What a month its been. July was our best month ever yet again despite the restrictions (at least in terms of sales). The staff costs however are mounting faster than anticipated as we work so hard to support all our staff. The negative effect of this is definitely on both me and my partner. Still living with my parents is tough even though they are incredibly kind and it is a great opportunity to spend quality time with them it has meant we have put our lives on hold while we continue to grow the restaurant. At the moment despite receiving JobKeeper $500 of this goes straight back into the restaurant each week, and due to our unique situation the end of September deadline is approaching fast, and we are almost guaranteed to lose this funding. As i explained to some staff today and will be discussing with others soon this means we need to increase sales by 10% and simultaneously decrease staff costs by 10% in order to continue to support all our staff, and in the hope that I can either write myself out of the business and devote significantly more time to growing it, or at least pay myself and my partner for the work that we put in.
There is definitely no end in sight to these restrictions, and this means that we will have reduced capacity, more staff (to ensure the new procedures are completed) and absolutely no government assistance, in fact we will be paying them instead. This being said this restaurant is the culmination of my lives work, and to see so many people loving it and seeing our sales continue to reach records despite being in the middle of a pandemic and at 50% capacity is amazing. I have to continue to remind myself to look at the positives and not find myself becoming the sad clown, with everybody loving the restaurant except me. Luckily the support network I have, the staff and the customers help me to achieve this.
To achieve my dream of owning an Italian restaurant on the Northern Beaches is equally rewarding and challenging, I am just happy that despite the skyrocketing staff costs we now have enough coverage that I do not have to go back to making pizza (though I don't mind doing it it is my weakest area of expertise). I look around and hear stories about the rest of the industry and how tough they are doing and can only be proud of what we have created and continue to pour my heart and soul into the business to hope that when this pandemic finally does end I might be rewarded for this hard work and will be able to move on with my life.
On a side note I recently purchased a light box and have been having fun playing around with this, the hope is to get photos of all our menu items to go on our app (which should be coming soon) and on our website. I have attached one below however hopefully they will only get better as I learn how to use them.
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