[0:00]Hey, you Elevated Entrepreneur. Before I get into the episode, I want to talk to you about the Double E Bullet, The Elevated Entrepreneur Bullet. It’s a brand new newsletter that my team and I have just launched this year, and I’m so excited for it. If you’re looking to become a better entrepreneur and are wanting to be more productive than this is exactly why I designed the Double E Bullet. It’s got two short bullets, every two weeks sent directly to your inbox. If you’re interested, I would love for you to sign up cloudscape.ae/eebullet once more cloudscape.ae/eebullet. And now it’s time for the episode.

[0:44] Hello Elevated Entrepreneurs Welcome to a brand new episode and the very first episode in 2021 for The Elevated Entrepreneur podcast. If this is your first time here, thank you for checking us out. And if you haven’t already, head on over to elevatedentrepreneur.fm, where you will get access to a lot of other amazing episodes together with show notes and transcriptions. Now if you’ve already been here before, and you’ve listened to me, then again, thank you and welcome. And I’m excited because today’s episode is all about prediction. I’m predicting the trends for the hospitality industry in 2021. Over the last few weeks, in December and November, we ran a special series on the food entrepreneur. And we’re going to continue talking to some amazing restaurant tours here in the region. And while we do that, I also wanted to put out some of my thoughts in why I think the restaurant industry has changed forever. And what are some other trends that restaurant business owners should keep in mind as they start 2021. So stay tuned. If you know anybody who’s a restaurant, please share this episode with them. I would really appreciate it. Stay tuned, put your headsets on grab a cup of coffee cuz this is going to be a very interesting episode and you’re going to hear some amazing predictions from me. I hope they’re amazing. So join me in cueing the music.

[2:08] You’re listening to the Elevated Entrepreneur Podcast, a podcast designed to help retailers restauranteurs and entrepreneurs simplify business operations and use modern technology to elevate their business. here’s your host, Dhiren Bhatia.

[2:27] All right, are you excited to hear some predictions, because I’m excited to share them with you. Now, before we get into the predictions, let’s talk about what’s happening within the hospitality business. 2020, as we all know, has been transformational. There have been businesses that have completely pivoted, there are businesses that are shut down. And there are businesses that are figuring their way out. And not only businesses, but entire sectors and verticals of our economy are changing. And the hospitality sector is one such sector, I feel the hospitality sector is fighting for a chance to survive. And yes, there are some amazing success stories of restaurants that are booming and growing. But the vast majority of restaurants are having a very, very hard time, our eating habits have been changed forever. It doesn’t matter if you’re eating in or if you’re eating out, the way we operate, the way our society now considers going out and eating out has been changed forever. Which is why the very first prediction that I’m making is all about niches.

[3:31] There is going to be a huge boom in restaurants that are hyper niche that are very, very targeted in what they’re offering across their menus. And I’m not referring to a restaurant that offer one kind of cuisine, but I’m talking about restaurants that are so dialed in to what their customer is looking for. And this could be a restaurant, this could be a pop up that offers just one product. Can you imagine going to a restaurant where they only have one product in the menu. You don’t have to look through pages and pages of options and agonize over what you’d like to order. Walk in, sit down, get the one thing that they do enjoy it and walk away. I think that’s the kind of restaurant experiences people are now looking for. Post 2020. Also with hyper local means size, I think because restaurants are so specific in what they’re offering. They don’t need large spaces, you can very easily offer one product or one single type of cuisine and not have to do with a very large space. Which is why prediction one B is small is beautiful. If you’re going to launch a restaurant in the coming years, I highly recommend not splurging money on opening big doors are opening large spaces, figure out what that hyper niche is going to look like. And maybe even start with small but beautiful and cozy restaurant.

[4:58] My second prediction Is the boom for delivery and cloud kitchens or dark kitchens or ghost kitchens, whatever you call them, there is going to be a huge uptick in restaurants that are no longer operating in storefronts, but rather large industrial kitchens, where they cook food, and then have them delivered to you. Why? Because over the last 12 months, as you realize, we are ordering more and more food, and not wanting to step out, either there’s a lockdown in most countries at this point in time, or it’s just the convenience of having something delivered to you without having to step out without having to wipe your head with sanitizers and all that drama. The other reason why I think cloud kitchens are going to be even bigger thing in 2021, is because consumers are not spending money like they used to, we’re not going out and having fancy dinners, as we used to, at least not the same amount of times, families are also now looking to spend less because of the turbulent economy and create more time with family at home. And cloud kitchens, I think are also much more safer in offering socially distance experiences, and reduce costs in staff in rent. So it’s a win win from both sides.

