3 Reasons Why Your Restaurant Could Benefit from Turnaround Management

Success in the restaurant business can often feel like quite the balancing act to achieve. Sometimes, even the most successful business person can use a hand to maximize efficiency, profits, and improve the bottom line. That’s where the services of a restaurant turnaround management company come in. Following are just three of the many areas in which such a company can provide invaluable assistance to help set your restaurant back on the path to success.

Turnaround Management Offers Restaurant Assessment Services

There are a lot of factors that a restaurant owner has to consider in order to determine the overall success of the business. With so many areas to consider, it is easy to overlook a ‘leak’ in the system that is causing the entire operation to falter. Sometimes it’s helpful to have someone come in and take a detailed look at each area of operation in order to clearly see what is working and what isn’t.

A thorough assessment includes analysis of everything from overall operations to your marketing, brand positioning, safety and risk management, menu options, and finances. Generating a detailed report of each of these areas can be invaluable in determining what is working well, what isn’t working so well, and what the next best step to take truly is.

The Logical Step after Assessment is Restaurant Consulting Services

While sometimes a simple assessment provides enough information to make the change that is needed, other times it is nice to receive the logical next step – which is having someone provide suggestions about how to fix the areas that are performing poorly. Turnaround management companies specialize in providing only as much assistance as is asked for, so you can just get an assessment and call it good, but you can also opt to receive consulting services and savvy suggestions for how to improve.

Turnaround Management to Assist the Financial End of Restaurant Success

If your restaurant is in trouble financially, utilizing the services of a turnaround management company can be your saving grace. From providing due diligence lender and acquisition services to being your court appointed receiver, bankruptcy industry adviser, examiner, and trustee, turnaround management companies typically provide full scale financial assistance services. This also includes borrower analytics in which a lender would like more information prior to negotiating concession.

Obviously, if you’re a restaurant owner, it’s critical to utilize a turnaround management company staffed with people who truly know and understand the restaurant industry. Managing a successful restaurant takes a specialized skill set and requires unique considerations which differ from other types of businesses. Therefore, you want to be working with restaurant professionals who have very specific areas of expertise – ranging from culinary operations to financial reporting and profitability. You want a team who is able to deliver specialized results from the top down or from the bottom up and obviously, you want to work with people who can provide the necessary guidance to achieve real results.

If your restaurant is struggling in any way or even if you simply want to make sure that things are running as smoothly and efficiently as possible, utilizing the services of a restaurant turnaround management company is the smartest way to go.

Why Restaurants Need Restaurant Management Groups

Achieving success in the food service industry doesn’t happen overnight, and it can be especially challenging into today’s economic environment. Many restaurant owners are struggling to make ends meet and even those managing well enough on their own can occasionally benefit from assistance. That’s where restaurant management groups come in – to provide whatever kind of assistance is needed to help you achieve success in the restaurant industry.

Restaurant Assessment and Consulting Services

Every aspect of your business affects the bottom line, and there are always ways to improve your operation so that it is more efficient and successful.  Areas where you can receive consultation assistance and advice include everything from changes to your décor or your menu to advice about your operations, profitability, and risk management.

You can get assistance creating marketing strategies, doing market research or positioning your brand, receive extensive assessments targeting operational areas in need of improvement, or even develop strategies that lower employee turnover by making your business a better, safer place to work.

If you’re considering franchising your restaurant or simply expanding to new locations, restaurant management groups can help you with your development and implementation strategy there as well, further rounding out the extensive list of positives to working with a restaurant management group. No matter which facet of your business you’d like to address, restaurant management groups can provide you with the expert assessment and consultation services that you need.

Assistance and Advisement for Matters of the Bank and Court

The kind of assistance you can receive from restaurant management groups isn’t limited to operational assessment and consultation. In fact, it’s dealing with troubling financial or legal matters that end up bringing businesses to a management group’s door more than anything. This is the case for good reason. A restaurant management group can provide you with such services as court appointed receivers, bankruptcy advisors, examiners and trustees, borrower analytics, and due diligence lender and acquisition services as well.

Turnaround Management Specifically Designed for the Restaurant Industry

Many business owners and executives don’t seek assistance until the situation is dire, and it’s at this point that the business needs more than consultation and advice – it needs full scale turnaround management.  The most effective way to do this is to take a comprehensive, bottom-up approach, strategically identifying and eliminating the factors that are inhibiting your business’s success. This type of comprehensive turnaround management is perhaps one of the most important services a restaurant management group can offer.

Furthermore, there are many turnaround management companies out there, but few who specialize exclusively in food service operations. Because the factors that affect the food service industry are unique, it’s of utmost importance to be working with management teams who specialize in all areas of food service operation.

Whether you’re a restaurant owner who just needs a little advice or a financial executive worried about a distressing restaurant obligation, restaurant management groups are the expertise you want to source. You’d be surprised how effective implementing just the right changes to your operations can be!

Restaurateurs Seek Help From Ramsey

Business magician and chef extraordinaire, Gordon Ramsay, has earned fame for showing others how to run a restaurant while his restaurant empire continues to grow.  Ramsay’s shows “Kitchen Nightmares” and “Hell’s Kitchen” are closer to soap operas than real life and, while entertaining, this celebrity chef could be doing a terrible disservice to restaurateurs around the world.  The general media has pegged Ramsay’s shows as “reality” television however, anyone in the restaurant business knows that Gordon’s success with struggling restaurants comes with a healthy dose of smoke and mirrors. 

Gordon provides expert advice and, oftentimes, costly equipment upgrades to his “Kitchen Nightmares” restaurateurs.  Although helpful, there are often problems that can’t be fixed with a makeover.  With over 30 restaurants and pubs throughout the US, UK, Australia and Europe, Gordon has his share of experience with opening, operating and oftentimes closing restaurants.  But can Gordon’s turnaround management strategies really help struggling business owners or is it merely “reality” television fluff?

Although Gordon has a successful restaurant concept and growing businesses worldwide, he has his share of struggle.  With several closures and talk of financial concerns it’s clear that a great chef, no matter how talented, needs more than good contemporary creative food to survive. That said, celebrities are not recession-proof, especially in the restaurant business.  While fame may have played a role in his early success, he’ll have to prove himself to be a true chef and business owner to keep customers coming in his doors.