking for fresh ideas to excite or engage their consumers.

By building a rapport with specialty leasing teams, you can increase your chance to rent during busy seasons, get placement in high-traffic areas and be able to negotiate favorable lease terms.

What are Specialty Leasing Programs

Specialty Leasing refers to leasing Retail Merchandising Units (RMUs), kiosks and temporary in-line spaces. These programs offer access to high-volume foot traffic (in common areas) and can be a less expensive alternative to traditional retail leasing.

RMUs

RMUs or, as leasing pros like to call them, “carts” are landlord provided. Most will also provide signage, but others will allow you to display your own. Setting up a cart is a simple process. All you have to do is bring your merchandise and visually stock the cart to the leasing manager’s approval. Visual is the key word here, because it’s critical for shoppers to be drawn to your cart and not the other way around. In many locations, calling out for the attention of customers or “hawking” can get you fined or even thrown out.

Kiosks

Kiosks will be either a 10X10 or 10X20 foot space. Costs generally range anywhere from $15,000 to $30,000 and up, depending on the concept and functionality of the unit (i.e.plumbing, electricity, etc.). For instance, a small or mid-sized toy retailer who aims to drive in-store traffic by distributing colorful cotton candy and in-store coupons will be on the lower end.

Pop-Up In-Line Store

These spaces tend to only become available while owners are in-between permanent tenants. For owners it’s better to have a temporary tenant than having an empty store, which can be a negotiating advantage for you. Build-outs for pop-ups are the business owner’s expense. To help cover build-out costs, Landlords will offer permanent tenants a TI Expense, or Tenant Improvement Allowance. This is rarely available for a pop-up deal; however, they may consider a rent abatement — free rent for the first few months after lease agreement.

Nuts and Bolts of Specialty Lease Negotiations

RMU rents can range from $1,000 in a low-end shopping center to $8,000 at a premier property. Monthly costs for kiosks range from roughly $3,500 to $15,000. In-line pop-up rents are typically consistent with kiosks. In any case, it all depends on the location. The highest traffic areas with the best exposure will have the highest cost. Another key factor is the lease term and whether your stay overlaps a high volume season, like the holiday months of November and December where its common for rents to double. As general rule of thumb, longer lease terms can get lower monthly rents.

Specialty Leases are percentage leases. With this type of lease landlords ask for a percentage of sales above a certain breakpoint in the form of rent. Landlords set the breakpoints, which typically range between 7 and 15 percent. For example, if your rent is $5,000 per month, in addition to $5,000 you will owe percentage rent once your monthly sales exceed $33,333. Additional rent is the percentage of the amount above the breakpoint. A simple formula for calculating breakpoint is to divide the rent by the breakpoint (i.e. 5,000 / 15 percent = 33,333).

Typically, the lease term for an RMU is between 3 and 6 months; however, they can range from 1 month to 1 year. A kiosk lease is usually 1 to 2 years, unless it’s a sub-lease. In-lines are trickier because there’s the build-out costs. And some landlords will ask you to leave the moment they find a permanent tenant. Your budget will determine how you get started in this business – but there’s tremendous growth potential.

To learn more about shopping center leasing How to Lease Space in Shopping Centers: A Guide for Small Business Owners by Barry Fleisher offers in depth look at the ins-and-outs of lease negotiations and specialty leasing opportunities.

Strategic Funding provides needed operating funds to small businesses. Strategic Funding has helped businesses in hundreds of industries. Industries served include: restaurants, personal services, construction, medical, manufacturing, agriculture, retail stores, automotive, and food stores.

A Retailer Competes With the Big Guys By Joining With Other Small Guys

October 17, 2016/in Industry Center/by Wil Rivera

How does a small company beat big competitors, online and off? By joining with other small companies to create a big presence. That’s the strategy behind La Familia, a network of 13 specialty retail shops. The network is the brainchild of evo, a small retailer of sporting goods in the Pacific Northwest.

In the past, evo founder, Bryce Phillips, says the retailer encountered a lot of “dead ends” with customers. They would buy, say, a ski and a binding from its website. Evo would ship the purchased products. The relationship would then be over. Unless the customer lived close to one of evo’s stores in Portland, Seattle or Denver, it was nearly impossible to create a community where customers could get expert advice and guidance.

