Restaurateurs fail to get past one store because of one reason. Restaurateurs fail to make boatloads of money because of one reason.
The one reason...they are too busy working in their business, not on it. How can you possibly expect to have time to manage the store when you are running it? You’re bussing tables, working the bar, helping out in the kitchen. You’re running food, cashing out servers, making schedule changes, covering shifts and dealing with the phone. You’re making table visits; you’re even running an ad in the local paper. But you know what? It’s not enough. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. If you spend everyday working in the business, it will not change. Trust me.
Stephen Covey in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People brilliantly explained the difference between Leadership and Management. It goes something like this….
Imagine yourself in the forest. You have a front line of staff who are swinging machetes, carving a path through the thick underbrush. Behind the staff stand the Managers. The Managers ensure that the staff are working as a team, are getting breaks, are using sharp machetes, and the managers administer first aid as it’s needed. They ensure the staff get massages as needed (preventative maintenance) and the schedule stays on time.
Now the Leader is behind the Managers, but high atop the tallest tree. The Leader is shouting down, “A little to the left. That’s it you’re right on track.”
You see a Leader has the vision. The Leader is the one who knows where we are going and sees the big picture. The Leader has before her a plan of short-term and long-term goals. The Leader is not clearing the underbrush, but ensures the path through the underbrush is the correct one.
In the game we call “Restaurant”; the plan is your budget, your marketing plan, your one week, one month, one quarter, or one year objectives. Whether they are staff based, financial based, service based, kitchen/culinary based, or all of the above; they are objectives nonetheless.
Now if you tell me you don’t have any plans or objectives, that, my friend is your first mistake. The second would be not taking the time to meet them.
But you can’t get decent staff, you don’t feel comfortable leaving your supervisors in charge long enough to work on your business. If you don’t take the time to hire the right people and develop them and train them properly, you will never be able to get out of the “working in the business” stage.
Here’s what you do:
i. Develop policies and procedures for everything. Yes, everything.
ii. Train your staff on all your new policies and procedures. If they don’t like the “new you”, get people who do. Give them 30-40 hours of training. Work them for a shift in the kitchen, on the door, and the bar if they are a server. Train them to sell. Give them product knowledge and test them on it. Cross-train your kitchen staff.
iii. Spend time and effort getting great people. Don’t just hire people to fill positions, hire the right people. If you can’t find them, keep looking. They’re out there.
iv. Once you get some decent, reliable staff who are selling and developing relationships with guests so they return, now you start to plan. Make a list of short and long term objectives you wish to meet.
v. Build a marketing plan based on said objectives.
vi. Execute, execute, execute.
Now that sounds too easy and I know I have simplified it to the extreme, but I will guarantee, a simplified plan is better than no plan. I guarantee that if you start with a simplified plan, a great one will develop. What are you waiting for? Stop managing and start leading.
Top Shelf Consulting has been helping Ontario restaurants increase profits since 2000. Specializing in Menu Engineering, Cost Controls, and Service Selling, Top Shelf offers both one-on-one consultations as well as full-day seminars.
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