When it comes to prioritizing your tasks at work, you might want to think about french fries. You can learn a lot about making smart decisions from the tasty potatoes.
Have you ever noticed some fast food restaurants offer french fries while others, like Subway, give you bags of chips? The answer is usually one of economics.
Some of you may think it pays to sell french fries, as the low cost of potatoes can make fries a high profit item. While it’s true the margins are great, many restaurant owners avoid fries like the plague.
While you can make money off fries, you have to spend money to offer them. Setting up a french fry station in a restaurant requires special ventilation and grease traps. These could add roughly $20,000 to the startup costs of a restaurant. You’ll also likely need to pay an employee to work the french fry station.
These costs make a bag of chips more attractive, for some, as all you have to do is unpack the chips from a box and put them by the cash register.
There’s nothing right or wrong with either choice but both will impact your bottom line. Your challenge is weighing the options. If you have a great recipe for fries and want them to define your restaurant, then they make sense. If you’re concerned with keeping your startup and operating costs low, then the chips will number crunch better.
This is an important lesson in productivity as you may have to choose between two good options. You’ll succeed based on how well you weigh the factors and make your choice.
Conclusion
Very often, a mistake is made when an important decision is made based on whether you like something, rather than whether it’s an important part of a strategic vision.
As in our example, you may love french fries but if your establishment doesn’t fry any other food, then having them on your menu can carry a high price.
