Restaurant Owners face Problems and Crisis

BusinessManagement

  • Author Jose Riesco
  • Published May 7, 2008
  • Word count 2,184

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.

Same thing in the kitchen: Your cooks should be able to cook any of the dishes even if the chef is sick or taking a well-deserved vacation.

If you have read Module 1 from my Seminar, you already understand how important is to have great staff, and why it is totally worth it to surround yourself with the best staff that you can find. If necessary, re-read the module – and make sure you do the homework!

Regarding the providers: Make sure that you get everything that you need for your meals way in advance so that you have time to plan if something doesn’t get delivered on time or arrives in bad condition. Don’t wait until the last minute for any shipment, even if the providers promise you that it will get there.

If, for whatever reason, you must wait for the delivery, make them sign a contract (it doesn’t have to be very long or formal, one sheet with some clauses will be enough) so that if they don’t deliver the goods on time, you have the right to obtain missing products from another source, and also the right to decline the products if they are delivered late.

They should also compensate you for the difference in price. I think that this is fair and they shouldn’t refuse to sign it.

B. Problems with People who provide you with Services.

This one is more a hassle than a real problem (at least if it is your lawyer lying to you, or your accountant messing up your books, etc. But that is beyond this newsletter to fix).

If you are not happy with the services that you are getting from your services providers (either they don’t deliver good quality work or they are rude, often unavailable, etc.), simply change to another provider.

Live is too short to deal with less than excellent professionals and the world is full of good ones. Try to get referrals before you commit to one of them.

C. Problems with Clients

I cover in the first three modules of the seminar how you need to put clients as your priority number one. For those of you who have subscribed to the Seminar, I encourage you to re-read these three first Modules.

For the ones who haven’t subscribed yet, I will give you a brief overview.

Basically, you need to fall in love with your clients and try to make their experience in your place as pleasant as possible. They are the ones who - at the end of the day - give you the money to keep your business alive, and should be your first priority.

A disgruntled client is bad business, and they will tell others about their (bad) experience in your place (including thousands of readers in forums and restaurant review web sites) so do your best to compensate their unhappiness and make them feel good again.

However, there are some cases (few - very few) where you are better off without a troublesome customer. In this case, be firm and invite them to leave your premises. Never confront them directly and don’t hesitate to call the police if they become violent. This should never be a tolerated behavior.

  1. Problems with Equipment and/or Facilities

Things break. This is a fact of life. And it always seem to happen when you least expect it (well, we never expect things to break, do we?) or we need them the most (again, we always need the things that we use, right?).

However, there are some things that you can do to prevent/mitigate these kinds of problems:

A. Perform routine maintenance of all your equipment.

Although you will spend some extra money, it is totally worth it if this saves you grief and expensive emergency repairs.

There are companies that specialize in maintaining and servicing your equipment and appliances on an ongoing basis.

You can get an annual contract with them with scheduled visits to check all the equipment, change filters, lubricate the moving parts, etc.

Think about this as insurance for your well-being.

B. Keep in your place a handy list with phone numbers of all the companies and professionals that can help you whenever something fails in your place.

If you don’t have the maintenance contract, something will break or malfunction, and your stress level will rise quickly when you can’t find the phone number of the company or professional that can fix or repair your equipment.

It is a good idea to keep a folder containing the warranties of all the new equipment that you buy, in this way, if something is still under warranty, you will get it fixed for free (or just for the price of the parts).

Whenever you buy something new from a distributor, ask them also who services and repairs the equipment it if it breaks and it’s not covered by the warranty anymore. Take note of the person or place and write it down in your contact list. Also write down the warranty expiration date, so that you know if it is still covered or not.

Include in your list the names and phone numbers of other professionals that can be handy whenever something goes wrong. Make sure that you keep copies of this list (things get lost) at your home, and post a copy in a place where everybody can see it.

