When was the last time you gave yourself a raise? The one you earned for increased performance. I meet a lot of well-known restaurateurs who proudly and confidently identify their businesses as “great.” They’re so great that, at first, they don’t even know why they … Continued

It’s Labor Day – the holiday dedicated to the American worker. Many people don’t think about the meaning of the day (if they ever knew it in the first place). And that’s what happens to a lot of our holidays. They morph into days of … Continued

People think that what got them started will continue to be a foundation of their future scaled success. Those people are wrong. When you add something you did not have at the beginning – when everything was new and exciting – you create phenomenal success … 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 … 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. … 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 … 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 … 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 … Continued

In the past I have proven why culture provides 100% of your profits. That’s a lot. I constantly work with my clients – successful owners of independent restaurant companies – to define their culture in a permanent way. This lets them direct the behavior of … Continued

Proof of concept. Knowing your restaurant brand has legs – that its single-unit economics can be repeated and repeated and repeated – is like that can’t-fail feeling Hillary Clinton felt the night before the election.   In the end, proof of concept doesn’t prove that … Continued

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 … Continued

Many restaurateurs sleepwalk through writing their budget every year – forecasting menu price growth, inflation, or market growth as a revenue target. The best ones choose to wake up, and do a lot better than that. Revenue can always go up – faster than you … Continued

You already know about the missing pieces in your organization. You experience nagging discomfort like a pebble in your running shoe or worse, a self-critical voice that hounds you about addressing them. This will impact you especially if you have a lot of pride in … Continued

Most of my clients guide teams in their multi-unit organizations through their next stage of growth, management development, concept development, branding, or culture. However, a few still are hands-on operators of their own restaurants. When that changes – when we improve everything by hiring the … Continued

If you are in the restaurant business, you have to pay attention to the problems (and solutions) at Subway. You can learn two gigantic things from this amazing business story. First, for those of you on the top, pay attention: When there’s innovation in your … Continued

The smartest restaurateurs know that they are not in the restaurant business—they are in the branding business. According to the Forbes 2018 World’s Most Valuable Brands list, the top five brands are Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon. However, these brands all experience a red-faced love/hate … Continued

What do your experienced eyes see when you walk through your dining rooms? The staff fastidiously on task? Dreaded empty tables when you’re on a wait? Your trusted long-time expeditor making sure food does not sit in the window too long? Craving data and KPIs, … Continued

Most of my clients are in a conscious evolution phase – having realized a portion of their growth potential when I start with them. But some – high volume single units ready to start growing – are anticipating that exciting and initially mysterious time. One … Continued

Google the term “work life balance.”  You will get two billion results. That’s fast—and a reminder of why we need work/life balance. Forty years ago, when the term “work/life balance” began to pop up in our conversations, people lived in a telex, mainframe, and WATS line world. … Continued

We’re used to talking to management teams about store-level profit, restaurant profit, restaurant operation profit, or whatever term we use. You know, the number before occupancy, A&G, depreciation, and amortization. It’s what these people master, your bonus program may be based on, and something they … Continued

“Can you believe my company? I bet you’ve never seen anything like it.” I hear that all the time. “We have things we have not addressed for years. We are successful, but we could be doing so much better.” After almost three decades advising owners … Continued

When you use one of my many suggestions to improve your business and your life, that makes it all worthwhile to me—and extremely gratifying. If you are regular reader of this newsletter, you are appreciated! Thanks for following my work, keeping in touch, and sending … Continued

If you really want to make progress, grow your company, preserve your free time, and build wealth and happiness for yourself and others, pay attention to the big decisions. In Greg McKeown’s book Essentialism, one graphic I really like illustrates how one big decision can … Continued

It turns out you can have your cake and eat it, too. In fact, you owe it to yourself! My clients prove that every day, when we improve their businesses and lives. After all, there is no point in being successful if you cannot enjoy … Continued

Do you know what a “five-tool baseball player” is? It’s someone with speed, arm strength, good fielding ability, and the ability to hit for both average and power. Put all those tools together and you have a player custom built for success. To succeed as … Continued

Most of my clients, who are successful owners of independent multi-unit restaurant companies, do not have an MBA. And they never even cut their teeth in the corporate world—they just opened a restaurant and it went from there. Many of them are unconventional leaders. I … Continued

As an owner of a successful multi-unit independent restaurant company it is important to understand what motivates you so you can be intentional in that regard as you develop your business. If you don’t know that, you could be working randomly — or, worse, against … Continued

Why are restaurateurs better to their guests than they are to themselves? If you know me well, you know that is the question I suggest you ask yourself every day. The great Debi Saltzberg recently interviewed me for her podcast, Just Forking Around, and we … Continued

G. “Jim” Hasslocher — my client, who was founder and chairman of Frontier Enterprises in San Antonio — passed away back in November, 2015. Known to all as “Mr. Jim,” he began his hospitality career in 1947. Today, Frontier Enterprises operates 24 restaurants (most of … Continued

On January 8, 2016 David Bowie released his 25th album, Blackstar, which debuted on the charts at number 1. Two days later, he died from a cancer that, it turned out, he had been fighting for a year and a half. Blackstar was literally his pre-planned farewell to … Continued

We have all seen the forecasts. They are all the same: In the coming years there will not be enough employees to staff our restaurants. The idea of an ample labor supply is as archaic as phones connected to the walls by wires, 13-column pads, … Continued

In this month’s QSR Magazine, I’m quoted in Kevin Hardy’s article — “For Restaurants, What’s Changed Under Trump?” — in which industry experts discuss what has changed for them during the Trump administration and how the upcoming midterm elections might affect them. With an election … Continued

Eric Cacciatore recently stopped by my house to record an episode of his incredible, segment-leading podcast “Restaurant Unstoppable.” He was on a cross-country mission to talk to interesting, informed, creative, and significant restaurant people from coast to coast, and he was here to record episode … Continued