When Phillips was visiting his parents in Bend, Oregon, he stopped into a sporting goods shop called Crows Feet Common. Phillips was impressed with the owner, David Marchi, with whom, by coincidence, Phillips had skied the year before. They worked out a deal where their customers could pick up items at each other’s shops. A partnership that would allow their customers to benefit from custom fittings and personal service.

“Independent specialty retailers and multi-channel specialty retailers like evo have all been working in islands,” Phillips says. “It could sound counter-intuitive considering that we are sending customers into our competitors’ stores. But, we don’t see it like that. We trust that when we deliver a better experience, two major metrics that are important to us will improve: conversion and loyalty.”

Overcoming Reluctance

The initial stores were selected because of personal connections and friendships. Even so, Phillips acknowledges some were initially reticent to link up with competitors. “At first it’s common for an owner or manager of a store to ask ‘What’s the catch?'” he says. “Like any partnership, we have to establish trust that we are looking to create a win for both sides.”

Through the growing La Familia network, the small independent brick and mortar shops can now compete with box stores and online e-tailers when it comes to the ease, convenience, and a larger product selection from all 13 stores.

Those mutual wins include a revenue-share program where La Familia partners receive a slice of the pie if a customer purchases a product that evo sells and they are out of or do not carry. “This is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to evaluating the network given the ways that all involved can benefit,” he says.

Many Ways to Grow

Phillips envisions many ways the network can grow. When one of the network’s vendors launches a special product, it can be leveraged across evo’s flagship locations, its web site and the La Familia network.

“This is also compelling when considering a launch of an entire brand. Then there is the end of life inventory. And we now have the ability to optimize pricing when the season is up” he adds. On the marketing front, partnering with stores on events can make those events larger and make customers more enthusiastic.

Now that word is spreading about La Familia, Phillips is being approached by sales managers and reps from stores he doesn’t know personally that want to join. He has some simple advice for retailers in other niches that want to put together a network: “Reach out!” he says. “We are in this business not only because we love the sports and lifestyle but also because it’s always awesome to meet and work with great people. We know that it’s very early when it comes to how our industry and retail as a whole will evolve. But we are excited to be working with great people who share our passion for building lasting relationships and great businesses.”

Invoice Financing: Solutions for Subcontractors

September 9, 2016/in Industry Center/by Wil Rivera

As a subcontractor, your business often depends on the contractor whose project you’re working on. The contractors are paid upfront for their work. However, it can be days or even months for the contractor to resolve your invoices for services rendered. So how do you keep things running smoothly in the meantime? If you’re comfortable taking on debt over the short term, invoice financing can be an effective way to secure the working capital you need.

What is invoice financing?

Invoice financing, also known as accounts receivable financing or factoring, simply means borrowing money against your business’s unpaid invoices. The amount you’re able to finance can range from 50% to 90% of the balance you’re owed. So if you have an unpaid invoice of $20,000 for electrical work that you did for a home builder, you’d potentially be able to borrow between $10,000 and $18,000, depending on which invoice financing company you choose.

Why invoice financing can be a good fit for subcontractors

There are several ways to obtain working capital during a cash crunch. When strapped for funds, business owners may consider a variety of alternative financing options. Some of these options include inventory financing, merchant cash advances and short-term loans. Invoice financing, however, is particularly well-suited for subcontractors for a few reasons:

Financing is fast

When you need to meet payroll or purchase supplies, you can’t afford to wait for a contractor to pay you. With invoice financing, it’s possible to get the money you need in anywhere from two days to two weeks, allowing you to avoid delays in the meantime.

Designed to be repaid quickly

The nature of subcontracting means that in most cases, you can expect payment within 90 days or less of completing a job. Accordingly, lending companies structure this type of financing in a way so that you repay what you borrow once the invoice is paid. Compared to a loan which can take years to pay off, invoice financing is more appealing. Lenders do not lock you into a long-term payment plan.

Collateral and credit guidelines are more relaxed

If you were to go to a bank for a business loan, they’d want to see a strong credit history. They’d also want to see that you had something of value as collateral. If you run a smaller subcontracting operation, your business assets are limited to your equipment, tools or a work vehicle. The upside of invoice financing is that the invoice itself serves as your collateral. In addition you don’t need perfect credit to qualify. Just keep in mind, lenders may raise an eyebrow if your credit history includes something serious like a foreclosure or bankruptcy.

