10 Traps That Hold Restaurants Back

Success leaves clues. So does failure. I work with 300+ restaurants a year on average engaged in workshops, consulting and boot camps. Seeing a wide variety of restaurants first hand, I can tell you that there are patterns to a successful restaurant and there are warning signs when a restaurant is headed in the wrong direction. It’s not magic. There are traps that many fall into that hold success just out of reach.

1. Ignorance

It sounds simple enough but you would be surprised at how many people are so stubborn and think they know it all! Thinking you know it all already is a sure way to keep from learning anything about what you need to know to be a successful restaurant in today’s market. The people who are the most successful have decided that they need to be constantly learning. I have seen people who are stone cold failures and still will not listen to anyone who tries to help them learn something. It is sad really because their situation will never change until they decide that there is something to learn, and then set about trying to learn it.

2. Too Much Bad Advice

This is a big problem because everyone has that person who loves to tell you what you are doing wrong. Unless they have owned, operated or been successful in the restaurant industry, take their advise with caution. I see this the most when it comes to menu design.

Restaurants must be built for their market. You cannot be everything to everyone. You must be something to someone. It starts as an easy question to a friend, “What can I do to bring in business?” They reply, “You need to offer Mexican food!” Then you add something else, and something else. Next thing you know you have diluted your brand and your guests have lost their confidence in your restaurant.

Being a restaurant owner takes courage to stand by your brand. You will have all kinds of people offering advice, usually bad advice. You know your vision, you know your brand. Business is a cycle, sometimes up and sometimes down. If you have a well designed marketing plan then the ups and downs are not a big.

3. You Got in for the Wrong Reasons

The majority of restaurant owners are what I call High Extroverts or in simple terms, they love to be around people and they love to talk. Being social is a good thing in the restaurant business. The problems come in when they forget they are running a business. You need to focus on the number side as well. Now you might say you don’t like to do the numbers, fine, then get someone who is. At the end of the day you need to remember that your restaurant is a business and business need to make a profit to stay in business.

4. Taking Shortcuts

This is a real dangerous path that once you start down it will have catastrophic consequences. As the leader, it is your responsibility to set the standards and keep them there! Trust me you will have staff that will try to change that. They will succeed if you let them.

Work with your team and preach your vision to them over and over until they get the message. You are the bearer of the standards and your vision for your restaurant.

Special note: if your brand is built on the idea of top quality food, then you can’t buy cheap ingredients! Trust me your guests will taste the difference and just will not come back.

5. Letting Negative People in your Restaurant

As a restaurant owner or operator who you let in your restaurant to interact with your guests is one of the most important decisions you make about your business. Negative people once they are inside your restaurant will do more damage than you know. I gave seen negative people tear apart restaurants and bring down a brand.Is good help hard to find? Yes and no. I believe that you get what you find in the world. That might seem a bit Pollyanna, however it is true. Your perception is projection. Hire for attitude over experience. Skills can be taught, attitude is embedded into our personalities.Need help learning how to hire better? Send me a message for info on my Hire Attitude? Program.

6. Settling for Average

I tell clients this all the time, “Good enough, never is.”

Once you start to compromise your integrity and settle for average your restaurant’s growth is pretty much dead in the water. The one thing you never want to surrender is your integrity. One of the first things I do in my 10X Restaurant Coaching Program is have my clients get in touch with their core values. Your core values help define your identity and being in tune with your core values with guide you through tough decisions.

“It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.” ― Roy Disney

7. Not Keeping your Focus

It is so easy to get distracted in the restaurant business. You get in the day to day operations that you don’t have time to work on marketing, growth, training or any of the other details that it takes to run a successful restaurant. My biggest challenge when I start a restaurant coaching program is to change their mindset from working “in” their business to working “on” their restaurant.

8. Failing to have Systems and Using Them

What is the main thing that separates the chains from independent restaurants? Systems. They have them and they use them, daily. They create budgets and they use that as a guideline for how they operate. I would say that 90% of independent restaurant owners do not even have a budget.

9. Underestimating the Industry

The restaurant industry can be brutal and it can be extremely rewarding. My best advice is to keep learning and growing. Get subscriptions to newsletters from industry thought leaders, get magazines, get books, listen to a podcast and talk with others in the industry. That is one thing I love about the restaurant industry is most people really do love to talk and teach (at least the best ones do). I started a social network just for chefs to have a place to chat and share ideas, recipes and videos. If you are a chef, please sign up at: The Chef Revolution

Looking for information, I have you covered there as well! Check out my daily news feed that pulls from all the popular restaurant writers: The Restaurant Coach Daily

10. Thinking That Someone Else is to Blame

I have said it many times to clients, “You can blame the economy, the big bad chains and your staff. However, sooner or later you need to look in the mirror and question that maybe you are the thing holding your restaurant back?” The two things that take down a restaurant more than anything? Greed and ego.

Business is just that, business. Remember that.

Take your ego out of the equation and trust me, you will have a better restaurant.