Make It a Priority to Pay Yourself, Restaurant Owner

Hey there restaurant pros. It’s Dave Scott Peters and welcome to episode 69 of the restaurant prosperity formula. I’ve been coaching restaurant owners since 2003. And the restaurant prosperity formula is based on what the most successful restaurant owners I’ve worked with do on a daily basis to achieve their success.

The basic premise of the formula centers around achieving prosperity, freedom of your restaurant and financial freedom you deserve. To achieve prosperity you have to follow a very specific formula made up of leadership systems, training, accountability and taking action. Today I want to talk about the importance of paying yourself. Let’s get started.

I want to talk directly to restaurant owners. Do I have your attention? Good. Listen, you need to pay yourself to hear me you need to pay yourself.

I’m going to share with you why later. Right now I want to paint a picture for you. I’ve been coaching independent restaurant owners and their managers since 2003. I love what I do.

I get to help restaurant pros change their lives. I get to help most make more money than they’ve ever made before in the restaurant and many for the first time ever. To date. I’ve worked with literally 1000s of restaurant pros.

I’ve seen a lot. You know what I’ve seen a lot of restaurant owners who don’t pay themselves. Maybe you can relate. Maybe you’ve done this once or twice.

Or maybe this is you right now. The common reasons restaurant owners tell me why they don’t pay themselves are number one, they’re not making money. And that makes sense, right? If you’re not making money, how do you pay yourself so you’re in a position of what one of my members seen our member mentor as well different causes entrepreneurial poverty.

In pay yourself, you’re struggling to pay all your bills. So how the hell if you’re struggling to pay your bills can

you pay yourself you’re not making money? Number two reason I hear is you take money when it’s available. So when there’s money leftover this month, it takes

maybe next quarter maybe it’s once a year, maybe it’s once every other year doesn’t matter when there’s money and I feel like it’s available. I’m gonna take it out a real good way to plan to pay your own personal bills isn’t maybe you’re independently wealthy, I don’t know. Number three, the third reason they want to keep the money in the business in order to grow. Now I get it.

You sit there and say I’m gonna work my ass off. I’m gonna take all the fruits of my labor I put into the business, which allows me to self fund the second location allows me to self fund buying the equipment I needed allows me to bring on the people that I think I need in order to grow my company. Those are the three reasons why I hear most of all and no matter what the reason is, let me tell you what this does. It clearly says you don’t value your time.

Think about it. You pay your team members, you pay your managers you pay your bills, you pay everybody else but yourself. Aren’t you the person who has a dream for this restaurant, whether we’re having a cocktail with a friend and you drew it out on a napkin. So this is my dream to one day own this pizzeria.

It’s my dream to have a wine bar. It’s my dream to have a full fledged fine dining restaurant doesn’t matter what it is. It was your dream and you took that dream. You grabbed on to it with all of your effort your mind your passion.

Any drive you had was to see from a dream seat for wishing to an open running business. Oh my goodness. Is is that not worth any money to you? Who could have done that but you and then you run it day to day working your ass off?

Who who could lead that team and do a better job that you it is your business. But if you don’t pay yourself clearly says you don’t value your time. When you don’t pay yourself it tells me or when you Let’s go backwards when you come up with those reasons of why you don’t pay yourself. It tells me you’re stressed out about paying your bill.

So sometimes it’s in a position where again, I’m not making money. So how am I going to make it through here and when you’re stressed? It’s tough to be the leader your restaurant needs. It tells me that your eternal optimist and I am this person.

Oh my lord, Am I preaching to the choir now? eternal optimist. You know, I’m talking about I know it’s tough today. But if I put in this effort today, if I make the sacrifice today, tomorrow’s going to be better when I go around that corner, but I turn that corner when that business turns the corner right or we’ll turn the corner.

Oh my god, it’s gonna be awesome. And it doesn’t matter what you think it’s a day from now a week from now a month from now a year from now, five years from now. Man, if I put in this effort, the future’s bright. It tells me you’re a giver.

