Whether you’re a franchisee, franchisor or you own a single location, having the funds to plunge into your restaurant for advertising, renovating, expansion and inventory is crucial to the growth and development of your business.

Merchant Resources’ restaurant funding program can provide you with up to $500,000 for your restaurant, to help you gain customers and increase sales.

Some Restaurant Facts at a Glance

(2010 Restaurant Industry Overview – National Restaurant Association)

• Sales: $580 billion
• Locations: 945,000
• Employees: 12.7 million — one of the largest private-sector employers
• Restaurant-industry share of the food dollar: 49%
• $1.6 billion: Restaurant-industry sales on a typical day in 2010.

• $2,698: Average household expenditure for food away from home in 2008.
• 40 percent of adults agree that purchasing meals from restaurants and take-out and delivery places makes them more productive in their day-to-day life.
• 73 percent of adults say they try to eat healthier now at restaurants than they did two years ago.
• 57 percent of adults say they are likely to make a restaurant choice based on how much a restaurant supports charitable activities and the local community.
• 78 percent of adults say they would like to receive restaurant gift cards or certificates on gift occasions.
• 52 percent of adults say they would be more likely to patronize a restaurant if it offered a customer loyalty and reward program.
• 57 percent of adults say they are likely to make a restaurant choice based on how much a restaurant supports charitable activities and the local community.
• 56 percent of adults say they are more likely to visit a restaurant that offers food grown or raised in an organic or environmentally friendly way.
• 78 percent of adults agree that going out to a restaurant with family or friends gives them an opportunity to socialize and is a better way to make use of their leisure time than cooking and cleaning up.

Typing Speed and Accuracy

Reading Speed and Comprehension

Test Listening Skills

Once you’ve taken and/or administered the tests and received the results, it’s time to take action.  The following sites offer information and resources for improving the aforementioned skills.

How to Improve Reading

How to Improve Typing

How to Improve Listening

Don’t hesitate to use the employees that scored well on certain tests to help others who may have scored lower.

Increasing employee morale can be extremely important, especially in a time where 70% of Generation Y workers leave their first job after graduation, within two years, in search of an ideal workplace.

So what can a small business owner do to replace the general feeling of lethargy with an air of team spirit?  We’ve gathered advice from all over to provide you with some of the best solutions.

Sales Games

Creating sales games within your company can make your employees more excited about work, knowing that they’re productivity will not only benefit the company, but them individually as well.  “Internal competition helps [employees] be more productive at what they are accountable for.  And ultimately, that puts the company in a better position to win market share,” said Nick Friedman, president of College Hunks Hauling Junk (as quoted in Inc.com).

Encourage Ideas

When employees feel their ideas and input are valued, they may be more likely to share them.  “Rewarding bright ideas can foster creativity and save companies a lot of money,” wrote Dale K. DuPont for BNET.

DuPont advises employers to follow through by ensuring that all suggestions are reviewed and acted on soon after they are submitted and widely publicizing suggestions used and their positive impact on the organization.

Voting

By allowing employees to vote on things such as company policies, procedures, ideas etc. you are helping them to feel more like a part of the team and as if they’re opinions and feelings matter and help to shape the company as a whole.  Consider the following excerpt from Inc.com:

Mike Hall of Borrego Systems, a solar-panel business, used SurveyMonkey to allow all his employees to vote on the best idea that was put in the virtual suggestion box. The winner received a $500 prize. While only a handful of employees submitted ideas, the majority of Borrego’s staff participated in voting, reinforcing the message that every employee has a stake in the outcome.

*What tactics have you used to motivate your employees?

In business, it is important that both employers and employees work ethically.  Conducting business ethically can build trust and bring your business to a new level.

For employers, treating your employees ethically can potentially decrease employee turnover, increase employee morale and even increase productivity within your business.   Instilling a sense of ethics within your employees towards each other as well as towards your customers is also essential.

Your customers are one of the most important aspects of your business.  If they don’t trust you, they will not only discontinue their services with you, but they will advices others to do so.

To promote business ethics, in 1912, the Better Business Bureau was founded.  The mission of this bureau is to help create an ethical marketplace where buyers and sellers can trust each other by:

• Creating a community of trustworthy businesses
• Setting standards for marketplace trust
• Encouraging and supporting best practices
• Celebrating marketplace role models, and;
• Denouncing substandard marketplace behavior

The Bureau allows customers to file complaints and grades businesses, in order to show customers and potential customers how businesses handle situations with customers.

Merchant Resources International always conducts ethical business practices and we encourage the merchants we work with everyday to do the same.

