The Restaurant Prosperity Formula

As a small business owner, one of the most difficult things to do is let someone in management go. Especially in an independent restaurant, these people can be like family to you and have put a lot of themselves into your business. But as you grow and adjust your expectations, some people just can’t grow in the job. Other times, they are just not a good culture fit. No matter the reason, concludin...

There is one question I am asked routinely by restaurant owners: Which POS system should I use in my restaurant? It’s an important question because your restaurant POS system is more than an expensive cash register. It’s full of data and reports you can use in your daily restaurant management activities. The problem is there are so many options on the market that it tends to get very overwhelming....

Are you allowing excuses to stall your restaurant’s growth? While excuses get in the way of a lot of our personal growth, they bleed into your business growth as well. If you’re always looking for a reason something can’t be done, you’re not going to find a solution. The first step is to recognize this could be the root of your frustration and stagnation. In this episode of my podcast, The Restaur...

As a restaurant coach I talk to a lot of restaurant owners each week and, unfortunately, a lot of them are only looking to me to validate all the people and circumstances in their lives that they think are making things harder for them. They have what is commonly referred to as a fixed mindset, always putting themselves in their own story as a victim. That fixed mindset is the root of their challe...

Let’s talk about the recession. Are you asking, “What recession?” The talking heads and our government officials are all saying we are in a state of high inflation, and we could go into recession soon. How bad a recession or how long or short lived, no one knows. While I am not an economist and am not qualified to make this statement, I am going to tell you we are in a recession. I’ve been through...

While I’m the first to tell you that the restaurant business is one of the hardest businesses out there, that doesn’t mean you have to suffer for it. Your quality of life matters, and you deserve to experience all that life has to offer inside and outside of your restaurant. So how do you find the balance? A few weeks ago, on my weekly group coaching call with the members of my coaching group, I p...

The restaurant owners I work with every week are looking for transformation. They might be tired of working so many hours in the restaurant or frustrated by not being able to move the needle on things. Or they are missing out on life and want a better balance. Whatever their reason, the best part of my job is when a restaurant owner does the work and transforms their restaurant and life using the...

Inflation is hitting home for restaurant owners as the cost of food and other essential products have been on the rise for months. Across the industry, restaurant owners have been raising prices on the menu just to keep up with this record increase in costs. In fact, since the beginning of 2022, your food costs have risen at such a fast pace that if you haven’t made changes to your menu by now, yo...

A common question I get from restaurant owners is, “Why is my actual food cost so high and why is it so much more than my ideal food cost?” The second part of that question is what to do if your actual food cost is running much higher than your ideal food cost. These are age-old questions in the restaurant industry and a puzzle to be worked out so every week you have a higher chance of making mone...

I’m out of my comfort zone and talking about increasing restaurant sales by $250,000 a year without marketing. While increasing sales is usually thought to be a good thing, for a lot of restaurant owners, higher sales are usually a race to outpace bad operational practices. But if you know your breakeven point and can get your expenses to line up just right, you can take real advantage of every ex...

I don't need to tell you that running a restaurant has always been full of challenges. You’re living it. Right now you’re dealing with costs increasing at a record pace and a real labor shortage. You already know you can't keep doing what you've always been doing. Something must change. In this episode of The Restaurant Prosperity Formula podcast, I’m asking you one question: are you really willin...

Restaurant owners often turn to marketing as the solution to their biggest challenges, not realizing that a lot of times their marketing is creating more challenges. Since my expertise is on restaurant operations and coaching restaurant owners how to become the leaders their restaurants need, I like to talk to other restaurant marketing experts to pick their brains and find new ideas. That brings...

Fear is an extremely powerful thing. It is the kryptonite to any entrepreneur, ultimately stopping you dead in your tracks. In the last two years, many restaurant owners have succumbed to fear because persisting through the unknown was too overwhelming. In this episode of The Restaurant Prosperity Formula podcast, I talk about the seven sources of fear, the impact it can have on a business and how...