[6:17] Prediction number three, is a boom in at home dining. What I mean by that is, imagine having a team from the restaurant coming right into your house in your kitchen and cooking up a phenomenal meal while you sit and enjoy that with your family, and friends. And while this isn’t a very new idea, I think there’s going to be a huge boom, in this kind of experiential dining. customers are looking for more memorable experiences with their family, they’re looking to spend more time with their family. And what’s better than having a phenomenal restaurant, chef and his team come into your kitchen and cook up a storm. And you enjoy your favorite food right there in your house. In fact, there’s a lot of amazing experiences in even teaching people how they can cook right in their house. So imagine having a masterclass around the perfect pizza or the perfect dimsum and sharing that experience with your friends and family right there in your home.

[7:14] And before I make prediction number four, I have to say, as a lover of tech, the one industry that has seen a massive boom in technology adoption is in fact the hospitality business. Which is why I’m predicting that contactless solutions are here to stay. I know this isn’t groundbreaking as a prediction. But I think there’s going to be a massive uptick in how restaurants are going to adopt technology and how quickly they are rolling out. contactless solutions. When I’m talking about contactless solutions, I’m talking about contact free delivery, talking about pay at table solutions, curbside pickup, the ability of having customers order ahead of time and even pick up food from a completely standalone or a separate counter contactless payments, and even ordering through a QR code or digital menus, or screens.

[8:04] All of these are going to be a big part of your restaurant experience in the coming future. In fact, most of the POS systems that we work with offer these now out of the box, we can have a QR code ordering system set up for a restaurant in less than a day. And so if you know a restaurant owner or you run a restaurant and are curious to learn more, please do give us a shout, we’d be happy to help you and point you in the right direction.

[8:28] And keeping in line with tech based predictions. prediction number five is the boom of the omni channel restaurant. And you may have already heard of this term omni channel being used in the retail sector. But I think there’s going to be a big, big swing in the hospitality market where restaurant and restaurant brands are going to want to go omni channel. What do I mean by omni channel, the ability to know your customer across irrespective of the channel and what they like and what they want is going to help create more personalized experiences. So restaurant owners are going to want to know who’s ordering irrespective of the channel, whether it’s ordering at the restaurant, ordering online ordering through an application. Either way, all of these methods are going to lead to one single customer card so that the restaurant knows who I am what I like and then create a better experience for me that next time I’m ready to eat with them whether it’s online or even at the restaurant. So the omni channel restaurant is going to be a big thing in 2021 and the years to come.

[9:35] And finally, the very last prediction as we start to wrap up this episode is automated kitchen operations. Restaurants all over the world have had to put very strict measures in place to not only protect their customers, but also their staff which means that they have to operate in a socially distant manner. Now a lot of restaurants are already working with small teams and staggered shifts, which is why automating a lot of the manual processes is going to be key. And this could be simple stuff using technology. For example, setting up your own online ordering system, where a customer can order food and having that order go directly into the kitchen. That’s a really good way to simplify that process. A second way to do this is kitchen display systems. So replace current printers that print tickets with expensive paper. replacing that with kitchen display systems can also be a great idea.

[10:34] Another way to automate kitchen operations is to invest in an f&b back end management system, one system that controls all aspects of the kitchen. And these systems are generally a little more expensive compared to your typical POS systems. But they’re a great investment to make because they can simplify a lot of the manual processes that restaurants follow today, from your recipes, your food costs all the way to managing the orders with their suppliers in a automated fashion. In fact, these systems can trigger purchase orders based on current ingredient quantities.

[11:09] And that’s the end of this episode, folks. I hope that you’ve enjoyed the six predictions that I’m making for the hospitality industry in 2021. And like I mentioned earlier, if you know, a restaurant owner or if you’re running a restaurant, and you’d like some help and guidance, please do reach out to us, we’d be happy to help you and point you in the right direction. You can reach us at hello@cloudscape.ae or book a discovery call on our website at cloudscape.ae. Thank you so much for tuning in.

[11:42] If you haven’t already, please consider subscribing to the Elevated Entrepreneur show at elevatedentrepreneur.fm or wherever you’ve been listening to this episode. And finally, if you would, please do leave the Elevated Entrepreneur Podcast a review so that you can make it easier for other entrepreneurs to find this show. Thank you much love and I’ll see you in the next one.