So if you read my book, restaurant prosperity formula what successful restaurant tours if you’ve been to my seminar, or you’ve been on my coaching program, or if you’ve been on my YouTube channel, David Scott Peters for any length of time, you may have come across what I call my restaurant owner compass. And what it is is a leadership company and there’s this one leadership style called the giver. The Giver is the person who cares more about the guests experience, cares more about their team members cares more about making sure it’s the best restaurant possible. It’s got to best food sometimes likes to be the center of attention.

It’s all about the field. But then they ignore the numbers budget system paying themselves because we know that our job is I get five star Yelp reviews. I’m going to be busy as heck and I’m gonna make money but the truth is you could be busy as heck and still go out of business if you don’t make money. Because you’re not controlling your your business.

Putting the right systems in place the right managers in place, leading your business forward. So the giver can often find themselves in trouble. By the way, I’m an Off The Charts giver. That’s why we have systems to help us pay attention to the numbers to make sure things are getting done our way.

Last but at least you don’t pay yourself it tells me you have a lesson to learn and I’m really glad you’re here to learn it. Did I mention by the way, you need to pay yourself. okay with me. Let me be very clear.

Let me be very clear. With you. I understand where you’re coming from. I’m no different than you.

As a small business owner. I’m guilty of each and every one of those reasons. Meaning I’ve not paid myself. I’ve probably used each and every one of those reasons as well.

It’s easy to do. Let me explain back in 2003 of the chief operating officer of a 30 unit restaurants work with a sports bar chain here in Arizona called famous Sam. Now, I had a stint with them earlier that’s been taught at Scottsdale culinary institute management, human resources, wines and spirits came back because the minority shareholders were now the majority shareholders and asked me to turn the company around in 75 year. It was a tough journey this company should have been done.

But I invested lots of time and energy and three years in realized I’m going to sell myself out of a job I’m at the top of the food chain. Fortunately for me, I donors who allowed me to grow into business. So you as a restaurant tour had to go I’m going to jump off a cliff and I’ve got to hire 40 people. I didn’t hire anybody could be just me back I had a full time job.

And I’d worked all day in the in in famous sands I would drive all over Arizona, do our locations work with our franchisees work on compliance work, sales, marketing. And I come home and I start to work again. It’s time to either write up some manuals or record some audio put them on CDs. So back then we I burned CDs in a dot matrix printer on photo paper labels and I take them off, peel them off and put them on there and put them in clam shells and cut and insert the the covers and I put them in their own bubble wrap and put the label on it the invoice inside seal it up.

I do all this in our home office chrome office with our bedroom with two desks in our bedrooms small family and my wife we’ve been trying to go to sleep and the places that the bedrooms lit up completely right.

Because I was working I can tell you this in the early years I was doing this I was cutting my teeth and learning how to grow a restaurant training

and coaching company which really didn’t exist up till that right from the ground up. i There was nothing else around it except for one business that was close. com My good friend Jim Laub and Joe Erickson super awesome people great site highly recommended. But the fact of matter is while he was a membership site, I was doing some coaching and training and live seminar.

And it was nothing like it. At the time, I really wasn’t concerned about making money. I had a full time job. I had some savings.

So even after I sold the company, I had some money in the bank. I didn’t have a lot of expenses that a young family and I had a plan oh by the way, this plan was not going to fail. I was not going to fail. I later realized this is I grew that business.

I needed help. I took on member coaches these were members who had skill sets that I could bring on and we started at first that training, membership or coaching for them turned into paid Coaches and Consultants uninfected became a business partner. Later as the years went on in software. This is because my members said to me, David, we’d love your spreadsheets.

We’re trying to put the same number to five different spreadsheets. We’re tired of managers by accident or worse on purpose manipulating formulas we don’t know we’re looking at that numbers. And when it comes to recipe costing cards, it’s such heavy lifting by Tommy get them finished 4060 100 man hours later in these spreadsheets, the next delivery shows up the wrong because the price of cheese changed and I’m not going to keep them up to date. I’m gonna wait six months a year to redo them.

Most important system in their business next to a budget. We’re gonna ignore it because it’s too much work. And at the time, there wasn’t really many software packages out there. So here it was.

I built this from the ground up and as I was building the software, I’m gonna tell you right now at the time I was home office in the beginning the early in the morning, I’d be on my phones at 6am Not zoom when working yet. Phones 6am I would because I had members on the East Coast I’d be sitting there in my sleep shorts and a T shirt. You wouldn’t know. I just literally rolled out of bed, went downstairs to my home office and got on the phones.

