THE LUMIERE BLOG
Mastering Third-Party Delivery: How Restaurants Can Maximize Value
In recent years, the rise of third-party delivery services has transformed the restaurant industry, offering convenience and accessibility to customers while presenting new opportunities and challenges for restaurant owners. While partnering with third-party delivery platforms can expand your restaurant's reach and increase sales, it's essential to approach these partnerships strategically to maximize their value. In this blog post, we'll explore the best ways for restaurants to harness the power of third-party delivery services and drive success.
Choose the Right Partners: Not all third-party delivery platforms are created equal. Research and evaluate different providers based on factors such as their reach, commission rates, delivery fees, and customer service reputation. Choose partners that align with your restaurant's brand values and business objectives.
Optimize Your Menu: Tailor your menu offerings specifically for delivery to ensure that items travel well and maintain their quality during transit. Consider streamlining your menu to focus on popular and profitable dishes that are well-suited for delivery. Clearly communicate any modifications or special instructions to third-party delivery drivers to minimize errors and enhance the customer experience.
Set Competitive Pricing: Determine pricing strategies that strike a balance between profitability and competitiveness in the delivery market. While it's essential to cover costs associated with third-party commissions and delivery fees, avoid overpricing your menu items, as this may deter customers from ordering. Offer promotions, discounts, or exclusive deals to incentivize customers to choose your restaurant over competitors.
Invest in Packaging: Invest in high-quality packaging that preserves the freshness and presentation of your food during delivery. Use sturdy containers, seals, and insulation materials to prevent spills, leaks, or temperature fluctuations. Branded packaging can also reinforce your restaurant's identity and leave a lasting impression on customers.
Provide Accurate Delivery Estimates: Communicate realistic delivery estimates to customers to manage their expectations and prevent dissatisfaction. Use data analytics and tracking technology to monitor delivery times, optimize routes, and minimize delays. Transparency and reliability are crucial for building trust and loyalty with customers.
Optimize Operations for Efficiency: Streamline your kitchen operations and workflow to accommodate the increased volume of delivery orders. Train your staff to prioritize efficiency, accuracy, and timeliness when preparing and packaging delivery orders. Allocate dedicated resources, such as kitchen space, equipment, and personnel, to fulfill delivery orders without compromising the in-house dining experience.
Leverage Marketing and Promotion: Collaborate with third-party delivery platforms to leverage their marketing and promotional capabilities. Take advantage of sponsored placements, targeted advertising, and featured listings to increase your restaurant's visibility and attract new customers. Utilize social media, email marketing, and other digital channels to promote special offers, exclusive discounts, and loyalty programs for delivery customers.
Collect and Analyze Data: Harness data analytics tools provided by third-party delivery platforms to gain insights into customer behavior, preferences, and ordering patterns. Use this data to refine your menu offerings, pricing strategies, and promotional efforts. Identify trends, opportunities, and areas for improvement to optimize your delivery operations and drive long-term success.
By following these strategies, restaurants can effectively maximize the value of third-party delivery services and capitalize on the growing demand for convenience and flexibility among customers. By delivering exceptional experiences both in-house and through delivery channels, restaurants can expand their reach, increase revenue, and thrive in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
Strengthening Nonprofit Impact: The Benefits of Outsourced Accounting Services
Nonprofit organizations play a vital role in addressing societal challenges, and effective financial management is crucial for their sustained impact. In this blog post, we'll explore how outsourcing accounting services can be a game-changer for nonprofits, particularly in managing financials, donation reporting, and external audits. Let's delve into the transformative benefits that outsourcing can bring to the nonprofit sector.
Financial Management Expertise: Outsourcing accounting services enables nonprofits to access the expertise of professionals with a deep understanding of nonprofit financial management. These experts are well-versed in the unique accounting and reporting requirements specific to the nonprofit sector, ensuring accurate and compliant financial records.
Cost Efficiency and Budget Optimization: Nonprofits often operate on tight budgets, and outsourcing accounting functions can be a cost-effective solution. By eliminating the need for an in-house accounting team, nonprofits can allocate more resources directly toward their mission, ensuring that every dollar is utilized efficiently.
Timely and Accurate Financial Reporting: Outsourced accounting firms specialize in providing timely and accurate financial reports. This is crucial for nonprofits in demonstrating transparency to stakeholders, including donors, board members, and regulatory authorities. Outsourced professionals can streamline the reporting process, delivering comprehensive financial insights on a regular basis.
Donation Reporting and Tracking: Donations are the lifeblood of nonprofits, and accurate tracking and reporting of donations are essential for maintaining donor trust. Outsourced accounting services can implement robust systems for tracking donations, ensuring that each contribution is properly recorded and reported. This transparency strengthens donor relations and facilitates compliance with reporting standards.
