Measuring What Matters: General Assembly’s First Student Outcomes Report

Since founding General Assembly in 2011, I’ve heard some incredible stories from our students and graduates. One of my favorites is about Jerome Hardaway. Jerome came to GA after five years in the United States Air Force. He dreamed of tackling persistent diversity gaps in the technology sector by breaking down barriers for other veterans and people of color.

In 2014, with the help of General Assembly’s Opportunity Fund scholarship, Jerome began one of our full-time Web Development Immersive courses. After graduation, he had the opportunity to pitch President Obama at the first-ever White House Demo Day and has launched a nonprofit in Nashville, Vets Who Code, which helps veterans navigate the transition to civilian life through
technology skills training.

Exceptional stories like Jerome’s embody GA’s mission of “empowering people to pursue the work they love.” It’s a mission that motivates our instructional designers, faculty, mentors, and career coaches. It also inspired the development of an open source reporting framework which defined GA’s approach to measuring student outcomes and now, our first report with verified student outcomes metrics.

We know that anecdotes don’t always equate to statistical outcomes, and that students enroll in our programs for different reasons. We believe that transparency in reporting student outcomes is the best way to empower students whose goals, life circumstances, and career paths differ widely. We hope that rigorous measurement, paired with a relentless focus on outcomes, can foster a culture of accountability without stifling innovation. That’s why we asked KPMG LLP to review the graduation and placement rates included in the tables on page 20 of this student outcomes report.

While this report represents the culmination of a 12-month commitment from our team, it is just the first step in a process that we hope can inform a paradigm shift in how we think about measuring and reporting on outcomes across the education-to-employment landscape.

See our Student Outcomes Report

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10 Things You Should Know About Restaurant Finance

Know your finances as well as you know your menu.

Whether you are a current restaurant owner, or you’re getting ready to open a restaurant, managing your money means conducting a regular financial analysis of your business.

That lets you look at your overall areas of strength and weakness so you can ensure your restaurant is in the territory of profitability.

To help you manage your numbers, we look at the 10 things you should know about restaurant finance so you can improve your operation.

#1: Stay on Top of Your Budget

We assume you have a budget for things like food costs, payroll, marketing and overhead.

That’s terrific, because every restaurant needs a budget. Now, the next question might be a bit tricky, “How often do you review your budget?”

If you’re like many busy restaurateurs, you may not look at your budget often enough.

Review your budget every month. It’s a relatively quick and easy thing to do if you make it part of your regular to-do list.

By reviewing your budget on an on-going basis, you stay focused on managing your day-to-day operations while planning for the future.

For example, you may notice that your staff is spending way too much time making coffee in your outdated machine, and that’s costing you labor hours. Since you’re on top of your budget, you can add a new coffee maker as a line item the next year.

#2: Examine Reports Daily

There are some reports you should look at daily. These help you manage your inventory and your labor costs.

By looking at your daily sales report, you’ll have a good idea if you’re going to meet your monthly budget goals. It helps you plan for the following week, too.

You can also glean from this report your most popular menu items. By checking this report daily, you’ll learn if you’re buying enough of what you need to make your most popular dishes.

In addition to your daily sales report, you want to look at your staff labor report. You’ll know in an instant if you are over-staffing your restaurant.

This report helps you manage and improve your staffing to either save money or serve your customers better.

#3: Avoid Minimum Payments

When possible, you want to pay your bills in full each month. (tweet this)

For example, if you’re charging food costs to your credit card, don’t charge more than you can pay in a month. Carrying balances at interest costs you unnecessarily.

The smartest way to use your credit cards for purchases is to pay them off at the end of each month. You’ll have gotten an interest-free loan for one month, and if you have a reward card, you’ll have earned points as well.

Don’t fall into the trap of making minimum payments because that can get out of hand very quickly.

#4: Know Your Credit Score

Restaurant owners need to have good credit scores if they want to get lines of credit.