And I’d work through the day. Whether it’s on the computer, whether it was again on phones at work all day. And kids would come home often at three o’clock in the afternoon. I’m laughing because I’m still in my suit shorts and a T shirt.

I haven’t showered yet nobody was on the phone. But literally no I’ve been working my ass off ever since the moment they left for school. And while I was already on the phones before they even got up and then have dinner and spend a couple hours with my family. A couple you got to get back on the damn computer in phones because I overseas progress until three 4am Five, sometimes seven days a week and that’s not an exaggeration.

I in fact bootstrap funded my application. Those you don’t understand the term bootstrap what it means. It means I didn’t borrow a dime. I didn’t take on any investors.

It meant I had to bring in higher sales to pay the programmer. So I was always in constant growth which often meant that as a big bills for programming. There were times I didn’t have money for me right it gets a picture during this growth period. There back were three separate extended periods of time where you betcha in order to pay my bills, keep my 14 team members of the time paid, including my business partner.

It meant my wife and I didn’t get paid.

And in fact, the last period of time was the longest I was like full 12 months, and was just before a business partner bought me out. My wife and I, well, we live solely on savings. Do you know what happens when you don’t pay yourself for an extended period of time? While I’m going to tell you from experience, you start to feel bitter.

Nobody works harder than you. Nobody puts in the hours you do. Nobody cares about your success as much as you do and you’re not getting paid. So you look around at your employees, your team members, the people that you love that helped you get to where you are, and you start feeling better like use SOPs.

You’re making money. I’m not I’m working my ass off. You got two days off in a row. You go on vacations, what the hell.

It’s not their fault. It’s self inflicted pain. What happens when you don’t pay yourself for an extended period of time? You get stressed because all you’ve done is run up your credit cards, flush your savings down the toilet, and you start thinking about what kind of major changes you can make in your life and your business like reducing expenses or even taking on a job.

Like it’s ridiculous. You have your dream, you build your business, in your case your restaurant and you think, Man in order to pay my bills, this thing is costing me money. I need to feed it I need to go get a job. How does that make sense?

But it happens. We don’t pay yourself for an extended period. of time you stop working strategically on your business. Why is that?

Because you stopped leading because all you can do is start to focus on survival. When you don’t pay yourself for an extended period of time, your health takes a toll whether it’s put on weight, whether you have other health issues, mental health issues, you go through all these things. Truth of matter is when you don’t pay yourself and you start to feel your body feels destroyed. I can tell you from experience, I had a heart attack right at that same year, last year before I sold my last company or was bought out I should say I had a heart attack and I’m gonna be full disclosure.

My dad had a heart attack. His dad had a heart attack. My uncle had a heart attack and they all died. I did something different I live but that was my wake up call.

Why should I have waited until that happened now I’m going to be against Sears. I was going to have our thing. It’s genetic. Good.

I have to have one right before us. Because that was after that the one with that said your relationships suffer and you don’t pay yourself for an extended period. of time your relationships suffer. You start coming home to your family and your your significant others like how we’re going to pay our bill.

How are we going to make sure the kids keep going to clubs, sports on field trips, have the clothes they need. How are we going to pay our power bill? How are we gonna do all these things? And in doing so you get all frustrated you start to bark, snap at the people who love you.

You start to withdraw from going out socially because you’re embarrassed. You can’t pay for the meal for your six friends that you would normally would do at any point in time. You don’t want to go out and talk to people because you don’t want to ask them how’s your business going? You don’t want to tell them the truth.

When you don’t pay yourself for an extended period of time, you might even find yourself a little depressed. And that’s okay. It happens we’re human. I’m gonna tell you two things.

What. I live by this philosophy. may have heard it on another podcast of mine. You may have heard it on my YouTube channel.

You may have heard it from me directly. And that’s this as an entrepreneur as a business person. You’re allowed to have a bad day. You’re a human being.

You can curl up in a ball and cry. You can drink yourself to sleep eat yourself to sleep whatever to Fosbury some bad thing for you. I don’t care what it is you can have that bad day have a full bad day. Just get it all out.

