Restaurant Unit & Revenue Growth
Why You Miss the Biggest Hidden Opportunities in Your Restaurants
“Don’t bother to look over there; that’s all fine!”I’ve heard that from many clients who had brought me in to address specific issues.When I start roaming and nosing around their restaurants to find other opportunities to address, they try to shut me down – feeling … Continued
How to Conquer My 3 Stages of Restaurant Business Growth
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 from 5 … Continued
When Your Growth Plan Is Way Ahead of Your Restaurant’s Operating Capability
If it’s not going great now, why would you want more of not-great? My brother once asked me, “Has anyone ever opened a restaurant in Dallas they didn’t intend to be a prototype for expansion?” Well, yes, but he made his point. For many restaurateurs, … Continued
Top 2 Ways Smart Restaurant Operators Make Sure Growth Pays Off
A funny thing happened on the way to the maybe-going-to-be-a-recession: Our business stabilized. My clients focus on growth again, the smell of fresh paint and carpet glue is in the air and new staffs learn in training classes. With calm soft openings being as current … Continued
How to Build Back Guest Count in 2022 by Focusing on Uniqueness
For the best operators and smartest people, 2022 looks like a back-to-operating like a normal person year. Sure, the noise of the next variant, inflation, labor, and supply chain issues – still audible. But we have evolved in handling once-unusual and once-unthinkable scenarios. I tell … Continued
Success Depends on Recapturing Your Restaurant’s Guests, Not Your PPA
Stop looking at PPA. Start focusing on recovering the lost guest and guest count. If you know me well, you may be shocked that I would suggest you ever stop talking about PPA – even for one minute (or one shift). Right now, though, top operators realize … Continued
10-Point Checklist for Your New, Improved Restaurant Bonus Plan
As we put the restaurant crisis portion of the pandemic behind us, many operators are resuming bonus plans that lay dormant last year – when there was painfully little (or no) profit to share. But I see too many bonus plans out there that look … Continued
Nine Boxes to Check for Restaurant Post-Crisis Unit Growth
Growth is back on the menu. As we navigate the exit lane from the restaurant crisis portion of the pandemic, my clients – owners of successful multi-unit independent restaurant groups – re-focus on their next big move. Dining rooms are opening up, revenue is increasing, … Continued
How Top Restaurateurs Build Strong Futures with Second Generation Space
If everyone who calls me talking about taking advantage of second-generation restaurant space moves forward with their plans, I predict second-generation space will soon be in tight supply. Remember when there wasn’t any second-generation space? Not anymore. One of the tragic outcomes of this COVID-19 … Continued
Avoid the Biggest Mistake Restaurateurs Can Make Now
At some point every day, think about your cash position and borrowing ability. Imagine the letters C-A-S-H in red letters 12 feet high on your front lawn. I know you have a lot of things to think about (and do), like running your partitioned and … Continued
How To Understand the Three Different Restaurant Guests That Will Decide Your Future
The COVID-19 crisis has segmented your guests into three distinct groups, each with different needs, wants, feelings, and thoughts – but all needing three meals a day. It’s like your three kids turned out so different; at dinner every night, one talks about their fantastic … Continued
How Top Owners Channel Their Inner Salesperson to Create Great Restaurants
Today’s worker has less than zero interest in hearing what their boss wants them to do without context. Smart people sell their decision and ideas. If you don’t identify as a great salesperson but you want breakthrough results in your dining rooms, you must become a … Continued
Proven Method Makes Your Restaurant Team Embrace Change
A friend of mine told me she would enjoy moving every year. Wow! I had not heard that one before. But she abandoned that dream, realizing her kids need a stable home. I remembered this when my daughter asked me, “Is this our forever … Continued
Mistake-proof Your Restaurant’s Move to a New City
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 … Continued
Why Top Restaurateurs Focus on Making More at Their Best Locations
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. … Continued
Strategy Stops Random Restaurant Growth from Undermining You
So you’re not an Olympic gold medalist, a musician with 20 million streams, or a Pulitzer Prize winner? Still want to leave your mark? For successful owners of independent restaurant companies growth looks like something between a hobby and an obsession that they talk about … Continued
How Restaurateurs Stay Unstuck and Take Advantage of New Thinking
Most successful people are comfortable with at least some degree of uncertainty. They surround themselves with people who tell them things that, at first, may not even seem true. Other people, though—who have trouble keeping up with the market, the competition, and the changing desires … Continued
How Restaurants Protect Themselves from Competition by Demonstrating Value
What would happen if you asked a bunch of restaurateurs how they’d react if they consistently received feedback that menu prices were too high? First, you would see them shake their heads in frustration, roll their eyes in disbelief, and face-plant on their dining table … Continued
The Secret to Transforming Your Restaurant Company Without Increasing Your Workload
