Industry Spotlight with Ivan Brewer (Founder of Peiso - World’s 1st Hospitality Profitability Software)
Ivan Brewer has worked in the industry for over 25 years, he has hospitality miles on the clock in various roles, has owned his own cafe, and has consulted for hundreds of businesses across the world. On top of this Ivan is a passionate writer and he has written extensively for industry leading companies such as Kounta (Lightspeed) and Roubler, and has been published by Typsy and Myguestlist to name a few, his industry knowledge has propelled him into the hospitality spotlight.
Ivan and I crossed paths on LinkedIn and we connected 4 years ago, he writes regularly about the industry and I find his outlook refreshing, positive, and (most importantly) humorous! Ivan has an insatiable appetite to help the industry; he has the wisdom, and he loves to debate and share - so make sure to check him out on LinkedIn!
I spoke with Ivan regarding his next pursuit: Peiso - The World’s 1st Hospitality Profitability Software
Hi Ivan, as a hospitality business agent as soon as I heard about your profitability software it immediately captured my curiosity. Profitability is the utopia for any hospitality business owner… what put you on the path of developing a tool for the industry? And why Peiso?
To be honest it was my own personal need as a business owner and manager. I had worked for global companies that fed information like end of month back to me weeks after I needed them. I had already spent years in the industry, and nothing we knew nor did provided real time information.
So decisions became more guess work than anything else. I developed Peiso so I could operate a food business more profitably.
Naming a business is something that's both exciting and very difficult. There are both so many options, and so few, as so many are taken. I began thinking about what truly represented profit, and began to think about the dollar sign $.
I started to think about it's history. Where did it come from? What was it called?
Then I learned something. it actually comes from a handwritten 'ps', an abbreviation for 'peso' in old Spanish-American books. Spanish dollars, or Pesos, were being used as currency in North America. The 'ps' became $ overtime, and is called a peso even today.
I took the phonetic spelling, and Peiso was born.
How to make a hospitality business profitable is seldom understood en masse, how can Peiso help guide a business owner to find profitability?
Hospitality is a very difficult industry to be successful in. And now, it's more complex than ever. I've seen over the last few years industry veterans struggling, and businesses that are actually busy, have good food and service, not actually make any money.
The art and skill of profitability was slipping from our collective grasp.
That's why Peiso is so important. It's a profit first software, it understands an individual businesses unique cost structure and guides the operator in what to do to be profitable.
Most importantly, the guidance is explicit and action orientated. No graphs and spread sheets. Peiso tells every user what their ideal roster value is, and how much money to spend.
Any operator, from any segment, from any size business can use it.
The classic industry benchmarks (30% COGS, 35% Wages etc.) are no one-size-fits-all for the multitude of hospitality businesses, can Peiso teach a business owner to benchmark their own profitability?
Two key points here. Firstly, Peiso understands each business uniquely. No two are truly the same. Secondly, because Peiso segments each business right down to cuisine type, opening hours and location, Peiso develops benchmarks from within cohorts of similar businesses. That allows each business to know how they compare against the best. It helps each business know what to focus on.
Like all hospitality software, there is always a process of implementation, bespoke set-up and training etc. What is the process of going live with Peiso?
From the outset, I designed Peiso to be incredibly easy to use. It's very much a duck on water - it looks simple to the user, but there is an incredible amount of sophistication beneath the surface.
Peiso integrates with accounting, rostering and POS with a flick of the button. It takes about 30 minutes and any user is away.
The most crucial part of Peiso is that it relies on the information generated in Xero and Deputy. What that means is that those technologies need to be used properly.
Good quality information leads to good quality decisions.
So it's simple to use. We are at the early stages of our development. A true start-up, and more features and integrations will be added as fast as we can. But ease of use is a massive focus for me.
The most successful software tend to be those that synchronise well with other applications such as POS, payment systems, rostering, accounting software etc. ..as you have touched on. Which other applications does Peiso sync with? And does the software garner information from live feeds?
We have a very dense food tech ecosystem in Australia. There are a great many different tech options for venues. We have 83+ POS for example.
We've begun with integrations that I'm familiar with, and a fan of. Kounta (LightSpeed) is the POS, Deputy the rostering platform, and Xero accounting.
We have a couple more in our development pipeline, but we won't expand it too quickly.
I'm personally not a believer in live feeds. It's become quite en vogue lately, but I don't believe it actually helps operators make better decisions.
An example of that is when does the POS recognise the revenue? If, as if typical, it's at the point of payment, well what does that tell you? Typically, that's at the end of the diners experience. That after the labour has been needed. No venue can write a roster based upon that.
For Peiso we provide daily decision making windows.
What must a business owner do to get the best out of Peiso?
Using your Xero account and Deputy properly. Making sure accounts are set up properly. Ideally by a book keeper. Making sure that tills are reconciled at the end of every shift. Making sure that all staff and their payment details are listed in Deputy. And, and I cant believe how often this isn't done, approve shifts at the end if every day!
How can we find out more?
Either following me in LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/ivanbrewer or following www.peiso.com.au
I'm always up for a chat.
Thanks Ivan, and best of luck!
Be sure to check out Peiso this tool promises to be a gamechanger for the industry!
Barn Wilkes, Retail Business