How to Run a Restaurant

Do you want to know how to run a restaurant successfully? How to make money in the restaurant business? Watch this video (or keep reading) to learn how to run a restaurant. 

As an expert in the restaurant industry, I have seen it all when it comes to restaurants. I've spent almost 30 years working with restaurant owners and managers. I've seen people succeed incredibly, and I've seen people fail terribly. One of the critical pieces to running a restaurant successfully is understanding the importance of systems.  

Restaurant systems allow you to run your restaurant without being there. They allow you to impose your will.

My son's high school job was with Yum Brands - a Taco Bell. It was a great study in how systems make a restaurant work without an owner. With 14,000 Yum Brand locations across the country, those restaurants are run by managers who follow systems. And you know what? Every Taco Bell you walk into and order from gives you the same thing because they follow the systems.

The systems work because they offer a process for doing everything in the restaurant. The systems are trainable, teachable and allow you to hold your managers and employees accountable.

How do chains sometimes kick our butts as independents?

They are consistent: they set a standard and there is a system for every action in the restaurant. There is only one way to do something. That way if you lose an employee, they don't take the magic process with them. It's something that everyone follows and knows how to do. And consistent processes net consistent results.

You have trainable results: when there is a system, a process, a way, your way, and you train your team that way, you can train them to do it that way every time. Every manager knows the standard and the process and can hold employees accountable to those standards.

There is no such thing as common sense: there is no system too big or too small. Whether it's counting out a bar drawer the same way every time or analyzing dollars per labor hour worked, if you teach your managers your systems, they train employees to the systems and on and on. And while you're going to have turnover, your systems don't turnover. You don't lose the one person who has all the knowledge. That is all within your control.

So, you asked, how to run a restaurant successfully. The answer is to use systems!

If you would like to learn more about the importance of systems and how to run a restaurant, read our free special report, Is Your Food Distributor Screwing You? 5 Things You Can Do Now to Lower Food Cost. Download it here. Be sure to visit my YouTube channel for more helpful restaurant management video tips.