You’ll find that vendors will be reluctant to negotiate payment terms if your credit is bad.

If you are operating your restaurant as a sole proprietor, you’ll find it isn’t possible to separate your credit score.

But, if you’re restaurant is incorporated, you want to register with Dunn and Bradstreet with your legal business name. This allows you to monitor and control your business credit.

To keep your restaurant’s credit in tip-top shape, following these tips:

• Pay your bills on time. Don’t miss payments or be late. Not only does this lower your score, but you’ll incur late fees and finance chargers.
• Avoid carrying large balances as these are red flags.

#5: Compare Your Numbers

A good way to maintain the financial health of your restaurant is to review your income statement period over period.

Compare financial statements paying special attention to your revenue and expenses over time. This helps you optimize your cash management, keep operating costs in check and improve your cash flow.

Your financial health and well-being is vital.

#6: Implement Top Notch Accounting System

When it comes to your restaurant finances, you want to use an excellent accounting system or service.

Software like QuickBooks can greatly help you manage your finances.

You can’t manage what you can’t count, and if your accounting system (or lack of accounting system) isn’t set up properly, you won’t have a good idea of your financial stability.

A properly managed restaurant is also managing its accounting books well.

If you struggle in this area, consider hiring an accountant or restaurant financial consultant to help.

#7: Price Menu Items Accurately

How are you pricing your menu items?

Are you taking food costs, overhead and payroll into consideration when pricing your menu items?

Or, are you taking the easy way out and checking your competitor’s prices and adjusting yours accordingly?

We recommend combining both of these methods. Know exactly what you need to charge to turn a profit, and know what you need to charge to compete with restaurants in your area.

To manage your food costs appropriately, you have to know what each one of your menu items costs you so you don’t overspend on each individual ingredient.

Be detailed when figuring out the prices of menu items, and you’ll keep your numbers in check.

#8: Take Inventory

Some restaurant owners and managers are extremely lax when taking inventory. They don’t know how much stock they’re losing to waste or theft.

To calculate an accurate food cost, you have to know what your beginning and ending inventories are for any given period.

Managing food costs means knowing what they are, and you can’t do this without thoroughly knowing your inventory.

#9: Set Goals

Are you flying blind, or do you have financial goals for your restaurant?

Have you made a plan for how much you’d like to grow your restaurant and increase sales?

You are responsible for meeting the financial goals of your restaurant, and to do that, you must first set them.

Set your goals based on the following:

• Previous year’s performance
• Percentage of growth
• Current trends
• Expected economic impacts

#10: Pay Bills Precisely

Don’t rely on your bank balance to pay your bills. (tweet this) This is generally not an accurate accounting of how much money you really have.

Use your accounting system to really understand and know your cash flow before you start spending money.

Final Thoughts

We’ve looked at 10 things you should know about restaurant finance as you move forward through the year.

Take these tips and use them to set your financial house straight and keep your restaurant profit margins high.

Are you an existing restaurant? Do you have tips for managing your money for our readers? We’d love to hear it. Please comment below.

Images: Olu Eleta and Helen Martinez

DISGUSTING Restaurant Sprays Their Steaks Before Cooking! | Kitchen Nightmares

The Top 8 Digital Marketing Tips From Hillary Clinton’s Campaign

Running a political campaign is a lot like running a business’s marketing department. To be successful, you have to determine a target audience, then find the best ways to reach them to sell your product.

Just over a month before the 2016 presidential election, three leaders from Hillary for America’s digital team visited General Assembly’s New York headquarters for a captivating panel conversation moderated by Fast Company writer Ruth Reader. They shared insight on the Hillary Clinton campaign’s digital marketing strategy, from experimenting with new platforms, to choosing data sources and breaking through the echo chamber.

Clinton’s team shared tips that digital marketers can apply to amplify brand messages, create stronger communities, and capitalize on new tools and trends. Get an exclusive look at how the campaign operates by watching the full discussion below.

