Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Here's a truth most restaurant owners don't want to hear. If your restaurant is busy, if your dining room is full, you're exhausted in the best way possible. But the bank account still makes you nervous in the worst way possible.
[00:00:13] That's not success. That's inefficiency disguised as effort. See, the restaurant industry has glorified hustle for decades. The long hours, late nights, no days off, always on the floor, always on call, always needed, phone always ringing. We are always running around busy. But here's the uncomfortable reality. Busy restaurants fail all the time.
[00:00:36] Profitable restaurants are intentionally designed. So today I want to dismantle one of the most dangerous myths in hospitality. And most importantly, I want to replace it with a better way of thinking. Don't go anywhere.
[00:00:49] There's an old saying that goes something like this. You'll only find three kinds of people in the world. Those who see, those who will never see, and those who can see when shown.
[00:00:59] This is Restaurant Strategy, a podcast with answers for anyone who's looking.
[00:01:20] Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in. My name is Chip Close. This is the Restaurant Strategy Podcast. Did you know? I founded this show seven years ago with one simple goal in mind. To help independent restaurant owners increase increase the profitability of their restaurants. To go on, turn on the microphone twice a week and give you the things you need to know to do what you know how to do better than ever before. That's also why I launched my signature coaching program. It's called the P3 mastermind. So we gather hundreds of restaurant owners from all over the country on weekly calls. Two hours every single week to focus on operations. One hour every week to focus on marketing. Everybody has the same thing in common. They're struggling with single digit profits. They want to dial in and reach 15, 20, 20% every single month. That's what we do. And I assume you know what you're doing. I assume that you haven't been around as long as you've been around because you don't know what you're doing, but you're pretty good at it. What I can do is help you do what you're already good at, but show you how to make money doing it. If this resonates with you, reach out. Set up a call with me or someone from my team. We'll ask each other a bunch of questions and let's see if you're a good fit. Restaurant strategy podcast.com schedule. That's the site where you go to to get this started. As always, you're going to find that link in the Show Notes.
[00:02:36] Now, if you're a proactive operator who wants to know more, act faster and actually bring guests back, then I want you to check out Ovation. Ovation makes it easy for guests to share feedback in real time and even easier for you to respond, recover unhappy guests and drive more five star reviews one operator said we got 16 new five star reviews in a single day. And now with Ovations reputation management tools, you can monitor and respond to reviews across all of the major platforms, all from one place. With AI suggestive replies that actually save you time. Ovation takes your private and public feedback, analyzes it to help you spot patterns in guest experience and create actionable goals to improve and make smarter decisions. Operators call it the easiest tool they've ever used and the results speak for themselves. Head to ovationup.com chip to book your demo. Mention you heard it here on the Restaurant Strategy podcast and they're going to waive your Setup fee again. Ovationup.com chip as always, you'll find that link in the Show Notes.
[00:03:43] Okay, here's the deal. Busy is a symptom, not a strategy. So most owners believe that busy is the goal, right? More covers, more tickets, more movement, more noise.
[00:03:56] See, busy feels productive. It feels validating. It feels like, man, I'm doing something right.
[00:04:02] But busy is just that. It's just activity. And activity without direction is the definition of chaos.
[00:04:10] So if I walk into a restaurant and see an owner sprinting between stations, or managers constantly solving small problems, putting out fires, staff asking basic questions, mid service tickets backing up even though quote unquote everyone's working really hard, I know what the P and L looks like. I don't even have to see it. Because busyness usually means that the systems aren't doing the work that the people are. And people are the most expensive, most fragile, most inconsistent system that you can build a business on.
[00:04:44] See, busy hides broken systems. Here's the dangerous thing about being busy. It hides the inefficiencies, meaning when volume is high, bad decisions don't hurt immediately, but they do quietly. Compound overstaffing gets justified, as you know, being safe food waste gets written off as you know the cost of doing business prep mistakes become just, you know, part of our reality. Long ticket times become normal because we're, quote, unquote slammed.
