How Creating a Culture of Trust Benefits Top Restaurateurs

In this episode of the Restaurant Success Podcast, veteran restaurant advisor Matthew Mabel reveals why mastering your financials is one of the most powerful levers for increasing restaurant profit. Whether you're running a growing multi-unit restaurant business or looking to scale your entrepreneurship journey, understanding your numbers is essential. Matthew walks through critical self-assessment questions every restaurant owner should ask, explains why many successful restaurant groups still operate with outdated financial systems, and shares the four biggest challenges he encounters even in multi-million dollar operations. If you're serious about restaurant business growth and want to add two points to your bottom line, this episode delivers the strategy and tactics you need.

Key Topics Covered

• Critical questions to assess your restaurant's financial tracking and reporting
• What separates modern restaurant operators from those stuck in the past
• The four challenges: Format, Literacy, Monthly Accounting, and Lack of Transparency
• Why switching to 13-period accounting cycles benefits independent restaurant groups
• The power of open book management and sharing financial information with your team
• How P&L literacy among managers drives profitability

Links Mentioned

• For Breakthrough Restaurant Performance in 2023, Share Information Your People Crave: https://surrender.biz/for-breakthrough-restaurant-performance-in-2023-share-information-your-people-crave/
• How Creating a Culture of Trust Benefits Top Restaurateurs: https://surrender.biz/how-creating-a-culture-of-trust-benefits-top-restaurateurs/

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 mastering your restaurant-financials. That might not sound glamorous, but I promise you it's one of the most powerful levers you have for increasing profit.

I'm going to walk you through some critical questions you need to be asking yourself, explain why so many restaurant groups are still operating with out-dated systems, and share the four biggest challenges I see even in successful multi-million dollar operations. 

I want to start by asking you some important questions. Have you set up your company properly to track financial success related to your management development efforts, the value of your guest experience, and your branding and cost management initiatives?

Do you share accurate-information freely, presented in a format and cycle that's common to the industry? 

Do the professionals you hire easily use your financial information, and does it help you understand how you compare to the competition?

Here's a big one: can your people read, understand, juxtapose, and present their P&Ls?

And do you ever see monthly numbers other than just the bills coming in?

And finally, does all of this allow you to increase profit by the two points my clients enjoy when they get serious about this stuff?

Next, let me talk about what separates modern operators from the ones who are stuck in the past.

When I ask my clients questions like "May I see the profit and loss", or even "How many of your managers understand your P&L", if they give me weak evidence, I immediately pivot to addressing these issues.

Correcting even one of those questions sets you on a path toward owning a group that operates like a true modern professional restaurant company.

You see, to keep my clients' restaurants fresh, relevant, and growing, I spend a lot of time improving the value of their guests' experience, building the capability of management teams, and recognizing opportunity for brands from emergence to maturity. As a result, my clients increase revenue, profit, and net worth.

So let me share with you the four challenges I encounter most often. And here's what surprises people: even in twenty twenty-five, in what has become a sophisticated industry, and even in restaurant groups with great success and millions of dollars of revenue, I still run into these same four problems.

The first challenge is format. When a P&L's format doesn't support the kind of financial analysis necessary to understand how to maximize profit, we change the format to an industry standard to illuminate wins, losses, and opportunities.

The second challenge is literacy. When not enough people can actually understand the wins and losses illustrated by financial statements, we institute education so the people in the restaurant responsible for revenue and cost know how to master them and produce profit as a result.

The third challenge is monthly accounting.

Looking at monthly financials in twenty twenty-five is the accounting equivalent of watching your favorite movie on VHS instead of streaming the 4K version. It's outmoded and blurry. We convert accounting cycles to thirteen periods of twenty-eight days, which is ideal for independent restaurant groups.

And the fourth challenge is lack of transparency.

Or, in the words of a GM I talked to recently, "I've never seen a P&L."

Running an open book company, sharing information, turns out to be the best way to make business decisions.

Now, some owners worry they can't trust their people

But that's true only if they hire the wrong people, or can't trust themselves.

And that's an entirely different problem but, don't worry, I've got more information about this directly, at the end of the episode.

You know, I correct situations where most aspects of a business turn out to be sophisticated, while other key aspects remain severely lacking. So it no longer surprises me when I start with a client whose information looks nowhere near as good as their food, service, culture, reputation, or atmosphere.

The question I have for you is: when will you correct yours?

Before we wrap up, I want to point you toward a couple of pieces I've written that connect directly to what we discussed today.

First, when I talked about sharing accurate information freely, I've written an article about how to share the Information Your People Crave.

In that piece, I go deep on improving the quality of information in your organization, who should have access to it, and how sharing information can add two points to your bottom line.

It's all about helping your people crave information the way your guests crave your top menu items.

And second, when I mentioned that trust issue, where some owners worry they can't trust their people with financial information, there's a piece called "How Creating a Culture of Trust Benefits Top Restaurateurs."

That piece includes my ten elements of an "atmosphere of trust", and explains why the best independent restaurateurs know that operating without trust drains energy away from creativity, leadership, and personal freedom.

You'll find links to both those 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.