One of the beautiful things about owning a pizza restaurant is that pizza happens to be one of America's favorites. Pizza has become part of traditions and is a staple in most American homes. However, just because over $44 million was made in pizza sales in 2017 doesn't mean that every pizza franchise or pizzeria was profitable. There are tried and true ways to increase your profitability as a pizza franchisee, and we want to share those with you so that you can successfully operate your pizza franchise in a way that maximizes profitability.
Get the Business Side Sorted
Something that too many franchisees can forget is that first and foremost, their franchise is a business. If you don't have the business side of things sorted out, organized, and set to run smoothly, then you're looking at trouble down the road. To maximize your profitability, try to get a handle on accounting concepts. Even a basic knowledge of accounting will help you ensure that you're not experiencing more losses than gain.
Learn more about how Westside Pizza supports new franchisees.
Work Backwards
The best way to ensure that you reach your profitability goals is to start with establishing them. Establish how much profitability you want (or need) to have (industry average was last at 7% profit, but more successful pizza franchise owners had over 20% profit margin). Then you can deduce how much you need to be making in sales to reach that goal. You'll also want to keep an eye on your inventory to make sure you are wasting or overusing anything. Precision in each step of the process from business practices to pizza creation to sales is necessary to get to your profitability goals.
Choose a Viable Location
You wouldn't believe how many franchisees choose locations purely by population. They're looking at it all wrong. The right location has more to do with demand than it does the number of people in an area. The worst thing you can do is set up a pizza franchise in an area that is already densely populated with pizza restaurant options.
Out-of-the-Box Marketing
Every pizza restaurant around is probably doing newspaper ads, radio ads, and direct mailers. Don't join in. Get creative with your marketing and get in front of people where it matters. Create a Google My Business account and start building your customer reviews. Nothing does better than word of mouth and reviews, especially online. Imagine that potential customer is sitting on their couch. They're feeling hungry and have a craving for pizza. What do they do? They get on their mobile device and search "pizza near me" on Google. There are a few things that could happen, but here are the top three:
1) They see your location pop up in Google search, and it has excellent customer reviews, so they decide to order from you (this is the best-case scenario) 2) They see your location pop up in Google search, and it has terrible customer reviews, so they keep exploring their options and you lose their business (not a good scenario) 3) Your location doesn't pop up because you chose not to put money into your marketing (this is the worst-case scenario)
Obviously, there are a lot of marketing tactics you can choose from out there, but the key to choosing the right approach is finding the tactics that get you in front of customers when they feel that hunger for pizza take over.
Are you interested in learning more about owning a pizza franchise through Westside Pizza? Check out our franchising options.