The Latest on Unemployment

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its Employment Situation Summary today.  Key points include:

• Unemployment rate remains at 9.7%
• Employment fell in construction and information, while temporary help services added jobs.
• Average hourly earnings increased by $0.03.

According to a Business Week report, the smallest businesses may be adding jobs.  “..data from payroll companies suggest that losses at the smallest businesses have stopped and those businesses are beginning to hire,” wrote John Tozzi.

*Have you hired new employees this year?

Tax Time

April 15 is the deadline for filing taxes and news related to taxes is abundant, from the governments’ cracking down on small business owners misclassifying workers as independent contractors, to tips on getting small business tax deductions and “loss carry back.”

What’s Your News?

What’s new with your small business?  Feel free to leave a comment below.

Entrepreneur recently featured an article on just this, providing brief profiles of three small business owners that made small to large investments (during a time when funds were low) that produced worth-while results in the future.

There are various ways that small business owners can make investments in their businesses.

Going Green

Going green is the act of making your business more environmentally friendly.  This can involve investing in energy efficient light bulbs, going paperless, installing displacement toilet dams and/or purchasing products such as IdeaPaint, Personal Energy Generator and the Power Mat, which help to reduce electricity usage and save paper and were featured in “Great Products for Small Business Owners.”

Merchant Cash Advance

The merchant cash advance can be a great investment for small business owners who have found it difficult to obtain business funds using traditional methods.  Many small business owners complain about the cost of the merchant cash advance.  However, the cost is only a minor issue when compared to the lucrative benefits that it can produce.  Small business owners can use their merchant cash advances however they choose, from expansion and advertising to renovating, purchasing equipment and keeping their businesses on their feet.

*How have you invested in your business?

Below is a list of upcoming events that can help you learn more about what it takes to develop and maintain a successful business.

What’s New, What’s Next?

A look at the hottest opportunities to start or grow a business in 2010 and beyond.

Seven Things You Absolutely Must Know to Get Publicity in Major Magazines and Newspapers

The title says it all.

GROWCO

Grow Your Company Conference

Specialty Retail Conference & Expo

The exhibition will provide the information about the retail businesses of America where attendees can gain latest information under one roof.

*Do you know of any informative business events taking place in your area, online or via telephone?  Let us know.

Use your funds to renovate your location, purchase essential medical equipment or even to advertise your services.

Every year, people in the U.S. take 902 million visits to physicians, so it’s no question how important these services are to society.  It’s also important that as a medical practitioner, you have access to the funds that you need to continue providing these services.

Click here to get a free online quote!

What is a Blog?

“…a blog is a type of website that is usually arranged in chronological order from the most recent ‘post’ (or entry) at the top of the main page to the older entries towards the bottom,” (Darren Rowse, Probloger).  As a business owner, a blog can be used to promote your business and engage customers.  You may have a catalog of reasons for steering clear of this form of communication, which may include;

1. I don’t know how to write.
2. There are already so many blogs out there.
3. I don’t have time.

To take care of reasons one and three you may want to hire someone to write for you.  When it comes to reason number two, it’s important to remember that the fact that there are so many blogs out there probably means that your competition is also already on the blogging scene, and in order to compete, you may need to get out there as well and show your customers and potential customers what distinguishes you from the competition.

Possible Benefits of Blogging

• Produces relevant content about your business
• Lets customers relate to what your business does
• Allows customers to interact via comments
• Can be repeated and reposted via emails, and social networking sites

Things to remember when blogging

1. Make sense
2. Encourage interaction
3. Post regularly

Take a look at the links below for more information on blogging for your business.

Start a Blog for Your Business

Blogging for Business: 7 Tips for Getting Started

Explore New Markets

If you’ve been selling the same products to the same people, year after year after year, it might be time for a break from the monotony.  Consider exploring new markets.

Do the research and find out which audiences that you are not currently reaching, may be able to benefit from your products and/or services.  Once you’ve done the research, a merchant cash advance can finance the promotions, advertisements and marketing to your new target audience.  You may be able to increase your customer base by adding a demographic or two.

Introduce a New Product or Service

Introducing a new product or service to your business could bring in new customers and/or entice existing customers to make additional purchases.  Look into competing businesses and see what types of products and services they offer.  Use your merchant cash advance to go above and beyond your competition, offering your customers a wider selection, or improving on the products and services that you already provide.

Working Capital

If your business’s sales are low and you simply need a little extra cash to keep your business above water, a merchant cash advance can be the perfect remedy.  Working capital is extremely important for any business, so having access to working capital when you need it is key.

As mentioned, these are only a few suggestions on how you can use your merchant cash advance.  In the end, the decision is completely up to you.

*If you got a merchant cash advance of $30,000 or more, how would you use it?