A New Restaurant

A big part of building your brand is consistency.  If there are things that you do well, and you know your customers enjoy, then you had better provide those things for your customers the next time they visit your restaurant.  It doesn’t necessarily matter what part of the experience the customer most enjoyed, if they liked that well enough to come back, they will be very disappointed if they don’t get it the second (or third) time they return.  Running a successful restaurant depends on your ability to get customers returning time and again, so if they do come back, you need to do whatever it takes to make sure they continue to do so.

This goes back to knowing what you do well.  If you don’t know, you better figure it out quickly.  (more…)

As we head into the new year, you should think about what your brand is, or what you would like your brand to be.  If you want to be a successful restaurant in this volatile economy, you better know who you are, and be ready to let your customers know who you are.

If you think that building a brand isn’t important to building a successful restaurant business, you haven’t been paying attention to what has been going on on the restaurant world.  (more…)

OK.  So here’s a question for you; is your ego getting into the way of your restaurants success?  Are you directly causing your restaurants failure?

Let’s face it, restaurant owners do have ego issues.  Even soft-spoken, seemingly unassuming owners have to have something inside to lead them to believe they can succeed in a business where so many other restaurants failed.  Not that this is necessarily a bad thing.  If you don’t think you have what it takes you should find another way to spend your money.

Where an ego can become a problem is when you are so set on being right in  every area that you begin to grind down the people around you, and when you fail to admit mistakes, even when those mistakes are costing you your business.

If you have ever watched the show “Kitchen Nightnmares” you have seen how egos have gotten into the way of a restaurants success.  Every episode Chef Ramsey is forced to confront an owner who refuses to change the way they are doing business even when they are obviously failing with the way the are operating.  The majority of the time it isn’t just menu or service problems, it extends to the way the owner is treating the staff.

One of the greatest assets an owner has is the restaurants staff.  A good staff, when properly lead can not only make sure your food is properly prepared, they are the ones in front of the customer, putting a face on your business.  when an owners ego prevents that staff from feeling like they are making a contribution, or worse yet, that their contribution isn’t appreciated, you are on the road to disaster.

Keep your ego in check.  It may be your business, but chances are great that you are counting on a lot of other people to make it succeed.

One of the things I have found when making adjustments to the schedule is you find out how comfortable people have gotten.  Suddenly you’re requiring more work out of your employees without giving them extra time to do get the work done.  For many, the first reaction is, “I don’t have time to get it done.”

When you hear those words, there are two possibilities to consider.  The first is that you really did cut too deeply, and there is no way to accomplish all that needs to be done at the current staff levels.  The second possibility is the one I usually come up against; there is enough time to get things done, but the staff doesn’t really want to wok any harder.

If you’ve thought through the tasks at hand and have planned carefully,  then be assured that more can be accomplished than your worker may be willing to admit.  What they are looking for is to see if they can get you to back off and either give some of the work to someone else, or rehire someone to come in and do the work.  Once they see that you are sticking to your decision, the complaints soon stop, and surprisingly, all of the work gets done.