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CARLITA WARREN: Thanks, Jo, and thanks, ladies
and gentlemen for having me here tonight.
As mentioned, my name's Carlita Warren.
I'm the Policy and Public Affairs Director at RCA and I've worked
in the industry both front-of-house,
back-of-house and now on the policy side of things as well.
So I guess giving you an overview
of where we see, I guess, where operators struggle the most
and I guess a few tips, in terms of how
you may be able to bring those stress levels down a little bit.
So what I thought I might first do
is basically take you through who RCA is.
So, RCA was actually founded in 1922
by cafe and restaurant owners
and operators
and the reason they founded RCA
was basically as a way
of sharing information
about getting together
and discussing issues
that were affecting their business
and then providing a single voice
back to government.
So over time, we've developed
into an industry association
that basically advocates your needs to government
but then also provides support to you,
whether or not you're starting,
you're trying to operate your business or you're trying to grow.
I think one of the key points to make
- we're talking about the rise of an empire
and from our perspective, we watch what's happening in industry,
so I thought I might spend a few minutes
explaining why our sector is important
and why we're actually seeing our sector
being considered an empire.
And the first explanation I would probably give to you
is that we are the largest employer in the tourism industry.
So sometimes, when we're talking about the tourism industry,
we talk about the airlines, we talk about the cruise ships -
we are actually the largest employer in that sector
and from a government perspective,
when you're talking about employment,
that's the reason why they listen to us as a sector.
From a more, I guess,
granular point of view,
from a New South Wales perspective,
most of the employment is in New South Wales
and most of that employment will be in the CBD, in the Sydney area.
So hence the reason why forums like this are so important.
Another point when we sort of look at the numbers,
it's a $14 billion industry
and that can be broken down into both cafe and restaurant turnover
but then also your takeaway industry as well.
But we're also the largest
contributor to the night-time economy -
you've probably heard a lot
about the lock-out laws and the late-night economy.
We are the largest contributor to that economy, hence the reason,
again, why we need to make sure our voice to government is strong.
But what can you do as an operator?
And I'll talk about this in terms of some of the tips
but know your industry trends, I would say -
or not so much your trends but know how the market is doing.
Put your ear to the ground
and understand what operators are sensing.
This is something that we run every month -
we provide it to our operators to give them a snapshot
of where the market is sitting.
We do this so that operators can say,
"Hey, am I tracking with how the industry is tracking
"or am I a little bit off
"or am I doing better?
"And why may I be doing better?"
So you can actually see in December -
so your Christmas trading period -
we actually saw a little bit of a dip in New South Wales
but some of the larger markets in some of the other states
actually did quite well.
But what I'd probably draw your attention to
is the takeaway market -
so what we find is,
if we see a bit of a dip in cafe and restaurant turnover,
we actually see a pick-up in takeaway.
So it's interesting to see how
consumer dining may actually change how the numbers are playing out.
And I guess this brings me to my first point,
is know your market and know your industry trends.
It doesn't necessarily mean follow them
but make sure you know them,
because if you have an identity
of your restaurant that you're trying to achieve,
that doesn't match what the market wants,
it's going to be incredibly difficult
to make your business operate.
For example, some of the numbers are actually showing us
that people are dining out more and more often,
sometimes upwards of three or four times a month
but they may not necessarily be spending as much.
Consumers are becoming more discerning
with how they spend their money
and you need to be mindful of where they may be spending it.
So we've actually seen a dip -
and this may not apply to all restaurant operators
but we've seen a dip in spend in your upmarket restaurants -
your cafe and your restaurant market,
we've actually seen an uptake in some more of those casual areas,
such as takeaway.
So this may not necessarily affect your business
but it's something to consider
if you're putting together the base plan
of who you're going to target and what they actually want.
This brings me to my other point, is know your benchmarks.
And this is probably more appropriate
for people who've been in operation maybe one or two years,
are trying to work out, "Are we doing the right thing?
"We haven't really seen the profit that we were expecting -
"should we be closing our doors, should we push on?"
It's probably important and, I think, to Joe's point,
make sure you know and make sure you look at your numbers regularly.
Don't put your head in the sand and expect,
"Oh, I've got creditors calling me but the money's coming in,
"so everything's sweet."
Because sometimes that's when you end up in trouble.
One of the tips I would give you -
I'd probably write this down -
if you can google 'ATO Benchmarks - restaurant',
you'll find one of the categories that come up.
The ATO actually does benchmarks,
so they get all your information from your BAS statements,
your GST statements
and they basically average out, OK,
how is the industry performing
and where do they sit in terms of their percentages?
