How Restaurant Owners Can Prepare for the COVID-19 Cold Weather Lull

With some outdoor dining pilot programs coming to an end as we head into the winter months, tens of thousands of restaurants across the country will be forced to operate at a fraction of typical capacity without added outdoor seating to supplement the loss. Restaurant owners are being forced to  find a way to make it through winter with vastly reduced revenue, and many operators are scrambling to reallocate budgets and manage staffing to survive COVID-19. 

As a seasonal business, we must manage a budget that includes almost all revenue during those busy months and very little or no cash flow during the slow months. With slow seasons also comes the need to navigate seasonal layoffs and the task of hiring all the best people back the next season. These are very real considerations for restaurant owners and operators right now; over the years, here are four tips we have learned that that restaurant owners can apply to their businesses to survive the winter:

Use the Off-Season to…