By Fred Langley

Creating the schedule in a restaurant is like fitting together the pieces of a puzzle. A proper functioning schedule is vital to your business. But putting all the right people in all the right places is just part of writing a schedule. The other part is knowing what your true needs really are.

Here at TheRestaurantExpert.com, we teach several different kinds of systems that make your independent restaurant operate more efficiently, more profitably and without you.

I know because I am one of those restaurant owners. Because I’ve implemented the restaurant expert’s SMART Systems, I can do extracurricular things like write this blog post.

For labor systems, the key measurement is dollars per labor hour. This number will tell you with certainty when you don’t have enough labor and when you have too much labor scheduled for a certain shift.

But even quantitative measurements can lie. You have to be careful because you could be hitting your labor numbers and still be setting up your restaurant for disaster by having a combination of shifts that are either under staffed or over staffed. That’s when it’s important to combine your quantitative data (such as the numbers) with your qualitative data (the things you see in the restaurant along with your gut).

Ideally you want the right amount people in place for the needs of the business and no more.

To get there, first focus on your quantitative measurement and begin tracking your dollars per labor hour. Dollars per labor hour is hours divided by sales. This tells you how many dollars are coming in the restaurant per hour worked. It’s a road map to scheduling your hours in the right places. You’ll see trends and be able to move hours from less-efficient shifts to over-efficient shifts.

Efficiencies are different for everyone’s restaurant, so track your dollars per labor hour and realize that three weeks is what makes a trend.

And if your gut is telling you something different, pay attention. But don’t forego the numbers just because it doesn’t feel right. Change is hard for everyone, and if your team is used to having a dishwasher on Thursday nights, they’re not going to like it if you tell them they’re not getting one anymore. Observe what Thursday nights are really like and what is really needed. Then compare that to your quantitative results of your dollars per labor hour and make an educated decision, not a guess.

The most important thing is to just get started, gather the information you need to combine your gut instincts with solid numbers.

(If you’re a member with The Restaurant Expert, use your coaching call time to work through developing a budget and implementing things like the labor systems so you can start hitting your goals.)

Fred Langley is the executive chef and owner of two restaurants in Windsor, Calif., in the heart of the Sonoma County wine country. Langley’s on the GreenLangley’s on the Green, a fine dining establishment, and Pizzeria DePaoli, a family style Italian restaurant, are living, breathing examples of how essential systems can be to a successful restaurant. He is a part of restaurant expert David Scott Peters’ coaching team. His unique restaurant setup, family involvement and high standards make him an incredible asset and coach.

By Fred Langley

There is only one thing that is more important than knowing your numbers: managing your numbers.

Even better than that is to teach your management to actively manage your numbers using systems.

The tools in your POS system can tell you what your labor is at any given time, but they don’t tell you what your labor is going to be at the end of the night. This prevents you from being proactive in achieving the results you have set in your budget for maximum profitability. It also doesn’t allow you to budget your schedule for maximum profitability.

Systems in conjunction with your POS system, such as a labor system, provide accountability, daily evidence that your management has their eye on the ball. Allowing your management team to fall asleep at the wheel can cost you thousands.

I bring this up because so many restaurant owners say to me that they don’t need labor systems because their POS system provides everything they need.

I wholeheartedly disagree.

Your POS system doesn’t target your profitability or know what your labor should be based on prime cost targets.

Take this for example: I recently took over a restaurant and discovered the POS system was incorrectly calculating labor percentages. It was a programming error that had been wrong for years, since it had been installed (Firefly, avoid it like the plague).

Without my labor systems I would have never known this. It took David Scott Peters’ systems to discover it.

In other words don’t blindly trust your POS system.

As David is fond of saying, Anything measured improves. Diligently begin tracking anything you would like to improve. It provides accountability and keeps you and your management on track.

Simply set targets with a budget and put systems in place to meet your loftiest goals and achieve the success you have always dreamed of!

Fred Langley is the executive chef and owner of two restaurants in Windsor, Calif., in the heart of the Sonoma County wine country. Langley’s on the GreenLangley’s on the Green, a fine dining establishment, and Pizzeria DePaoli, a family style Italian restaurant, are living, breathing examples of how essential systems can be to a successful restaurant. He is a part of restaurant expert David Scott Peters’ coaching team. His unique restaurant setup, family involvement and high standards make him an incredible asset and coach.

By Fred Langley

Anyone in the Smilebutton Enterprises Elite Group who has the privilege of hosting 20 other restaurant owners walk through their restaurant and give critiques to their restaurant has firsthand knowledge of how valuable it is to have someone with outside eyes peer into their operations.

Getting feedback from likeminded people – a mastermind group - who have experience and expertise in the restaurant business to offer input and solutions to issues you have in your restaurant can be a huge wakeup call and a breath of fresh air at the same time.

The Champion Group is the next best thing because although these restaurant owners may not be in your restaurant they are at sitting around the same table as you addressing issues and concerns with your restaurant.

Now even if you are a Champion or Elite member, it is a must that you have a comment card in your restaurant because hearing feedback from guests and being in tune with their needs is very important. Not to mention you should be getting the names and addresses of all of your customers.