[00:05:13] See, volume doesn't fix bad systems. Volume actually punishes them.
[00:05:19] Every inefficiency that exists at low volume becomes catastrophic at high volume. Every unclear process costs you more money when you're busy than actually when you're slow. This is why some restaurants make less money on their busiest nights. They didn't design for volume. They're just trying to survive it.
[00:05:40] See, busy creates reactive leadership. Meaning when you're busy all the time, you don't lead. You're not being proactive. You are reacting. You're reactive.
[00:05:50] You react to the callouts, you react to inventory issues, you react to guest complaints, you react to the staff mistakes.
[00:05:57] And when you're busy, there's no time to think, no time to plan, no time to step back and ask, why does this keep happening?
[00:06:04] And here's the brutal truth. A restaurant that depends on constant reaction is designed to drain the owner. See, owners in this mode feel essential. They feel important, needed, irreplaceable.
[00:06:18] But that's not real leadership. That.
[00:06:20] That is just being the most expensive piece of duct tape in the building.
[00:06:25] And see, when all this happens, busy rewards the wrong behavior, Right? And this is an industry that celebrates exhaustion. We wear it like a badge of honor. We praise owners who never leave. We respect the owners who do everything. We romanticize burnout. But let me say this as clearly as possible.
[00:06:44] If your restaurant only works because you're exhausted, it doesn't work. If it only works when you're there, it doesn't work.
[00:06:54] Being needed everywhere isn't a compliment. It is a warning. And I want to say that again, being needed might feel good, but it's not a compliment. It is a warning.
[00:07:06] Because what you're really saying is standards aren't clear. What you're really saying is that systems can't be trusted. What you're saying is that decisions aren't documented, accountability isn't consistent, and so everything routes back to you. And that's not control.
[00:07:22] That is what we call fragility.
[00:07:28] Running a restaurant means juggling a lot. You've got staffing, inventory, customer service, finances. And yes, sales tax has to be done. And while no one plans to miss a deadline or miscalculate a payment, mistakes happen. So when those happen, they can lead to penalties, fines, and added stress.
[00:07:45] That's why there's Davo by Avalara. Davo integrates your point of sale system and automatically sets aside sales tax daily, giving you a clear view of your cash flow. Then, when it's time to file, Davo files and pays your sales tax on time and in full, guaranteed. So no more last minute scrambles or costly mistakes. Just seamless automation. Thousands of restaurants trust Davo. And with a 4.9 star rating on G2, it's a proven Solution. Your first monthly filing is free with zero commitment. You get started by visiting davosalestax.com RestaurantStrategy. That's D A V O salestax.com RestaurantStrategy. You're gonna find that link in the show notes.
[00:08:35] So, profit.
[00:08:37] What is profit? We talk about profit a lot. Profit is revenue minus expenses. But profit is the byproduct of an efficient, effective operation. Profit comes from decisions, not effort. And this is the, this is the reframe, we'll call it, that most owners never actually make. It's a key part of what we talk about in the P3 mastermind. So I'm letting you in on this.
[00:09:03] Profit comes from decisions, not from effort. You don't get paid for effort. You get paid for the decisions you make.
[00:09:11] Specifically what you put on the menu, specifically how many people you schedule. What good looks like, what good tastes like, what gets enforced consistently, what gets reinforced, consistent consistency consistently. What gets simplified or eliminated. Those are the decisions that you get rewarded for. A chaotic restaurant requires constant effort. But a well designed restaurant requires only occasional attention.
[00:09:41] See, profit isn't about doing more.
[00:09:44] Profit is about deciding better. It's about being proactive as opposed to reactive.
[00:09:51] And see, this is why I always say simple restaurants are more profitable, right? There's a pattern we see over and over and over again. The most profitable restaurants out there, number one, have smaller menus. Two, make fewer promises. Three, run cleaner, more efficient stations. Four, train fewer variations. And five, they say no more often than not.
