If you’re looking to grow your restaurant business, you know that the process of opening new locations can be difficult. The good news is that, whether you’re planning to open fifteen locations in the next five years or thirty in the next three, the core challenges to grow are the same:
- Getting the right real estate location.
- Negotiating the right leasing terms.
- Hiring the right employees.
Real estate location dictates whether you’ll have foot traffic. Leasing terms impact the location’s profitability. And your employees are the people who create an experience that’ll keep customers coming back.
So, if you can nail these three components at every new restaurant, you’ll be well positioned to create sustainable growth.
The problem is that these are complicated components to get right. They take focused attention and strategy. If you aren’t able to commit attention to these factors, your new locations will suffer – and your chances for sustainable growth will be far lower.
Outsourced accounting services allow restaurant businesses to dedicate strategic focus to these factors. Here’s how.
1. Outsourced accounting services streamline the planning phases of growth.
There are a lot of financial considerations to opening new locations: potentially creating a new LLC, securing insurance, creating tax accounts, setting up accounting systems, and more.
These things are necessary to get right and will play impactful roles in the financial health of your business. But they can’t be all-consuming. If the financial to-do’s get forgotten about during the planning stage, businesses will be forced to play catch up as the business moves to open instead of focusing on important items like hiring staff.
We recommend working with accounting services as soon as you begin spending money on new location planning (i.e. consulting with lawyers, your bank, or other consultants). This will enable a firm financial structure to be set so that, by the time the new locations are closer to opening, systems will be in place – and you’ll be able to focus your attention on the key factors toward its success.
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2. Outsourced accounting services provide a firm foundation.
When the new locations open, outsourced accounting services provide a solid foundation to ensure good financial hygiene. Businesses can rest assured that basic functions are taken care of, including:
- Cash flow
- Bank reconciliations
- Accounting system integrations
- AP processing
- Operations reporting
- Business tax processing
…And more, depending on location needs.
This foundation allows businesses to more seamlessly meet compliance requirements, more accurately gauge early data to optimize early success, and more easily maintain strategic focus. When these functions are running smoothly, you don’t have to think about them. When they aren’t, they’re all you think about.
It’s akin to successfully captaining a ship. Steering is what will get you to your goal, but if the boat is leaking, navigation becomes a secondary concern. A financial foundation allows businesses to focus on steering, not bailing water.
Quality outsourced accounting services enable the right focus.
So why don’t all businesses outsource?
We believe that the basic premise we’ve outlined is common sense – but not all businesses choose to outsource accounting as they pursue growth. There are usually two reasons for this:
- They’ve relied on internal teams that’ve gotten them to this point.
- They’ve had bad experiences with providers who weren’t equipped to serve them well.
These experiences are legitimate. But the bottom line is that outsourced services are better equipped for scaling than internal solutions. For one thing, outsourced teams are able to more efficiently handle larger workloads. Internal departments typically require incremental staff per five locations, while our optimized teams can service up to three times that volume per person at lower costs.
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For another thing, internal attrition is a major risk – losing people is increasingly common and it slows growth.
To the second concern: Yes, there are providers that aren’t equipped to handle restaurant business needs. But these options can be fessed out with the right questions and analysis – and the firms like GSS that offer proactive communication, restaurant expertise, and data-driven accuracy are ultimately able to deliver the best solutions.
Ready to Empower Your Growth?
Solid financial foundations don’t guarantee success, but they do allow far more time and focus for decisions on real estate, leasing terms, and employee management – the key strategic factors that hugely impact location success.
Are you ready to empower your growth?
At Global Shared Services, we focus on clear and proactive communication, offer comprehensive finance and accounting services tailored to your needs, and have deep expertise in the restaurant sector. Our teams are built to serve businesses opening two or twenty locations annually – we scale with you. We’ll help you to set a firm financial foundation that’ll empower you to strategically focus on new location openings with a finance and accounting team you can trust.
If you’re looking for restaurant accounting (with specific expertise in franchise accounting), let’s talk.