…and want to, or already have opened up a restaurant, but are having problems navigating the landscape. Locally and culturally you don’t fully understand some of the rules, principles and personalities you need to operate with. We offer guidance to expatriates.

Owning a restaurant was your dream of yours for a long time. It’s what you’ve always wanted. You found the money. Your dream finally comes true, and it turns in to a nightmare. You discover that owning and running a restaurant is hard er than you ever thought.

Owners often ignore signs their restaurant is failing, or they make a variety of mistakes. And though these issues are common across the country, it seems like no one takes the proper steps to correct them.

Customer slips and falls, several people get sick after leaving the restaurant, an employee files a sexual harassment suit, you get fined by the liquor commission, you fail a health inspection. Chances are you don’t have the experience and resources in place to prevent or respond proactively. We’ll help you cover the basics.

In challenging times, usually the first impulse. Anyone can cut costs. It’s easy. There are repercussions. You lose control and limit your potential to grow the top line. Yes, you should always closely monitor your costs but allowing yourself to increase revenue is a smarter move. Don’t be lazy. Get more creative.

Managing your food costs is a time-consuming process, which makes it easy to ignore. Unfortunately, it accounts for 1/3 of your total spend – so if you don’t pay close attention, it can ruin your bottom line. Ignoring food costs is one of the biggest reasons restaurant’s fail. Take the time to count, figure your COGS , manage your operation. It’ll make all the difference.

Good restaurants are on it. Maybe you’re one of the few that actually calculates and monitors its Cost of Goods Sold. Good job! Why do it only once a month? If you truly want to monitor and manage well, you must calculate it weekly. With a week to week, it’s a way to pinpoint weaknesses or failures in your operation.

A detailed, weekly budget can make a world of difference for your food costs – and can keep you out of that restaurant failure rate statistic. It gives you and your staff a target to stay within, so you can modify orders and keep your costs in line. At your weekly team meeting (which you should be having), discuss your numbers from the previous week and set a budget based on them. It’s the way to smarter purchasing decisions.

Speaking of paying attention to your orders, tracking your costs can help ensure you’re getting the best deal on your ingredients. Ingredient prices are always going to increase, but that doesn’t mean you should be paying more than the other guy. Find a way to track your local and national average prices on your ingredients. Even if you just track your top 20 items monthly, it can have a huge impact on your food costs.

When you’re busy, it’s easy to get caught up and put your ordering on autopilot. Unfortunately, this leads to over-ordering, which costs your restaurant thousands. If you pay attention to what’s going in and out of your restaurant – and take the few minutes to zero in – you won’t end up watching your money fly out the door.

You’re constantly running out of ingredients during busy shifts. Or you’re ordering way too much and throw out tons of produce each week. It’s probably because you don’t have any set pars in place. An inventory par level is the normal amount of an ingredient you expect to have on your shelf at any given time. Set them on your ingredients – or even just on your 20 most-used ones – and you’ll be well on your way to reducing your food costs and upping your profits.

Inventory is every operators least-favorite task. However, when done right , it can have an enormous effect on your success. Taking an accurate weekly can keep you from being a statistic. Keep in mind that if you hate doing it, what makes you think anyone else wants to. Assign and train specific, detail-oriented employees, providing them with incentives, and you’ll see your numbers clearer while operating more efficiently.

Waste happens. Food is going to spoil, dishes are going to get dropped. However, what if a problem is reoccurring? Or maybe an employee has been stealing from you. Tracking waste is one of the most effective methods indicating if a restaurant is failing.

By not meeting with suppliers on a regular basis, costs getting out of hand quickly. A healthy relationship with your vendors is crucial to your success. When you take the time to actually sit down to meaningful conversations, you not only show them you’re on top of things, but you start to hold them accountable and costs in check.

You think you know what your customer wants. You really don’t. And you don’t really listen. Most times it’s ego and you know what you know. Keeping an open mind, asking the right questions, getting past yourself, truly listening to your guests. Do this on a daily basis. Touch each table and you’ll learn things from a different perspective.

You wouldn’t hire a sushi chef at your Italian restaurant. Same goes for the rest of the team. Find people that specialize in certain skills while accepting those with a simple thirst for the business. Everyone from your accountant to the chef should have this acumen. And yes, it’s easy to save by doing it yourself, and, it can technically work. But be honest. Things will get missed. Don’t skimp where it’s important. Hire the right people to be successful.

The restaurant industry has always had a big problem with retaining staff. A consultancy can help you figure out why the talent you hire isn’t staying for the long haul and even help you hire the right talent. We’ll even refer you to the right firms offering the best hiring, benefit and training services.

