Everybody is feeling the pinch, whether it is students or high net worth individuals. And while the economic climate has forced people to review their spending patterns and general lifestyle, one industry that has particularly struggled during the past 36 months is the hospitality industry.

Whilst the public still appears to be able to find the money to go out and enjoy themselves in restaurants and bars, they are perhaps looking a little differently at the places they frequent, with value for money being an important factor in their decisions.

Although the public is feeling the pinch personally, they very often do not take into account that businesses like us also feel this pinch and are very heavily affected by factors such as increased VAT, increased import duty on meats, vegetables and wines and increased prices generally across all of our suppliers.

If you think of the way the increases have affected the way we shop for our own households, it is exactly the same for us on a much larger scale. But where as an individual we can cut down on the more luxurious goods we buy and opt for cheaper alternatives, it is not something we can do as a business.

We must continue to deliver that premium quality service and product to the public, and also maintain that great value for money price point that has seen us establish Viva Brazil as a successful restaurant.

It is very easy for businesses of our kind to simply hike up their prices in an attempt to solely absorb the increase in cost of sales, but for me there are plenty of different ways in which to do this without having to pass the full increase in cost on to our guests.

I have audited our meat suppliers and I have also approached the wine merchants and requested that they also review their pricing for us based upon our purchase volumes with them. What became apparent was that they would prefer to take a slight hit to their own margins rather than lose our business altogether.

One key area where we can affect the cost of sales is the payroll. And while we would never consider simply cutting the staffing levels bluntly, leading to an inferior quality of service, chaotic operation and unhappy guests due to a poor experience, we can still be very clever, take the time to analyse our staffing levels and look at exactly when the business requires staff and when it doesn’t. This exercise has lead to an overall saving of four percent to the weekly wage bill.

Finally the general restaurant going public might frown when they see that prices have increased but I want to let people know that for a business like us, our absolute primary focus is towards our guests, and if we are forced to raise our prices just a little, it is never the first resort but in fact the absolute last.