Getting Over an Olympic Hangover

Aug. 21, 2012

Any chance we can just carry on with the Olympics? Seriously, do you think anyone would object if we dragged it out at least until September? 

Following two weeks of gold-after-gold-after-gold and all round national jubilation, I can’t be the only person dreading going back to reading about a stumbling economy, Eurozone bailouts and mass unemployment?

The last fortnight has made it easy to forget that the UK’s economic woes show no sign of abating. We may have rediscovered a long-forgotten sense of national pride and shown the world once and for all that we are definitely better than Australia. But the fact remains that there is not an awful lot in the national piggy bank and that isn’t about to change anytime soon.

As we have seen over the last five years, when times are hard the hospitality and leisure industry tends to be one of most adversely affected. Walk down most high streets on a weeknight and those restaurants that have managed to weather the storm thus far, aren’t exactly packed to the rafters. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, more than 150 restaurants became insolvent in the second quarter of 2012. Although fewer than in the same period last year, this is worryingly high, especially to those small businesses that are striving to compete with the high-street’s big boys.

Part of the battle is having a complete understanding of exactly what is coming in and out of the business. It can be extremely challenging pulling together all the financial element s of the modern restaurant – payroll, purchase ledger, EPOS, menu costing – and finely tuning that to create a successful and competitive business. You’re going to need to know more than just the sum function in Excel. Restaurateurs tend to be passionate about two things: hospitality and food. Quite understandably, they can find it difficult to summon up the same level of all-consuming passion when it comes to accountancy. But getting it right is crucial if you want to succeed.

Cloud computing is a great leveller. It provides smaller businesses with access to exactly the same technology and systems as far wealthier multi-national businesses. At etc Hospitality we take that technology and combine it with our sector-specialist expertise to provide bespoke systems to restaurants of all sizes. Knowing that we are adding up all the numbers gives restaurateurs the confidence to focus on putting dinners on plates.

What you need is someone counting up all the gold and silver. Sure it has been fairly abundant over the last couple of weeks but for Team GB’s hospitality industry the next four years are likely to be a far different prospect.

Stephen Easthope
ETC Hospitality Limited

ETC Hospitality provides bespoke accountancy systems, market leading technology and sector specialist expertise to smaller businesses in the hospitality sector.

For more information and to contact ETC Hospitality, please visit their page in the HOSPA Solution Showcase -  www.hospa.org/sponsor/sponsordetails/etc-hospitality