Compliance with Regulatory Requirements: Nonprofits are subject to specific regulatory and reporting requirements that vary by jurisdiction. Outsourced accounting professionals are well-versed in navigating these complexities, ensuring that nonprofits remain compliant with tax regulations, reporting standards, and other legal requirements.
Enhanced Donor Confidence: Outsourced accounting services contribute to increased donor confidence by providing transparent and accurate financial information. When donors have assurance in the organization's financial management, they are more likely to continue supporting the nonprofit's mission and even increase their contributions over time.
Streamlined External Audits: External audits are a necessary process to verify financial accuracy and compliance. Outsourced accounting services can help nonprofits prepare for external audits by maintaining meticulous financial records, ensuring all documentation is in order, and acting as a liaison between the nonprofit and auditors. This streamlines the audit process and increases the likelihood of a successful outcome.
Strategic Financial Planning: Outsourced accounting professionals offer valuable insights into financial planning and budgeting. By analyzing financial data, they can assist nonprofits in developing strategic financial plans that align with their mission and goals, enabling better resource allocation and long-term sustainability.
Outsourced accounting services offer nonprofits a strategic advantage in navigating the financial complexities unique to their sector. From accurate financial reporting and donation tracking to ensuring compliance and facilitating external audits, outsourcing empowers nonprofits to focus on their mission with confidence and efficiency. By partnering with experienced accounting professionals, nonprofits can strengthen their financial foundation, enhance donor trust, and ultimately amplify their positive impact on the communities they serve.
Lumiere's Guide to Implementing Payroll
There are a number of things you should do before making your first hire – some are legal and regulatory, while others are just best practices. Here is a short checklist of things you need to do before you make your first hire.
Things to consider before you make your first hire.
Congratulations! Your business is growing and you’ve decided to hire your first employee. You have found the perfect person and agreed on compensation but where do you go from there?
You must now tackle onboarding, establishing benefits, becoming compliant, and configuring and running a payroll platform. This may sound overwhelming, but don’t worry, we’re here to help. In this guide, Lumiere will step you through our process for hiring your first employee so that, right from day one, they’ll be ready to contribute to your business’ success.
Here is our guide to getting started.
1. File for Your EIN (Employer Identification Number)
Your EIN is also known as your Employer Tax ID, and you’ll use this for filing your employment and other taxes with state and federal governments. Before applying for a federal employer identification number (EIN) you should have already formed an entity. Most business owners elect to establish a structure beyond a sole-proprietor to establish liability protection. The most common corporate entity types for small businesses are S Corporations and LLCs:
S Corp
An S Corporation (“S Corp”) is a popular choice for many businesses because profits, losses and other tax items pass through the corporation to the shareholders. Although they can be more complicated legally, they can provide significant tax savings. S Corp owners who perform more than minor services for the organization are required to be reasonably compensated as employees as well as owners.
LLC
A Limited Liability Corporation (“LLC”) is a lightweight alternative to incorporating your business and is similar to an S Corp as it provides the pass-through benefits of the S Corp entity. LLCs are generally less complicated legally with fewer state-imposed annual compliance requirements.
See also the U.S. Small Business Association Guide to Business Structures
After you determine your corporate identity, you’ll need to apply for an EIN directly through the IRS. (Note: sole proprietorships do not need a EIN, but partnerships do). The IRS also has an helpful guide to Establishing Your EIN.
Check which EIN state requirements are applicable to you. While you are at it, you should also Enroll in EFTPS to see what payments your payroll company is making on your behalf
2. Register With the Relevant State Departments
You will need to register your company with the compliance department for every state you employee people in. Some states can have up to three departments that handle compliance with state tax collection, unemployment, disability, etc..
In California, the Employment Development Department (EDD) handles both tax collection and labor and workforce laws like unemployment. To register as a new employer in California you will need to complete the following:
Enroll as a New User through e-Services for Business at the EDD site.
After you have enrolled, access your e-Services account to apply for an Employer Payroll Tax Account Number.
Complete the registration process. You will be asked for information about your business and its operations in California including your California Secretary of State number. You can search for it here.
The EDD may take up to 3 business days to complete processing.
3. Establish Insurance
Caring for your team by offering health, retirement and other benefits helps employees and their families stay healthy and financially secure. As a small business owner, there are a number of types of insurance you must have and a number you also should have.
Workers Comp - A state-regulated program that covers job-related injuries and illnesses including wage replacement if they’re unable to return to work. Premiums vary by industry and job classifications. Every state has its own set of workers’ compensation rules. See the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) summary of each state’s policy.
