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EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW IN THE RESTAURANT WORLD
Part 1.
Part 2.
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BRAND & FOOD
OPERATION COSTS
STAFF, CUSTOMER SERVICE, & GETTING PEOPLE TO WANT TO COME BACK...
Reality
REST BASICS
THE BASICS IN FRONT OF HOUSE
TREAT AS IF SERVERS WERE "PERFORMERS"
THE GRUNT WORK MENTALLY
THE RESTAURANT IS A STAGE
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THIS WILL HELP STAY EXCITING.
To keep people coming in time after time is to create an atmosphere that is exciting every time they come in. That starts with the host, to the servers, to the floor managers, to the host again when leaving. Everyone buying into the brand and the systems that work, will be more successful to those that don't regardless of the food.
SERVERS ARE YOUR SALES TEAM
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RESTAURANT MANAGERS FORGET THAT THE SERVERS PRODUCE THE SALES.
Training on how to up-sell is crucial for setting the servers up for success, they also typically get tipped more, but its up to the establishment to give the proper training to execute effectively.
THE BASICS IN BACK OF HOUSE
TREAT AS IF THE COOKS WERE "ARTISTS"
THE GRUNT WORK PHYSICALLY
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COOKS ARE BEHIND THE SCENES LIKE DIRECTORS, PRODUCERS, DESIGNERS.
You need both to perform in sync to create the best scene in a movie.
The actors need to believe and achieve the directors vision through scripts and practice.
THE BASICS OF ON DUTY MANAGER
TREAT AS IF THE M.O.D. IS THE "MAIN DIRECTOR PLAYING AS THE MAIN ACTOR"
THE GRUNT VISIONARY & LEADER
The main purpose of an M.O.D. is to burn out fires with customers so they come back, the best communicators in the restaurant, the ones who delegate to keep things running smoothly, and the one who lead not boss.
KNOWING THE MARKET
1. ARE YOU RELEVANT?
- What trend are you capitalizing on? Farm to table is always a key term.
2. ARE YOU COMPETITIVE?
- Is your price fair? What is your proximity to your competition? Is your concepts the same?
3. WHAT ARE THE LOCALS LIKE?
- Remember to be successful you have to make money from the moment you are open to the moment you are closed. Stay away from quiet neighborhoods if you can.
4. WHAT WERE THE MISTAKES OF THE FAILURES?
- Is there restaurants who have failed nearby? Do you know why they did and how you could avoid doing the same?
5. DO YOU MIX YOUR GENRE TO STAY FUN?
- Today with over saturation in the hospitality industry, the really successful restaurant these days are those who combine or perfect genres.
6. WHAT DOES THE MARKET LOOK LIKE?
- Do the people look like they would fit your target market who walk around near the restaurant? Do they drive nice cars?
7. CAN YOU ADAPT TO IT?
- Be flexible outside your mission statement and adapt to changes.
8. DO YOU OFFER TAKE OUT?
- Take out is so easy and super profitable.
9. ARE YOU LOCALLY FRIENDLY?
- Do you make the regulars feel special? Do you know their name?
10. WHAT IS THE OFFICIAL STORY OF THE MARKET & TOWN?
- What is the population and what are the best paying jobs in town? Questions like these typically can be answered by your local government employees.
11. DO YOU KNOW THE BANDWIDTH OF YOUR CUSTOMERS?
- Knowing where your customers work and how they get approached at their work can help you when serving them.
12. DON'T BE SCARED OF PEOPLE STEALING YOUR IDEA... STATISTICALLY IT ALWAYS TURNS OUT A FLOP.
- Remember that you have confidence in yourself and your imagination, impossible to replicate exactly.
The Market
I AM NOT A LAWYER
HERE IS COMMON LAWS & LEGALITIES ASSOCIATED WITH RESTAURANTS
Sometimes some of the most common codes or laws restaurants have can be forgotten until it's too late.
- Liquor License: Know the local laws on these as they change frequently.
- What is the classifications with the liquor license you need.
- Is it fee-based or commodity owned.
- Code: Zoning, Building, Fire and Health.
- Sometimes the city can be a pain, but knowing the questions ahead of time is crucial to expediting as fast as possible.
- Business: LLC Fees, Federal Tax ID, Withhold & Taxman Cometh, & Insurances.
- These can kick you in the rear if you don't get professionals involved in the beginning.
General Laws
MISSION STATEMENT
GREAT NAMES BECOME GREAT BRANDS
First figure out a solid name and concept to stick to 100%.
Be sure that once you commit to the name, you don't look back on it as you build it up throughout the years.1-2 words are the best and make sure that they are not trademarked already.
- Recommend to purchase the domain name.
BE CLEAR, CONCISE, and SPECIFIC
Broad mission statements, aren't mission statements.
Being clear, concise, and specific will help you train the mission statement to employees, investors, help marketing plans, and keep you on a straight path for success. Everything else to get you there can change and adapt.
Misson Statement
MONEY
Capital Budget: What is the Buffer amount just in case you need to keep things going.
Operational Budget: What is the plan to make profits and continue to make profits.
Knowing what hurts your budget is good to understand what to avoid. What is the overhead and how do you control it better every shift.