In my almost 20 years of being a restaurant coach, I have learned what a restaurant owner's most important challenges are, how to fix them and how to help them change their businesses so they’re living their best lives. How do I do it? Restaurant owners – you – have all the power. I simply teach you what needs to be done and then coach you along the way. In this episode of The Restaurant Pros...

As a restaurant owner, your success hinges on you having a management team in place that knows what their job is, how to do it, how well it should be done and, most importantly, by when. This requires you to lead your management team, cultivate, coach and correct your management team, and hold them accountable. In this episode of The Restaurant Prosperity Formula, I’m going to teach you what it ta...

As a restaurant owner you experience the highs and lows of the business on a routine basis, while wearing all the hats of the business. Think about it… when hasn’t there been some sort of crisis in our industry where you’ve had to find solutions for all the different areas of your business? What if I told you your biggest challenge is really where you spend your mental energy and time. And how you...

Sometimes it feels like it’s getting harder and harder to make money in the restaurant industry as an independent restaurant. Well, that's because it is. You’re dealing with rising food and beverage costs, increased labor costs, a labor shortage, costs forced on you by third-party delivery services and so much more. That’s the reality of the restaurant industry. But with the right approach, you ca...

While the last couple of years have made it difficult to focus on developing a great employee training system in your restaurant, I want to spend this episode diving into why training is so important to the success of your business. To do that, I’ve invited Joe Erickson to be my guest for this this episode of Restaurant Prosperity Formula . Joe is the chief operations officer and a partner at Rest...

All too often restaurant owners operate their businesses on an island. While there is a whole world out there of innovation, best practices and support, restaurant owners often find themselves feeling alone, isolated and the only one who suffers from the constant challenges. That’s the life of a typical restaurant owner. However, when restaurant owners learn how to build and trust a management tea...

The U.S. and most of the world are experiencing a major labor shortage, making restaurant owners operate in fear mode, constantly worrying about restaurant staffing. In this episode of Restaurant Prosperity Formula, I’m talking with Ryan James, owner of Mother’s Cantina in Ocean City, Maryland, which includes two full-service TexMex restaurant locations, a commissary kitchen, a Shopify store and a...

The restaurant industry is known for being stressful and people who work in it tend to thrive in the fast-paced, adrenaline-fueled environment. It’s also known for being an industry where people turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms such as self-medication with alcohol, drugs, etc. It’s only grown worse since 2020 with the increased pressure on the industry to continue to serve in a global pandemic...

Restaurant technology can benefit your business in so many ways. Efficiency, accuracy, flow, consistency are all benefits of restaurant technology. But what kinds of technology tools are worth the investment? In this episode of Restaurant Prosperity Formula, I’m talking with Jeremy Julian, host and producer of “The Restaurant Technology Guys” podcast and blog, and the COO of Custom Business Soluti...

I don’t need to tell you about the labor crisis in the restaurant and hospitality industry. You’re living it day in and day out, running short-staffed or running with less-than-ideal employees. In fact, Restaurant Business reported in an article entitled “Restaurant Workers are Quitting at Historically High Rates” that nearly 7% of the nation’s restaurant and hotel workers quit their jobs in Augus...

Get ready to be inspired! In this episode of The Restaurant Prosperity Formula, my guest is someone you’ve heard from before. I interviewed her in November 2020. Her story was pretty inspiring then, but almost a year later it’s even more so. Emmy Barnick, owner of The Captain’s Cabin in Washburn, ND, made incredible changes to her business in the height of the pandemic. In this “where are they now...

When building a new restaurant what should you look for in a builder? What are builders doing to prepare restaurants for the future? What can a builder of mostly chain and franchise restaurants teach the independent operator? For this episode of The Restaurant Prosperity Formula , my guest is Anthony Amunategui, founder of CDO Group, an industry leader in providing a full range of outsourced const...