“Just how much of my time is this going to take?” the successful owner of an independent multi-unit restaurant group asked me when we started working together. This happens often when I am about to start work transforming a business. I could see the fear … Continued
Proven Methods to Protect Yourself from Gambling on Growth
My favorite time in the restaurant business is any period of growth. The future is exciting. Everything is possible. The smell of carpet glue and fresh paint is in the air. The chance to do it right from the beginning is intriguing and motivating. Common … Continued
Your Dining Room: Don’t Work it Like a Car Salesman
Recently I had the pleasure of buying a new car. I did not have a choice—mine got totaled. (We are fine, by the way. No injuries.) Having no idea what I wanted, that meant interacting with lot of car dealers and a lot of car … Continued
The Proven Value of Storytelling at the Restaurant Table
Everyone likes a good story. Storytelling is how we communicate and influence people. Storytelling goes one step further than what you are currently doing. – Do you want to order the fantastic, juicy steak? Or order the steak the owner specifically chose because of how … Continued
5 Laws of Raising Restaurant Revenue and Outstripping Industry Averages
One of the many beautiful things about owning a successful independent multi-unit restaurant company is that revenue is in your control—and it can always be going up. But many restaurateurs don’t act that way. They have become me frustrated with next year’s industry forecasts that say … Continued
Your Restaurant’s Guest Comps Aren’t High Enough
When you look at expenses on your P&L, you are typically making sure numbers are low enough. On the other hand, when you look at guest comp expense, you ought to make sure it is high enough. If it is not, you are under-utilizing one … Continued
Ignore Industry Statistics and Grow Your Restaurant Business
All the growth in the industry is spending growth through PPA. Guest counts are going down. My advice to you and to my clients — successful owners of independent multi-unit restaurant groups — is to be good to yourself and forget all that. Put it … Continued
Why Raising PPA is the Best Thing for Your Guests
One of my clients owns six restaurants, serving a combined million guests every year. Working together, we figured out how to raise their PPA by $1.00. That raised system-wide sales $1,000,000. And $650,000 dropped to the bottom line. Annually. My clients and I have done … Continued
Your Restaurant P&L’s Most Important Number is Missing
There is a line unaccounted for on your P&L. It is called “missed opportunity.” By sheer accident of the way our accounting system works, missed opportunity is a controllable expense your successful, independent multi-unit restaurant company does not account for. Potential revenue and profit is … Continued
Restaurateur’s Investment that Consistently Out Performs New Units Every Time
Building restaurants is sexy. It is fun. It represents all possibilities. It gets your employees and your customers excited. Oh yeah — and it gets you and investors excited, too. And, if you invest all your money into new units, you will end up making … Continued
How Creating a Culture of Trust Benefits Top Restaurateurs
To be truly successful, owners of multi-unit independent restaurant companies must feel free to leave the office and their restaurants — either for a vacation or simply for a day for some creative brainstorming time — without worrying. They need to know that the people … Continued
Why Restaurateurs Need Strategy and Laugh at Themselves When it is Missing
Not long ago I had lunch with a respected industry leader who is well known in his market for his career-long success in restaurant ownership over two different brands. Over that time, he has experienced more than his share of peaks and valleys. We were … Continued
Does Your Independent Restaurant Company Really Have Opportunity to Grow?
Opportunity allows you to have a chance to successfully grow the multi-unit independent restaurant company you own, building your net worth and the quality of your life. When your organization is surrounded by opportunity, an element of excitement about the future permeates your organization. The … Continued
Why Capability is the Door Opener to Successful Restaurants
Capability is the first key factor to having a business that allows you to maximize its value, your net worth, and the quality, flexibility, and enjoyment of your life. My research shows that when you add capability to the other key factors, opportunity and strategy … Continued
How Restaurateurs Use Transformational Questions to Grow Beyond Their Wildest Dreams
People often ask me to explain the many issues that face owners of successful multi-unit growing independent restaurant companies. If I had to distill all the conversations I have had with restaurateurs over the years down to one question, my choice would be obvious: “What … Continued
How Restaurateurs Get Incredible Results When They Stop Procrastinating and Start Improving
Now is always the right time to put together and start acting immediately on a great plan to increase revenue, profit, and the overall value of your successful multi-unit independent restaurant company. You know what would make a huge impact in your business, because it … Continued
Words Smart Restaurateurs Don’t Use to Describe Their Guests
“Butts in seats”. There are a lot of things we don’t say any more. We don’t say “waitress,” we don’t say “smoking or non-smoking,” and we certainly don’t say “cash register.” Nevertheless there are people out there who still say, “butts in seats,” as in, … Continued