Disability Insurance - Provides short-term Disability Insurance (DI) and Paid Family Leave (PFL) wage replacement benefits to eligible workers who need time off work due to illness or injury, pregnancy, or childbirth or to care for a seriously ill family member or to bond with a new child. California provides this through the California State Disability (SDI) program.
Employment practices liability insurance (EPLI) - Provides coverage to employers against claims made by employees alleging discrimination, wrongful termination, harassment, or other employment-related issues.
4. Document Employees
To protect themselves from potential litigation and avoid confusion, companies should utilize Job Descriptions, Offer Letters, Employment Agreements and Employee Handbooks. These will help establish policies and details of the role, compensation, and other legal ramifications of the position when hiring an employee or contractor including:
Wage and hour including overtime
Leave including vacation, pregnancy, paid family leave, etc.
Harassment and discrimination
Fringe benefits (commuter, meals, etc.)
5. Collect and Maintain Employee Information
Maintaining accurate and up-to-date profiles for your employees is crucial. For each new hire, besides the basic name, date of birth and address, be sure you keep the following data available and secure:
Employment start date.
Compensation details in writing to prevent later disputes (including any changes to compensation or responsibilities).
An I-9 Form to verify employees’ eligibility for employment in the US, and the verification documents.
See Also Doing Business In California - A Guide for Employers
6. Classify Employees
You need to know if your employees are exempt or non-exempt from overtime pay, and if you will be withholding taxes or paying them as a independent contractor. The federal guidelines for exempt employees can be complicated, and mistakes can be expensive. Before you make this important staffing decision you need to fully understand both types of workers and the importance of classifying them correctly. Failing to do so could cost your business.
Here are some general guidelines:
If you are still unclear, complete IRS Form SS-8 and they’ll give you a final determination of the worker’s status. It could take 6 months for a decision, but it will give you peace of mind to continue running your business.
Check out Lumiere’s Guide - Employee vs Contractor, Exempt vs Non-exempt - Determining Worker Classification for more information.
7. Pick and Implement a Payroll Platform
Pick a platform that is scalable and meets your particular business needs. Payroll is no place to take shortcuts, the penalties and difficulties that come with errors and poor timing are too high.
Every platform handles general payroll management tasks (direct deposit, multiple wage rates, garnishment payments, PTO, etc.) Some other things to considering when selecting a payroll platform:
Employee self-enrollment: Will the solution allow your employees to provide their onboarding information, view pay stubs and pull tax forms on their own?
Integrations: Does the solution integrate directly with your accounting software, automatically coding to account and department?
Tax liability management: As an employer, you need to withhold, report and remit Federal Withholding, State Withholding, Local Withholding, Federal unemployment (FUTA), and State unemployment (SUTA). The IRS created a guide. One of the benefits of a payroll solution is they automatically file and remit your payroll tax liabilities for you.
You should also consider implementing a solution for the following
Tracking employee’s hours, PTO, and sick time
401K employee contributions or employer matching
Expense reimbursements, commissions, bonuses, etc.
There are dozens of options for payroll software, and selecting yours means finding the one with the features you need at a price that works. Lumiere has experience working with many of the top recommended platforms.
Finally - Address Backups and Disaster Recovery
Not only is it a best practice to have backups and copies of important records in the event of a disaster, the IRS requires you provide evidence to substantiate entries, deductions, and statements made on your tax returns. You must be able to prove certain elements of expenses to deduct them and for most businesses payroll is their largest expense. It is also important to have I-9 forms, W-2s, new hire forms, and copies of all your filed tax forms (Form 941, Form 940, and state tax forms) available.
Loyalty Redefined: Best Practices for Implementing a Successful Restaurant Loyalty Program
In today's competitive restaurant industry, cultivating customer loyalty is essential for long-term success. A well-designed loyalty program can not only encourage repeat business but also foster deeper connections with your customer base. However, implementing an effective loyalty program requires careful planning and execution. In this post, we'll discuss best practices we have identified for restaurants looking to create and implement a successful loyalty program that drives engagement, retention, and revenue.
Define Clear Objectives: Before launching a loyalty program, clearly define your objectives and goals. Are you aiming to increase customer retention, boost average order value, or attract new customers? Understanding your objectives will help you tailor your loyalty program to align with your business priorities and measure its success effectively.
Keep it Simple: When designing your loyalty program, simplicity is key. Avoid overly complicated point systems or tiered structures that may confuse or overwhelm customers. Instead, opt for a straightforward rewards system that is easy to understand and participate in. For example, a points-based system where customers earn points for every purchase and redeem them for rewards is simple and effective.
