What do you do if your restaurant business is struggling to succeed due to a lack of strategic thinking?

I keep getting pulled into this thread because it does scare me that the questions miss the point. You can’t use these blanket analogy/tactics, which I now understand are fed by AI and nobody even asked the question to begin with.

Unfortunately most of these mom and pop restaurants can't be assessed like a multi-million dollar structured org with inter-departmental corporate targets and KPIs. Its more grassroots to understand what is happening wrong / right? Decision making and chain of command are always going to be with the owners and the owners need to address (at an absolute minimum) the financial feasibility of their efforts. What is their cash burn, overhead, can they squeeze some efficiencies such as better purchasing, focused menu instead serving a menu for everyone. Start there! You will be surprised how much waste you can eliminate.

Formally and professionally survey your guests. Put $ towards insights beyond chats with guests. -menu architecture -satisfaction by product purchased -concept test pipeline of ideas -track operational satisfaction metrics.

Begin to evaluate where your problems lie as a first step. Once you know where the problem is develop a plan with short medium range actions to fix the problem. Put that plan into action and in parallel work on the strategic goals longer term and the vision to achieve the larger goals for the longer term. It’s critical to immediately work on improving the business so that more cash and momentum is built as you devise the bigger picture items and identify what is needed in terms of larger scale investment.

Most people think they need to start with 'strategic plans', but the absolute place to start is what is your current situation. I would also start with just the SW of the SWOT, which the internal side, what are the Strengths and Weakness of your business. How are you measuring them? And if you are not measuring them, start measuring them right away. Measure simple things like what is your capacity? Number of seats and what is the turn over of tables during peak times. What is the average, max and min bills per table. What is your review rate across different social media? What is your return customer rate? Get your internal study done first then when you look outside to Opportunities and Threats you are able to compare yourself to others.

Set goals to text out your hypothesis. Experiment, be flexible, don’t be married to your original ideas. Be open to ideas and data point that may disrupt your original thinking. Fail fast, validate your customers perspective with data. Pivot where necessary, prioritize your actions plan with clear metrics that tie back to your questions

I like Jensen Huang’s approach at NVIDIA by not just using the old KPI metrics but developing Indicators of Future Success. Also if you shoot for large goals that a properly broken into sub goals, I believe you have build a path and map to improvement.

I propose to implement the front-end marketing action concerning the concept of "building a ship as you sail" regardless of the willingness of the back-end (kitchen, support) to invite and work closely with the group of industry and/or professional associations or communities to hold a special event the side or by order at their site.

We have all heard that failing to plan, is planning to fail. But I think making sure every member of the team has input into the plan, as well as a clearly defined role and responsibility, with a path forward for achievement is a critical building block in any company's success. Build the base with a firm foundation, and then layer in resources, budget and other requirements as well as clearly defined measurement tools to monitor progress and to define success.

Walk backwards from your customers. Build an action plan centered around solving a latent need of your customer. Understand your addressable market for viability. Build in increment steps/ sprints and validate with your customers. Build a cross functional team.

Get your customers perspective questions like: What do you like about our restaurant? What could we do better ? Have your friends tried us? What do other restaurants you visited do better than we do? Build frequent diner programs with email outreach Make your customers your sales force. And compensate them

Culture is everything. Compassion and collaboration define who can emerge as winners in a competitive marketplace. You must love and trust one another in order to thrive.

If my restaurant business was struggling, I would start by wondering what fit of madness lead me to open a restaurant. I would be a terrible restauranteur.

I'd get out of hospitality because you're trying to run a restaurant like a top five consultancy business. Have you considered a take-out?

Compensation should be fair and based on team success with individual accountability built in. In my experience, the best teams have selfless leaders who see the value their teams bring at every level, and share the compensation of the profit in a fair and rewarding way. Everyone wins together!