When your restaurant concept goes to a new city, you typically go with mega excitement and hella-aggressive confidence. That’s because you know you have something special – like when you bought that gift you knew your partner was going to love. With their first bites, locals will swoon and realize your brand’s superiority. And you have a … Continued
Using your steps of service strategically to send your guests the right message gives your restaurants a massive competitive edge. My best clients add an element in their steps of service that drives guest engagement, satisfaction, and frequency – and thus revenue. So why do most restaurants miss this opportunity and simply allow their steps … Continued
Are you overly dissatisfied – feeling things could be better, but not quite sure how to make them better? Or are you overly satisfied – so happy with the great life you have built for yourself that you don’t pay enough attention to making your restaurants even better? Essentially, both suffer from the same problem: They don’t … Continued
When you reach a certain level of success, it’s OK to run that victory lap and settle in to being an owner, not an operator. One multi-unit owner I know has done this so well they consider their job “playing restaurateur.” Be more like them. This transformation is critical for professional restaurant group owners; unfortunately, … Continued
Last week I ran my Ultimate Restaurant Culture Workshop at Texas Restaurant Marketplace in Houston, the second largest gathering of industry professionals in the country. I took attendees through the same process I use with my clients to identify, document, and systematize culture—tools we use to literally scale culture so it remains pure as my … Continued
For successful restaurateurs, there was a grueling period at the beginning when they really did have to work all the time. The most debilitating mistake people make? They don’t even notice when that time ends, so they keep running that schedule out of habit. Life is full of compromise. If you marry, have a family, … Continued
If you are anybody in our business in and around Texas, your usual mid-July habit is to head to Texas Restaurant Marketplace. That is where you’ll see new products and hear a wide range of speakers (including me) present new ideas about how to operate your company. Or you might even learn the most by … Continued
Underperforming locations? They’re facts of life in the growth of any brand. And sometimes they’re just born that way. That’s because site selection has become more science than art, but still has some artistic qualities – and can create a maternity ward for underperforming stores. Then, when owners feed those locations, there’s pain. Nobody lulls … Continued
How do you do that? Simple. Make sure all your managers get better every year. If you want to run great restaurants in the current labor market, you have no other choice. “We all strive to be better every day, and that includes me.” When I start working with successful owners of multi-unit independent restaurant … Continued
Sitting in the dining room of one of my clients, we tried to figure out what this super-successful business leader had in common with some of my other clients. Then it hit me – he had never worked in a company he didn’t own! I’ve been running my business for almost 30 years, and it … Continued