Cash converting and staff incentives
Welcome back to our series on La Scala Restaurant, in Canberra. This week the owner Gabriele Saccardo, talks to us about how he uses Bartercard to convert his trade dollars into cash and incentivise his staff.
Gabriele is an award winning restaurateur with over 30 years experience and owns a very successful restaurant in Canberra.
“Thanks for joining me again! Today I’m discussing how I cash convert by purchasing items for my restaurant with trade dollars and then selling them for cash. I will also explain how I incentivise my staff which is an effective way for me to save cash on wages.
Using trade dollars to purchase items for my restaurant is a great way to save money but best of all, I can on-sell various items for cash. We buy a lot of produce which form part of our meals that we sell for cash but the main cash conversions are on items that are bought outright on trade and sold outright for cash. These items include bottles of wine, beer and coffee. Our mark-up on these products provide us with a good cash return for the business and is a way to get great value from our trade dollars. Effectively by being able to cash convert our trade dollars like this provide us with much needed cash injections to the business.
A lot of Bartercard members take their cash converting one step further and generate personal wealth by purchasing real estate using trade dollars. Renting these properties for a few years before selling for cash is a great way to gain a cash injection and to generate an effective cash return on a trade dollar investment.
When it comes to incentivising my staff, they know that if there is something they want, but can’t afford, I will buy it for them using my trade dollars. I then just deduct a small amount from their wage each week until the amount is paid off.
For example, one of my waitresses got married this year and she wanted to honeymoon at the Cook Islands but couldn’t quite afford it. I bought the holiday package for her on Bartercard and we deducted an agreed amount from her wages over the following months. Using Bartercard to incentivise my staff like this is a great way to keep them motivated and it creates an environment of loyalty – you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. Hospitality is a very cut throat industry so keeping our staff happy is a priority.
Stay tuned for my next story where I discuss the cash savings we’ve made on our restaurant’s extension and renovations using our interest free line of credit!
If you would like access to an interest free line of credit visit www.interestfreeforbusiness.com.au. Bartercard are currently running an offer to all business owners offering a $10,000 interest free line of credit. Trust me when I say, my business wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t joined Bartercard 15 years ago.
As Tom Hardy from Thomas Hardy Wines says about Bartercard “you just have to trust it and trade”.
www.interestfreeforbusiness.com.au
www.bartercard.com.au/hospitality
10th October 2013