Calculating the cost

Because invoice financing is an alternative borrowing option, it doesn’t come with the same fees and interest rate structures as traditional loans. Instead of an annual percentage rate (APR), the lender assesses a processing fee. This lending company will charge this fee against your “reserve”. Reserves are the difference between the value of your invoice and the amount you finance. There’s also a separate factor fee based on the length of your repayment term.

Here’s an example:

A contractor owes a plumber $100,000 for services rendered. The invoice financing company is willing to front you 85% of that total or $85,000. The lending company will hold $15,000 in reserve. They will use this money to pay fees (such as processing and factor fees).

The financing company charges a 3% processing fee against the $100,000 invoice, totaling $3,000. Now you’ve got $12,000 in reserve. You’re also responsible for paying a 1.15% factor fee, which comes to $1,500 weekly. It takes the contractor four weeks to pay your invoice. This means the financing company keeps another $6,000 out of the reserve funds. When the lending company receives the money you initially borrowed, they will return the remaining $6,000 to you. Altogether, you’ve paid $9,000 to the finance company.

If you’re thinking that seems steep, you have to ask yourself what’s more important—avoiding a fee or getting the working capital you need. The speed and convenience that invoice financing affords can justify the expense if it allows you to remain competitive in the subcontracting arena. Just be sure to compare terms from different lenders before applying.

Strategic Funding provides needed operating funds to small businesses. Strategic Funding has helped business in hundreds of industries. Industries served include: restaurants, personal services, construction, medical, manufacturing, agriculture, retail stores, automotive, and food stores.

Why Short Term Debt Is the Answer When You’re Ready to Expand Your Salon or Spa Business

September 7, 2016/in Industry Center/by Wil Rivera

Needing to expand is a good problem to have as a beauty salon or spa owner. It’s a mark of your business’s overall health when demand for your services makes an additional location or the hiring of new employees a necessity.

Before you can move forward with an expansion, however, you’ll need to decide how you’re going to pay for it. Taking on a long-term loan is one option. However, it means tying up your cash flow for an extended period of time. Using short-term debt to get the working capital you need is a smarter way to help your salon or spa grow.

Short-term financing: How it works

Short-term debt can take several different forms. However, many are not suited for expansion projects. A merchant cash advance allows you to borrow against your business’s future credit card receipts to cover things like payroll or inventory purchases. Equipment financing is another short-term alternative

. This may be appropriate if you need to upgrade your chairs or invest in a new massage bed.

When looking to expand an existing location or opening a new one, a short term loan may be the best choice. Unlike a traditional bank loan, short-term loans don’t stretch the payoff out over 10 or 20 years. Instead, these loans are designed to be repaid relatively quickly, usually within anywhere from three to 36 months. Depending on the source of the loan, you may be able to borrow anywhere from $5,000 to $500,000.

Advantages of using short-term debt to expand

There are several reasons why short-term debt is more attractive than a long-term loan for expansion projects. First, it’s generally not as difficult to qualify for short-term financing as far as the credit requirements are concerned. If your salon or spa is a few years old but you haven’t had much opportunity to build up a solid business credit history, that’s not a deal-breaker for approval.

Next, this kind of debt is more accessible when it comes to how quickly you can get funding. If you have a dire need to bring in a couple of new stylists to keep pace with your growing customer base, it’s possible to get a loan or another short-term debt in as little as two business days. That’s much more appealing than having to wait several weeks to hear from the bank regarding a loan decision.

Finally, short-term financing in most instances doesn’t require any sort of collateral. When you own a service-based business like a salon, you may not have many tangible assets beyond your equipment or inventory. This is more true if you lease rather than own the space where your business operates. Not having to put up any collateral alleviates some of the financial pressure that goes along with obtaining financing.

Choosing a short-term debt provider

Salon and spa owners have multiple avenues for finding short-term debt opportunities to make their expansion plans a reality but they’re not all the same. When you’re looking into funding sources, it’s important to pay close attention to the details.

With short-term debt, the expectation is to make payments on a daily basis versus monthly. While that may not be the case with every financing provider, you should be aware of what form your payments will take. This is especially true if your business revenue ebbs and flows seasonally. If you’re seeing a huge influx of clients during the wedding and prom seasons, for example, but business is more evenly paced the rest of the year, you need to be sure you can afford the payments regardless of how much revenue you’re generating.

