Executive Coaching
The Best Leaders Are The Ones Who Know They Can't Do It Alone
Are you too busy "doing" to look at the way things have always been done, leaving little or no time to ask, why they are done that way? Or worse, too busy doing to ask why you are doing these things at all? That you are not questioning suggests that you are not paying attention for ways to strengthen or improve, taking the status quo for granted. You should be asking yourself not only why am I climbing this mountain, but also, am I even climbing the right mountain?
Pre-Opening Business Assessment
If You Are In The Pre-Opening Phase For A New Restaurant, Let's Start Here.
Opening a new restaurant is exciting, some may even say intoxicating. It is really easy to become distracted by the "bright shiny thing" every single day. The logo design, the restaurant property search, what you want the interior of your new restaurant to look like. You know, the reclaimed wood for the bar and the rescued lights from the Titanic that will bring people in the door.
The reality is that all of those things are about 112 steps too early. Before you start any of those, you need to be able to take a step back, to ask who you are, why you are doing this, how will your community benefit from your new restaurant, do you have access to enough capital to really see your new restaurant opening all the way through to the finish line? And remember, getting to opening day is not the finish line, it is just the beginning...
Existing Business Audit
What's Wrong With My Restaurant?
You thought all the heavy lifting was done. You went from a dream on a cocktail napkin, through the insanity of architectural drawings, licensing and permitting, change orders, hiring, Certificate of Occupancy and opening. You made it! And now your business is open. For any number of reasons, it hasn't turned out how you expected. Supply chain issues force you to 86 items or rewrite the menu. Employee turnover rates of 125% have you rethinking your benefits offerings. Your actual menu mix is causing higher food cost and lower margins than forecasted, and that's on top of sales being down 38% to budget.
Whether is it changed circumstances or a series of educated guesses that led to bad outcomes, you have to stop the bleeding. Examining the entire game plan, the why and the how behind the results is required. Are guest counts up or down? Where is your PPA? Your business is its own ecosystem and skipping one rock sends a ripple across the entire pond.
Human Resources For The New Restaurant Model
Creating Financially Viable Wages, Benefits, Culture and Education Programs For The Restaurant Employee + A New Hiring Model For Restaurants
A new definition for success - to build new restaurant models that are equitable, profitable, sustainable. It is imperative to invest in your most important asset - your people. We do this in four ways:
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Wages - Pay a living wage. The end.
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Benefits - Benefits are not an amenity, they are a necessity.
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Culture - The decisions that are made when nobody is watching.
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Education - Lead people, not pieces of paper. Use the training resources you have and keep them current.
To Own Your Business, Own Your Financials
A New Financial Model For Equitable, Profitable, Sustainable Restaurants.
The industry standard is broken, and that includes the building, implementing, and using financial models. A comprehensive understanding of pre-opening expenses with a fully functional template for the operating budget, and the first round of forecasted numbers is in the scope here.
This budget is different from any other you have seen for the industry. We take into consideration the total effect of decision making on all aspects of the business. What happens if your guest count drops by five people per day? What happens if your check average goes up by $3 per day? What happens if you lose four employees in the same two-week period? Each of these has an effect on the entire financial wellbeing of your restaurant.
Core Brand Messaging
How To Create Your Core Messaging And How To Reach Your Audience.
It's noisy out there. So much information, content and click bait to sift through on so many different platforms. Understanding how to create genuine, impactful and real content to engage your audience is more important than ever. Stop using the same empty, trendy, buzz words that everyone else is using so that you can be recognized for who you are, not just what you put on the plate.
New restaurants have two audiences - potential employees and customers (Internal and External guests). Being able to communicate internally is just as important as the message the buying public sees. Have you seen job posts on social media that say something like, "Hiring line cooks, $14 per hour, HMU?" They are not particularly inspiring. Let's craft your message and get it out to the people who most need to hear it.