What Job Should a Restaurant Owner Be Doing

What are the responsibilities of a restaurant owner? When I ask restaurant owners, I get something along the lines of run the business and make money. The truth is it is much more than that. I want to help you transition from working in your business to working on your business. Wouldn't you like to have freedom, not only the financial freedom, but the ability to leave your business knowing it's being run your way? Click to watch the video tip below, or continue scrolling to read what job a restaurant owner should be doing in the restaurant. 

Let's talk about the big things a restaurant owner is supposed to do and how to get to goals like financial freedom and freedom from your restaurant.

There are three primary things, which lead to one big thing 

The first is budgeting. You have to set your targets because your budget tells you what systems you need to put in place, who you need to train on those systems and what systems you need to inspect to reach the financial goals you are trying to hit. That means you don’t use national averages to make money. You use your numbers based off your core values, based off your price point, your style of service, where you’re located. That's really important.

The second is marketing. Look, I am the cost savings guy, I'm the systems guy, and I'm working to help you find every penny of profit. The truth of matter is one doesn't come before the other. You always have to be increasing sales. You will have people who stop coming to your business because unfortunately, we don't live forever. People die. People move. People have new interests and friends and things take us away from your business that sometimes have nothing to do with you and your business. So part of a restaurant owner’s responsibilities is to work on marketing. Marketing is how clean the place is. Marketing is providing great service and a consistent product. Restaurant marketing is putting promotions in place, advertising, whether it's online or in a magazine or whatever is best for you and your location. You always need to be driving sales so you can increase your customer accounts and hopefully make more money.

The third responsibility of a restaurant owner is coaching your management team and employees. This is one of the big roles. You know exactly what needs to be done in your restaurant, but if your management team doesn't, then you have to do all the work. And you can’t get mad, yelling at them and screaming. In today's age with millennials, they're going to cry and leave. They’re going to ghost you. They won't show up tomorrow. Instead, give them the system, teach them the system and help them be successful with that system because we need them if you ever want to have a life outside your restaurant. You need to have a management team that knows what their job is, how to do it, how well it should be done, more importantly, by when.

Your job as a restaurant owner is to budget, market and coach. And ultimately, that boils down to being a leader. The most successful operators I've ever worked with have used systems to make up for their weaknesses and their leadership in their business.

If you want to be successful, be a leader today.

Take this free restaurant evaluation. It takes about 10-15 minutes to fill out and when you're done, you’ll have a 20-25-page customized report based on your answers about your restaurant. It will show you where your gaps are in the 23 stages. There are no strings attached. Just look at it for where your gaps are and what you should be working on now.

I teach systems in my book, Restaurant Prosperity Formula: What Successful Restaurateurs Do, which you can order here.