It’s June…already!
People don’t have to wake up early to take the kids to school, they struggle to keep them doing anything other than looking at a screen, and your Q2 has just a few weeks to go.
2025 has thrown some challenges the industry’s way, with consumer confidence falling due to economic uncertainty.
Still, even though that makes success harder to come by, businesses that are set up for success are doing well; it just requires a little extra effort than in years past – when the market did some of the work for us.
If you are not at the top of your game, that will show up in your dining rooms, kitchens, and financial statements.
Time to Make That Adjustment
With midyear coming up, my best clients pause, evaluate where they are compared to expectations, and adjust to start the second half of the year on an upswing.
In the next few weeks before Q3 starts, sit down with your leadership team, soberly review the operations plan you had for the year, and make adjustments – including divorcing yourselves from ideas that turned out to be unworthy.
But what if your group never even created a detailed action plan at the beginning of the year? Don’t be ashamed; you can still make one for the second half of the year. One of my new clients will do this and will then do a full-on annual plan for 2026 at the end of 2025.
Here Are Examples
Entering the second half of the year, my clients are making several adjustments:
- Realizing that an operations director won’t make it, and beginning to search for someone who can boost profit and team member loyalty.
- Observing that they could be doing better, promoting their chef and their fantastic food, and retooling marketing to increase sales.
- Returning to their commitment to significantly upgrade culinary – along with supporting service training and marketing – to attract new guests.
- Planning to promote a key leader so the owner can significantly reduce the time they spend on their business and can spend more time at their second home.
- Teaching GMs to write their own agendas for their one-on-one meetings with their supervisor and to lead a periodic statement review process to grow their leadership skills and improve their units.
- Reorganizing their accounting department – outsourcing where attractive – so, rather than running an office, they can run a restaurant company that focuses on guests and employees.
You can still have a great 2025 by making the right adjustments now. The restaurant business never ends, but the calendar we work on allows us to plan, evaluate, and take stock of our achievements. Utilize that to get your act together in the second half of the year so 2025 can be a year you will brag about.
