It’s an old saying, but take care of your employees and they will take care of you. You want to get customers in and coming back? Make an effort to make your staff a happy one. It starts with you. You can be that boss who stays in the office, never engages the employees, OR you…
Category: Labor
The Budget
I can’t tell you how important it is to have a budget if you want to run a successful restaurant—or any other business for that matter. Now, having said that, you would be amazed at the number of restaurants that don’t. I have had clients ask me to help them with their restaurant, and the first…
That’s Our Rule
I have the advantage of many years of experience in various capacities in the restaurant industry. From high-end Beverly Hills celebrity hangouts to fast food joints. From General Manager down to dishwasher, I have done almost all you can do in this business. However However, the real advantage I have gained has come from being out of…
One Minute Manager
One of the lectures in my Labor Costing class focuses on some thoughts by two men named Spencer Johnson and Ken Blanchard. They wrote a book called “The One Minute Manager.” In this book, (lookout, here comes my cliff notes version) the authors discuss the reasons managers are often ineffective, and how that ineffectiveness leads…
Tip Systems
Since I have worked in twelve different restaurants, and most of them as a server, I have had the pleasure of becoming quite familiar with a diverse set of tipping systems. Now, I am not talking about how the customer tips out the various waiters, bartenders, maître d’s who may have helped them, but rather how the…
Management Presence
Since starting this blog, I now must endure story after story of poor experiences in restaurants by friends and loved ones. My students tell me that I have ruined eating out for them, because they spend all of their time looking around at all of the mistakes taking place. Not my fault! You can’t blame…
Counter ‘Service’?
I’d better be careful here. I have mentioned on more than one occasion that I am a front of the house guy. Yes, I’ve worked in kitchens, but the bulk of my experience has been out in the front. I still believe all of the things that I did during my waiter days. Every customer…
Managing Employee Conflict
Let’s face it, there is no way you can end all of your employee conflict. Human beings are human beings after all. The trick is to minimize it. Front of the house vs. Back of the house I took a minute to think of all of the restaurants I have worked over the years, and…
Restaurant Marketing
Everyone (except those with masters degrees in marketing) is confused by the whole marketing thing. Including me. But let’s sort this one out together. First of all, marketing does not mean just going out and spending a bunch of cash on T.V. or newspaper ads. Quite simply, it is figuring out who your customers are,…
A Good Manager
Not often, but occasionally I am accused of coming across a bit cynical, maybe a little too negative. I am not here to argue that point, but rather to combat that idea by putting out a more positively-toned post. Don’t get used to it. I don’t mean to point out only the faults of Portland…
Eat it. Don’t Tweet it.
Yeah, that’s right, eat it don’t tweet it. I suddenly find myself in an awkward position. These recent years I have found myself making fun of people who can’t seem to simply enjoy their food, they need to take a picture of it and share it with whoever is following them on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat,…
Location Location Location
Location means so many things. Not just what your realtor tells you. In an earlier post, I talked about the ten reasons why restaurants fail. Let’s talk about the first one on that list: Location. Location People often hear that word without really knowing what it means. Especially restaurateurs. Yes, location is very important, but…
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