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The Test of Taste – 7 Tips For Turning Your Restaurant Into the Talk of the Town

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Opening a restaurant in this day and age can be more stressful than many people realise, but that doesn’t mean you should avoid doing it. The traps that many restaurateurs fall into can be avoided through fairly simple means, and avoidance is the best way to aim for success, rather than falling into them and working hard to get out. In this article, we have put together 7 tips for turning your restaurant into the talk of the town, in the hopes that it helps you reach your business goals in a timely fashion.

Menu

The menu you offer up to your customers is the first interaction of any substance that they have with your business. Plenty of times their first actual interaction will be walking past on opening day, or peering through the window when you’re closed. However, those impressions fall by the wayside once they’ve tasted your food. Your food quality is of the utmost importance, so if your decoration has to be a little more sparse to allow the budget for mind-blowing food, so be it. You’ve probably heard your friends say “this place looks a little weird but the food is amazing” more times than you’ve heard “the food here sucks but I keep coming back because it looks cool”.

Theme

Having a theme for your restaurant doesn’t have to be as cheesy as many, many 80’s restaurants made it out to be. When people think “themed restaurant”, their mind usually jumps to a medieval-themed eatery where screaming children run rampant and an air of lawlessness permeates the loose idea that this is a restaurant. This is, obviously, not what you’re going to be aiming for when it comes to your theme. A subtle theme can mean the difference between a well known restaurant and a must-visit destination for travellers, so find what theme works for you and subtly introduce it.

Pricing

Pricing is tricky, because people will assume cheaper food is, well, cheaper food. The more expensive you go, the higher quality your whole restaurant experience has to be, and therefore the more you charge the more you have to spend. Calibrate your costs with what restaurants you want to align yours with in terms of price bracket and you’ll find a more steady stream of customers.

Service

Service is highly important, because you don’t want your wait staff to take plates away the second your customers are finished eating, but you also don’t want them to leave the dishes on the table to languish in the after-dinner conversation. There are plenty of fine places to get hospitality supplies in Melbourne, so there shouldn’t be any reason you can’t provide guests with extra cutlery if they need it. Prompt service is always good, so steer clear of slow chefs and lengthy prep times for anything other than the special dish of the evening/week/month, because a special is always worth waiting for.

Dietary Options

Allowing your guests to choose between an omnivorous, a vegetarian, and a vegan option is standard in the modern day and age, so ensure you have these options, but don’t forget to include gluten free for coeliacs and a fructose free option for the unfortunate souls that can rarely eat anything on any menu for fear of the garlic and onion in every choice. This difference will set you apart from your similarly-priced competition, and leave you victorious.

Social Media

Every restaurant worth a visit has its own social media pages, and acting otherwise only works when that’s the point of your restaurant. If you’re running a place that has a ban on phones, for instance, no social media will align with your branding and be kitsch and cool. However, any other kind of place needs to have an Instagram, and a Facebook at the very least.

Location

Finally, your location will set you apart. Far from the city center but offering exotic and well-made foods will struggle, as will the same setup in the city center due to competition. Find the “golden suburb” that has a median income that works with your pricing and is known to be cool, or at least a little quirky, and you’re well on your way to being an underground hotspot.

These tips will help you secure yourself a spot on the list of every trend setter in your city, so get to planning your menu and training your staff to prepare for the opening night of a lifetime.

5 Ways the Medical Profession can Save Money and be Better at Business

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We are constantly hearing in the media about the woeful state of the NHS and how there is a shortage of doctors, nurses etc. and how the pot is nearly empty. Anyone who works in the medical profession will tell you about the waste that exists within the NHS and they all have their ideas of how money could be saved and be spent where it is most needed. We have considered this carefully and here are our suggestions for 5 ways in which the medical profession can save money.

healthcare doctor

Training

You forget just how many careers exist within the medical profession. Those ‘behind the scenes’ staff who by their very presence keep the profession going. Take porters for example, hospitals would grind to a halt without these trusty stalwarts and they, like all the rest, often have to undergo training. Employing online training rather than sending them off the a classroom for hours on end will not only save money but cause a lot less hassle logistically. To keep the necessary quota in place and paying others overtime to ensure this would save an awful lot of money over the course of a year.

Food

Everyone complains about hospital food and quite frankly who can blame them. Rather than buy in fresh food and cook it many hospitals are now buying in readymade meals which the nursing staff heat up in microwaves on the ward. This is taking the nurses away from their essential duties and what use is a processed meal completely lacking in any kind of vitamins and nutrition to patients recovering from illnesses or surgery?

Too many chiefs

This isn’t a problem restricted to the NHS obviously, but the term too many chiefs and not enough Indians is certainly relevant when referring to the modern medical profession. With modern technology there is no need for so many supervisors and managers. In days gone by there was a matron, the sisters and the nurses, the matron have now been replaced by several managers who sit in offices all day juggling numbers. How can this be cost effective or be in the best interests of the patients? The simple fact is that there are far too many people in the NHS sitting behind desks instead of being involved in actual healthcare. They command bigger wages than those on the front line and invariably get a golden handshake on retiring, unlike those life savers beneath them who have to manage on the pension they have paid into during the time they have spent working for the NHS.

Supplies

There are very few companies who supply medical essential such as gloves and other disposable items so they charge through the nose for it. Why are there over 77 types of different disposable gloves? Surely you only need a few; latex and non-latex etc. All those managers sitting trying to juggle figures would be best off shopping around to save money on these supplies. Every business knows that sticking with the same supplier rather than shopping around costs more and as today’s medical profession is very much a business they should be taking a leaf out of other’s books and doing the same.

