I've got a small restaurant *which* has four
interests, in order of priority:
I did a restaurant a couple of years ago. The realities are:
1. For all of the reasons Matt pointed out (and more), direct them to
buy an off-the-shelf POS system. The better POS systems already have
the accounting/inventory/etc, built in. Some even have a loyalty club
option included with interface to a web site. Some also had the
wireless PDA or tablet thing worked out. They work *far* better than
anything any one of us could develop as a one-off application.
2. Training is a *huge* issue. Servers are a combination of young,
usually pretty smart kids (usually college students), older ones for
whom it is "just a job." The former "get" computers, the latter
don't. All wait staff and cooks come and go like bums at the bus
station. Ditto managers. As soon as one crew is trained, 50% of them
are gone. The owners mostly are "artistes" who want to cook. They
can't or won't manage the _business_. It has to be dead-simple-easy
or nobody will use it. The POS systems are all touch screens. The
restaurant is laid out on the screen, they "touch" their tables to
get going.
3. Restaurants are retail. Any system work or updates have to be done
after hours or early in the morning. I can't tell you how many 2 am
sessions I had. The guy doing their hardware stuff had it worse.
4. They can't afford you. The good POS systems are expensive, but no
single restaurant can afford to have a custom system built. The
margins are just not there. A chain run by actual business people,
yes. They can spread the cost. A single restaurant will not survive it.
I got involved when a guy I knew bought the restaurant. I recommended
to him what I am recommending to you: Upgrade to a good POS system.
The owner chose to keep their old, sucky Access-based POS system. I
built a loyalty system which integrated with the POS system and their
Web site, and had a few other capabilities the POS system didn't. It
was very kludgy, but it works. I got paid only because the owner had
very deep pockets, but I wish he had followed my original
recommendation.
Ken
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