How To Solve Delegation Problems Inside Your Restaurant Business

We get it, you are a busy restaurant/bar owner, doesn't want to delegate tasks.

You have to keep track of everything. You’re trying to make sure everything is running smoothly in the kitchen, items are tracked properly, and the overall day-to-day to keep your restaurant from bursting into flames!

You also need to breath, and calm down; the way you’re living isn’t healthy.

If your company is anything like ours, it’s full of workaholics. And trust us, we’ve struggled to overcome our go get-em personalities.

In reality that’s not going to help you run your business better in the long run, and you’re going to burn yourself out.

One of the biggest ways for a company to grow is learning how to spend money wisely, delegate tasks, and invest in things that make your restaurant or bar operate more efficiently.

With delegation you will spend less time micromanaging every aspect of your kitchen.

We get you want to do it all

There’s been a term popularized by comic books, known as “Superman Syndrome” (and no we’re not referring the the genetic term).

If you’ve never heard of this term before, it basically boils down to someone who is a workaholic, someone who thinks they’re invincible, doesn’t have an “off” switch, or feels the responsibility to shoulder everything.

Sound familiar?

If you’re trying to run every single item in your restaurant by yourself, you may suffer from Superman Syndrome.

For your own sanity, it’s best to learn to let some things go, and start delegating tasks to your other employees.

You can’t be everywhere at once, not even Superman can

Superman could not solve every problem in every part of the world. Just like you can’t be at every part of your restaurant, or bar, at every moment of the day.

Trusting another person to help run your business can be nerve wracking, especially if you have a “I can do everything personality.”

You may be able to do everything, but you might not be able to do everything well.

Why bring this up?

Well, before this becomes a complete nerd-fest, the main point is that even though Superman is a great hero, he can’t do it all by himself. Superman needed a team that he could trust.

How do you form a team?

In the beginning, your team may or may not have members that are deemed superhero’s.

That’s where you need to stop and take a look at your own business. Because in order to properly delegate tasks, you ultimately need a team you can lean on and trust.

You need to look for and consider hiring great team members and employees that are star performers. Here’s a short list of qualities to look for when hiring a team:

A lot of servers, cooks, and wait-staff should fit these hiring traits. Generally, you need to look for employees who just seem amazing at keeping things running smoothly.

Find the people you trust, and give them more responsibility. Focus on their talents, and put them in a position to win.

Also, rely on some technology

Yes, we keep recommending POS systems. And there’s a reason for that: it’s because they make your job and life easier.

Easier like tracking features and reports to help you keep an eye on your restaurant, along with alerts to notify you of theft or shrinkage. A great point-of-sale system will be the crowning jewel when building your team.

It’s time to take on the world?

Talk to our experts, and see what our technologie services can do to help your restaurant or bar.

Why a Tablet-based Point Of Sale Solution May Not Be a Good Fit For Your Business

Tablet POS systems are everywhere, and the popularity of mobile devices continues to grow in the technology world.

We’re all for staying on top of advances in technologies. We trust and recommend PayAnywhere and Revel for our merchants.

However, we wouldn’t recommend them to every merchant or business.

Why?

Tablet POS systems are not a one-size-fits-all solution

We’re going to be brutally honest here and bring down some of the hype over tablets as point-of-sale systems. Yes we praised them highly in our earlier blog, and yes we still love them.

But they are not the best solution for certain types of businesses.

If you own a restaurant or a bar, a tablet will not meet all of your needs for a POS system.

Tablet POS systems are limited in how much they can process

If you have a restaurant or bar, or run a large retail store, a tablet will not give you the best return on investment, or help you manage your store like a traditional POS system would.

When you have multiple products to track, a tablet simply does not have the capability to manage all of the applications needed.

Let’s put some perspective on this.

Imagine your tablet POS system is a regular Tablet or iPad device. Now picture a laptop or desktop computer. You have to complete a project where you will have to use Photoshop, InDesign, and Adobe Acrobat. Which tool is going to be best for the project?

Technically, a tablet can run Photoshop, InDesign, and Adobe Acrobat, but switching back and forth between the programs will be a pain, as will running all three simultaneously.

