If you're like many restaurant owners who think a menu is just a list of the food that you serve, you're not alone, but you're also misguided. There's a prevailing thought that even permeates some of the best restaurants in the country that simply typing out your options for food and beverages and calling it a day will get the job done.

You may not realize that some dishes make you more money than others, and having a menu that's too extensive won't benefit you or your guests. We want to help by giving you some tips to optimize your business and make more money: Here's how to use basic psychology to improve business, using a few small changes to your menu.

There's a psychological theory known as the "paradox of choice" in which studies have found that although people may say they want more choices, they really don't. Quite the contrary, actually. The theory states that the more choices people have, the more anxiety they feel about making a choice.

So what can you do? It's simple. Reduce the number of dishes on your menu to a selection of your showcase dishes: your best-selling items (which should also be the items with higher profit margins). Guests have a great meal without having to make a tough decision, and you make money by having to buy (and waste) fewer ingredients for dishes that don't sell.