HARRI AND SQUARESPACE Partner to Serve Online Presences to Restauranteurs

December 2, 2016: New York, NY -- Harri, the most complete and effective solution to source, hire, and manage talent in the hospitality industry, has partnered with Squarespace, a leading web publishing platform that makes beautiful products to help people with creative ideas succeed, to develop design and branding packages tailored to restaurants and their online needs.  

Through this partnership, Harri users that need to build a brand or create/enhance their website, will gain access to a hand-picked network of independent Squarespace experts who offer top quality web design at a lower cost and with a faster turnaround time than traditional designers. Additionally, each expert-built website will include simple blocks of code that make it easy for Harri users to integrate their career portal into their restaurant's website. Harri users will be matched with their Squarespace expert by Crew’s intelligent project matching platform.

 "A July 2016 survey by the National Restaurant Association found that 75% of adults look up menus, 55% read reviews, 51% order takeout or delivery directly from the restaurant website"

“The quality of a restaurant’s food and service have always been the difference between success and failure in this industry,” said Luke Fryer, Founder and CEO of Harri. “Restaurants today rely too much on social media and review sites while not focusing on building a great website. That’s why we’ve partnered with Squarespace to ensure restaurant owners take control of their online presence.”

Recent data illustrates how important it is for a restaurant to have an engaging and updated Website. A July 2016 survey by the National Restaurant Association found that 75% of adults look up menus, 55% read reviews, 51% order takeout or delivery directly from the restaurant website.

To learn more about this partnership, visit https://crew.co/harri/. To learn more about Harri or to schedule a demo, visit www.harri.com. To learn more about Squarespace and its community of experts, visit circle.squarespace.com.

CONTACT:

David Barkoe

Carve Communications for Harri

david@carvecomms.com

917-359-7222

Women-Owned Restaurants Driving Growth

In 48 states plus the District of Columbia, women-owned restaurant businesses grew faster than the state’s overall restaurant industry between 2007 and 2012, according to the NRA’s Chief Economist Bruce Grindy. His Economist’s Notebook commentary and analysis appears regularly on Restaurant.org and Restaurant TrendMapper.

Women-owned restaurant businesses grew at a rate more than three times faster than the overall restaurant industry in recent years, according to newly-released data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Between 2007 and 2012 (most recent data available), the number of women-owned restaurant businesses in the U.S. jumped 40 percent. During the same five-year period, the total number of restaurant businesses in the U.S. rose 12 percent. 

As a result of these strong gains, 33 percent of restaurant businesses are majority-owned by women – up from 26 percent in 2007. Another 15 percent of restaurant businesses are equally-owned by women and men. Taken together, nearly one-half of all restaurant businesses in the U.S. are at least 50-percent-owned by women. 

Throughout most of the country, women-owned businesses have been driving growth in the restaurant industry in recent years. In fact, in 48 states plus the District of Columbia, women-owned restaurant businesses grew faster than the state’s overall restaurant industry between 2007 and 2012.

Mississippi saw the fastest growth in women-owned restaurant businesses between 2007 and 2012, at 95 percent. Delaware (86 percent), Nevada (73 percent) and Arizona (71 percent) also saw strong growth in the number of women-owned restaurant businesses during the five-year period.

The states with the highest proportion of restaurant businesses that are majority-owned by women are Georgia (44 percent), Mississippi (43 percent), Texas (42 percent), Alabama (41 percent) and Louisiana (40 percent).

The states with the highest proportion of restaurant businesses that are at least 50-percent-owned by women are Montana (63 percent), Idaho (62 percent), Wyoming (62 percent), Washington (61 percent) and North Dakota (59 percent).

(via National Restaurant Association)

Tips on How To Be a Successful Restaurant Owner

Behind every great restaurant is a great restaurant owner. In order for your restaurant to become a success, you'll need to be an effective leader for your team. Here are four key pieces of advice on how to be a successful restaurant owner: 

Listen to your staff.

Your staff, especially the front-of-house team, interact with customers on the daily. They have a first-hand account of what the dining hall is like, and what can be improved so that they can serve guests better. Hear your employees out by holding sessions where they can voice out their concerns. Stay close to them, so they feel comfortable enough to share their ideas.

Your guests are equally as important.

Like your staff, your customers' feelings should not be overlooked. Include a suggestions/comments card along with the bill, so that diners can rate their experience, the service, the food and other items that you want to know more about. Gather the cards and analyze them to see if there are any particular patterns. Publish the results, then have your staff go through them. Review the information as a group, as well, so that everybody understands what needs to be fixed.

Leave room for growth and expansion.

Keep in mind you cannot rush success. It is possible that your restaurant can expand in physical size/scale and you might need to hire more staff. Also, realize that at a certain point, growth and sales will slow down. Be sure to have a back-up plan or ideas on how you can help grow the business. Maybe consider opening a second location, or even relocating. If not, what about reworking your restaurant's concept, menu, etc.?

Remember your role as the leader.

As the restaurant owner, be sure that you lead by example. Conduct yourself as a person that is hard working and dedicated to the restaurant. When your employees see that, they will be encouraged to be so too. You want your staffers to know you as somebody that is strong and dependable.

---

Looking to hire in Hospitality?

Discover top talents on Harri

Follow Harri on Facebook and Twitter
for real time job posts and industry news.