3 Advantages to Developing Your Own Restaurant Operations Manual

It is neither easy nor quick to develop a system or operations manual for your restaurant. That said, taking the time to do so has a number of advantages and can be a critical factor in the long-term success and profitability of your restaurant. Here are three of the main areas in which the development of an operational manual will assist your overall efforts to grow a thriving restaurant business.

Developing an Operational Manual Helps Your Restaurant Get Out of the Unprofitable Start-Up Phase

Developing a system of checklists, forms and procedures early on in your business drastically reduces the amount of disorganization and chaos that occurs during the start-up phase of any restaurant. It also has the added benefit of allowing you to evaluate virtually every task and activity that takes place in your restaurant. Many find that documenting their systems and operating procedures sheds light on hidden errors and redundancies, as well as provides opportunities for increased productivity and profitability. The sooner you can put a system in place that will allow the average person to duplicate your desired result, the sooner your restaurant can grow from a struggling start-up into a successful business.

Solid Operational Systems Attract and Keep Quality People

One of the primary benefits of implementing operational systems in your restaurant is the ability to create consistency and predictability for both your employees and your customers. Having procedures and systems in place helps to attract and retain customers because they create a predictable and consistent experience that customers can count on having time and again.

Systems, procedures and policies help attract and keep quality employees because they let staff know what to expect from the get-go. If done correctly, these systems provide employees with the information and training they need to be successful at their jobs and achieve the standard of service quality you have set. Even better, when your employees are able to run your restaurant successfully by following the systems you have created, you have now ensured that your restaurant can run without you. This means more free time to focus on growing other aspects of your business and more time for a life outside the restaurant!

Having a Restaurant System in Place Enhances Value and Ability to Obtain Capital

An additional benefit of developing a system and operational manual for your restaurant is that it enhances both the value of your business to a prospective buyer (a buyer’s first question is often “What’s going to happen when the owner is gone?”) as well as your ability to obtain capital for your restaurant. For instance, if you want to expand your concept, having systems will enhance your ability to get money, manage growth and explore new opportunities while ensuring that your existing endeavors continue to function smoothly.

The development of a comprehensive operational plan for your restaurant is no small undertaking and will be an on-going process that you will continually refine over the course of your ownership of a restaurant business. There are many categories in this operational plan for which you will have to develop checklists, policies and procedures and the thought of documenting all of your restaurant’s functions can feel overwhelming. Start by working on the categories that have the most direct impact on your guests’ experiences and work your way along from there. By developing and documenting your unique business system, you increase your opportunity to take your business to the next level, expand your concept and ensure the long-term success of your restaurant. If you need help, there are a number of resources available.

Transforming Your Good Restaurant into a Successful Business

One of the most common occupational hazards for restaurant owners is getting so caught up in the day to day minutiae of operating their restaurants that they lose sight of the big picture—which should be turning their restaurants into successful businesses. The skills that are required to run a successful business are not the same as those required to run a good restaurant, and it’s for that reason alone that many new restaurant businesses fail. They may have a great idea, but lack the business skills to transform that good restaurant idea into a great business.

Being the “CEO” Vs. the “Employee” Restaurant Owner

One of the biggest reasons that restaurants fail to thrive is that the owner is too busy doing the tasks of an employee to make the strategic decisions required to move the business forward. While the “employee”owner is likely working right alongside his or her staff in the daily restaurant operations, the CEO owner is spending his or her time analyzing data, looking for opportunities to improve efficiency and profitability and implementing operational standards and procedures to ensure that an excellent result can be replicated, every time. What’s more, the employee owner is so intimately involved in the daily decisions and details of the restaurant that its successful operation is dependent on the owner’s presence on premises. The CEO owner strives to use the systems created to allow the restaurant to run independently of his presence without a hitch. Daily operational details are in the hands of capable employees and the owner is free to keep his eye on the big picture of growing a successful business.