Offer Meaningful Rewards: Choose rewards that are meaningful and valuable to your customers. Consider offering a mix of discounts, free items, exclusive perks, or experiential rewards that enhance the overall dining experience. Tailor your rewards to reflect your brand and resonate with your target audience's preferences and lifestyle.
Personalize the Experience: Leverage customer data and insights to personalize the loyalty experience for each customer. Collect information such as purchase history, frequency of visits, and favorite menu items to deliver targeted offers and promotions. Personalization not only strengthens customer engagement but also builds a stronger emotional connection with your brand.
Promote Across Channels: Promote your loyalty program across various channels to maximize visibility and participation. Utilize in-store signage, table tents, menu inserts, and staff training to educate customers about the program. Leverage digital channels such as your website, social media, email newsletters, and mobile apps to reach customers wherever they are and drive sign-ups.
Encourage Engagement: Encourage active participation in your loyalty program by offering incentives for customers to join and engage with the program. Consider running special promotions, double points days, or bonus point offers to incentivize sign-ups and repeat visits. Engage with members through targeted communications, surveys, and exclusive offers to keep them coming back for more.
Monitor and Measure Performance: Regularly monitor and measure the performance of your loyalty program to track key metrics such as enrollment rates, redemption rates, and customer retention. Analyze data to identify trends, preferences, and opportunities for improvement. Use insights gained to refine your program over time and optimize its effectiveness.
Reward Advocacy and Referrals: Encourage customers to become brand advocates by rewarding them for referrals and social sharing. Offer incentives such as bonus points or exclusive rewards for referring friends and family to join the loyalty program. Encourage user-generated content and word-of-mouth marketing to amplify your brand's reach and influence.
By following these best practices, restaurants can create and implement a successful loyalty program that strengthens customer relationships, drives repeat business, and sets the stage for long-term growth and success.
Lumiere Guide to Selecting and Implementing Time and Attendance Solutions
Time and attendance solutions are critical to most businesses, helping facilitate payroll processing, client invoicing, and can provide insights into your business’s profitability that leads to better decisions and efficient resource management.
Efficient tracking of time and attendance is critical to managing most businesses. Besides helping facilitate efficient payroll processing and client invoicing, time and attendance solutions can provide insights into your business’s profitability that leads to better decisions and efficient management of your human resources.
Lumiere has helped our clients adopt time and attendance solutions resulting in significant benefits, including:
Profitability Analysis
Project costing and profitability insight
Streamlined client invoicing for service industries
Departmental costing reporting
Resource Management
Efficient integration into payroll solutions
Improved resource management and expenditure control
Employee tracking through geolocation and geofencing
Compliant management of paid time off (PTO) policies
Before You Get Started - Involve the Stakeholders
The first step to determining the best software solution is to understand your requirements are. The best way to do this is to work with internal resources and stakeholders that would benefit from or interact with the platform. Start by answering the following questions from resources in the following areas:
Finance - Are analytics the finance department performs to track departmental or project costs or other critical metrics for profitability?
Operations - What workflows involve scheduling, forecasting, or reporting needs?
Payroll - What are the requirement of the existing or proposed payroll platform?
Technology - Are there management, hosting, integration considerations for the new system?
This collaboration also helps deliver stakeholder buy-in and better adoption of the implemented solution. The requirements gathering phase is also an excellent opportunity to evaluate, propose, and implement changes to your current workflows, policies, and procedures.
Make your Selection
Lumiere recommends you evaluate the following features in a time and attendance solution:
Usability - The interface should be intuitive and easy to use
Configuration - Should be straightforward and rule or macro-driven
Integration - Choose a solution that has integrates with the existing solutions
Compliance - Management of compliance rules should be automatic and proactive
Auditable - Transparent and accessible logs of who did what and when are critical
Comprehensive - Your solution should cover all your time and attendance related needs
Solutions to evaluate
For our own utilization and our clients’ benefit, Lumiere is always evaluating the best-of-breed cloud-based time and attendance solutions available for companies managing groups of employees. Here are a few of our favorites.
