On New Year's Eve, How To Brag About 2025 Success

As restaurant entrepreneurs prepare to close out another challenging year in the competitive food service industry, this episode focuses on strategic planning and goal-setting for sustainable business growth in 2025. Matthew Mabel discusses essential restaurant management practices that successful multi-unit operators use to drive profit growth, increase guest counts, and build stronger brand loyalty. Learn how to position your restaurant business for measurable success through proven entrepreneurship strategies, operational excellence, and data-driven decision making. Whether you're managing a single location or multiple restaurant units, this episode provides actionable insights for restaurant owners looking to optimize their business performance and create lasting competitive advantages in the evolving food service landscape.

Key Topics Covered

• Strategic planning for restaurant business growth in 2025 • Setting measurable goals for profit optimization and sales growth • Building systems for sustainable restaurant operations • Developing leadership capabilities for multi-unit success • Creating accountability frameworks for restaurant teams

Links Mentioned

• Now is the Time To Re-Focus On Your Restaurant Menu: https://surrender.biz/now-is-the-time-to-re-focus-on-your-restaurant-menu/ • Restaurateur's Essential Guide to Developing Powerful General Managers: https://surrender.biz/restaurateurs-essential-guide-to-developing-powerful-general-managers/

Resources Mentioned

• Website: www.surrender.biz • Free initial consultation available

Connect with Matthew Mabel

Matthew works with owners of successful, independent, multi-unit restaurants to improve:

• Profit growth • Sales optimization • Guest count increase • Unit expansion • Employee engagement • Brand loyalty

How to Support the Show

• Subscribe to the Restaurant Success Podcast and Newsletter • Rate and review the show • Visit www.surrender.biz for additional resources

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to the Restaurant Success Podcast. I'm Matthew Mabel, veteran restaurant advisor, coach, consultant, and speaker devoted to multi-unit independent restaurant unit, profit and revenue growth, internal harmony and ownership freedom and flexibility.

This is your weekly entree of the advice, strategy and tactics that I currently provide to my best clients.

Today we're going to talk about something that's critical for every restaurant owner right now - how to position yourself for success in the second half of twenty twenty-five.

It's June already, and while that means summer challenges like keeping kids engaged beyond screens and the final push of Q2, it also means we have an incredible opportunity to make strategic adjustments that can turn this year into one that you'll brag about, come New Year's Eve.

We'll explore why midyear evaluations are so important, look at specific adjustments that my most successful clients are making right now, and discuss how you can still achieve remarkable results even if you're starting your planning process a bit later than usual.

You know, twenty twenty-five has thrown some real challenges the restaurant industry's way. Consumer confidence has been falling due to economic uncertainty, and that's making success harder to come by than in previous years.

But here's what I've noticed - the businesses that are set up for success are still doing well. It just requires a little extra effort compared to years past when the market did some of the heavy lifting for us.

If you're not at the top of your game right now, that's going to show up in your dining rooms, your kitchens, and most definitely in your financial statements.

Now's the time to make those crucial adjustments. With midyear coming up, my best clients are doing something really smart - they're pausing, evaluating where they are compared to their expectations, and making strategic adjustments to start the second half of the year on an upswing.

In the next few weeks before Q3 starts, I want you to sit down with your leadership team and soberly review the operations plan you had for the year. This means making real adjustments, and yes, that includes divorcing yourselves from ideas that turned out to be unworthy of your continued investment.

But what if your group never even created a detailed action plan at the beginning of the year?

Don't be ashamed about this - you can still make one for the second half of the year.

Actually, one of my new clients is going to do exactly this, and then they'll create a full annual plan for twenty twenty-six at the end of this year.

Let me share some real examples of what my clients are doing as they enter the second half of the year.

These adjustments are happening right now, and they're the kind of moves that separate successful operators from those who struggle.

Let me share some real examples of what my clients are doing as they enter the second half of the year. These adjustments are happening right now, and they're the kind of moves that separate successful operators from those who struggle.

I have one client who's realizing that their operations director just won't make it. They're beginning to search for someone who can actually boost profit and team member loyalty. 

Another client is observing that they could be doing much better promoting their chef and their fantastic food. They're retooling their marketing specifically to increase sales and showcase what makes them special.

One group is returning to their commitment to significantly upgrade their culinary program, along with supporting service training and marketing, all designed to attract new guests who haven't tried them yet.

I'm also working with an owner who's planning to promote a key leader so they can significantly reduce the time they spend on their business. This will allow them to spend more time at their second home - that's the kind of freedom successful restaurant ownership should provide.

We're teaching general managers to write their own agendas for their one-on-one meetings with their supervisors and to lead periodic financial statement review processes.

This grows their leadership skills and improves their individual units. And then there's a client who's reorganizing their entire accounting department, outsourcing where it makes sense, so rather than running an office, they can focus on running a restaurant company that truly focuses on guests and employees.

Here's the truth - you can still have a great twenty twenty-five by making the right adjustments now. The restaurant business never ends, but the calendar we work on allows us to plan, evaluate, and take stock of our achievements. You need to utilize that structure to get your act together in the second half of the year so twenty twenty-five can become a year you'll brag about come December thirty-first.

Speaking of the topics we've covered today, I've written a couple of articles that really connect to what we're discussing. The first one, called "Now is the Time To Re-Focus On Your Restaurant Menu," talks specifically about that culinary upgrade I mentioned.

In that piece, I share the story of a client whose sales nosedived by fifty percent after their grand opening because their menu was too trend-forward for their guests. 

The second article is the Restaurateur's Guide to Developing Powerful General Managers and it directly relates to those leadership development initiatives I talked about.

General managers are the most important people in your multi-unit operation, and in that article, I talk about the four essential ways to develop them - education, delegation, getting them out of their units to see the bigger industry picture, and providing ownership support.

You can find links to both of these articles in the show notes.

Let me tell you about how we might work together. I work with owners of successful, independent, multi-unit restaurants to grow their profit, sales, guest count, and unit count. My unique approach bonds employees and guests to restaurant brands and allows owners to enjoy the freedom and flexibility they have earned.

To schedule a call with me to discuss how to achieve your biggest goals, follow the link in the show notes. The initial consultation is complimentary, and we can discuss which big moves might be right for your operation.

Thanks for listening. If you haven't already subscribed to the Restaurant Success Podcast and Newsletter podcast, please do so, and rate and review the show. Find more information in the show notes at Restaurant Success Podcast dot com.

Also find tons of information you can use in print, audio and video form at my website, www dot surrender dot biz. Thanks again and see you next time.