3 Time Stealing Mistakes: How To Quit These Frustrating Habits

Time Stealing Mistakes
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  • Red Gold Sacramento
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  • DAVO Sales Tax
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  • McKee Foodservice
  • RAK Porcelain
  • Texas Pete
  • BelGioioso Burrata
  • Inline Plastics Safe-T-Chef
  • Atosa USA
  • T&S Brass Eversteel Pre-Rinse Units
  • RATIONAL USA
  • AyrKing Mixstir
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Running a restaurant is time consuming to say the very least. Just the day-to-day can fly by. How many times has the day ended, and you find that you didn’t get done anything you intended because of constant interruptions from vendors, customers, employees, you name it?

Then there’s this guy David Scott Peters who insists you start implementing systems so you can hold your team members accountable on all levels. This guy says you need to work on your business, not in it! How the heck are you ever going to do that when there isn’t enough time in the day to do what you already have on your plate? The answer… if you know what the challenges are, you will be able to overcome them. Here are three time stealing mistakes restaurant owners and managers make on a daily basis that rob you of your time, making it difficult to get anything done.

Time Stealing Mistake #1: Doing everything yourself

I cannot tell you how many restaurant owners and managers I have come across who have put themselves in a situation where they are the ones doing everything themselves. They are the only ones who can count the money and make the deposit; the only ones who can place the orders; the only ones who can write the schedules; the only ones who can pay the bills; the only ones who can manage a shift; and the only ones who can run their line. You get the picture.

Here’s the deal: you know I don’t lack self-confidence when it comes to running a restaurant. Heck, I named my company TheRestaurantExpert.com! But I am here to tell you that even as good as I think I am, I can’t do all the things needed to run your restaurant by myself. In fact, nobody can. So, if you find yourself doing everything yourself, what makes you think you can?

To fix this mistake, you need to develop a team that can do things for you, with you. That team can take the shape as a full-time management team or can be several line employees who do some basic management duties. It will be different for everyone and depends on your sales volumes, hours of operation, etc. But the bottom line is you need to teach them how to do ALL of the various management tasks in your business, from balancing the nightly numbers and making sure the checklists are in place and being followed to placing orders and writing schedules. It’s your job to understand what needs to be done, to train your team and, most importantly, ensure the process is working by inspecting that everything is getting done.

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

You need to change your ways by building your team, holding them accountable and then be willing to replace people who are not pulling their weight. You and your restaurant’s success depends on it.

Time Stealing Mistake #2: Not creating you time

In the introduction I gave a long list of unscheduled interruptions. One of the things I want you to think about is why are there so many interruptions? What are you doing that makes it so easy for them to occur?

I’ll tell you what I think it is. I think you’re the type of person who will fix (or try to fix) anything and everything that comes your way. You don’t shy away from a challenge. In fact, you have gotten to a point in time in your life where you are tired of people not doing it right, so you’ll just do it right the first time. You are the person whose cell phone rings off the hook when you are not in the building. Your phone rings with calls from employees telling you something is broken, something is wrong, they need help, even with the simplest of tasks, like changing a leaking washer in a faucet.

What you have done is taught people that they don’t have to think, they don’t have to work, they simply have to call you and you will do it. They know that faucet can leak all it wants, but that eventually you will show up with your tool bag and replace a 20-cent washer. You, for all intents and purposes, work for your staff, not the other way around. You ENABLE your people to do nothing.

Once you understand this about yourself, these interruptions are actually very controllable. They become controllable when you first decide that you are no longer the only person who can do anything. Just remember, you must train them, you must coach them, you must let them make mistakes (as long as they don’t harm themselves, the business or the customers) and then if they do things 85 percent as well as you can do them, you have hit a home run! You will be getting so much more done because you have actually multiplied yourself.

The second thing you must do is schedule time that you are uninterrupted. This is what I call You Time. This is time when you have a manager or manager type on the floor ensuring the restaurant is running well. You explain to EVERYONE you are not to be interrupted. And if you are, politely remind them to find the manager on duty because you are having uninterrupted office time.

This will allow you to review your numbers, work on marketing, plan for success and lead your team.

Time Stealing Mistake #3: Chasing information down

Ok, so maybe you already fixed the first two mistakes, yet you still feel like you are on a treadmill going nowhere and not getting things done because you are waiting for your managers to give you the information you need to analyze your numbers to make real change in your business. You are waiting for schedules to be created so you can check your schedules against your labor allotment. You are waiting for inventories to be input so you can know your cost of goods sold. You are waiting for times to be input so you can track your labor. You are waiting for all of this so you can run a budget variance report, etc.

The challenge is you find yourself chasing after your managers asking them repeatedly to finish these tasks. You call. You text. You ask. And when you don’t get your information in a timely manner, the You Time you created is a waste of time because you can’t work on your business!

To change this, you must clearly explain what numbers, checklists, etc., you need, when they are due, how well they should be done and that it’s a non-negotiable request. They are so important, that if they are not done and handed into you as required, they may not be working for you for very long.

Eliminate these three mistakes

In summary, you need help. You cannot do everything yourself. You need to schedule time where you are uninterrupted so you can plan, analyze and lead your team. And more importantly, you need your management team to get you the necessary information to measure your restaurant’s success and identify where change is needed. And if they don’t, you must be willing to hold them accountable, even if it means their job.

Fix these three time stealing mistakes and find yourself with more time to get more done!

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

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