TSheets - Easily integrated into Quickbooks. Enables resources to track time on multiple devices and managers to see who's working, where, and on what, all in real-time
Harvest - Simple online time-tracking software that allows the tracking of resources and projects and the efficient creation of client invoices
Deputy - Platform that supports numerous industries and allows for budget based scheduling
Zenefits - Allows resources to record their time from any device and managers to approve time submissions in seconds. Syncs employee hours directly to payroll
Homebase - Assists with employee onboarding, schedule creation, and forecasting. Great for service-based industries
Ximble - Web-based time tracking solution that delivers IP restricted and GPS time clocking through text or phone, a mobile app with GPS tagging and geofencing
FreshBooks - Helps track hours spent on clients or projects for accurate billing and job-costing
Run powered by ADP - Offers small businesses the HR and payroll services they need to run their business, every day and every step of the way
Ensure success
Following our guide by establishing solution requirements, involving key stakeholders, and selecting a solution that integrates well into your existing business will go a long way towards a successful implementation. By following strong project management methodologies, leveraging your vendors’ implementation support, and providing training to your users will also contribute to your efforts’ success.
Every period of your company’s growth can bring both challenges and opportunities. Growing your business to the point that time and attendance solutions are required is strong evidence of your firm’s success. Take advantage of the contributions time and attendance solutions will provide to your business and continue your success.
Compelling Call-to-Actions That Actually Get Clicked
A call-to-action, or CTA, is just what it sounds like. It literally calls the consumer to take action. What encourages your audience to act on your content. Whether that’s gaining a subscription, following an account, or promoting an interaction, a call to action helps complete a marketing objective. CTA’s are typically brief 2-3 worded sentences at the end of content, such as “Get Started” “Learn More” or “Sign Up”.
CTA’s are important because they guide your users through the marketing funnel, clearly outlining what their next step should engage with your content. Some call-to-action best practices are:
1. Be brief
An effective call to action is short and sweet, quickly letting your audience know what to do next. Use a strong verb and end with an exclamation point. Register Now! Lengthier CTA’s should be avoided, but using a call to value can hammer in the benefits of your audience. For example, Register now and get 15% off your first order!
2. Be urgent
Creating a sense of urgency in your call to action is an effective way to get conversions. Adding words and phrases such as “limited” “last chance” “back in stock” “just for you” and “ends soon” encourages individuals to act faster.
3. Get personal
Call-to-actions tailored to the individual receiving them, have been proven much more effective than generic “Sign up Now!” phrases. By accessing the data of the visitor, you can target CTA’s with their name, location, browser language, whether the customer is already registered/subscribed, etc. Personalized CTAs are proven to convert 202% better than the default.
4. Visual Appeal
Use a contrasting, bright color to get your site visitor’s attention and draw them to the CTA button. You want the CTA to be the first thing the user notices on the page: it’s the most important piece of information anyways. A button is much easier for the visitor to click rather than a hyperlink, graphic, or photo, and humans are wired to click buttons on the page.
Using these tips to build your call-to-action will help your visitors filter through the marketing funnel and give them a specific step to engage with your content.
9 Ways to Dominate Marketing in Less Time
John Rampton, founder of the calendar productivity tool Calendar offers 9 tips on succeeding in marketing without cutting corners. Not surprisingly, outsourcing is towards the top of the list! The remainder of the suggestions are spot on as well.
"A growing business may feel like it doesn't have the bandwidth to accommodate marketing, but without marketing, it will stop growing. By taking a few steps to make marketing an incremental effort, you can ensure you get your company's name out without taking time away from the business itself."
10 Essential Social Media Guidelines
Susan Gunelius, CEO of KeySplash Creative Inc., has authored a dozen books about marketing, branding, social media, copywriting and technology and is the founder and editor in chief of WomenOnBusiness.com, a blog for business women offers 10 essential social media guidelines companies should follow when trying to build engagement.
It’s vital that you understand social media marketing fundamentals. From maximizing quality to increasing your online entry points, abiding by these 10 laws will help build a foundation that will serve your customers, your brand and—perhaps most importantly— your bottom line.
6 Technical SEO Mistakes That Can Reduce Traffic to Your Website
Lalit Sharma is the Founder & CEO of Ranking By SEO. A leading offshore SEO services company, providing services in the SEO market since 2005, describes 6 mistakes that can reduce traffic to your website along with suggestions on solving them.
“Without optimizing your website technically, you cannot achieve your web traffic objective. Everything will fall apart.”
How to Unlock 2X More Engagement by Eliminating Lead Forms
Torrey Dye, a blogger with the Atlanata based firm Terminus whose platform provides an Account Based Marketing (ABM) approach that identifies, prioritizes, and engages target accounts with a multichannel sales outreach, provides empirical evidence to support what we at Lumiere have long suggested - removing lead forms can increase engagement by almost 100%.
Think of it - how often have you navigated away from a site instead of handing over your most precious asset - your email address!
"By removing the friction caused by asking people to fill out a web form, we’ve seen as much as 71% of people who click a link in a marketing email engage with our content. That’s more than a 100% increase in engagement!"