Any tablet POS system will have some limitations

Aside from Revel, no tablet POS system can run off of an Ethernet connection. Wifi can be finicky to use at times, and it becomes impossible to run online if it goes down, meaning you could take a credit card and not find out it was declined until you submit your batch of transactions for the day to be processed.

We get that traditional POS systems are pricey compared to a tablet

Even if you want a tablet based POS, in the long run you’re going to spend the same amount as a traditional POS anyway.

If you buy Restaurant Manager, it’s going to more expensive than an iPad or Tablet POS, because it essentially comes with all the hardware you’ll need to run your restaurant or bar. Restaurant manager also interfaces with more technology hardware than a tablet system would.

You could buy a tablet based system and all the pieces needed individually, but you would have to manually interface all the hardware you bought separately with a cloud based system, and you’ll manually have to program all of the hardware to work with your tablet based POS system.

So you’ll have to spend extra time programming it, and interfacing it yourself.

Restaurant Manager and StoreTender will still interface quicker than any POS tablet combined with any miscellaneous bought hardware.

Times like these, it’s better not to DIY in businesses technology.

Want to talk to technologies experts?

Talk with our technology experts, and see what would be the best fit for your
business.

Why We Don’t Sell Cash Registers Anymore

Ah the cash register, considered a staple sight of every retail store across America.

The satisfying ring of the machine as it opens, and the fun of pressing those buttons to tally up a sale.

Unfortunately, it’s not the 1900’s anymore, and cash registers are a remnant of the olden days.

We do not sell cash registers anymore, and we also don’t wear top hats and handlebar mustaches (although we wish we did).

Cash registers by themselves are slowly going the way of the halfpenny and the carriage.

We’re not saying they’re completely gone

Cash registers do technically still exist in the world of merchants, however, they will always be attached to a point-of-sale system, and never sold by a professional technology company.

Those who do sell them are most likely trying to make a quick buck, and don’t care about selling you a quality product that’s going to boost your business’ success-either word works.

Cash registers serve an incredibly small purpose, and that’s to store payments made by customers in cash. That’s all they do.

While there will be a few people who pay with cash, how many more are going to pay with a card?

They are singular devices

A cash register has very little to offer a merchant compared to a full point-of-sale system (or even an iPad POS).

Cash registers by themselves cannot track, manage your inventory, or give you real time tracking of what you have in your store or restaurant.

Sure, POS systems are costly

Cash registers are cheap, much like an old laptop you can buy off of craigslist.

But cheap does not always equal the best bang for your buck.

Point of sales are a return on investment for your business. Their reporting features and tracking software help you catch theft along with your supplies.

The most useful thing a cash register can do is collect money and dust, and if you really want to keep that old-timey feel, play some vintage hits and give your business a Victorian vibe, instead of sacrificing your equipment to the good old days.

Want to upgrade?

Talk with our technology experts, and see what would be the best fit for your business.

11 Creative Ways To Use Digital Signage In Your Small Business

If you’ve read our previous blog about digital signage, you know why we’re fans of digital signage for small businesses. We briefly highlighted some of the ways digital signage can benefit your business.

But did you know, digital signage can increase sales of featured item by 5 to 50%? And they can decrease perceived waiting time by as much as 40%.

So what other ways can digital signage increase your sales and improve your business? We thought we would go into more details about what creative ways to use digital signage for your business.

 

Entertain your guests

Digital signage is often considered the “silent salesman” that grab a customer’s attention the way nothing else can!

Digital signage can keep attract customers during the long waits they usually have. It’s a great way to keep those customers entertained and happy throughout the wait of busy days.

 

Promote specials!

Is your business running a special for a holiday?

If so, you can use digital signage to decorate your screens with a slide showing off your special! Whether you’re a retailer promoting college football memorabilia, or a small cafe promoting your Christmas drink; digital signage is a great way to alert your customers to your specials.

 

Showcase your menu

Do you have a rocking menu?

Wet your customers appetite with alluring pictures of your food. If you’re a restaurant or bar, showcase your restaurant's special drink or dish! Change it up depending on breakfast, lunch, or dinner!

 

Show weather and news

You don’t just have to talk about yourself as a business, either.

Feature some news about the weather, or promote local events in your community.