Aside from the obvious benefit of being able devote more of your attention to the business aspect of your restaurant when you take the position of being a “CEO Owner,”setting up a self-sustaining system also ensures that your restaurant won’t be totally dependent on you to be there all the time. Translation—you’ll be able to have a life outside the restaurant!

Get to Work “On” the Restaurant, Not “In” It!

There are three main areas that the strategic restaurant owner focuses on to ensure a successful business: operations, financial and marketing. Operations includes all the functions necessary to prep and serve your products to your customers and all of the activities that occur every day in the restaurant. The goal here is to set up systems for standards and procedures that will allow the ordinary people you hire to produce excellent results by having very good systems to follow. Without a system, it’s challenging for staff to create a consistent and predictable experience for your guests over and over again. Consistency and predictability go a long way in the eyes of the public. The benefit of setting up operational standards and procedures that can be replicated perfectly time and again can not be overstated.

The financial area includes dealing with accounting, cash management, cost control and both operational and financial reporting. Marketing and advertising includes general marketing and promotional campaigns, positioning your brand, public relations, community involvement and projecting the right image.

The Possibilities for Growing Your Restaurant Business Are Unending

Again, the point is not to be involved in the day to day operations of these operational areas; the owner’s job needs to be “strategic overlook.” Instead, focus on analyzing your data, looking for opportunities for greater efficiency and profitability and developing systems that will allow those great results to be replicated again and again. With more time to plan the success of your business, you’ll have the opportunity to explore new marketing initiatives, new lines of business, the development of multiple locations, or whatever it is that you want to do to grow your restaurant into a successful and profitable business.

3 Key Steps to Operational Excellence in the Restaurant

When you consider how much time you spend correcting or minimizing the repercussions of mistakes made in your restaurant, finding a way to guarantee that processes can be run correctly 100% of the time is appealing indeed. Just think what it would do for your business in terms of profitability, reduced cost and hassle, repeat business and customer delight if your patrons could expect to get the same high quality product or service every single time they visit.

The value of operational excellence, or providing the product or service right every time, cannot be underestimated. Same-store sales increase over businesses whose operational excellence is merely average. Even better, increases in operational excellence can often be achieved with little or no capital or ongoing investment, which makes striving for it a no-brainer. Here are three key steps you can employ in your restaurant to achieve the best standard of operational excellence possible.

Design for Quality in Your Restaurant Processes from the Start

The first and most important factor in improving operational excellence is to ensure that the products and services you create delight your customers. This may seem obvious, but all too often businesses start tweaking their procedures for efficiency without taking the time to ensure that those processes first meet customer requirements. Without ensuring that what you are offering is above and beyond a customer’s expectation, you risk too many “me-too” products which do nothing to set your brand apart from the crowd and appeal to your customer base. Once you’re sure you know how to delight your customers, designing quality into your processes is the next step.

The most significant difference between ordinary restaurants and high performers is that quality is designed into their processes from the get-go. These restaurants strive for implementing processes that create 100% success, every single time. For example, if you design a recipe and its instructions for excellence, the final product should always have the same great taste, regardless of who is in the back of the house.

Strive for the Perfect Process in Your Restaurant’s Procedures

Once you’ve designed your process for excellence, it’s time to run pilot tests and refine the procedures based on the results of that data. Test the procedure against multiple equipment configurations, a full range of employees’ and customers’ demands, to ensure that the process is as close to perfect as possible. Once you’ve got a process that can be replicated perfectly every time, document the steps in detail and develop your training materials.

Replicate and Refine the Restaurant Processes that Near Perfection

If your data shows that the process can be operated properly 100% of the time and is an improvement over an existing process, it’s time to mandate implementation throughout your organization. Standardization in the quality of products and services you offer is a critical factor to the overall success of your business. Effectiveness is always ahead of efficiency. Is it truly possible to make your processes so flawless that they can produce perfect products and services every time? Maybe not. But, if you focus on quality; carefully design your procedures so that they can be replicated as perfectly as possible, and have a goal of achieving outstanding operational excellence, you will get as close to perfect as possible.