Running a restaurant isn’t as easy or fun as it appears on the surface. It takes a lot of long hours and hard work in order to establish a restaurant that more or less runs itself. These long hours are absolutely essential if you want to stand out in a hyper-competitive industry.
Check out these following four suggestions to help you run your restaurant!
1. Put Special Effort Into Maintaining The “Boring” Stuff
If you go to any great restaurant, you’ll notice they all have the basics mastered. Taking your restaurant to the next level requires a firm foundation to expand from. You can build your foundation by making sure you have systems in place to handle tasks essential to your business.
It’s highly unlikely you have a passion for doing the bookkeeping and other annoying tasks the come with owning a restaurant. You need to get someone on your team to help you with this if you’re not willing to force yourself to do it on your own. If your skills are in the kitchen, it makes more sense to put effort into maintaining the food portion of the business and hire someone to help with the accounting.
2. Invest In Quality Cooking Equipment
Quality cooking equipment can help your restaurant stand out. Your team will be more efficient if they have the right tools for the job. Having the right equipment also costs you less in utilities. Investing in cooking equipment is an excellent way to empower your team to do their job at a high level.
In addition to buying quality cooking equipment, it’s also important to establish a regular maintenance program. Regular maintenance prolongs the lifespan of your cooking equipment which makes your investment worthwhile. Simple tasks such as wiping away grease from your burners and removing clogs from drain lines allow you to save money on your utilities. Regular maintenance is also essential in creating a safe environment for your customers and staff.
3. Take The Time To Build A Good Team
Running a business that relies on teamwork is never an easy task. Without a group of bartenders, servers, cooks, and busboys with the same level of commitment, you’ll have a restaurant that resembles an episode of Kitchen Nightmares instead of a positive dining experience.
Training your new employees essential to getting them on the same page as your senior staff. As long as newcomers to your team are willing to learn and help improve the restaurant, it’s worth the investment to train them. You have to watch out for the indifferent people who are only there for a check. It’ll take a while to find people who are motivated to work, but spending the time building a quality team is well worth it.
4. Try And Find Some Semblance Of Work-Life Balance
Believe it or not, your health is your number one asset. As a restaurant owner, you need to be present for your business to run at a high level. Getting your restaurant off the ground will require you to sacrifice your time and health a little, but making it a habit is where things get dangerous.
Running a restaurant is a high-stress job. You need to make having a healthy balance between work and relaxation in your life a priority. If you find most of your time is spent at work or sleeping, you need to make a lifestyle change. Remember, if you don’t have your health, you can’t work. Investing in your health is an indirect way of investing in your business.