1. Use your brand’s strengths to tell your story and engage with your audience.

Hillary Clinton isn’t known for her natural ability to work a room like Barack Obama or her husband Bill, but she’s celebrated as a great listener who makes strong impressions in a one-on-one setting. The team centered the campaign around those strengths, finding ways for voters to intimately engage with the candidate and make them feel like they have access to her, even if they couldn’t be with her face to face.

“A lot of the [campaign] videos you see are about these intimate moments,” said Jessica Morales Rocketto, Hillary for America’s Digital Organizing Director. “In organizing that, we’re trying to help people meet Hillary through contests. We’re trying to make sure she comments on Facebook pages, likes Instagram posts, and also [give people] access to ask her questions through conference calls or livestreams.”

2. Consider your target audience for each distribution platform.

Different platforms — like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and email — lend themselves better to various demographics and types of content, so it’s important to consider which outlet you’re using for each message.

“[We ask], who’s the audience there? Do they tend to be older? Do they tend to be younger? Do they tend to be women? We [think] about who we’re talking to and what’s natural on the platform,” explained Andrew Forrest, HFA’s Director of Audience Development. “Twitter tends to be for influential folks, and reporters … On Facebook, we think a lot about video distribution. It depends who we’re trying to reach with our message.”

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“It would be foolish to think we could control the message in this age of social media.”…
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3. Use a variety of data sources to inform your marketing decisions.

Targeting your audience based on age, location, interests, and other factors increases the effectiveness of a marketing campaign, and that data, used to inform content strategy and ad placement, can come from a variety of sources. Clinton’s team uses its own collected data supplemented by information that’s accessible via other sources, like Facebook and YouTube.

“We try to make judgments on whether our own data is better or worse than the data we [can get] from the platforms themselves,” said Danielle Butterfield, Deputy Director of Digital Advertising for HFA. “We target people we need to be speaking to but we lean on places like YouTube and Facebook” for user behavior and characteristics such as language and family-related details. For an ad about Clinton’s Bernie Sanders–assisted proposal for debt-free college, the campaign targeted student voters, then layered on Facebook and YouTube data to find parents with kids in college.

4. You can’t always control your message — and sometimes that’s a good thing.

There’s no stopping what other people say about or do with your brand, and sometimes it’ll work to your advantage. During the vice presidential debate on October 4, Governor Mike Pence said to Senator Tim Kaine, “Senator, you’ve whipped out that Mexican thing again,” after Kaine mentioned Donald Trump’s past derogatory comments about Mexicans. Soon after, a Hillary Clinton supporter created the website thatmexicanthing.com, which redirects to Clinton’s donation page.

“We keep getting credit for it, but [a supporter named Danilo Alfaro] did it,” Rocketto explained. “We don’t think about it as hijacking [our message]. It would be foolish to think we could control the message in this age of social media.”

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“Engagement is universal, whether the message is online or offline.” –@GA
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5. Find a way to break through the echo chamber.

As crucial as it is to cater to your core demographic, the most effective marketing campaigns discover ways to reach a wider audience — sometimes through unexpected channels. Hillary Clinton recently did that by appearing on an episode of the Funny or Die web series Between Two Ferns with comedian Zach Galifianakis, which was shared widely beyond her liberal base.

“You have to think about how to frame content so that it’s going to energize your base and people who are willing to be your evangelists, but frame it in a way that is approachable, surprising, and interesting to people who are not necessarily part of that group,” Forrest said. “[After Between Two Ferns went live], I regularly saw people posting comments that said, ‘I may not love Hillary but honestly this is just funny.’ It’s a really nice example of how we can break through by being a little bit creative, a little bit outside the box of what folks might typically expect us to do.”

6. Tailor your outreach to new trends and technologies.

Successful marketers are constantly adapting to new ways of reaching their audience, which often means testing out new social media platforms or content formats.

