Business consultant Ryan Ayres says a lack of foundational business knowledge is one of the key aspects hampering the expansion of quick service restaurants (QSRs).
“People who open restaurants are often foodies who have come up from being a chef … so they don’t usually have a business background,” says Ayres, who runs a boutique advisory firm of the same name.
This lack of foundational business knowledge is an issue which he says leads to many businesses not looking beyond the day-to-day and ultimately missing out on their potential growth prospects.
Helping QSRs to scale up is Ayres’ bread and butter. The Gold Coast-based consultant comes from a mechanical engineering background and moved into business over the last decade, during which time he completed an MBA. Now, his business is helping brick and mortar companies across the country expand their footprint nationally, including the likes of Stanley Food Group.
The group, which manages Costa Taco and Mercado, has since added two new venues to its portfolio, with more in the works. “Rather than mass franchising like you see a lot of QSR restaurants doing, they were really focused on owning themselves, not giving away equity, scaling slow, steady and right. And that’s been a real key to their success.”
The consultant notes that a lack of strategic planning and long-term goals can also restrict a business’s development. “We ask a lot of business owners, what are your long-term goals? And they can’t give us an answer,” he says.
For Ayres and his team, a crucial element of helping businesses is about implementing a strategic growth plan to ensure they can execute expansion.
This involves identifying the brand’s strategic goals long term, whether that being opening a certain number of stores or achieving a certain amount of revenue. Ayres says while monetary goals are important, successful businesses also implement goals like helping the community or measuring staff or customer satisfaction.
“Making sure we have a diverse range of goals ensures we’ve got a successful business in place. We often see business owners purely focused on the monetary value, but then those other things fall by the wayside and they stop succeeding in other areas. It’s about having balance.”
The consultant also recommends business owners rigorously review their financials.
“A lot of our clients will get sent financials from their accountant with a brief summary, but no one is doing anything about the financials … There are no actions, insights or recommendations built off the back of it.
“Business owners aren’t reviewing their financials enough, often only at the end of the month. By this stage, weeks have gone by and you’ve potentially missed out on lots of revenue, or increased costs.”
When helping businesses, Ayres hosts workshops with the company and its team, researches future locations and delves into analytics on area demographics to ensure it “fits their bill”, and develops an overarching strategy covering how to achieve their targets. Ayres and his team also check the company has the capital to expand.
Ayres says success is about more than just business growth.
“It’s about creating the freedom to live a balanced, fulfilling life and we help scale businesses without sacrificing those personal moments that matter the most.”
Photographs courtesy of Stanley Food Group and Ayres.
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