Only 3 Worthwhile Places to Look When Developing a Healthy Restaurant Business

In this episode of the Restaurant Success Podcast, Matthew Mabel cuts through the noise of restaurant entrepreneurship to reveal the three essential areas every restaurant business owner must examine when developing a healthy, profitable operation. Whether you're running a single location or scaling a multi-unit restaurant group, Matthew shares the critical questions that should occupy your attention as a restaurant entrepreneur—from guest satisfaction and financial health to company culture and employee development. Discover why leadership, people, and systems form the foundation of restaurant business success, and learn what happens when any one of these elements is missing. This episode delivers practical business strategy for independent restaurant owners ready to build sustainable growth and operational excellence.

Key Topics Covered

• The four critical questions every restaurant entrepreneur should focus on
• Why your restaurant business reflects its owner's strengths and weaknesses
• The three places to look for improvement: leadership, people, and systems
• What happens when you only have two out of three elements working
• How to evaluate your organizational capability across all three areas
• The importance of developing people versus moving on from those who can't grow

Links Mentioned

• The Simple Way to Make Successful Restaurant Companies Much Better

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 I think will really simplify your life as a restaurant owner.

I've found that there's so much noise out there about what you should be focusing on, so many things competing for your attention.

But, I've also found that when it comes to developing a healthy restaurant business, there are really only three worthwhile places to look.

Just three.

And I'm going to walk you through each of them today.

So let me start by asking you four questions. These are the questions that should be taking up most of your brain space as an owner.

First, do your guests smile, feel happy, enjoy their meals, and tell their friends about that experience?

Second, do your financial statements appear predictable and healthy? Do they make you proud?

Third, does your culture deeply permeate your restaurants in every unit, every shift, every table, every time?

And fourth, do your people demonstrably improve?

Are they doing things today that they couldn't do last year?

These critical questions make up about ninety-eight percent of any great restaurant owner's brain space.

And, I know this might feel complex, but let me make things simple for you.

Once you answer those questions, and the opportunity for improvement becomes evident, you need to start looking for improvement in just "three" places.

The first place is in the mirror.

Your company's strengths tend to be your strengths.

Its weaknesses tend to be your weaknesses.

Your company reflects its owner. And ultimate success comes from balancing perspective. This is something I see over and over again in my work.

The second place is your people. If you do not have capable people in place who achieve the results you want and expect, stop right here. Stop listening to this and start developing them, or move on and hire others. It really is that fundamental.

And the third place is your systems. You know, the restaurant industry has best practices. We have figured everything out.

If your group lacks state-of-the-art systems on a daily, weekly, and periodic basis, then you'll watch the competition pass you by.

Now here's the thing. You need all three of these working together. Two out of three equals bad. Let me explain what I mean.

If you have the right leadership and the right people but you lack systems, your people appear inactive and ignorant. They'll run shifts every day, but they'll make no progress on the analysis and action required to truly run a business.

If you have the right leadership and the right systems but the wrong people, the machine that makes things work just sits there untouched. Maybe your people are untrained, or maybe they're just plain incapable.

You must make a distinction between the two. or your people who can grow, put energy into them. For those with no upside, move on at a time of your choosing.

And if you have the right systems and the right people but weak leadership, your people will have no direction.

It's like they're on a road trip, their GPS has a glitch, and they can't buy a map because, well, no one prints maps anymore.

Really, this is about choosing your focus.

Here's the thinking that directs the way I achieve results when I work with my clients, successful people who want to be even more successful.

It comes down to three things.

First, developing leadership.

Second, educating people and bringing in new people when we need them.

And third, implementing systems. And you know, this is actually the easy part because they have already been figured out.

So over to you. How do you rank your organizational capability and effectiveness across leadership, people, and systems? What does that tell you about what you will work on today?

Now before we wrap up, I want to mention something related to what we talked about today.

Linked in the show notes for this episode you'll find an article called "The Simple Way to Make Successful Restaurant Companies Much Better."

It goes deeper into this idea that your company reflects its owner, that your strengths become your company's strengths and your weaknesses become your company's weaknesses. I talk about how we fill in those missing pieces, either by helping the leader learn new disciplines or by adding systems, expertise, or talent who have mastered those aspects. 

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.