So these are the average numbers across the industry.
They look at this mainly from an auditing perspective,
so they have a look at this
and generally, if a business falls outside some of these benchmarks,
it sends red flags to them.
Not necessarily for an audit
but it sends a flag to them
that this business may be operating outside what it should be.
If too many flags come up,
that's generally when they'll approach you for an audit.
But just from, I guess, if you're starting up,
you're not sure where to start first,
have a look at where they think the industry should be sitting.
So in terms of your labour costs, your rent, your turnover,
this is what they think should be where you should be sitting.
But what our operators tell us
is that the reality is not always like this.
So we go out and we survey our members,
just to get an indication of how they're doing.
How are you business costs sitting?
Where should you be in the market?
And sometimes this is the feedback that we get,
that your staff costs can sometimes
represent up to 45% of your business expenses.
But you've got the ATO saying it should only be about 20-30%.
So be mindful that what you're being told to do
may not necessarily be applicable.
But if you are starting to fall in these ranges,
what can you do to try and bring it back into line
before it gets out of hand?
And you can actually see that -
you know, the edge of the wedge up there, that's your profit.
So if you think that all this graph is going to be red
and is going to be profit,
you need to rethink
exactly what the industry is going to be able to achieve for you.
My second tip would be to google
'Service NSW - open or grow a restaurant business'.
So, this is more applicable for the guys
who haven't even thought of starting in their business...
in their business plan stage of everything.
And you should come to a website
that looks a little bit like this.
And this is a great tool -
we've actually worked with Service NSW to develop this tool.
It is an easy, step-by-step guide
in terms of what are the fundamental things you should do
if you're thinking of establishing a business.
Everything from registering for GST,
having an ABN, do you need a liquor licence,
do you need a DA approval?
All these things will be outlined
in different categories on this website
and I'd highly recommend you go there
and just have a look -
"Have I done some of these things?
"Have there been things that I've missed?"
Service NSW is also trying to make this an automated process,
so soon you should be able to lodge your DA application
through this system.
Soon you should be able to lodge your liquor licence
through this system.
So it'll take some of the guesswork out of those steps
you need to do in order to start your business.
Again, if you're in the process,
another big gripe that businesses have
and continually tell us about
is the time it takes to get a liquor licence.
I think people underestimate the time some of these approvals take.
So one of the things
that Liquor & Gaming NSW have actually done recently -
they recognise that it's a pinch point for operators,
so what they've actually done is brought into effect
an interim restaurant authorisation.
So if you google this,
you should come up with a fact sheet that looks something like this.
And basically what that means
is that if you lodge your liquor licence application,
you're just a standard cafe or restaurant,
you don't plan to operate outside, sort of, your midnight trading,
so you're just your standard hours
and all your paperwork is in order,
as soon as you lodge it,
you can start serving alcohol.
So gone are the days where you lodge your application
and you must wait for the approval to come back,
because keep in mind, sometimes that can take up to three to six months,
what they are saying now,
given if your paperwork is all in order
and they don't see any issues and they don't contact you,
you can start serving alcohol
from the day you've lodged that paperwork.
So that takes a huge stress of your business,
particularly - and again,
coming back to the type of market you're trying to, sort of, reach -
if your customer expects to be
able to have a glass of wine, a whisky at the end of the night
and you can't do that,
that then eats into, sort of, your margins
and where you may be able to, I guess,
achieve some of your sales goals.
So if you're having trouble with lodging your liquor licence,
if you're finding you're having delays,
by all means, I would look into this process.
And finally, the last point I would make
is sometimes, you don't know what you don't know.
Um, so, again, coming back to Joe and Sarah's point,
ask for advice
and ask for it prior to opening the doors
or prior to signing your lease,
because once you've done that, there's a commitment there
and you have to try and make it work.
And that's why RCA is around,
so by all means,
this is our phone number and our website.
These are some of the things
we help operators with on a day-to-day basis.
"What am I supposed to be paying my staff?"
"Can I bring my costs down in some way, shape or form?"
"How do I hire an overseas worker?"
and, "How do I get assistance there?"
"I need to do some training -
"I've never been in the industry before.
"What's an RSA?
"What sort of food safety courses do I need to do?"
So we provide this assistance
to operators on a day-to-day basis
so if you have a question,
it doesn't matter how weird and wonderful -
I've had questions about,
"Do I need to provide dogs water and biscuits in my restaurant,
"if a customer wants to bring the dog into my restaurant?"
So we deal with everything weird and wonderful,
so if you do have a question,
by all means, give us a call.
'Cause we're here to help. Thanks very much, guys.
(APPLAUSE)