This can be helpful to your guests to keep tabs on fun celebrations in your city, and make your business an active promoter of your community.

 

Date and time

This is a nice simple reminder for your customers. If they’re wanting to keep track of time, or just need to know the date for what their signing for. It can constantly featured on the bottom or side of your screen, seems simple, but leaves a great impact.

 

Webpages

Want to advertise your web page?
Showcase them on your screens! Making your guests aware you’re on social media can draw in more business.

 

Photos

Have great photos from events at your store? Or a sweet product?
Show them off! Having photos of smiling customers can create a positive environment for your customers.

 

Upcoming company events

Are you having a special promotion over the weekend?
Having reminders flash in your store will give some attention. People tend to naturally gaze at screens over paper flyers sitting in a pile. Catching your customers eye can increase traffic for a company event.

 

FAQs

Do people have a lot of questions when visiting your store?
Use digital signage to initiate a conversation with your customers. Feature commonly asked questions and answers on your screen’s rotation.

 

Awards and honors

It’s okay to brag every once in awhile. Showing off your awards will be good promotion for your business. Flash your awards across the screen. It may seem braggy, but it’ll be better advertisement for your company in the long run.

 

Holiday closings

Planning on closing on Christmas Eve?
Having it flash in your store will help alert your customers know your business’ schedule.

 

The unlimited possibilities

Don’t underestimate the ability on how digital signage can grow your business. Take advantage of the technology, and talk with us to see what BNG technologies digital signage can do for your business!

3 Ways Your Small Business Can Avoid a Data Breach Through Your Point of Sale System

Over the last 2 years, the retail world has been rocked with data breaches.

Retail giants like Home Depot and Target all had massive breaches, compromising millions of pieces of credit card information to identity-thieves.

While Target and Home Depot suffered little in financial loss for the actual breaches, the same cannot be said for small businesses.

Writing off fraud losses for retail giants is no big deal for their bottom line, the same data breach for a small retailer would be detrimental. Small businesses in general suffer more from these types of data breaches.

Most cannot recover from the loss of funds, causing them to close their doors forever.

 

Data breaches can be avoided

While many merchants take great care to assure their payment processors are PCI compliant, but they do not take the same measures with their Point of Sale Systems.

All of the major data breaches have been tied to the hackers gaining access through the company’s Point of Sale system.

Merchants often time overlook securing their POS systems, and leave themselves vulnerable to risk.

How can I secure my POS system?

Here’s our short list of what steps your business can take to secure your Point of Sale system.

 

1). Don’t use weak passwords

Many Point of Sale systems owners do not secure their passwords to their software. This can include creating weak passwords, unchanged passwords that are years old, or no password at all.

If you’re running secured information on that network, the password probably shouldn’t be just the name of your business and the number 1.

Develop a strong password to protect your customer's information.

 

2). Don’t use the POS for non-secure reasons

One of the risks of running a small business is allowing employees to use the POS for non-work purposes. This also includes downloading malware onto the POS, or programs susceptible to malware.

Activities like browsing the internet, or downloading games (especially on a tablet POS) should not be done on your POS, since it’s jeopardizing the security of your system.

Another mistake is failure to utilize address verification (AV) software that detects the presence of memory-scraping malware. You POS provider should be able to set you up with the appropriate software to prevent this from happening, but always be smart with downloading items on your POS.

 

3). Don't keep your POS on an open network

One of the worst offenders is keeping your POS on the same internet network as your other wifi or ethernet cord. This is an easy way to become a target for a data breach.

“Any POS terminal with an IP address and a connection to a business’s network is as vulnerable to compromise as all the other pieces of equipment in that network. So, too, is any standalone POS terminal that links directly to the internet” (http://pointofsale.com/).

Do not have your POS network one that anyone can access, it makes it too easy for hackers to gain access onto the unsecured network. Failure to separate the network will make your business an easy target for a data breach.

As mentioned earlier, you must make a secure password for this network. This shouldn’t be something easily accessible outsiders or customers.

 

Don’t fall victim to a data breach

Data breaches can be avoided, if you take care of your Point of Sale system and make sure it’s secure as possible.

Protecting your customer’s information isn’t just about your payment processor, but involves securing your POS system too.

 

Have questions?