While comment cards and surveys are very important and useful, I am telling you right now that the very next best thing to the Elite Group, if not more important, is for you to put together a couple of focus groups.

I start with two:
1. One randomly selected from a list
2. One made up of your very best customers

Serve samples of new and old dishes, pour wine and ask a ton of questions. You will find out exactly why your best guests come so often and what it will take for the other group to come more often.

We all should have a clear vision of what we want our restaurant to be, but you have to remember to include your guests in that vision. After all they are the ones who pay the bills, and you don’t want to lose sight of that.

If you would like some additional assistance in organizing a focus group you’re your restaurant to make sure you are on target with the needs of your community, email me.

Fred Langley is the executive chef and owner of two restaurants in Windsor, Calif., in the heart of the Sonoma County wine country. Langley’s on the Green, a fine dining establishment, and Pizzeria DePaoli, a family style Italian restaurant, are living, breathing examples of how essential systems can be to a successful restaurant. He is a part of restaurant expert David Scott Peters’ coaching team. His unique restaurant setup, family involvement and high standards make him an incredible asset and coach.

By Fred Langley

As you take the systems you learn here at the Button and implement them, you are going to find that you have more time. You will also find and that you have taken responsibilities that were always yours and given them to others.

As the owner of your restaurant, hospitality is a top priority for your guests and you go through great lengths to insure this is always the case.

Well, what happens when you are not there and how do you insure that every guest is getting that special attention that sets you apart from the cold, impersonal chains?

The first thing is to train your staff to ask questions. They should be asking each customer if they have been to your restaurant before and point out recent changes if they have been in before. They tell new and returning customers about the menu and philosophy if they haven’t been in before.

Explain to your staff the lifetime value of a guest and provide them with business cards so they can personally invite guests back to specifically sit in their section. Have a contest to see who can get the most requests from guests coming back specifically to dine with a particular server. This gives your staff ownership and that comes across to the guests. It also has a bigger impact on the bottom line, even more than highly effective up selling.

Make an active effort to learn something new about every guest who dines with you and give servers informational cards at the beginning of night with as much information as possible about a guest that you have collected over previous times they have dined with you. I use the computer system Open Table to do this. Make it the servers’ job to add at least one more bit of information to their notes, like what wine they like and what table they prefer, anything to help build relationships.

If you don’t have a computer to help you, find out the information anyway because even if you don’t remember, the guest will remember that you truly care about them.

Fred Langley is the executive chef and owner of two restaurants in Windsor, Calif., in the heart of the Sonoma County wine country. Langley’s on the Green, a fine dining establishment, and Pizzeria DePaoli, a family style Italian restaurant, are living, breathing examples of how essential systems can be to a successful restaurant. He is a part of restaurant expert David Scott Peters’, coaching team and his unique restaurant setup, family involvement and high standards make him an incredible asset and coach.

By Fred Langley

Where do you begin after receiving a full year’s worth of management training in four days? 

Well, the first thing you do is make a plan. If you are going to achieve a goal, you have to have a direction. 

Luckily for all the workshop attendees there is a step-by-step plan for success spelled out in four phases, starting with the easy stuff so you can achieve that sense of accomplishment that will lead to more accomplishment. (If you missed this fall’s workshop, mark your calendar for the spring 2009 How to Run a Profitable Restaurant: from Soup to Nuts, scheduled for March 23-26.)

Once you’ve done the easy stuff, then it is time to make some real change and attack your Prime Cost (total labor + total COGS).

The very first thing in this phase is making the budget. The budget is the ultimate goal setting tool for your restaurant. Everything you do and every system you implement stems from your budget. The budget is your business plan with the numbers.

If you implement a purchase allotment system, how do you know what your food cost should be? As a restaurant coach, I am often asked what food cost should be for a restaurant and the answer is that it is unique to every restaurant. All costs affect each other and all your costs put together determine your food cost goals. 

In California, I run a high labor cost because of the high minimum wage and high cost of living, so I must run a low cost of goods sold. If you have a high capital expense, maybe your target prime cost becomes 60 instead of 65. You have to set a goal of how successful/profitable you want to be and then work the systems you learn at the workshop towards the goals you set for yourself in your budget. It is the roadmap to the life you envisioned for yourself when you first opened your restaurant.  

The next ingredient to achieving your goals is having a support system around you. This begins with having a plan for when you reach a roadblock. What do you do when you don’t know what to do next? The first thing you do is get on the phone with people who have been in your shoes before. You find the answers in the Smile Button Elite and Champion level mastermind groups. These groups are made up of like-minded restaurant owners who aren’t your competitors.

Decide to make some change in your business to achieve what you originally set out to do and then act on it. When you feel lost and need help, call on us here at the button to help you navigate the roadblocks you will face.

Fred Langley is the executive chef and owner of two restaurants in Windsor, Calif., in the heart of the Sonoma County wine country. Langley’s on the Green, a fine dining establishment, and Pizzeria DePaoli, a family style Italian restaurant, are living, breathing examples of how essential systems can be to a successful restaurant. He is a part of restaurant expert David Scott Peters’, coaching team and his unique restaurant setup, family involvement and high standards make him an incredible asset and coach.