What I believe is what you do the next day is what defines you. See, the problem is when one bad day becomes two, the two days becomes a week when a week becomes a month when a month becomes three months. When three months becomes a year. And that’s where I would tell you in today’s day and age, mental health is a real thing.

We’ve always battled the mental health issues in the restaurant industry. But it’s been really tough the last few years because of COVID in the labor shortage is product storage prices going up inflation, like tapas three years you could ever be in the restaurant business. So it’s not unusual to find yourself in the Downingtown and it’s okay to go seek help. Whether it’s a family member that you just need to unload how you’re feeling with actually seek counseling.

I want to implore you that if you’re in this situation, seek help. Because when you do when you start to feel better about you is how you can get out of this hole. Because you can start working strategically you can start to be optimistic. Again, it is incredibly important as a leader your restaurant needs, you must must feel good about you.

Now I can tell you, this is not what I signed up when it came to not paying myself and I can certainly tell you it’s not what you signed up for. You started your business because you wanted to better life you had a vision happy guests happy team members time off flexibility with your schedule and making the money you deserve. You don’t have officially being a prisoner

to not pay yourself at any given time. So Does this sound familiar to you? Because I bet it does. Whether you did it once, twice.

You’re living it right now. Like if you’re an entrepreneur, it has happened.

So can you start to understand why we need to start paying yourself why you’ve got to make yourself a priority. You know, there’s more to this. There’s more to this topic of paying yourself. There’s things like tax implications.

Are you an LLC a Subchapter S pass through entity? Do you want to take drawers and have a small salary or large salary and smaller drawers? The talk to your CPA there’s issues like government money remember when COVID hit that if you didn’t pay yourself you couldn’t put yourself as part of your employees on the PPP money to pay yourself and your family so you could live so you got the double whammy of no sales, paying what skeldon Who you could afford and not getting money from the government to help yourself. So sometimes it makes more sense to pay yourself so if something like that happens again, you’re on the roster.

Also, what if you have investors? You got to make sure you pay yourself enough so that you may have a smaller portion of ownership than you want. But if you pay yourself for your time, value your time, then whatever you share is okay. Now what we have all those other issues, what I really want to do right now is just focus on how it affects you.

We could do a whole nother podcast on each one of those things. So what do you do to get out of the situation? What do you do if you want to avoid this situation all together? I want to tell you why this the answer is kind of simple.

Not gonna lie. It’s hard work and requires real commitment. It requires a real commitment to learning. You have to understand you don’t know what you don’t know.

That means you gotta read books. You got to listen to podcasts. You got to watch webinars. Heck, you got to find a guru who you trust and subscribe to the YouTube channel.

You got to find a coach. Maybe even join a mastermind group requires a real commitment to implementing systems for every aspect of your business. You’ve got to understand there’s a system a process a way to doing anything and everything in your business. It’s your way.

You’ve got to take the time to make sure it’s documented that you can share it that’s a trainable system that requires a real commitment to delegating the tasks and focusing on being the leader your restaurant needs. To understand, you’ve got to make sure that you are leading the business. How do you do that work on budgets marketing, leading the team developing your managers holding the count accountable, moving the company forward. Can’t do that if you’re doing all the jobs, which means you’ve got to have key employees and managers that you can delegate these tasks to Ed and understand that your role is not to work down but to work up.

So you’re working on the line, say $15 an hour if you’re cutting onions in the back that work on PrEP, if you’re seeding people, you’re pouring drinks, you’re managing your restaurant every single day. And you’re working down you’re not doing the roles and owner again, of budgets marketing, leading the team developing your manners that hold him accountable, moving the company forward, you get the picture. You know it requires a real commitment to holding your team members accountable. That means you got to inspect what you expect are these systems go away.

The moment you take your eye off the ball, it goes away. And finally it requires a real commitment. to taking action. My father had a phrase says ideas are cheap.

It’s the people who put them to action that are priceless. Ideas are cheap. It’s the people who put them into action that are priceless. I live by this taking action.

You will never find me not taking action even if there’s fear involved. I got a ring that says take action. I’ve got a license plate on my card says take a seat and if you ask my kids take action. My company my corporate name is take action enterprises LLC.