If you’d like to learn more about what steps to take to secure your POS network, or would like a free demo, contact us here.

What Is Digital Signage And Why Your Small Business Needs It

Let’s talk about digital signage for a moment.

Television as entertainment has slowly been going the way of the dinosaurs. Markets with online entertainment such as Netflix and Hulu are slowly eliminating the need for cable entertainment.

T.V’s themselves, still offer a great opportunity for businesses to make money.

Digital signage is the new way of advertising for your business, outside of buying airtime on T.V.

So why should you consider it for your business?

They are a significantly cheaper option are far more engaging than buying a billboard. It can even be less expensive than paper flyers to hang around your business.

A few decades ago, merchants would pay a hefty price to be featured on a billboard. As the technology has become flashier, billboards are starting to lose their power.

“With billboards garnering such a negative perception for being "ugly" or "overbearing"...From a consumer standpoint, they are a nuisance, and from a cost standpoint, they are impractical...digital signage could cost roughly $300,000, a number far too great for any medium sized business” (www.prnewswire.com).

 

Billboards are out, digital signage is in

The trend in marketing is to be a silent salesman, rather than flashy in-your-face salesman.

Digital signage can be used for more than increasing revenue. Your customers can watch the screens during long waits, such at a restaurant or grocery store. These can stream ads while entertaining your customers.

You can show whatever networks you want, whether they be advertisements for your products, or entertaining your customers to give them a better experience.

 

It’s environmentally friendly, and cheaper

Digital signage cuts down on the use of paper from print advertisement, giving your business a sleeker look.

If you like killing trees, digital signage is still a great option, because it’s cheaper than printing flyers to hang around your store.

It’s also easy to update, whatever the occasion. Traditional print, you’d have to design the brochure and then wait for it to come back from the printers.

With digital signage, all you have to do is change the theme into your network, and you can update it on the spot.

Want to make customers of your Christmas special? Trying to raise awareness for Breast Cancer? You can easily update designs on your T.V, rather than designing the theme and sending it onto the printers.

 

Digital signage is an engaging form of advertising

Stop wasting money on paper marketing that’s declining, and invest in reusable tool. Digital signage is a marketing tool that can:
• Entertain your customers
• Be changed instantly
• Show news and updates
• Feature monthly news
• Ease to use
• Reusable
• You can control your content
• It’s cheap compared to paper
Paper advertising cannot compete with this, digital signage is cheap and affordable.

 

Want to see what digital signage can do for your business?

If you’d like to learn more about what technologies steps to take with your own business, or would like a free demo, contact us here.

iPad Point Of Sale Systems, Are They The Future?

The rate of Point-of-Sale technology has upgraded over the last 100 years is staggering. We’ve seen traditional cash registers, which dominated merchants way of taking payments with clunky and noisy presence, to the clunky but efficient computer based models.

They’ve all changed to a newer, sleeker models, as the iPad begins to dominate the market as they new wave of POS systems.

 

Why are they so popular?

iPad’s have been popular for their sleek look, among small and large merchants. They tend to take up less space, and are usually cheaper than their clunky $20,000 siblings.

In truth, most of our sales are for sleek Pay Anywhere models, and Revel has become a popular POS amongst our customers.

It marks the desire for sleek technology, in the same way flat screen tvs have replaced their boxy counterparts.

 

Are they as good as traditional POS?

In many ways, yes.

Many iPad’s can run multiple POS apps, and tablet devices tend to run higher volume transactions over phone, which work for small volume merchants.

iPad’s also have come a long way in the types of jobs they can do. Recently, Revel, introduced an iPad to the world that is a POS system, rather than just an iPad with POS apps. It also became the first product on the market to have the ability to run off an ethernet cord.

One of the biggest complaints of iPad POS was their inability to run off of an ethernet cord, and instead had to run off of wifi.

Wifi is often finicky, and will more oft than not wave in and out. While you can still run transactions offline, you do not have a way to see if a card was declined or not. Putting yourself as financial risk.

Having an ability to run off the ethernet as well prevents the risk of having to run transactions offline.

 

Will everyone use an iPad Point-of-Sale system?

Sadly not.

While iPads are becoming a great fit, for some merchants and iPad will not be able to process the work a traditional POS would.