Cost is the other primary consideration. Short-term debt, including short-term loans, often come with a factor rate in lieu of an annual percentage rate. The factor rate is essentially what determines the cost of borrowing. If you’re taking on a $100,000 loan with a factor rate of 1.15, for instance, you’d repay $115,000. Before you commit to short-term debt, check with the provider to determine whether they use an APR or factor rate and what the rate is so you know what the total repayment cost will be.

The Next Wave of Medicine: When Transactional Medicine Becomes Personal

July 29, 2016/in Industry Center/by Wil Rivera

After spending over 20 years in traditional fee-for-service medicine, Dr. Alex Lickerman knew there had to be a better way. During that time, he worked with patients and in healthcare administration equally, providing him with a unique perspective. He saw our health care system from both the patient and the profit side.

Physicians usually spend around 20 minutes per patient and profits could only increase if a physician saw more patients. This snowballed into overworked physicians and underserved patients, prompting him to seek ways to practice medicine while putting the patient at the forefront of care — as a true partner in their lives, in both health and wellness. “I was curious about how I could engage the patient and understand his or her values,” says Lickerman. “How a patient’s disease impacts his or her life is much more interesting to me than the disease alone.”

In 2015, Dr. Lickerman left the hospital system and went into private practice. He was committed to creating a practice that profited both patient and physician. ImagineMD was born as a direct primary care model, often referred to as concierge medicine. His patients pay a simple fee of $135 per month. This covers all of a patient’s office visits, no matter the number each month. It also covers access to same-day and next-day appointments, visits that last an hour or more, and 24/7 access every day of the year directly to Dr. Lickerman himself — even after hours. Since making this move, his practice has grown. He credits his growth to simplifying the patient experience while also improving the quality of care he’s able to provide.

Q: Why did you decide to establish your practice as direct primary care instead of the traditional fee-for-service model?

Lickerman: After spending 20 years in both patient care and administration, I’d gotten a strong grip on what patient frustrations were with our current fee-for-service healthcare system. I didn’t want to see more patients to earn a living practicing medicine. That would mean I’d have less time to spend with each of those patients. Direct primary care allows me to build my practice on a simple fee model and get money out of the way of building a relationship between my patients and the care I can provide.

Q: How has your current business model allowed your practice to grow financially?

L: Well, there are a few answers to this. They all work together to create the growth in my practice.

First, I don’t accept insurance. In traditional fee-for-service practices, I’d estimate that approximately 30% of both time and revenue go towards the complicated process of insurance billing. Involving insurance makes a project much more complicated. There’s intricate software and the staff you have to hire to manage billing. It’s also complicated to track where and when all of your revenue is coming in when it’s divided up between a myriad of insurance companies.

By taking insurance billing out of the equation, my direct primary care model allows me to operate with a very lean, patient-centric staff. I also don’t have to spend time on physician-to-insurer conversations. It takes up a fair amount of time in a fee-for-service model. This frees me up to spend more time with my patients.

Secondly, I have less administrative weight on each visit I have with a patient. In a fee-for-service model, I had to make sure that chart notes for each patient’s diagnosis were “insurance-ready.” I had to prioritize documenting their medical issues over their care. My current model, since insurance isn’t involved, means my notes are for the benefit of myself, the patient, and any future physician we might have to interact with for their care. Again, it translates to less administration and more time to spend on patient-centric activities.

Finally, because I am able to increase both the time and care that I am able to give to all of my patients, they’re incredibly happy with their relationship with my practice. The majority of our new patients come by referral from existing patients. When we keep our patients well taken care of, they send us more people who want that level of service.

Q: Did patient satisfaction increase with your direct primary care model?

L:When you’re a physician seeing 20 patients a day for 20 minutes maximum each, the patient feels that. There’s a disincentive to see a doctor when you’re not feeling well. This is because of time spent, an impersonal experience, and the co-pay. My practice model and flat fee structure lets patients access me when they need me without worrying about the cost.

This means my patients see me more frequently and reach out to me as a partner in their health. I have the time to spend answering their questions — in the office, via email, or via phone. I can build relationships instead of receivables, yet still operate a profitable business that grows each month. Most importantly, the patients are happy with the kind of care they receive and the level of interest I take in their overall health and lifestyles. It’s an attractive feature for patients to feel they can reach out or go see their doctor whenever they have to.