It’s not often that a restaurateur finds the opportunity in a career to work in restaurants of many sizes from coast to coast. For David Scott Peters, that is in fact the overview of his decades in the restaurant and foodservice industry.
The New Jersey native has now dedicated the last two decades to bringing that unique base of knowledge to restaurant operators across the country. David Scott Peters has garnered a reputation as a leading restaurant coach and speaker who teaches restaurant operators how to cut costs and increase profits with his trademark Restaurant Prosperity Formula.
Known as THE expert in the restaurant industry, he uses a no-BS style to teach and motivate restaurant owners to take control of their businesses and finally realize their full potential. Once again, David Scott Peters will be on hand at the upcoming International Restaurant and Foodservice Show in New York on March 9th at 2pm in room 1C-04. This year’s presentation at the Center will be special as he celebrates the publishing of his latest book: Restaurant Prosperity Formula.
“Thousands of restaurants have used my formula to transform their businesses,” Peters explained. “I am looking forward to coming to New York in the middle of my book tour to share the systems that I have created with Metro New York’s restaurant community.”
The new book and the seminar at the Javits will give operators and inside look at his trademark Restaurant Prosperity Formula. “It’s all about the creation and execution of repeatable systems,” Peters noted. “This is the formula I used to rescue a multi-unit restaurant sports bar chain from bankruptcy and helped the owners sell it for a profit.” The Northeastern University graduate then went on to launch a restaurant management software from the ground up based on his formula and sold it to a group of investors that included satisfied software users.
As with many restaurant and foodservice operators, Peters was born into a restaurant family. “I grew up in my family’s restaurant catering business in Linwood, New Jersey,” he explained. His Mother’s impact has been a pillar of his approach to restaurant management. “It was a love/hate relationship I joke about my mom being the toughest manager I ever worked for. She told my sister and I that she was going to treat us harder than anybody else.”
“I find it easy to relate to the folks that sit in my session because there were multiple occasions when I wanted to quit the business,” the award-winning speaker noted. “It’s interesting, the love of hospitality and the restaurant industry never wavered, but the frustration with a toxic culture did. For instance with one of my first jobs out of school, I went to work for Hyatt Hotels in Cambridge. It was horrendous, it was a very short experience because the food and beverage director was sleeping with the assistant food and beverage director and it impacted everybody on that staff.”
From there, it was onto Phoenix for Peters. He worked briefly in HVAC and plumbing supplies, before finding himself back behind the bar.
“It was a brew pub called Coyote Springs Brewing company where in the early nineties, brewpubs were like the return of the gold-rush,” Peters said. “Very quickly, I was pulled from behind the bar into management. Before too long I was on the road opening the second and third pubs and managing both of them. That lead to becoming the Director of Operations in which I had learn how to write budgets. I often joke that it’s cheaper to learn the industry working in restaurants than it is to pay for a Harvard education.”
David Scott Peters’ work in restaurant operations also led to his second success: restaurant software management.
“Even with an old PC and very basic spreadsheets, we were able to create and fine tune financial systems that enabled us to easily fix mistakes,” Peters said. “It was the greatest education in the world for me because I got to learn the importance of systems and training accountability. Most importantly, the software highlighted the power of cash. I continue to teach today that cash pays your bills and profits don’t.”
After a stint at Famous Sam’s, a 30 unit restaurant sports bar chain in which Peters got an unclose look at franchising, his mother once again accidentally intervened in his career path. “My mother had bought a rather expensive ticket to a seminar on the Business of Speaking. So she asked me to accompany her and while I was sitting there, it dawned on me that this is what I should be doing.”
That has lead to the establishment of Peters company: Take Action Enterprises. From the platform the Garden State native now speaks to restaurant management teams and hospitality professionals across the globe. His first book Restaurant Prosperity Formula is sure to be a best seller with industry professionals after making its debut this month.
“This new book really makes it simple, I have provided the restaurant operator with every possible checklist to succeed. The book features system after system from implementation of holding people accountable and even finding that person on your team to handle your weak spots. Restaurant Prosperity Formula is truly a textbook for our industry and just the budget scheduling alone on how to budget and dollars for labor work will pay for itself many times over,” Scott Peters concluded.
To learn more about David Scott Peters, visit his website.