Don’t forget to tell all your employees where you keep the list. Not only they will be able to quickly find and contact the necessary repair person, but you will also ensure that they call the people that you want instead of looking blindly through the Yellow Pages.

These are some categories of professionals and their phone numbers that you could start compiling in your handy list. This list is limited (you’ll have specific needs to cover depending of what kind of restaurant and appliances you have), but you’ll get the idea:

• Dish Washer

• Refrigerator

• Stoves

• Ovens

• Coffee Machines

• Fryers and other kitchen appliances

• Electrician

• Plumber

• Heating and Air Conditioning Maintenance and Repair

• Locksmith

• Taxi Service

• Linen Service

• Food Providers

• Drinks Providers

• Landlord

• Handyman (for minor repairs)

• Grease disposal

• Linen Company

• Phone equipment

• Fax

• Computer

• Point of Sale or terminal

• Software support

• Miscellaneous

  1. Personal Problems

These are the most difficult to deal with, since emotions always run high when problems involve our own personal issues. We are all human beings with families, relationships, etc. so personal problems are unavoidable.

Restaurants are stressful environments because we have to deal with so many variables: providers, staff, clients, services, financial issues, bookkeeping, insurance, marketing, sales, food, drinks, etc.

On top of that, schedules are often intensive with late hour shifts for dinners and drinks (especially if you have a full bar) and always busy weekends when other families can have quality time with their loved ones.

This busy life often takes its toll on the restaurant professionals and their families.

Although it is difficult to balance your business with your family’s schedule (unless you are single or your spouse also works in the industry), there are things that you can do to mitigate this problem.

First, we need to go back to your employees. You need to surround yourself with top-notch people. You also need to have a manager that you can totally trust so that you can delegate some of your tasks. If your place is too small to have a dedicated manager, train one of your servers to perform some of your duties. Pick a motivated, ambitious and especially honest person and spend time with him/her.

Train them to the best of your abilities without withholding information. Many restaurant owners are wary and afraid to share their knowledge, thinking that their employees are just waiting for the moment to quit and open their own place.

Perhaps this is true, but the burden that you will unload and the loyalty that you will create with them will totally outshine the possibility of another competitor.

Also make sure that you compensate them generously for the extra responsibilities. I see often in this industry, owners giving their people extra work and responsibilities in exchange for nothing. This won’t work.

After you have trained somebody to keep the business running, assign yourself at least two off days a week (you can pick Sundays and Mondays that are normally slower than the rest).

Your manager should be able to cover for you.

Once you trust that your manager can do the work, take bolder steps: take some vacation time, go away with your family for a week at a time while your place keeps on running on autopilot.

Again, by changing your focus from your business and place to your clients and employees (as I explained in my Restaurant Marketing Strategies Seminar), you should be able to excel in all aspects and have much more relaxed and happy personal life.

So there you have it. Are you going to avoid problems by following these steps?

No, you won’t - that would be impossible. But I can assure you that you can mitigate quite considerably many of them by having a plan that you and your employees know and follow.

It’s like being in the armed forces. The more trained that the soldiers are to respond under fire, the more ready they are whenever a critical situation arises.

I hope that you found this newsletter useful. Please feel free to email me at jose@RiescoConsulting.com if you have feedback about this letter, or ideas, suggestions, etc. for a next issue.

Also, don’t forget to visit my website www.myrestaurantmarketing.com to get free downloads, read my blog, check the forums, etc.

You can also subscribe to my newsletter so that you’ll receive it in your inbox every month.

Thank you for your time and attention,

Jose L Riesco

Jose L Riesco worked at Microsoft for 18 years.

He owned an Italian restaurant in Bellevue, WA (he sold it now) and started some other business.

By applying his many years of experience at Microsoft and his marketing skills to the Restaurant business, he has created a unique and groundbreaking Seminar for restaurant owners.

You can contact him at jose@riescoconsulting.com or find more about his Restaurant Marketing Strategies Seminar by visiting his web site at www.myrestaurantmarketing.com

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