In the last installment, I compared the restaurant manufacturing operation with real estate. In this installment, we’ll look at a restaurant as a sales organization. While the back of the house (the kitchen) is all about manufacturing, the front of the house (the dining room) is all about sales. Meeting customers, setting expectations and exceeding them, and attention to detail are crucial elements in any sales organization. A restaurant is no exception. Everything is important — from the elegant music, to the dress code of the staff, to the words in your script, to the carefully choreographed service. That’s why our company has carefully selected background music, decor, and office location to help create the right environment to facilitate transactions. Continue Reading…
Posted 1 year, 11 months ago at 3:31 pm. Add a comment
So I closed the restaurant after a year. We had grown sales about 20% over the year and were continuing to grow in sales and margin every month, while controlling costs and growing margin, but we were still another year from turning a profit. Because of the down turn in real estate, the pressures from my core business (real estate and real estate related technology) I felt I needed to really focus my attention on them. Continuing to subsidize a restaurant during the housing downturn would have brought our company’s cash reserves to dangerously low levels. So, I sucked it up, and made the tough decision to close. It was bittersweet. I enjoyed the restaurant. I enjoyed meeting the people. I enjoyed the staff. And I enjoyed the food and the wine. What did I learn? One thing I learned is that restaurants are really two businesses rolled into one. In other words, you can operate one part perfectly and still have a problem with the other. It’s a balancing act, but it’s a business. So what are these two parts or businesses? Continue Reading…
Posted 1 year, 12 months ago at 2:45 pm. Add a comment
Well, I finally did it. I decided to close my restaurant after a year of hard work, a lot of struggles, and even more soul searching. Over a hundred thousand dollars invested in trying to “turn around” a failed upscale eatery. And as I unwind the affairs of the restaurant, I must confess, it is a very bitter-sweet experience for me. I had to lay off nearly 20 good employees, walk away from a large capital investment, and more importantly, admit to myself that I am very capable of making bad decisions. Continue Reading…
Posted 2 years ago at 12:28 pm. Add a comment