FINDING MONEY: This can be hard depending on your situation, however once you get an investor, cut your salary to pay back the investors ASAP to keep a good relationship.
- Know the terms of repayment and understand the financial traps you can get into... there is a lot.
You can learn more in Part 1 of the downloads
Money
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
Understand what you need and what you want
When you have a good place with parking and lots of traffic, you will want to understand the exact costs of the building and what triple net would cost with all the variables. Understand what the breakeven point would be from the numbers you have associated with the building or with the lease you already have.
Everything is negotiable and so is the lease. The lease should be no more than 7% of your total sales.
- What is very important is to decide if you are going to be a
Destination Restaurant (People will go out their way for you)
or a
Capture and Leave Restaurant (Fast Casual and convenience)
This will help you decide where to even begin to look.
Location
FRONT OF HOUSE
The path and flow of what you have is crucial to designing your restaurants FOH.
Atmosphere: How does the paint, decor, candles, make you feel?
Private Dining Rooms: Aren't just for privacy, but also bigger tabs to make more money for private events.
Seating: Booths are typically a fan favorite, however communal tables have been a great alternative as long as you figure out a way to also help the customers feel some type of privacy as well.
Noise: This means audio and also visual. Does the space seem simple and less confusing, or is it very noisy? Is there thought of dampening the sound with foam or curtains?
- If you can, take out stations and server stations should be out of the way of normal guests to prevent a claustrophobic feeling from the guests.
The MENU: Speaking of Simple.... is your menu simple and easy to navigate through? You want to make it easy for your customer to decide (and turnover that seat as quick as possible to make more money).
The BAR: The flow of the bar could be a make it or break it to a fast growing business. People want their drink fast and the best way to do that is to help out your bartenders as much as possible with standards, training, and tools.
FOH
BACK OF HOUSE
Safety, Sanitation, and Fire prevention mainly starts with the back of house.
Expediting the food with presentation and the final touches to all dishes will be done by the head of the kitchen.
- The first impression is key when serving food because you eat with your eyes first.
Maintenance: Learning how to prevent breaks and leaks is extremely helpful to not spending extra money. Through maintenance and upkeep you can do this pretty effectively.
- Heating, Ventilation, Grease Traps, Outside, Machine Cleaning, Deep cleaning, Trash cans, Knives, etc.
Keeping egos out of the back of the house is sometimes inevitable, however having leadership always in the back of the house always, can help keep everyone accountable to the same goal and objective.
BOH
PURCHASING
If the manager doesn't know how to purchase effectively, you will eat into your profits quickly.
Food waste, spoilage, not checking in properly, internal theft, high priced product, not calculating inventory, not to mention being out of product and pissing off regulars all impacts.
- Contracts and negotiations are very important initially, however you typically always want to be in control. Setting the standards upfront of what you want, what purchasing power you present, and clear communication is key to getting better deals, credits, best delivery times, etc.
- Having choices: It is important to have options for those "just incase" moments. I have noticed some local restaurants getting out of hand with to many suppliers, thus becoming very difficult to manage.
- Purchasing Alcohol: Before of the salesperson just trying to push a crap product, but you will not sell out of this. You usually only get deals on bulk ordering as most states have regulations against giving discounts on alcohol.
purchasing
THE OFFICE
Where you make it or break it. This is where the decisions have to be made and executed.
How you run your business is up to you of course, but there is some common sense within the industry that should be followed.
- The POS is the heart beat of the restaurant and should be treated as one. With controlling cash with deposits, ringing in everything, Voids and keeping everyone honest is a good way to prevent internal theft.
- Financial Statements: It is the cost of doing overall business that matters in business, because its what actual profits you have left over. Cash flow and snapshot statements are important to keep in arms length. Knowing the numbers help everyone continue to strive for the overall goal of making more money and keeping everyone happy and paid.
The Office
COSTS
Food and Liquor Costs are the two main costs that are associated with a restaurant.
Knowing who to pay the most and who to pay the least should be established before hand. It is important to pay for talent as you would the main role in a movie. Figuring out the costs before the employee starts is crucial as it seems somewhat like an silent understood agreement.
- Know the yields associated with the food and recipe. With alcohol, this should be monitored by weight if you can as this is the most accurate and each ouch is worth a lot of money.
- Overhead: Managing overhead needs to be understood by everyone in the restaurant. This includes managing unforeseeable things such as internal theft, drop-age or comped meals. The death in the restaurant business is from a thousand paper cuts including these as some of them.
Costs
MARKETING
The whole purpose of marketing is to get people into the doors and try the experience out in hopes to keep them longterm.
How to execute it however is a little more tough than just saying it out loud.
- People try promos, sales, content, etc. to try to achieve this and that is the main term of successful marketing... is to TRY.
- There is some obvious stuff that you need to at least start your presence and credibility, but also isn't always needed in the restaurant business. This includes:
- An easy to navigate website you can reserve or see the menu. This should be image heavy.
- Being present on Yelp, Trip Advisor, Google, Weezle, etc. is also very important to build trust within the community.
- Reviews and great service is the best form of true marketing for restaurants and most all businesses. When someone on the streets or family and friends recommend something, you will want to try it out more than the company telling you to try something.
Marketing
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