Doing the right things to ensure your restaurant is profitable should always be your top priority as a manager or owner. But sometimes, we can be overly giving, which can quickly plummet revenue. You have to think as a business owner, which means keeping an eye on credit card fees, growing food prices, fickle markets and so on. To help you stay on the right track with your profits, here are a couple of tips to keep in mind:

• Avoid automatically serving up water. Giving out water to your customers without them asking could prevent them from ordering other drinks, like alcohol, sodas, milk, tea and so on.
• Tactfully promote profitable items when guests first sit down. Have servers recommend complementary, yet profitable items with the guests’ orders.
• Keep watch of how much is being thrown away or given out for free. You’ll likely find small items like crackers, butters, creamers, jelly and iced tea lemons are disappearing too fast. These are cheap, but can quickly add up.
• Add items to your menu that are profitable. Aside from having your waiters promote your most profitable food choices (based on market conditions), you should also include them on your menus. Remember, your menus are your number one selling tool.
• Buy important items in bulk. Having a reliable supplier that offers bulk deals is important for every restaurant business. This gives you the chance to save money and prevent the need to order multiple times out the month.
• Bundle together meal parts, such as the appetizer, salad and entree. Having these combos will improve guests’ dining experience and maximize money spent.

With these simple tips, you can easily increase your revenue and cut back on unnecessary spending.

There are two ways to balance your budget – either through saving by spending less or by making some extra cash each month to cover for your expenses. Saving might sound easier, but often you realize that you are already at the limit, and you can’t afford to reduce your spending any more. If this is the case, there is nothing left but to make an extra buck. Some methods need an initial investment – like getting involved in a multi level marketing scheme or starting to trade Forex from home – but there are others that don’t. I will try to present some of these below.

1. Write articles and sell them

There are so many blogs and other websites out there, with one thing in common – they need quality content to grow. The content for personal blogs is written by their authors, but there are niche blogs – publications that focus on a specific topic – that often call on outsiders to provide the much needed articles. This is where you come in. Choose a topic – preferably one that you are well informed about – and create articles about it. Personal finance, business, investments, home improvements and DIY decorations or life hacks – these are popular topics nowadays.

If your articles are good enough, you will be able to sell them through various venues – websites like Fiverr, Gigbucks or Dollar3 for example, that allow you to sell your products or services for a specific amount. Take a look, gather some ideas and get started. And when you have the funds, you can create your own website and take things to the next level.

2. Take surveys for cash

This will not make you huge amounts of money, but surely beats mobile casino games when it comes to profits. Companies are always in need of feedback from their customers – you, me, anyone else. This is why they hire market research companies that are able to provide them with the much needed information, and these companies will happily pay you for your opinion. Depending on the length and complexity of a survey, you can earn between a few cents and a few bucks for each. It will not make you rich, but in the long run it can provide you with enough extra income to invest in something more fruitful.

Sometimes the companies don’t pay you in cash, but in coupons or products. Coupons can be used for saving cash when shopping, while the products – if you don’t need them – can be sold, adding a few extra bucks to your monthly budget.

With spread betting in the UK, all too often, traders aimlessly jump in and out of trades, hoping that this is the one that will make them rich, and when this fails to occur, they repeat the process endlessly. This is gambling, not trading. It can be contrasted with an archer who has trained themselves to focus only on the little red circle at the center of the board. Anything outside the circle is ignored. He pulls back his bowstring then pauses before releasing the arrow. The archer is poised and calm, concentrating so deeply that he is oblivious to the noise of the audience. Discipline is required to achieve this state.

Every trade is like an arrow and requires much preparation and focus. Each must receive the attention it needs to become a winning trade. When you are poised to make a trade, you should ignore all distractions and focus on the trade. Once a trade has been initiated, you should focus on the exit point. Each trade should be treated individually.

The best athletes are those who train the hardest. A trade must know their market. They must know its stability, liquidity and volatility and so understand what affects prices, for instance, world events, corporate events such as CEO appointments and economic data. A sudden rise in crude oil prices will exert downward pressure on shares in British Airways. Fastidious research is necessary. Fortuitously, bets can be placed on all manner of things, so you could well find something of which you know. As Joshua Raymond, a market strategist for City Index, said, there are more than 15,000 markets on which you can trade, so you should choose a market you understand. Knowing your market is one of his top five pieces of advice for traders. Charting tools and common-or-garden news can be useful. You may need to become familiar with particular countries. It will be easier to know your market if you specialize.

You should never trade for the sake of it. Even if you do not trade, you will have been watching the markets and learning and not losing money. There will always be another trading opportunity. Sometimes, the best thing you can do is nothing. Even the best traders sometimes lose, but focusing on a trading plan as described here will help you to trade without stress.

With the level of debt rising continually over the last decade it is no surprise that people are looking for ways to cut back on costs and save wherever possible. The continual challenge for consumers to make ends meet and not incur unnecessary debt have led to people looking for new ways to enjoy entertainment and save on an aspect that could be considered a luxury and not a necessity.

Keeping finances healthy is now factored into many people’s daily lives, and new ways to save are always welcomed. By trying your hand at online gaming you will discover you can save a considerable amount of money and enhance your financial situation whilst still enjoying quality recreational time.

Free games online

Part of the attraction of many online games is the fact that they can be enjoyed absolutely free. Online casinos like RiverBelle offer all their games as free versions that can be enjoyed with no obligations. Arcade style games are also often available free and favorites such as Pac man can easily be found online. Another very popular online genre are RPG and MMO games, and these games often charge players a nominal monthly fee of a few dollars to join the live servers. You can save a large amount of money by playing these free games, replacing costly entertainment options with entertainment that won’t break the bank.

Reduce expenses

Entertainment expenses are never limited to simply just enjoying a movie, or going out for a meal. Factor in the petrol that it takes for you to drive to your intended location, the parking, entrance or ticket fee, food and beverages and other sundry expenses such as renting bowling shoes or tipping waiting staff. By enjoying online games in the comfort of your own home you have eliminated all of these expenses ad still have access to top quality gaming and world class entertainment. The savings will add up incrementally and before long you will have reduced your entertainment costs by more than half.

Finally, all that is required for you to enjoy online games is a stable internet connection and PC or mobile device that allows you to access the games in compatible format. Add up how much you save on a monthly basis and compare it to how much you have spent in the past to really see results.