Owning Your Restaurant. How Does Massive Success Happen Now?

In this episode of the Restaurant Success Podcast, veteran restaurant advisor Matthew Mabel tackles the critical challenge facing restaurant entrepreneurs today: achieving massive success in an increasingly flat market. With industry forecasts being downgraded for the second consecutive year, Matthew explores how restaurant business owners must adapt their strategies to thrive when traditional market growth is no longer guaranteed. He discusses the fundamental shift from relying on market expansion to creating compelling guest experiences and operational excellence. Drawing insights from successful restaurant chains like Chili's, which achieved 23.7% same-store sales growth, Matthew provides actionable strategies for independent multi-unit restaurant owners to focus on guest count, enhance their brand positioning, and build sustainable business growth. This episode is essential listening for restaurant entrepreneurs seeking to transform their operations and achieve entrepreneurship success in today's challenging restaurant industry landscape.

Key Topics Covered

• Industry forecast downgrades and unprecedented market challenges for restaurant businesses
• The fundamental shift from market-driven growth to experience-driven success in the restaurant industry
• How veteran restaurant operators are adapting to a flat market environment
• Guest experience optimization strategies for restaurant entrepreneurs
• The importance of guest count as the most critical restaurant business metric
• Case study: Chili's transformation and 23.7% same-store sales growth through strategic investments
• Operational excellence and marketing alignment for restaurant success
• Strategic improvements and game-changing investments for independent restaurants
• Building compelling reasons for guests to choose your restaurant brand
• Employee engagement strategies that support business growth

Links Mentioned

• https://surrender.biz/how-to-take-action-and-power-to-boost-guest-count/ - How to Take Action and Power to Boost Guest Count
• https://surrender.biz/success-club/ - The Restaurant Owners Success Club

Resources Mentioned

• Website: www.surrender.biz
• Free initial consultation available
• Restaurant Owners Success Club - exclusive members' club for multi-unit restaurant owners

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 hitting close to home for a lot of restaurant owners right now - how to achieve massive success in what feels like an increasingly challenging market.

We're going to explore what it means when industry forecasts keep getting downgraded, how veteran operators are adapting to a fundamentally different landscape than what we've known for decades, and most importantly, how you can position yourself to win even when the overall market feels flat.

We're seeing another mid-year downgrade on industry forecasts for the year. That this is happening for the second year in a row is unprecedented. We've never had to go enthusiastically into two straight years and then look in the mirror as an industry mid-year and say, "It's not happening the way we expected."

At the Texas Restaurant Show last month, I spoke on the subject of how to grow now in a flat market. Toward the end of my talk, a hand went up in the standing-room-only crowd. "You keep saying the market looks flat," pointed out the restaurateur. He looked youngish, but maybe he was just more new to the industry than young. "When has the market not been flat?"

I smiled and told him, "Just about my whole career, the market grew, except for periodic downturns - and now." I realized that some restaurant owners who have joined us in the past few years have not had to make the shift the rest of us have. For so much of veterans' careers, the restaurant business involved harnessing growth in the best way possible, knowing the market did some of your work for you.

Your job used to be providing a guest experience and place to work that appealed to enough people to make a profit and justify your investment. Not anymore.

In the past few years, all of our gains as an industry have come through menu price-increases - not through serving more guests. We have all had to adapt to doing the work the market used to do for us, and that adaptation will serve us for the rest of our careers.

So let's talk about how you win now. What I tell my clients and my Restaurant Owners Success Club members: Even in a flat market, someone wins, and it may as well be you.

You need to focus on guest experience - what makes your restaurants special and keeps you relevant?

Give people compelling reasons to choose your restaurant, and give your people compelling reasons to work there. And don't be afraid to go big. I see too many restaurant owners scared to test major improvements to their restaurants - the kind of improvements that can be game changers for them.

Let me give you a perfect example: Chili's. 

At Chilli's, same-store sales this year are clocking in twenty-three point seven percent higher than last year and they credit investment in upgrading food, operations, facilities, and marketing for the transformation of their brand.

Kevin Hochman, President and CEO of Chili's parent Brinker International, says, "Marketing brings them in - operations keep them coming back."

Now I know you may be laughing to yourself, saying, "Whoa, I'm NOT Chili's, and I don't want to BE Chili's." 

But whatever you think of Chili's, don't let that opinion trample all over the lesson they teach all of us in a flat market!

Before we wrap up today, I want to mention a couple of articles I've written that really connect to what we've been talking about. The first one focuses specifically on guest experience and is called "How to Take Action and Power to Boost Guest Count."

In that piece, I talk about the most important number for your restaurants - the one to look at every shift, day, week, and accounting period - and it's not even on your P&L.  That number is guest count.

This ties directly into what we've discussed today about focusing on guest experience and giving people compelling reasons to choose your restaurant.

I also want to point you toward information about the Restaurant Owners Success Club. This exclusive members' club is where multi-unit restaurant owners gather, get real-time advice from me, share information, and solve their key problems to improve both their business and their lifestyle. It's exactly what we've been talking about today - not going it alone in this challenging market, but surrounding yourself with other high-performing restaurateurs who understand the unique challenges we're all facing right now.

You can find a link to join the club in the show notes, plus a link to that other article that I mentioned.

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.