I live take action in order to take action you got to understand you got to put a budget in place and live by it. When you miss that budget because it’s going to happen you need to change your budget because things change. You’ve got to take action like develop train and implementing your systems. Your system your process your way.

Actions like creating a habit ensure your systems are being used. You’ve got to inspect what you expect where this is going away. You’ve got to lead your team actions like leading your team towards your dream. That means sharing with them your why, why you got into business sharing with them your dream, what you’re working towards.

You’ve got to share it with your employees. You got to share it with your customers. You got to share it with your vendors. You got to share it with everybody and anybody who you can share it with that everybody knows the path you’re going and everybody’s getting on the ride.

The same ride going in the same direction, getting you to that dream. You got to take actions like making the time for your family, friends and activities you enjoy outside the work. Because here’s the deal. What are you doing this for?

If you can’t spend time with your friends and family if you can’t enjoy them, you’ve got to actually block out time on your calendar saying I’m going to spend time you need to put your phone aside stop answering the damn thing. Put it upside down put it in, put it in a you know a locked locker don’t give a rat’s ass beat. Be present with the people you care about. Also, take on an activity you enjoy outside of work.

I’ve got members who ball I’VE GOT members who serve. I’ve got members who love crafting. I’ve got members who love to go travel. I’ve got members who do all different kinds of things.

Because when you take the time to do activities outside of your work, you’ve got something else to look forward to something that takes your mind off something that recharges you takes the stress away makes you happy to take action like finding a coach and or mastermind group and execute that program. I can tell you I may not be the right coach for you I just think I am. But the truth is, often what a coach provides you is that path to success. Personally, I’m going to tell you, I’m not the smartest guy in the world.

I really am not. But I’ve made every mistake that costs your restaurant money. And I’ve got the roadmap that avoids the landmines that cost you money, costs you your business, your family relationships, all these things and says this is how you avoid that path. Right.

Avoid the landmines follow this path to success.

If I’m not the right person, maybe you need to find someone else. I’m gonna tell you right now I practice what I preach.

I’m a real person. And as a real person, I have times where I neglect to do what I shouldn’t be doing on a consistent basis. But understand when I fall off the proverbial bike, I get right back on it, make the correction and keep moving forward. I will fall down.

I will do things like any other entrepreneur, I will ignore what I know I should do. I’ll avoid things that I know I should do. For whatever reason doesn’t matter the excuse, which costs me money, which I have to learn a lesson over and over again. Sometimes I finally get it and I get back on the bike and I keep moving forward.

That’s a critical piece keep moving forward. Doesn’t matter the speed in which your bike goes as long as you keep working for you what else I learn every day. I have a coach and I belong to a mastermind group. I through through all my years.

I’ve had coaches on and off. com, the restaurant prosperity formula. I’ve had a coach every year for different reasons. Currently in a mastermind group with a coach that is about video work and marketing, because that’s where I need to I need to become better.

So I know I need to buy speed. I need accountability. I need other people to help support me. I can tell you I work hard at creating systems for every aspect of my business.

So unreal, my team is doing what we need to do to support our members to get them the results they’ve invested in. I work hard at delegating the majority I mean the majority of my daily tasks in my team, so I can focus my time on coaching members developing content marketing, sales and speaking because those are the things that will grow the business. If I run payroll that doesn’t grow the business. If I sit there and spend 3040 50 minutes to come up with a Facebook post, that’s not making any money, that’s not leading the business forward.

I have people who can write in my voice can run things by me that I can approve or deny or edit. There are many tasks in my business that don’t require me to build a budget template is not where I excel where I excel is when I worked with you one on one on one to three, two hour zoom calls to create your plan for success that gets you to see what can be done what is possible in your business. You’ve got to do the same thing in your business. I work hard at holding myself and my team accountable and truth be told, like you This is always a work in progress and an area I continue to grow.

And finally, if there’s one thing that I have never fallen short of and I mean never

that’s taking action that’s taking action. Again. Think about it. Ideas are cheap.

It’s the people who put them to action are priceless. I will take action. I will take action that cost me money. I will take actions that are bad.

I will take actions that are good. I will take actions that absolutely changed my life and the trajectory of my company and my team members. You know what if I don’t pick the bad action, and never get to the good action, the life changing action. So don’t be fearful.

