Much like any other industry, the holidays are a busy busy time for the restaurant industry thanks to family get togethers, New Year’s celebrations, and more. Whether you serve customers directly, run a food distribution warehouse, or anything else involving food, you’re likely to be pretty swamped with customers and orders this time of year. Here’s how to keep ahead of the demands of the season for your restaurant or business:

Make Sure You Have Enough Staff

The first step is to make sure you have enough staff on hand to keep up with the holiday rushes. Do some temporary hiring and make sure your peak hours and days are staffed appropriately – if your restaurant is doing anything special for Christmas Eve or New Year’s, you’ll want to make sure these holidays have enough staff to keep up with the demand and rush. Once you see your employee’s reduced workload and your customers happy with the efficient service, you’ll be glad you did.

Stock Up On Needed Inventory

Before the big days, take a look at your previous year’s sales figures and see what the most popular items were. This time of year people tend to favor seasonally-appropriate dishes – maple-flavored desserts, Christmas hams, and so on – so you’ll want to see what the biggest sellers were and make sure you can order enough to go around. If you need to bring in some more food service storage, now might be a good time to order some additional wire shelving to stock up on extra needed items to accommodate for the increased business.

Organize and Delegate Tasks

Especially if you have a lot of new employees, you’re going to want to make sure everyone knows their duties and how to perform them as quickly as possible. Making to-do lists for everyone, whether it’s clearing tables, changing ice, or processing newly arrived items in your restaurant or warehouse, and showing everyone how to perform these tasks effectively, will keep your staff focused and on track.

And Don’t Forget the Gift Cards!

This one mostly applies to restaurants, but they’re always a good idea to keep around. Studies have shown that over 93% of US consumers purchase a gift card every year, and your restaurant could very easily get a piece of that success. Make sure your customers know about your gift card or gift certificate offers, and try to offer incentives for your customers to increase sales in this regard – after all, every gift card you sell translates to more sales immediately after the holidays.

While these tips aren’t applicable to every business, we think they’re going to provide a good starting point for surviving the holidays and making the most of your increased business!