Drugs

Apart from the shocking stat that £150m worth of drugs are wasted every year this again boils down to suppliers. As with everything else there are suppliers the NHS use which cost the earth but plenty more who could supply them cheaper if they shopped around. A paracetamol is a paracetamol at the end of the day, so why pay £2 a pack when a supermarket can sell them for less than £1 and still make a profit?

So, as is clear to see there are numerous ways that the medical industry can cut down and saveon costs.

First Aid in the Office – What Every Start up needs to know

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first aid and safety and wellbeing supplies

In most start-up offices, it’s wonderfully rare that anyone should need to use the first aid kit, and for the most part it’s not something that staff needs to think about on a regular basis.

Office emergencies are relatively rare and as such it can be very tempting to forget about making a priority of office safety and taking the appropriate health and safety measures. Even though people in start-ups tend to be young and carefree – first aid is a necessity.

As with anything in life, however, disaster always seems to strike when we’re least prepared, and that’s why the law states that it’s absolutely essential to keep your kit well stocked and ready, as well as ensuring that you and all other employees are well versed in the first aid workplace policies in your area.

We’ve put together a few things you need to know about first aid in the office in order to help you gather all the supplies you need to deal quickly and efficiently with an emergency situation:

Appoint a Health and Safety Officer

If you haven’t done this already, it’s vital that you do; appointing someone in this capacity to ensure that the kit is properly stocked at all times and that everyone is apprised of the appropriate policies and procedures will go a long way toward not only obeying the law but avoiding disaster should a real emergency occur.

Assess the Situation

Not every office has the same needs as far as their first aid kit, particularly as not every office has the same level of staffing, risk and/or activity; perform a comprehensive risk assessment to ascertain the supplies you should keep on hand in order to address an emergency; be intelligent and remember it’s better to be slightly over prepared then left floundering in a bad situation.

Leave Out Potential Allergens

Depending on how many office staff you have, there are a wide variety of potential allergens in the average kit, from ointment and painkillers to other over-the-counter meds; if someone in the office requires any of these items for health reasons, they should be able to supply them on their own, while keeping them away from others who may be allergic.

Post Your Medical Emergency Plan

Writing and posting your formal emergency plan is a must in any office; information should be posted in a position where it is readily available when required and all employees should be apprised of both its location and contents.

The plan should include the address and phone number of the office, as well as the location of the first aid kits and any staff members who are specially trained to administer assistance; also include any emergency numbers as well as directions to and contact information for the medical services facilities closest to your location.

Keeping employees informed is a vital part of dealing with an emergency quickly and efficiently.

Buy Prepackaged

There are a variety of companies who sell prepackaged first aid kits and purchasing one of these handy supplies has a few advantages; first of all, as experts in emergency supplies, they’ll know firsthand the items a company such as yours may require; these kits are also quite conspicuously marked and recognizable to employees, and the items inside are generally of sound quality.

So regardless of how unlikely an office emergency seems at your place of work, always be well stocked and prepared for a first aid emergency; keeping all staff well informed and ready will go a long way toward dealing with a crisis in the most safe and effective way.

What is a “Means Test” and how it affects your health insurance costs

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Kevin Murphy is a freelance writer and former insurance industry professional. He spends most of his time in his native Australia, and he writes about Health Insurance for Frank Health Insurance.

health insurance in australia with healthcare

The Australian healthcare system changed forever on July 1st, 2012. To many, it was just another July day, but to others it significantly changed the way their health care costs were structured. Among other things, the government passed a law through the Senate that will require Means Testing for many Australian families with private health insurance in order to determine their eligibility for the 30% health care rebate. Along with that, they also reorganized the way that rebates are paid out. They are now in separate tiers that will provide a lower or higher rebate depending on factors like your age and income level.

The day everything changed

Prior to July 1st, 2012, as we all know, there was a rebate of 30% across the board for anyone with private health insurance. This was mercifully uncomplicated and made it so a lot of those families with middle to lower middle class income levels could pay less out of pocket each year for their private health care coverage. The downside was that if you were a family who made $168,001 per year or more, you would have to pay just as much out of pocket for private health insurance as someone who earned millions of dollars a year, making the burden a little bit harder on those on the lower end of the income spectrum. The government wanted to both lighten the load on lower income families and ensure that those who couldn’t afford private health insurance weren’t negatively affected.

Paving a path with good intentions

As with many things that the Australian or any government does, they start out with good intentions. The health care rebate Means Test is meant to help the government be able to more accurately payout health care rebates and prevent overpaying to those who could otherwise afford the treatment they received. The purpose of which was to save the government money and, in turn, put less strain on the already overburdened public health care system. This looks great on the surface, but it could have far-reaching unintended consequences for the entire health care system as it stands.

Is it a fair shake for everybody?

Of course, there are two sides to this coin. Many people feel that putting a higher monetary strain on those with the most money would be an appropriate measure to ensure that those with little to low income have access to affordable, adequate health care. While that looks good on paper, it may do just the opposite, warns Dr. Michael Armitage, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Health Insurance Association, who predicts that “means-testing the 30 per cent rebate will force people out of the private healthcare sector.”

Dr. Armitage has spoken out against Means Testing since the bill was in its infancy a few years ago. He also warns that “The costs of treating consumers in the public hospital system are expected to rise substantially above what is currently anticipated by the government, with an estimated rise of $3.8 billion over five years, and an estimated 850,000 person increase in public hospital admissions.” If you look at it that way, then the July 1st restructuring could force people out of private health care and back into the public system, clogging an already clogged infrastructure.

Change, good or bad, is happening

While it will be a while before we can truly see the effects of the Means Test on our health care system, we do know that change is in the wind. Whether it’s for better or for worse, only time will tell. Until then, the best advice would be to keep your private health insurance coverage as long as is feasible in order to provide the best possible care for you and your family.