Grocery stores, for example, would not be the best for an iPad POS systems. They often require a studier POS with a table for weighing that’s part of their system.

Liquor stores also, are not the best fit for an iPad. These large volume transactions are best suited for a classic computer POS system.

 

Does that mean you can’t use them?

No. You could use an iPad POS and it will work.

It just won’t work excellently.

There’s much better POS systems that would excel in a grocery or liquor store, like StoreTender.

As the iPad POS movement continues to grow over the years, new technology may one day see all Point-of-Sale systems adapt a tablet style.

 

Want to see what POS system is best for your business?

If you’d like to learn more about what technologies steps to take with your own business, or would like a free demo, contact us here.

3 Ways To Prevent Theft For Small Retailers

Theft has always been one of the biggest obstacles for small retailers. Whether it be from employees, business partners, or customers, theft is one of the largest contributors to shrinkage.

The saddest fact is that small retailers feel the theft greater than the giant chains, but most owners do not have any type of software to detect theft or prevent it.

Below is a graph made from software advice, where they conducted a survey into the prevention methods small merchants take against theft.
As it shows, most mom and pop stores rely on paper and pen predominantly to track theft. Such measures, are subjected to error, and are not an accurate reflection of what has or has not been lost.

So how do small retailers combat theft?

Get Point-of-Sale tracking software

This will be more expensive than just pen and paper, but it is significantly going to make you more money in the long run by preventing theft.

It may cost you some upfront change, since tracking software is usually an additional cost with Point-of-Sale providers, but theft is costing your business far more.

If you think isn’t happening, you’re going to have to face hard truth.

“The National Retail Federation released figures centering on shrink and the impact on U.S. retailers. Based on research of Richard Hollinger, professor of criminology of the University of Florida, the report found: Shrinkage cost the retail industry $37.14 billion in 2013, or 1.58% of total retail industry sales. Shrinkage is divided into employee theft (43.7%), shoplifting (32.6%), administrative error (12.9%) and vendor fraud (5.4%). The remaining shrinkage resulted from unknown causes. Companies indicated that 18.7% of employee theft involved collusion between internal and external sources” (www.cstoredecisions.com)

Just because you don’t see it on your pen and paper, doesn’t mean it’s not happening.

Softwareadvice also found that 37% of “mom and pop” stores using inventory software, versus 53 percent of local and regional retail chains and 85 percent of national retail chains surveyed.

Be aware of what’s going on with your store.

Check your bank deposits

If you’re just looking to see if the deposit numbers match the sale numbers, chances are you’re missing money. Use online banking to check to see how frequently deposits are made.

For example, if you normally deposit around the same number every day, and then suddenly it switches to every other day deposits, look into that. It could be nothing, but it could also be a sign of theft.

Banks don’t normally notice small changes in deposits, so it’s up to you to track how frequent your deposits are. Take advantage of online banking, and invest time in accounting software to help track your sales and money.

Be aware of employee error

Having inventory management software is only the beginning to prevent theft. You need to make sure your employees know how to use the software correctly.

As listed in the study above, 12.9% of shrinkage is due to administrative error, such as improper documentation of your merchandise. Your employees may not know they need to scan all the inventory and count it. If they don’t report that there’s 3 plugs because they haven’t been trained to use the barcode scanner, then it’s a training problem.

Make sure your employees know how to use your Point-of-Sale system correctly, and track everything. Most employees don’t understand how to correctly use a POS, and it’s something that only comes with training.

Set expectations, and check in to make sure inventory tracking is actually being done.

Want the best Point-of-Sale technology to help prevent shrinkage?

If you’d like to learn more about what technologies steps to take with your own business, or would like a free demo, contact us here.

How EMV Will Affect Your Small Business' Point-of-Sale System

EMV has been making waves, causing merchants with credit card terminals to lose sleep over the new wave of technology.

However, in the rush to talk about credit card terminals, we seem to have forgotten about Point-of-Sales systems being affected as well.

Reading up on the topic has been, frustrating to say the least. Many of the articles have been misleading and making it sound like EMV is a law to be enforced, or merchants will take more fraud losses by not switching to EMV.