“One thing we’ve done that has been very innovative on this campaign is create videos in a way that is optimized for performance on social media,” Forrest explained, referencing the short, easily shareable Facebook-hosted videos that have been prominent in Clinton’s campaign. “Native Facebook video didn’t exist in the last presidential campaign. It’s completely revolutionized the way the media works today, and we wanted to make it successful.”

7. Engagement is universal, whether the message is online or offline.

Rocketto stressed that there’s no real difference between marketing to people online or offline because the ultimate goal is to engage people with your product or organization regularly, and in their real life.

“We’re trying to think about the ways we can be a part of the daily life of our supporters, whether it’s because they saw in their Facebook feed a post from Hillary Clinton about last night’s debate, or because they got a call from our organizers,” she said. “All of those things together are communications from the campaign, and I don’t think anybody is separating those. To me it’s just engaging with people — sometimes it’s online and sometimes it’s offline. I don’t think those terms really mean that much.”

8. Utilize brand advocates wherever you find them.

Some of the most influential marketing comes from peers and local influencers, which is why Clinton’s campaign spends a lot of time working with grassroots organizations and not only popular celebrities or politicians.

Rocketto pointed out that companies have “people who can be evangelists for your product, your technology, and supporters who are enthusiastic and want to talk about it.” Use them to your advantage and “give them the tools they need to be able to do that.”

Master your brand and business plan.

Learn More About Digital Marketing at GA

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Location Location Location – It’s The Single Most Important Thing You Can Do For Your Food Business

Drive business with a prominent location.

You probably know it’s all about location location location. But, did you know it’s the single most important thing you can do for your food business?

In fact, one study shows that restaurant location has a significant effect on brand preference and overall brand equity.

While creating your menu is probably your top priority, you want to put location at the very top of your list.

Deciding on the right location is the single most important business decision you will make. (tweet this)

Great food and service is vital, but if your location is bad, none of that matters.

Consider where you plant your restaurant as the three top decisions you’ve got to make – location, location, location. Here’s how to choose the best location:

Look at Population Numbers

You want to ask yourself if there are enough locals in the area to support your restaurant.

If your food caters to office workers, are you located downtown? If you are a fine dining establishment, can the income of the area support your restaurant?

Consider your placement next to business thoroughfares or highways if you cater to the fast casual crowd.

You want to be sure there are enough people not only living in the area but passing through on a regular basis to keep your restaurant thriving in your community.

A site study can help you determine this, or you can visit with your local chamber of commerce to see if they already have the data on hand.

View Available Parking

Great food, superb service, a prime location, but no parking. That doesn’t fit the bill for location, location, location.

You can bet your customers want to access your restaurant with ease. If they have to walk to your restaurant because your parking is bad, they will most likely look elsewhere.

If people in your area don’t drive, but take a train or subway, make sure you’re on an accessible route.

Assess the Size

Along with the location of your restaurant comes its available size.

Before choosing your restaurant’s location, take a long hard look.

• Is there enough room for your kitchen?
• Is the prep space adequate for the number of customers you will serve?
• Is there an office?
• Do you have storage?
• Does the dining room have space for the tables, hostess stand, bar and wait stations?
• How about the waiting area? Is it ample?
• Can you help to-go customers easily?

It can help to take large sheets of butcher paper, cut them to size and lay them out to make sure you have enough space for everything you’ll put in your restaurant.

Measure Previous Failures

So, your realtor just showed you the “perfect” location. It already has a professional kitchen and even comes with restaurant-grade refrigerators and ovens.

But, you need to step back and ask, “Why?”

Put on your detective hat and learn why the previous restaurant left. Dig even deeper and find out if other restaurants have failed in the area.

You might find that this particular location has featured failed restaurant after failed restaurant.

If one restaurant failed, it could be bad food, bad service or a poor concept. But, if multiple restaurants have failed in the location, then the answer is clear: the location is bad.

You’ll find that there are several reasons restaurants properties come up for sale.

• The owners are tired and moving on.
• The restaurant is struggling financially, and closing is the only option. Worry about this reason.

