Running a restaurant has never been easy. Issues like turnover, food waste, and tight profit margins are all too familiar to veteran owners and operators. But these days, it feels like our familiar pain points are just a little bit more painful.
Listen, I get it. Running a restaurant isn't easy. I started and ran six from the ground up, so I know a thing or two.
As we discussed in a recent article, we are at the mercy of events beyond our control like tariffs, inflation, and immigration crackdowns. These are clearly turbulent times. And as restaurant owners, we can feel the impact of these times in some very real ways, like rising food costs, rising labor costs, and changing customer behavior.
How do we navigate uncertainty? It starts with focusing on what we can control. And with the right technology, you'll often find that you can control far more than you ever imagined.
We can’t control major external forces like policy shifts or economic swings; but we can control what happens inside our restaurants.
Cost control starts with mastering internal operations. That means finding inefficiencies, cutting waste, and making smarter day-to-day decisions. Here are three powerful ways to take control:
Food waste is a massive problem throughout the restaurant industry, and this was true well before today’s economic instability. According to 2018's Restaurant Food Waste Action Guide, restaurant waste in the U.S. alone accounted for more than 11.4 million pounds of waste food annually. That wasted food translates directly to wasted money — an estimated $25 billion per year at the time.
Rising costs for essentials like eggs, beef, chocolate, and coffee are making waste more expensive than ever. But to reduce waste, we first need to understand where it's coming from. That’s hard to do when you’re still managing inventory by hand. Manual tracking makes it nearly impossible to spot patterns, pinpoint inefficiencies, or respond in real time.
This is where an inventory management platform like MarginEdge can make a dramatic difference in your budget. With the right inventory management software, you’ll get:
But is inventory management software worth the investment?
According to the National Restaurant Association, every dollar that you invest in waste tracking and reduction could be worth $8 in cost savings.
Food costs aren’t the only challenge facing restaurant owners. Restaurants are also grappling with rising labor costs.
Hiring, training, and keeping good staff is getting more expensive, so hanging on to the team you’ve already got is a big deal. One easy way to help? Smarter scheduling.
If you're overstaffed during slow times, you're burning money and cutting into your team's tips. Not great. But if you're understaffed during busy hours, the crew that's working gets slammed and that leads to stress, burnout, and people quitting.
Bottom line: both overstaffing and understaffing kill morale, and when morale drops, turnover goes up, and so do your labor costs. A good schedule isn’t just about saving money, it’s about keeping your team happy and sticking around.
Leading restaurant staffing solutions can help you make data-powered staffing decisions, manage your team with greater efficiency, and improve morale. For example, companies like 7Shifts build apps that help busy restaurant managers save time and stay organized with features like:
Other leading vendors, like Push Operations, emphasize automation and offer an all-in-one platform for:
Push also includes advanced hiring and on-boarding features.
Both 7Shifts and Push are notable for easily integrating with most POS (point of sale) systems, and for using data from your operation over time. They help you make smart staffing decisions with a focus on controlling restaurant costs and preserving morale, which helps you retain staff.
There’s a lot going on with rising costs! Yeah, the economy and politics play a role, but one thing that doesn’t always get talked about is how customer expectations are shifting. We’re feeling the squeeze from food prices going up, but so are our customers. And it’s definitely changing how they choose to spend their money.
According to the National Restaurant Association’s 2025 State of the Industry Report, 40% of restaurant diners are “very concerned about personal finances and holding back significantly on spending.”
This means restaurants have to work harder to give people a reason to eat out. And it’s not just about good food anymore; customers want more personalized experiences, like allergy-friendly options, special add-ons, custom orders, and more.
Fortunately, the right restaurant management system (RMS) can help you do exactly that. For instance, MarginEdge uses POS integration and invoice data to show you your food costs in real time. This means you can use advanced data and easy-to-understand reporting to:
This can be a great way of controlling restaurant costs while tailoring your menu to more individualized customer experiences.
You don’t need to be a tech expert to cut down on waste, schedule smarter, or make better use of your data. Honestly, that’s the beauty of the tools I recommend; they’re simple, easy to use, and built to make your life easier.
Of course, picking the right tools for your restaurant is what really matters. That’s where I come in, to help you make sense of your options and find what actually works for your business.
Things might feel a little unpredictable right now, but the good news? You don’t have to figure it all out on your own.
Schedule your expert consultation today and we’ll figure out exactly what you need to get your costs under control.