Is Your Restaurant Running You?

chef health risks restaurant running
  • Texas Pete
  • DAVO Sales Tax
  • Day & Nite
  • Red Gold Sacramento
  • Atosa USA
  • McKee Foodservice
  • T&S Brass Eversteel Pre-Rinse Units
  • AyrKing Mixstir
  • RAK Porcelain
  • RATIONAL USA
  • Imperial Dade
  • BelGioioso Burrata
  • Inline Plastics Safe-T-Chef
  • Simplot Frozen Avocado
Follow TFS on Google News

Arguably, restaurants are one of the most challenging of all businesses and require a “hands-on” approach. No-one can deny the high failure rate, and marginal operations quickly become new statistics.

It’s no wonder, as this business is literally one of a thousand details and that hands-on approach leaves many owners and managers working 6 and 7 days a week, opening early and closing late. Is their restaurant running them and not the other way around? Yes!

So how do you “turn the tables” (pardon the pun) on this situation? First, begin with your staff. When I ran restaurants, I trained and empowered my entire team to do two important things: “Think like an owner, treating the restaurant and everything in it as if they had to pay for it” and “Notice and see what the guest sees, fixing what’s broken”. This was the beginning of my restaurant’s transformation.

Staff are the cornerstone of any business and by changing my approach to hiring, constantly training, recognizing and rewarding my staff, I built a “dream team” that became a powerful competitive advantage. Not only were they rising to daily challenges, but they were building my business and my brand. It’s all about your approach.

You need to get rid of your “C-players” immediately – those just showing up for a paycheck and replace them with solid “B’s”. B-Teamers may lack basic experience, but have a true desire to serve the public and make new friends. These people are trainable and will quickly become your “stars” with the all-important training, recognition and rewards. I found most of these promising up and comers as referrals from my other “dream team” veterans, but never by placing ads in the help-wanteds or putting a sign in the window.

  • Inline Plastics Safe-T-Chef
  • Atosa USA
  • Red Gold Sacramento
  • RAK Porcelain
  • RATIONAL USA
  • AyrKing Mixstir
  • Simplot Frozen Avocado
  • DAVO Sales Tax
  • Day & Nite
  • T&S Brass Eversteel Pre-Rinse Units
  • McKee Foodservice
  • Imperial Dade
  • BelGioioso Burrata
  • Texas Pete

Next tackle your finances. I became obsessed with profit. As a seasonal operator, I had to be to not only stay in business, but to really crush-it! I created simple tracking tools to stay on top of my critical numbers, so I knew at a glance my prime costs, daily break-even and item by item bottom-line contribution. I am constantly amazed at the number of restaurants out there who don’t take regular inventory or don’t know which items have the highest contribution margin versus those item’s popularity.

Finally, there is Marketing and constantly see most operators take the same understandable but mis-guided approach. Don’t get caught in the trap of traditional advertising. You can really spend thousands of dollars on radio, print, TV and direct mail with no proven way to accurately track your Return On Investment. Instead, think “Guerilla Marketing”. Relentlessly pursue marketing opportunities that cost little to no money, but have a huge return. Here’s where your staff come back to the picture. It all comes full circle. If you follow my advice of training recognizing and rewarding, your staff become your most powerful “Brand Ambassadors” giving your customers many reasons to return to your restaurant and tell their friends. It’s absolute fact that “word of mouth” and positive online reviews are your most effective forms of marketing.

Roger Beaudoin
Roger Beaudoin, Restaurant Rockstars

So it’s a brand new day. Go to work “On” your business now so you decide what you can and want to do tomorrow. Your cash register will ring and your family and bank account will thank you.

Go out there and Rock Your Restaurant!

  • T&S Brass Eversteel Pre-Rinse Units
  • McKee Foodservice
  • Texas Pete
  • Day & Nite
  • Inline Plastics Safe-T-Chef
  • RATIONAL USA
  • RAK Porcelain
  • BelGioioso Burrata
  • Red Gold Sacramento
  • Atosa USA
  • DAVO Sales Tax
  • Imperial Dade
  • Simplot Frozen Avocado
  • AyrKing Mixstir
Roger Beaudoin
Roger Beaudoin is the founder of the Sales Stars Server Training System, Author of Rock Your Restaurant, a game-changing guide to Restaurant Finances and Creator of The Restaurant Rockstars Academy. He is a successful restaurant entrepreneur who has founded and operated 4 restaurants/hospitality companies over the past 22 years. He recently sold the Matterhorn SKI BAR in Maine, a seasonal restaurant and bar that generated over $1 MILLION dollars sales in just 4 months, with double the Net Profit of the average full-serve restaurant. While running The Matterhorn it was named “BEST SKI BAR USA” by Skiing Magazine and “Classic SKI BAR” by SKI Magazine, as well as receiving restaurant accolades from the New York Times, Boston Globe, Framers Travel Guides, Powder Magazine, Yankee Magazine and other publications over the years. Roger is a Speaker at industry events, Host of the Restaurant Rockstars Podcast and is frequently interviewed as a Guest Expert on other industry podcasts as well.In addition to providing turn-key restaurant Staff Training and Financial systems, Roger Coaches and Consults to restaurants of all types. As more than 50% of restaurants fail, he has a deep passion for helping new restaurant owners not only survive but knock it out of the park! (There is no reason for them to make the same mistakes he made 20 years ago when he started his first restaurant). With over 20+ years in the business, he is a genius with restaurant analytics, branding, training, systems and efficiencies and uses that expertise to help restaurateurs create not just restaurants, but BUSINESSES that ROCKS PROFITS!