You’ve got to find out why.

A little competition can be good for business.

Meet the Neighbors

Yes, just like in your home, your neighbors matter.

Take a walk around the neighborhood. See who is doing business on the street. Does their concept fit in with yours?

For example, if you are a high-end restaurant, you don’t want to set up right next to a discount store.

Or, take a look around. If you are an Italian-concept restaurant, are you the only one in a couple mile radius? If there are others with the same concept, this isn’t the location for you.

If there are other successful businesses in the area that are different but complement yours, this is a good sign.

Successful businesses attract other successful businesses. (tweet this)

You might even meet the neighbors. Ask them how they’re doing and how they feel about the area and the traffic it gets.

Leverage Your Biggest Competitor

While positioning your restaurant among multiple restaurant concepts similar to your own is a bad idea, locating near your biggest competitor can be a win-win.

Some restaurant gurus say that the best location for your restaurant is as near to your biggest competitor as you can get.

When you are positioned near the “big guys,” you benefit from their large scale marketing efforts.

For example, if they are doing a big marketing push to get people into the area, and you are visually near them, customers may opt for your restaurant instead.

Competition can be good as long as you are confident in your restaurant, and you’ve got excellent food and service to offer.

More traffic in the area is beneficial especially if you offer a viable, outstanding option to the competition.

Final Thoughts

One of the biggest reasons restaurants fail is due to a poor location.

If your food business has poor street visibility, a lack of parking or little to no foot traffic, the odds are your restaurant will fail.

To avoid this ever present problem, look at your chosen location from multiple angles.

Before you finalize your location, do your target market research. Know where your ideal customer lives, shop and dines.

After all, if they can’t find you, they won’t learn how good your food is.

Bottom line – it is all about location, location, location. Be absolutely sure before you sign a lease or purchase the property.

Choosing the location of your restaurant is the single most important thing you can do for your food business.

Don’t just pick the first seemingly good location you find.

Do your research. Visit several locations and at different times during the day.  This will help you gauge the foot traffic in the area.

Draw your diagrams and see if the building fits your needs exactly, and if not, what you can do to adjust.

Be patient and diligent with this decision as it has long-lasting repercussions for the success of your restaurant.

Are you an existing restaurant? How did you choose your location? Do you have any advice for our readers? We’d love to hear it. Please comment below.

Images: Clem Onojeghuo and Rob Bye

Ramsay Rips Disgusting Wallpaper Off The Wall During Service | Kitchen Nightmares

How Does Your Social Media Presence Stack Up?

Your social media presence is vital to your restaurant’s online marketing.

Social media is an ever-present function of our daily personal lives, and it should be a function of your restaurant’s daily marketing plan as well.

Have you ever wondered, though, how your restaurant lines up with the competition when it comes to social media?

With more than 25 million Facebook business pages, you might find it hard to stand out in a crowd.

In this article, we ask the question, “How does your social media presence stack up?”

Are you doing what you need to do to thrive on social media? Are you using your platforms to their fullest potential?

Let’s look at some areas for you to focus on when it comes to stacking up to the competition.

Audit Your Platforms

Your first step is to make a list of all the social media pages you have. Perhaps you manage one and staff members manage the others.

It’s easier and more time effective to manage them in one place, so start with a list.

Then, if you aren’t sure how many platforms you have, do a Google search for your business.

If you are “important” on a social network, your page may show up on the first page in the search results. Click through several pages to make sure you grab all of your networks.

Now, it’s time to get organized. Using a spreadsheet program, make a list of your social media platforms.

Then, you want to take a good look at each one of your accounts. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Is this platform useful?
• Do I have a large following?
• Do my followers like, comment, share, re-tweet or post?
• Am I “wowing” my customers on this page?
• Should I continue my presence on this social media network?

If you find a platform that isn’t currently useful to your business, ask yourself why. Is it because your customers aren’t using it, or is it because you aren’t actively using it.

