To be a pro in restaurant management now, you need to have knowledge of marketing, accounting, economics and finance, people management, personality psychology and other disciplines already “yesterday”. It is impossible to describe all the details of this profession in one article, so I will only give you five rules, which are worth knowing and applying, otherwise you could lose the whole business.

When the fate of the entire business that you have created or that you are currently managing is at stake, you start to think and act more actively. This is where the saying “rot the fish out of the head” is most appropriate, because careless and uneducated managers ruin already established projects or are unable to untwist potentially worthy ones.

Restaurateurs often wonder, “Why do I have problems with my business?” but are always looking for someone to blame on the side – that the wrong guests go to a competitor, or employees are spoiled, leak all the time or just can’t find them… But rarely can a restaurateur dig inside himself or look at himself and see that the cause of all his problems is himself, his incompetence, superficiality, dryness, weak creativity and narrow-minded economic approach. So, let’s look at the main mistakes of restaurateurs and the rules for eliminating them.

Five rules of restaurant management, which more often than not are not implemented and lead to the loss of business.

Rule #1. Provide physical comfort!

The guest should feel comfortable in your restaurant. Sitting, standing, breathing, being, living. He should not have to deal with the cold, then the heat, then the light “right in his eyes”, then such darkness that it is impossible to even eat. The stuffiness, the smoke, the uncomfortable furniture do not contribute to the banal physical comfort for the guest.

Every time I sit down in an uncomfortable chair, I think, “Why does this restaurateur want to subject me to the misery of a visit to his establishment?” The answer is self-evident: he doesn’t understand what hospitality is, or (oh horror!) he’s committed to the belief that this will increase seating turnover, and therefore the revenue and profits of the establishment. If there are still such “smart guys” in the restaurant business, I pity them. There are many living examples of the loss of business by such woe-experimentalists.

Conclusion: do not play down the importance of physical discomfort! A guest cannot rejoice and feel happy when his body suffers. On the contrary, he will be irritated, and the source of his dissatisfaction will consider it your restaurant.

Rule #2. Be “with a twist”!

Often, when asked what the main idea of the business, the highlight or the so-called competitive advantage, restaurateurs answer the same thing: “Great food and excellent service. And only then, when you specify: “Agree, that’s the answer every restaurateur, because this is the foundation of this business! And what makes you different?” – it turns out that the managers have nothing to say. And this is sad, because to have your face, features, “chip” is important not only to man! To be definite and specific is just as important as the restaurant.

Operators do not understand that the emotional atmosphere and its manifestations should be expressed in concrete actions. For this reason, guests do not form an attachment to the place and are not willing to see it as “theirs.” And managers are happy to “play” with discounts and price reductions, not realizing that it’s not about price at all. Reducing prices, you just lose money and guests.

Conclusion: take care to find your own zest! In such restaurants, which do not have their own face, in my experience, neither the basic tasks are not fulfilled (that is just delicious food and excellent service), nor, of course, there is no zest, and no emotional atmosphere is formed.

Rule #3. Become a true leader for your employees!

“One man is not a warrior in the field” is not just a saying, but a reality. It’s impossible for one person, even the most brilliant one, to work a shift in a restaurant! Unless, of course, it’s a small “one-actor” project.

Our employees often work at high speeds, under harsh physical conditions and for absolutely no pay. This is why managers, chefs and managers are forced to learn and become someone who can not dryly hand out tasks, but inspire the staff to accomplish small feats every day.

If you’re frustrated but have to go out to the guests because you’re a waiter, you can’t show sadness. If you’re not happy, in anger, you have to deal with it before work, because you’re a chef, and you can just cut off a finger or something in a scuffle. But often an employee can not cope with such a state of mind on their own, so the leader should inspire, support, cheer and aim at the result. If this is not the case, then it is obvious that employees can not stay in such a complex area, such as the restaurant business.

This is where the roots of turnover and theft lie. You shouldn’t be surprised, because it’s all about who “runs” the restaurant. If it is a person who is joyful and pleasant to be around, who fills and inspires, then the employee will hold on to the job.

Any waiter, in order to become more experienced, must at least once fall in the hall or drop a tray. That’s how, through failure, we become stronger and more professional. And at such moments, there should be a manager who will support you and help you with right advice, not criticize or insult you, than lower your self-esteem and instill fear to make a mistake. Here it is, the inspiration model in action!

Conclusion: be a leader and an inspiration! In order for lounge staff to provide genuinely warm and caring service, know how to do it with dignity, and not be obsequious or serve in intense tension, managers must be able to inspire staff, instill faith in themselves and their abilities, and wean them from fear of making a mistake.

Rule #4. Know the professional details of all areas of the restaurant!

Take the words of Henri de Gius, who believed, “The only competitive advantage now is the ability to learn faster than anyone else.” Our weakness is that we are massively undereducated, and we are also driven by the system into rigid frameworks that limit our creativity. And it doesn’t help that we’re bright restaurant managers, because they’re the ones who need to be pros and creative!

Where else would you find so much creativity than in management work? But we often reinvent the wheel or just don’t understand how to solve what has long been the norm for managers from abroad.

Know how to be critical of your level of competence, all the time find areas for development and learn. Know how to choose the right teachers, books, trainings. Remember that the teacher comes when the student is ready!

If you attend forums and conferences to gain knowledge, it’s a waste of time. The fact is that it is impossible to tell about the restaurant management in an article for two pages (even in my two books on the subject I never managed to reveal all the subtleties!), and for an hour or two at a seminar or master class you can not learn anything!

Look for trainings, courses – get a deep, systemic education. I support the fact that as many restaurant managers as possible become masters of business administration (MBA). You can’t teach an adult, you can only learn.

Bottom line: study, be proactive, and you will succeed! Learn not only to manage your business and create, but also to give your employees something to pass on. After all, a manager is a mentor first! You should also learn to check in with your subordinates and supervise the business in depth and detail, if necessary. It’s time to grow out of the status of a manager who has nothing to tell his or her colleagues and is easily misled!

Rule #5. Get into the economics of the restaurant!

Economic literacy, understanding the rules of accounting – both production and financial – is extremely important for restaurant managers.

Often I meet managers who don’t understand the accounting system, don’t see the situation as a whole, and aren’t prepared to lay the foundation of accounting policies for their business. Technologists and accountants rule in such restaurants.

But I also see a lot of mistakes: grouped names in the name of the goods, ingredients not included in the recipe, unauthorized and unconfirmed “primary” transfers between internal accounting warehouses. In such companies, management accounting may be absent or may be similar to cash flow accounting, which does not show the real profit of the company.

Also typical are “look in the book and see nothing,” that is, economic illiteracy. In such cases managers cannot identify problem areas, do not understand the reasons why they have arisen, and, therefore, do not know how to solve them. Therefore, before analyzing data, you need to outline the key parameters of the goal: what tasks you want to solve in the restaurant, what problems you are working on now, what questions you want to find answers to, and what concerns you have.

There is the type of restaurateurs who do analysis for the sake of analysis, in the image and likeness of those they were taught in the training. Or the other type, those who look at so many forms, tables, and details that they want to say, “Stop analyzing, stop, concentrate on the problem, and it will help highlight what to subject to detailed parsing!

Conclusion: designate a goal when you work with numbers! Analysis for analysis’s sake is “prodigal.” Numbers should help solve a problem, not be an end in themselves or just a statistic of your activity.