Take action. Get it done. That’s how you learn. And since starting this business, my wife and I we talked about making sure we make time for our friends, our family, doing things that we love.

I’m gonna tell you my wife and I made all but a couple of my daughter’s college volleyball games at Aurora University in Aurora, Illinois. We live in Phoenix, Peoria to be exact. So while she was playing volleyball we made her games. This just a couple.

Sometimes we got an airplane, fly from Phoenix to Chicago drive to Aurora got your play, drive back to Chicago and fly home same day. It was that important to support my daughter and quite honestly, I couldn’t have been any prouder to see her play. See her dream that she created and be there to support her. I’ll tell you we also made sure to make it all of my son’s major milestones in the Marine Corps, including his recent promotion ceremony to Sergeant wouldn’t want to miss it to the world.

We missed one because COVID We weren’t allowed on base last. I found my way back to competitive rowing, where I wake up at 3:45am six days a week to be on a lake that is 45 minutes away from my house or 5am practice and in just under two years back into the sport. I’ve dropped weight change my fitness and racked up over a dozen metals many of them if not most of them are gold. I’ve seen more success in my rowing career.

When I wrote in high school and I was a D1 athlete at Northeastern University in in Boston. I have more success now as a Master’s rower after a 32 year hiatus back in the sport and I’ve ever had before and it’s a passion and I carve out the time for it. And more importantly, since the pandemic I’ve helped dozens, dozens of restaurant owners change their lives since the pandemic and often many of them making the money they deserve. If not all of them.

Some of you already know their stories, because they’ve been guests here on my podcast. And here’s just a short list of the members I’m extremely proud of. We’re literally literally have changed their lives and their businesses. I’m going to tell you, there are no particular order I may have missed some people and I apologize.

But the fact is, I truly feel like it’s a gift to be able to work with each one of them and see them change in their lives. To gain what is restaurant prosperity freedom the restaurant the financial freedom to deserve. People like Raul Gonzalez, Brian Mueller, Daniel Rossi, Marcus Shafi, Rihanna and Jonathan Cowan, Gina Sidebottom Steve eller Ryan and Neely James Matt Jacobs, Buck Katie, Jeff and Michelle FITUR. Matt and data Wakefield Avery Ward, John Dempster, David Costas, Chantal Keller, Angie and Doug Brown, Anthony Duquette and Leah Newton.

Derek bass, Basie, Otis, Julie Peacock, Mike Downey, Jennifer green. Nikki Bergland. Me Barnack Aaron Hoffman Francesco Gabrielle, Aaron Ross, Austin, Eric and Jessica Liang. l gamble, Cory, Richie, Jake, Renault, Brandon and Shona because there

was a Ramos. Again, I apologize if I missed some people but truly gifted to be able to work with them. And I can’t wait to

add dozens. The dozens of members that are currently in my restaurant transformation intensive program and future members. Members that could be just like you people who want to change your life it truly is my joy. It is my why.

So I’m going to tell you this if you’re ready to embark on the journey to restaurant prosperity, to gain freedom for your restaurant in the financial freedom you deserve. Then I invite you to jump on a call with one of my member mentors Ryan James. The 15 minutes you’ll spend with Ryan is your gateway to getting on a discovery call with me, which could end up changing your life. And that’s no exaggeration.

com. And oh yes. And make it your priority to pay yourself today. Hey, that was an awesome episode.

I want to thank you for taking the time to take action on building a better more prosperous restaurant. Before you go. I want to give you these three thoughts. One by combining leadership and taking action with systems and training being checked by accountability.

You are on your way to creating prosperity for you and your restaurant to have something I need from you. Please leave a review on Apple podcast Spotify or wherever you happen to listen to podcast by leaving us a review other restaurant please seek me out this information are able to find it. I read the reviews and hearing how this information has benefited you. does wonders for me.

And three. If you find any of the discussions helpful share them, the more restaurant pros who have access to them, the better we become as an industry for more restaurant resources or to get in contact with me. com. Be passionate about what you’re doing.

Be persistent, but more importantly become better and help everyone around you become better and your restaurant is going to kick some ass.