Look for Consistency

If your restaurant has multiple social media pages, and different staff members are managing each one, odds are your social media accounts are not consistent.

This can be a real problem for your restaurant. To maintain your brand image, all of your platforms must be consistent with the following:

• Logo
• Cover photo
• Up-to-date description of your restaurant using relevant keywords
• A link to your website
• A consistent voice
• Consistent imagery – for example, one platform might have professional looking photos while another might have photos taken with an ancient phone

To succeed on each social media platform, your messaging must be appropriate to your audience, but it also should convey the same voice and messaging. (tweet this)

Take a look at each social media platform. Are you posting exactly the same content everywhere?

While you can use the same message, your Twitter tweets by their very nature will be different than your Facebook posts. Instagram is visual, so your text can be very minimal. LinkedIn posts should apply to your audience – usually people in the business world.

Check your consistency on each platform and make sure you have the same look and voice. Then, you can tailor your content to appeal to each specific audience.

Your social media platforms provide valuable links to your website.

Check Your Content

Now that we’re on the subject of content, it’s time to really see how you stack up to the competition. Let’s look at your content in detail.

Check out the type of content you are posting. Do you always include links? Are you leveraging the power of video? Is there an image or video included with each post or tweet? If not, they should be as images and videos attract more people.

Are you constantly self-promoting? In other words, is every post about your menu items, your restaurant and your specials?

Do you curate content from other social media platforms? Do you re-tweet or share other content?

Are you following the 70/20/10 rule? It looks like this:

• 70% of your content should be relevant and add something of value for your followers
• 20% of your content is sharing other people/business’ posts
• 10% is promoting your restaurant

The most important thing to remember when using your social media platforms is to post and share content that is valuable, relevant, educational, humorous, insightful, inspirational, or pertains to the needs and wants of your restaurant customers.

Next, ask yourself how often you post. Do you do really good for one week and then fall off during the next week?

Social media posting should be regular and consistent. For some platforms that may mean once a day, while for others, like Twitter, that means multiple times per day.

Do take a look at your social media insights to determine what time of day is best for your posts and when they get the most action. You want to post when your audience is online.

Monitor Your Insights

If you want to know just exactly how you stack up on social media, look at your social media insights.

Checking your audience engagement lets you know what’s working, and what isn’t.

Some things to look at include:

• Time of day for best engagement
• Number of comments on posts/tweets
• Number of shares on posts/tweets
• Number of likes on posts/tweets

By monitoring your analytics on a regular basis, you can tweak content so it works for your restaurant.

Review Your Competition

You can’t know how you stack up against other restaurants in town if you don’t know what they’re doing.

Look at their presence on social media. Are they maintaining consistent branding? Do a large number of people like and share their posts?

Some platforms, like Facebook, let you see how other business pages are doing. Be sure and add the pages you want to watch as this allows you to see what posts work for them.

Monitor their activity. Are they every day or not so often? How many fans do they have? Are they active?

Regular review of your competition can help you with your own social media marketing efforts as you might get some ideas to use on your own platforms.

Final Thoughts

Lastly, we encourage you to look at your social media goals.

Do you have certain goals for specific social media accounts? Are you meeting them?

On that spreadsheet list you created of all of your platforms, consider adding goals to this list. That way you can reassess your social media marketing on an ongoing basis to see if you are stacking up to your own goals.

Set goals for the future, test, monitor and analyze your social media networks so you can see what’s performing well, and where you can revise and improve.

Finally, to really stack up against the competition, your social media marketing needs a plan. (tweet this) Create a content calendar and posting schedule. Assign someone to handle it to help ensure a consistent brand message for your restaurant.

Do you have a great looking, responsive website to link to through social media? Is it user-friendly and enticing to your website visitors? If not, or you’d like a website tune-up and refresh, contact us for your free website consultation. We’ll make sure your website works for your site visitors and is the centerpiece of your marketing.

Images: William Iven and Correen