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When you are a restaurant owner, it is all about hard work. You have to work long hours and also wear many hats, which can start taking a toll on the business. When you are exhausted and stressed out, you might start overlooking things that can affect the quality of food and service. This can sometimes feel like a thankless job, but when you are passionate and have the drive of making your dreams come true, you will find a way of balancing everything.
Below are tips from owner of the Curragh Irish Pub, Paul Leongas that can help in running your restaurant
Streamlining as much as possible
You don’t want the restaurant to feel like a factory, but there are some things you can learn from the factory floor. If you take a lot of pride in giving your customer made-to-order fresh dishes, there are things you can streamline to improve efficiency. This is even more important for those with smaller staff sizes. Developing systems that make things smoother and make sure the food and service are not affected. You should have a close look at the workflow and see where you can make changes.
Don’t lose focus of your endgame
You most likely started because you were passionate about food and giving customers an enjoyable dining experience. There are times when you can lose the endgame when you run the restaurant. If you notice that most of your time is being spent on putting out little fires throughout the day instead of having your focus on the quality of food, then it is a good idea to delegate more so you can focus on what you consider important.
Providing customers with good service
According to Paul Leongas, bad reviews are one of the worst things for a business, especially restaurants. You need to make sure you provide customers with quality food and services every day. When you get mixed or bad reviews, customers are going to think twice about coming there because they know what they can expect to get. It is normal to have a bad day once in a while, but it shouldn’t happen regularly. If something like this happens, the best approach is to apologize to the customer and find a way of making it up to them. If a problem keeps coming up, then find the root cause and deal with it once and for all. If you don’t fix the problem, you might start losing business as a result.
The little details matter too
You shouldn’t lose focus on your endgame, but it is also important to remember the little details too. Finances, bookkeeping, payroll, and banking are important parts of running a restaurant. Your food and service are what brings customer inside your restaurant, but these details are what will keep the restaurant running. They have to be handled well because they can mean doom for your business. How can you serve your customers with shrimp if you don’t have electricity because it was shut-off? You should make sure you handle these details while making sure the quality of food and service in the restaurant is great.
The customer is always right
There are times when it is difficult to get criticism and complaints, especially when you are a chef-owner. Your ego should not dictate how you treat customers. Listen to them and acknowledge what they are saying because that is how you are going to make their dining experience great. There is no restaurant to run if there are no customers coming through the door. Your customer needs to be your number priority, make sure you listen to what they want.
Building the right team
You need to have a team that shares the same goals and visions as you. It is impossible to make a restaurant great on your own. You have to hire a staff of skilled and hardworking people to help you out. It is not easy to find the right people, but if you put in the effort and time to choose the ones who share the same passion and vision as you, then you will succeed. You should work with people who are willing to learn.
Spending money to make money
When you invest in the restaurant business, you have to spend money to make money. You don’t go out and spend on all expensive things, but rather avoid skimping on quality. Make sure you et the best materials, food, and staff within your budget. The customer is going to know if you try passing off a poorer cut of meat or making do with fewer employees than needed. This can lead to losing customers because the food is not the quality they expect. You risk losing your employees because of the workload. Many will look for other workplaces where they don’t get treated like workhorses.
Having an emergency fund
Having an emergency fund is important when starting or running a business. This is most crucial in the first six months of opening. The emergency fund is going to give you peace of mind because you have money that can be used if something goes wrong. They will come in handy when your profits are lean or you need unexpected repairs. There are also times when prices of products increase without notice. There will be some low times, every restaurant goes through those. The best way of surviving the hard times is to have some money to use. This is going to keep the doors of the restaurant open until it gets back on track.
Reaching for the stars
You should always try to reach for the sky. Strive to do better always. If you dream of being a successful restaurant owner, then make sure you always try your best to improve. Work smarter, work harder, and don’t be afraid to try out new things that can help in improving the quality of food and services. You can build a strong brand by being innovative in the kitchen. When trying new things, make sure you don’t change things too much that you end up losing the customers who have been with you for all that time.
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