60 percent of restaurants die within the first year. A shocking 80 percent don’t make it past their fifth.
Productivity is one of the biggest difficulties in the restaurant business. Not only are there spills, ingredient shortages, and limited space, but restaurant workers also have to deal with the barrage of info we get every waking hour from our phones.
To top it all off, rising wages and food costs make this industry a supremely hostile one for new restaurateurs. Here are three translated tips from Erika Silva, successful Spaniard gastro-marketer.
Avoid the Hallway Effect
This is when your customer, but especially your staff, are constantly running into each other between tables. Not only does it lead to accidents, it is simply an inefficient means of communicating. If your employees are coming to you in the halls to ask about time off, customer feedback, or supply chain issues, the entire business is suffering. These are issues that are important to recognize and address, but in an organized fashion.
Any communications that must be made within the team should happen during meetings and briefings, ideally, plans should be made in written form so they may be catalogued for later.
Distractions are a business killer
Remember to ask your employees to keep their cellphones away during work hours. Do not be afraid to be strict about this! Cellphones are a major distraction that can negatively affect your team’s productivity
Analyze Your Business
It can be challenging to know where to start. This simple practice will help you improve your business. All you need is a notebook and a pen.
What you do is start from the restaurant exterior area. Take note of the cleanliness, furniture maintenance, decoration status. Any issues should be noted and addressed in a scheduled meeting. Then you will proceed to the building façade. Notice the marketing communications (marcomms).
- Do you have a large, visible menu?
- Could it look better? Does your restaurant look open?
- If you have a happy hour, is this properly communicated to your audience?
Make note of any issues. Do you have available bar stools for happy hour? These should not be brought up with the nearest worker to you. You should set up a meeting with the person in charge and bring up the concern directly.
Any issues with these steps will signify an obstacle for your business that you may have to address before continuing.
When the moment comes that you wish to improve your restaurant, you may find yourself extremely overwhelmed. The problems might be clear, but what are the solutions? Don’t get overwhelmed. there will separate your restaurant operations into different duties. Otherwise, you might never grasp any concrete ways to start change.
As you go about these practices and then the issue of implementing your findings, you should keep one or two fixed goals in mind. Silva says that one of these should include some kind of online component and the other could be anything, but it is good to include speed objectives that measure how much output your team can handle.
Focus on Training
When you create your training guide, you should bear design in mind. Keep your priorities in order and communicate this as such. Make sure your staff know what they are supposed to do. Sometimes this is not made obvious enough. If everything is going as it should, your staff, especially the kitchen staff, should not ever be doing nothing.
Next you will analyze your employees. If everything is correct, your employees should be following their training perfectly. Whatever this training looks like, it should be implemented in such a way as to give your locale a neat, professional feel.
Teach Your Team to Handle Intoxicated Patrons
Alcohol service can be highly profitable, but the bar is also a risky area. If your business includes alcohol service, you are obligated to plan for drunks (duh).
Liability is a serious issue that can cause you a major headache, including but not limited to lawsuits, fights, and physical damage to your restaurant.
Operating an alcohol service by the books can seem like an unnecessary expense, but it is not. Not even for small, new businesses.
Conclusion
Listen to your market. They often say exactly what you need to hear if only you pay attention. If you plan and execute these tips correctly the result will be a coherent plan you can use to succeed. Proceed with care and an open mind. You will vastly improve your chances of becoming a successful restaurant owner.
Photo by Shawn Ang on Unsplash