[00:10:15] And yes, we're in the hospitality industry, so we live in a world of yes, no meaning no. We're not going to do this and that and the other thing, not saying no to the guest, but not even putting any of that stuff out on the table. These restaurants, right, these simple restaurants, aren't boring, they're focused.
[00:10:34] See, complexity feels sophisticated. Simplicity, though, simplicity scales. One of the best restaurants in the entire world, you know, certainly in this country, is the French Laundry, right? Thomas Keller's at the helm. Yes, there's a lot they do, there's a lot of food, they put out a lot of different food.
[00:10:54] But on its surface though, really, when you dig down, I'll say it's simple, it's tasting menu. There are very little choices, if any at all.
[00:11:05] It's very straightforward. You get on the track, you ride this, you, you ride this ride until it comes home.
[00:11:12] Again, I want to say this again. Complexity might feel sophisticated, but simplicity is the true form of elegance. Simplicity scales every extra menu item you put out There creates more prep, more inventory, more training, and yes, more mistakes.
[00:11:29] So busy owners keep adding profitable owners remove.
[00:11:36] See, what you don't see is that busy steals your ability to actually see the business for what it is. So let me ask you, when was the last time you reviewed labor patterns calmly? When was the last time you actually simplified your prep lists? When was the last time you redefined your manager expectations and went through checklists with them? When was the last time you rebuilt a station with intention? I'm not talking about making sure that people keep doing what you told them to do, you know, six years ago, but actually rebuilt the station and we're intentional about it. I just worked with a client the other day. We're literally cutting fry. We're combining fry station and saute because we just can't have that extra body. And actually we don't need that extra body. Talk about streamlining the menu so we can make more efficiency, meaning the guest will make their decisions quicker. It's less prep on the part of the cook and the pickup is that much easier. And all it was is looking at the menu and making some, making some removals.
[00:12:32] So again, when was the last time you reviewed your labor, simplified a prep list? Redefine manager expectations. When you rebuilt a station with intention?
[00:12:41] Right. I'm not talking about doing it in between tickets or not after the end of a 12 hour shift, but when was the time you gave yourself space?
[00:12:49] See, busy can steal clarity and clarity is where profit lives.
[00:12:58] So let's talk about the real goal here. The real goal is effectiveness. Not activity, but effectiveness. So let's redefine success. It's not. Man, we were slammed. Oh, I worked 80 hours last week. I didn't sit down all night. It's not that.
[00:13:14] Let's redefine success this way.
[00:13:17] The system worked. The system worked without me. The system worked for the new people. The team executed the standards as we outlined. Problems didn't escalate because everyone knew what they were supposed to do.
[00:13:30] See, effectiveness feels calmer. It might look boring from the outside, but I promise you it makes a lot more money. I use this example all the time. When Tom Brady first took over for Drew Bledsoe, any football fans out there will know this.
[00:13:44] That team played boring football.
[00:13:48] Boring, run of the mill football. Just every once in a while, you looked up at the scoreboard and you realized they were running away with the game.
[00:13:54] Effectiveness looks boring, but it's calmer and it works. And in the case of a restaurant, effectiveness, clarity, all of this makes you a lot more money.
[00:14:07] So, okay, what do we do with all this? If I've. If I've perked up your ears, if any of this has resonated, what do you do? Here's my challenge to you this week.
[00:14:16] Don't ask yourself, how can I work harder? Instead, ask yourself, what would I remove if I needed to make this easier?
[00:14:26] And what should you remove? Remove menu items. Remove prep steps. Remove redundant roles, unclear decisions.
[00:14:34] Busy is optional. Profit. What I want you to see is intentional.
[00:14:41] So I want you to realize that the goal isn't to survive being busy.
[00:14:46] The goal is to design a restaurant that doesn't require you to.
