A friend of mine once asked, “I recently hired a restaurant consultant. What else can I get him to teach me other than how to manage my business?” I raised the coffee to my lips and gave it some thought. Then I said, “The second most important thing you could get a consultant to teach [...]
Last night you caught one of your waiters take a sip of iced tea from the bar. It was a busy night. The tables were full, and you thought you’d let him off the hook just this once. You call it shrinkage. The waiter calls it “It’s just iced tea, and it was just a [...]
2009 has come and gone. Some restaurant operators are still reeling from its effects, but most are already looking forward to a hopeful new year. It’s human nature to look on the good side. restaurant owners should be the same. But change doesn’t take place without action. If you want a brighter year for your [...]
Anyone who has a little money and a dream can open a new restaurant. But the question is whether you can sustain it – do you have the technical skills and expertise to run a restaurant business? You’re in big trouble if you don’t. In the long run you might end up losing more money [...]
It’s the first month of the new year and you’ve just opened your dream restaurant. Take note, your dream restaurant. So as much as possible you want everything to work out smoothly, from the in-house operations to advertising. I can help you on the latter. There are a few essential steps you can take, as [...]
The New Year is almost here. I can smell sweet ham cooking in the kitchen, and at the same time I’m writing down the ways I figured to make 2010 the most profitable year for your restaurant. But let’s get one thing straight. Looking forward to a prospective new year doesn’t mean you won’t learn [...]
It’s fair to say that advertising can make or break a restaurant business. The purpose of restaurant advertising is to inform, but it goes both ways – the restaurant owner should also be well informed about the advertising options available to him or her. Let’s look at the different advertising mediums and compare their pros [...]
I know some people who’d started their restaurant business without taking the services of an outside consultant. They said they wanted to save the money that would otherwise go to the consultant, or else use it to buy an additional table or a coat rack. A couple months later, the business fell apart like a [...]
I had a good talk with a friend the other day about his restaurant business. Like most restaurant owners trying to crawl past the recession, he was having some problems, and he had hired a couple of consultants to help him get to the bottom of things. This is what he had to say. “You [...]
There is a big difference between talking and walking it. It’s easy to know anything about everything these days, even if it is about establishing a restaurant business and marketing it. But let’s not forget the most essential part restaurant marketing – experience. Simply knowing this and that thing isn’t going to make everything work [...]