Human nature dictates that if you don’t have training and standards in place to enforce a clear culture, employees will be tempted.

75% of employees steal at least once, and half steal repeatedly (U.S. Chamber of Commerce); Employee theft is responsible for 75% of inventory shortages (NRA); QSRs lose up to 7% sales to internal theft (NRA); Employee theft equates to about $5 billion worth of product every single year (Orderly)

While it’s important for you to serve great food, business smarts are also essential. A strong lease can be the difference between success and failure. Compounded base rents can become unrealistic over just five years, so read and do the math first. Also, consider how long the term of the lease should be. A longer lease is often the smarter way to go, as long as the rent increases are stable.

Check out any clause that mentions “additional charges,” and really understand what they mean. Some common area maintenance fees are almost as high as the base rent and if the building needs a new roof or other maintenance, it’s likely a share of the costs will be passed onto the tenant.

When opening a restaurant, selling is the last thing you think about, but it’s an important detail. Before investing your life savings, think about how you’ll get out of the business, if the time comes. Some landlords will ask for a percentage of any premium you realize if you sell your business, and it’s important to be realistic about how drastically depreciation can hit.

Location, budget, management team, hiring, on-boarding, retention, training, inventory, costs, menu, customer access, marketing, sales, capital expenditures. These are just some of the things that are overlooked when the passion inside takes over wanting to open a restaurant. While your desire is admirable, use good business sense and crawl a little before you run. A consultant can help guide you smartly through the journey.

Your restaurant has a culture. Whatever that culture may be, you want to ensure everyone you hire is on the same page. They shouldn’t all be alike, but should align with your core values. However, you need to articulate those values and norms before you can ask people to align. Proper training and leadership is the key.

You’ve been open for a while and you still don’t have a proper training schedule in place. You just get couple employees to do it and hope for the best. But this lack of foresight means you don’t have your values reflected consistently. That’s also why you should have regular meetings for your entire staff, which will help you avoid the “inconsistencies”.

Food delivery for restaurants was due to rise before the pandemic. In 2019, the US food delivery market totaled $22 billion, and grew to $31 billion by 2023. Research the best way to get your food out there. The US catering industry has grown 2.3% per year on avg between 2015 and 2020, with it peaking at an estimated $13.4 billion in 2020.

Mix it up. Host special events – industry, mixers, or entertainment events, – and you could see traffic increase on a day or night that might otherwise be pretty dead.

“THERE PROBABLY ARE RESTAURANTS THAT COULD BE FULLY AUTOMATED. BUT I THINK IN GENERAL IN THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY, PEOPLE LIKE TO DEAL WITH OTHER PEOPLE.” —PAUL CHEN, BOTRISTA

You can conduct market research to see where your concept fits into the existing restaurant landscape. We’ll analyze the popularity and need for the items you serve, the type of concept you have, and the market fit for the price point you offer. We may offer insight on your competitors to help you better understand how your restaurant is performing compared to them.

After research or an audit, do an analysis of your findings – after all, data doesn’t mean anything without context and interpretation. You can determine what your restaurant is doing well and what needs to be improved.

We’ll prescribe game plans for how you can make changes to your restaurant to help the operation achieve its business goals.

Growing your business by adding more locations is a major decision and requires money. We can research where your concept could work best and optimize new locations.

Perhaps your restaurant is doing well downtown and you want to expand west. We could lend insight to whether it would be a feasible move. Think of how much money you could save by learning this before setting up shop!

Changing a concept, or just a simple remodel, can be daunting. We’ll advise on re-branding by researching your current concept against a new one to help you make a more informed decision and set you up for success. Expanding to meal delivery kits, catering or personal chef services for example, are areas you we can explore the viability of, and provide a strategy that will help your business grow carefully.

We’ll help your restaurant optimize efficiency and profits. We’ll audit your operations to see where the bleeding is occurring, then advise you on where to make necessary adjustments.

Our team was woven from within the food and beverage hospitality and retail industry from the ground up. Each of our team members bring a unique and extensive intuitiveness that we feel differentiates us. We are the only firm to provide specific perspectives on most facets of your operation, front and back. After all, why wouldn’t you want the best bang for your buck!

From recommendations to production, we’ll consult, guide and even coordinate the day of, to insure the day you’ve dreamed about goes exactly the way you’ve always envisioned it.

This is our team’s bread and butter. This is what we do for lunch. We’ll help you pull it off and still come within your budget!