Break old habits.Start new ones.That first day back from vacation offers you an incredible opportunity to do both – to adopt new behaviors and see breakthrough ideas and initiatives you definitely want to take advantage of.If you tend to rush into a skyscraper-sized group of … Continued

At the recent Texas Restaurant Show – the biggest event of the year for the Texas Restaurant Association – I saw a lot of positive, confident, talented, and resilient restaurateurs from our state and the surrounding states.  That’s a change from other times when the industry was … Continued

At the end of last month, while you worked your five-day week, I meditated in near-complete silence for five days with 90 other people. Voluntarily. So far, 2025 has been a very busy, successful, productive (and frankly, sometimes overwhelming) year. I needed a reset to … Continued

At Texas Restaurant Show this weekend at the George R. Brown convention center in Houston – on Sunday, July 20, I’ve been asked to speak on two different topics.  First, “Increasing Your Restaurants Performance”, presented by restaurantowner.com where I will talk about the most powerful basic strategies … Continued

The “10,000-hour rule” has been debunked. Thankfully – I mean, who has that much time? But there’s another “rule” that still rings true: If you publish almost 1,200 episodes of your podcast and people continue to listen, that nails your credibility. I’m talking about Eric Cacciatore … Continued

In the past couple of weeks, I have had two different successful operators with exciting brands contact me because their growth plans only existed in their head. Neither one could figure out where to begin to take action.  So we figured it out together. Focus … Continued

What are the fastest and best ways to increase your restaurant’s performance these days? How do you grow your company in a flat market?  What’s your plan for continuing to grow your net worth and making your successful restaurant company even more successful? We can figure out the … Continued

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 … Continued

Before, I never thought of myself as a group person. Sure, you could have even called me a loner. So I never expected that the groups I belong to would be some of the most significant contributors to my success. Now I know better.  Join … Continued

It can feel lonely at the top – especially because being there forces you to take a long, hard look at yourself every day. Every entrepreneurial independent restaurant company reflects its owner. Whatever the owner does well and values, the company does well and values. Whatever … Continued

It’s easy to joke about millennial and Gen Z workers who “quietly vacation” by slacking off in July and August (sometimes even simulating keyboard activity to give the appearance of effort) without their managers knowing. And who can blame them? In summer, life feels more … Continued

Be honest with yourself: Are your restaurants continually getting better, or are they ever so slowly deteriorating? Do you have evidence for your answer? What are your guests saying? What do the numbers say? Recently, a longtime client has brought me back after a 7 … Continued

It could be easy to be stuck in your tracks right now. You look at a flat market, threats of tariffs that can upend the economy, and a stock market that bounces around daily like a basketball players’ “shooters bounce” that goes up and down … Continued

In this flat economy when you have to do all of the work yourself because the market is not going to do it for you, two questions hold the key to unlocking increased sales and profit: These days, you must have every possible element working … Continued

Restaurant owners – don’t be like Southwest Airlines! Southwest has decided to start charging fees on top of fares, thinking they’ll make more money that way. They used to be the only airline out of the big four not to charge for checked bags; now … Continued

Early in my career, as an operator with partners, I experienced the joys of an imploding partnership: enriching lawyers and exchanging money, territories, and grief.  My CPA told me, “A partnership is a like a marriage: easy to get into, hard to get out of.” … Continued

Which of these two statements do you think applies to most restaurant owners? After decades of working with successful owners of multi-unit independent restaurant companies, I guarantee the big issue is number 2: the work ethic (or paranoia) that leads to working too many hours. … Continued

Let’s take a vacation from focusing on issues (aka “opportunities”) you might have at your restaurants and ask you, “What’s your latest victory?” Does anything come to mind quickly? Hopefully – after a day spent dealing with the competition, immigration, workforce issues, egg prices, renewing … Continued

Do you think your level of re-investment is too high, too low, or just right? Independent restaurant owners who understand the critical value of re-investing know that their real margins come from smart investments that help them keep up with guest expectations as well as … Continued

It turns out that the barriers holding your results back aren’t unique to you. Sure, you are special, but not that special.  And today’s flattish restaurant market does not do the work for you. You have to do it yourself. Even though I write consistently about the … Continued

Chain restaurants have several competitive advantages over independent restaurants – on technology, marketing, and employee benefits. In comparison, your resources in those areas are less than tiny. Yet survey after survey finds that most of the dining public intentionally visit independent restaurants because they would … Continued

“Do restaurants make all their money from alcohol and desserts?” Years ago, that’s what one leader in a workshop filled with top consultants from around the world asked me. I thought “no,” but I said “yes” to avoid a long discussion about how you can … Continued

“Fake it ’til you make it” is a horrible strategy for developing a multi-unit team, building a restaurant company, or come to think of it – anything else.          So how do you supervise your first operations director or marketing director? Or business manager or CFO? Or learning-and-development … Continued

As the year begins and we make resolutions, no doubt you have realized how time is finite – and you don’t want to waste any of it. But owning a restaurant can make you feel like all 24 hours in a day belong to the … Continued

We exist in a stable economy, and that’s something we have not been able to say for years. Yet “stable” doesn’t mean nothing’s changing. Change is constant. The change could be positive (new economic policy/lower taxes) or negative (tariffs and deportations). Whatever happens, we will … Continued

In 2024 we learned how to operate successfully and improve results in a flat market. Not the most enjoyable subject, but one that will remain valuable for the rest of our careers. Forget this lesson at your peril.   I started out the year reminding you … Continued

Technomic forecasts a 4.25% increase in restaurant revenue for 2025 – with 4% of that coming from menu price inflation. So, as you protect yourself in 2025, you will raise your menu prices, taking price in small increments. Because you can’t afford to let margins … Continued

For my best clients, it doesn’t matter what curveballs life throws at them. They stay on a strong growth curve regardless – remaining in control of their destiny and putting the right information to work. And when you do that, great things happen, like jumping … Continued

At QSRs, they call it a “value meal”: a group of items bundled at a lower price than the price paid for buying each item separately. That whole concept messes with your head—because it defines value as price, and nothing could be further than the … Continued

10 years ago, I worked with a couple of burger clients, one of whom would not do delivery because of “the quality of the burgers by the time they travel” – and another who, for the same reason, did not even offer to-go orders.  Flash … Continued

It used to be that a restaurant could be packed all the time even if its food and service were just OK. Not anymore. This example turns out to be a permanent change in our industry, and the sooner you accept that the days of … Continued

It may seem like “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma” (thank you, Winston Churchill, for the quote), but one of the great advantages you have as an owner of a small (or even medium-sized) business remains making big moves quickly. And in … Continued

It turns out that the turbo-charged technology boost that independent restaurateurs experienced in the pandemic era now looks like a dress rehearsal for the next wave.  Today, my clients ask when the bells and whistles they have read about chains developing will become available at … Continued

Only in a presidential election year would both major candidates be supporting a fiscal policy of no tax on tips. I understand why this excites people in the industry and our associations.    But I’m not one of those people . I get it. When … Continued