Why limited-menu concepts are the future of franchising

By Chris Wyland, Chief Development Officer, Roll-Em-Up Taquitos

Many restaurant brands focus on providing as many menu options and types of food as possible for their customer base, looking to appeal to as many individuals as possible. This means additional costs, additional potential costs, and more complex training procedures. Usually, the more expansive a restaurant brand's menu, the more challenges and obstacles the franchisor, and potentially the franchisee, will experience.

With a limited-menu restaurant brand, the operating procedures and processes are streamlined and costs for the franchisor and franchisee are cut down. Customers also benefit from a limited menu as wait times are shortened through faster decision-making and the staff has a thorough knowledge of the menu items.

Having a single core product means the operating systems and equipment are designed for a single item instead of having multiple facets for an expansive menu. Benefiting from the simplicity of a limited menu is Roll-Em-Up Taquitos. By focusing on the core offering of pan-fried taquitos both manage and exceed our customers' expectations by ensuring consistency in its product across its locations.

For restaurants that serve numerous Mexican dishes, not only does the number of product purchases increase but also the team members would have to be trained on how to cook and prepare each dish according to the individualized order, creating more room for error. Now, the training has become more complicated, and team members have to work harder to achieve a high level of success at multiple core functions. By adding more steps, the focus on perfecting a core function has weakened. Alternatively, the brand with multiple dishes could bring in additional team members in order to simplify each person's tasks, but this is a larger labor expense.

A limited-menu model also benefits the franchisee because it is simple and easy to execute, creating streamlined processes and training for the franchisor to expand and implement to new locations. Using this approach, franchisees can take advantage of the simplicity of the model for an expedited start-up and lower costs. This model also allows both franchisors and franchisees to focus on driving the bottom line: The ability to simplify systems, employ a smaller number of team members, and focus on doing one thing exceptionally well all help drive more sales, and ultimately grow as these key factors help bring more volume and generate more units.

A restaurant that offers a limited-menu model will notice the major impact on the restaurant's profits. This menu concept like Roll-Em-Up Taquitos uses for our continued success, sets up both the franchisor and franchisee for success, along with seeing smoother service time with customers.

Ultimately, if your goal is to increase profits and ensure your customers have a consistently positive experience, trying a limited-menu model could just do that.