If there is a certainty that a restaurant owner must face, it is that they will be exposed to a flow of continuous problems, being only interrupted every two to three months by a real crisis.

This is a fact of life and there is nothing that we can do about it… or is there?

As the owner of a small business, you must be mentally ready to confront the many problems and crises that you will face during your years at the helm of your restaurant.

All industries have problems, however, the main difference between a successful business and an unsuccessful one is how well the business owners can cope with the problems and crises that will arise (because they will, make no mistake about it).

To put things in perspective, you have to realize that problem solving and troubleshooting are staples of the small business owner’s mindset.

Although you can’t predict when something wrong will happen, there are steps that you can take to mitigate the stress - and cope with the situation.

First, let’s try to catalog the problems. Basically, they boil down to three categories: 1. Problems with work-related people 2. Problems with equipment or facilities 3. Personal Problems

Let’s look at each one of them in more detail:

1. Problems with work-related people

We can divide the problems with people in three new categories: A. Problems with Employees and Food Providers B. Problems with People who provide you with services (such as Lawyers, Accountants, etc.) C. Problems with Clients

Let’s now try to analyze each one of them in more depth:

A. Problems with Employees and Food Providers This category will would probably be one of the recurrent ones.

We’ve all being there. One of your waiters (or your chef or hostess) get sick precisely the day that you have a big party, and it is too late to replace them.

Your provider, who promised you to deliver the special food for that super-exclusive dinner that you were preparing for - for an entire week - is nowhere to be found. One thing after the other occurs.

A good way to deal with this problem is to always have a plan B.

When you create your schedule for your staff to work, have always at least one person on call in case something happens. Tell your staff that they won’t be called unless it is absolutely necessary, and that you will compensate them by giving them an extra bonus if they have to come to work.

Explain to them that this is not a "nice to have", this is a need and therefore non-negotiable. You can be flexible on the order (rotation) of on-call status. The people who are off have other commitments and other plans, but if they understand how important this is and they know that this will be on an exception basis and that they will get generously compensated, they will agree with the conditions.

It is also a good idea to have your staff cross-trained so that a waiter can be a replacement host or your host can replace a server if necessary.

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