Panic & mayhem, and a great deal of misinformation have been pushed down merchants throats. Sometimes resulting into unnecessary purchases, and nonessential stress.

Credit Card processors have been heavily spreading chaos about the new the technology hardware through the woodwork, and many terminal markers have pushed production into overtime for EMV.

Should you panic?

No, why?

Because counterfeit card fraud is not that common.

From our experience, statistically, you’re more likely to see lost/stolen card fraud rather than counterfeit cards.

But what about for Point-of-Sale Systems?

Funny story about that.

Point-of-Sale systems developers haven’t finished the software to adapt the new EMV technology.

There’s been some complications.

A lot of Point-of-Sale systems aren’t syncing with their processor providers, and some POS software developers do not have the technology ready yet.

“Despite relatively slow EMV adoption in the United States, experts predict that the technology will go mainstream within a matter of years. According to a recent report by Javelin Strategy & Research, EMV credit card machines will become "ubiquitous" by 2018. The Wall Street Journal believes widespread adoption could arrive as soon as 2015.”

The article has a lot more promotion of EMV and POS systems, but it even mentions the mainstream availability of the technology won’t be “ubiquitous” until 2018.

The October 1st liability shift deadline has come and gone, and many POS providers have yet to release EMV software.

So why is the software development taking so long?

Point-of-Sale software is compatible, just not with all the processing platforms yet. Basically they are fine tuning the product rather than shoving out faulty software.

So it’s coming, it’s just not here yet.

The truth is that the chance of card present on a counterfeit card with a POS system is already a small slice of fraud.

If you’re a small to medium sized merchant, your chance of counterfeit fraud (because EMV only applies to counterfeit cards), with a POS system are minuscule.

Stop panicking

If you’re getting calls about being fined, ignore them.

Your POS provider or payment processor will be able to help with questions about upgrading to the technology.

Don’t get swept up in the sensationalism of EMV. You will want to upgrade eventually, but don’t be bullied by cold callers.

Wait for the hype to die down, and then upgrade when it becomes cheaper.

The software isn’t widely available for POS yet, so wait for your provider to contact you and say it’s ready.

Want a POS company that will walk you through the EMV changes?

If you’d like to learn more about what technologies steps to take with your own business, or would like a free demo, contact us here.

Bundling Your Point-of-Sale With A Payment Processor

We haven’t addressed much about payment processing, but it’s central to every Point-of-Sale (POS) system.

No matter if you’re in retail, service, or any other business to use a POS system, you’re going to need a processor to support your credit card payments.

When you do rent or buy a POS system, you will have to find a processing company to handle any credit card payments.

POS systems don’t just process themselves, or magically make the money appear in your account (though that would be sweet).

So should you bundle the two together?

If you can, yes!

Having a company to service both your POS system and your payment processing is a great way to simplify the two together.

Here are 3 excellent reasons to bundle your POS and payments processing.

• Communication with one company rather than multiple. Having one company to handle your processing and POS support is an invaluable resource, since you’ll be dealing with one company you trust to help grow your company. Chances of being outsourced are minimized.
• Guarantee your machines will talk to each other. If you go with a provider that covers both your POS system and credit card terminals, the machines will complement each other. Dealing with incompatible machines that will not work together will slow up your business.
• Streamlines your business to be more efficient. With the above reasons listed, streamlining your systems into one smooth process will speed up your processes, increasing your efficiency.

These make a great case for bundling your POS and processing together.

 

But there is a condition

Wait what kind of condition?

We don’t like giving one size fits all answers, because they usually are never that simple, and there tend to be exceptions.

About that condition....

 

Do you have the option to bundle them together?

Bundling these two items together is an uncommon thing, and not a huge trend for processors re-sellers of POS systems.

We at BNG Point-of-Sale offer support through our sister company BNG Holdings, but we are one of the few companies that offer such a service.

Finding other companies to do this maybe challenging, and finding a good company to do this is even more challenging.

Companies that offer everything under the sun (we’re looking at you banks) tend to spread themselves thin, and their customer experience suffers greatly.

So if you can find a company that will support both without having to outsource you to another company, bundle it up!

 

Alleviate POS and payments processing issues

If you’d like to learn more about what technologies steps to take with your own business, or would like a free demo, contact us here.