Have you ever heard of beginners luck?

You start out HOT – Life is GOOD… Everything is going GREAT… You can’t believe your LUCK…

Then get crushed – in the vice grip of life..?

This is what we are going to discuss today.

Does your restaurant have - TOO MANY customers - or not ENOUGH customers..?

I have discovered that most restaurants – HAVE BOTH..!

TOO MANY customers and NOT ENOUGH Customers

And that’s what we are going to talk about today..!

The older I get…

The more I realize – the importance of the simple – Important Things

The basic fundamentals… The bedrock of simplicity…

95% of restaurant owners are running around like a chickens with their heads cut off - And the top 5% are just chugging right along – executing the basics…

At a very high level - Making LOTS of Money – Living the dream…

Carl Jung said

The world will ask you who you are, and if you don’t know, the world will tell you.

Whether you realize it or not

The world will ask YOU this important question - many times - each and every day.

And you will answer it every time it is asked – whether you realize it or not.

Every person that you meet or come in contact with - In person, or on the phone or in cyberspace… via email or text or whatever… will directly or indirectly - give you an opportunity to answer this important question… and show who you are in that moment - by your words, actions and response…

Every situation you find yourself in… Will present you with a unique opportunity to answer these questions… And SHOW who your truly are…

Let's dig in...

Have you ever had a great idea… or made an important decision…

And decided 100% that you are going to do it – THIS TIME…

And that you will start first thing tomorrow..?

And then tomorrow comes and something happens

Life throws a wrench into your plans…

Maybe you are tired, or sick, or one of your people call in sick, or you have car trouble,

or you forgot an important appointment and your whole day gets thrown out of whack…

So you VOW to start tomorrow...

That’s what happens to 90% of all people… on this planet…

They have a GREAT IDEA – A GRAND VISION - AND THEY - get side tracked from what they REALLY want… and this happens Day after day, after day…

They never do the BIG IMPORTANT THING - And they settle for what they don’t want…

Well… that’s what we are going to talk about today…

A WISE MAN ONCE SAID…

A man who lacks purpose will distract himself with pleasure.

And – Sit me at the table where they are talking about self-improvement,

and achieving exciting goals— NOT gossiping about other people.

We are in the service business – we are here to serve others, BUT the coolest thing is…

When we give our best – we get more in return… than we give out.

Hospitality is a type of Love – when we give it out by the slice

It comes back by the loaf…

This week I had a revelation – a breakthrough –

And I am really excited to share it with you…

Every Restaurant has a Life Cycle…

Restaurants start out with a big splash… like a new baby coming into the world

Everyone LOVES – The NEW Thing… It’s Exciting.

Then, it goes through the toddler stage and the rebellious teen age period…

There is lots of strife between the young and the elders.

The Good & Great Restaurants make it through the strife and the turbulence.

Eventually become honed to Razor Sharpness

They achieve Peak Performance… These are the Glory Days…

No matter how good a restaurant is –

Eventually, for a thousand different reasons…

The sharpness will fade…

The restaurant will get passed, over taken by a newer, shinier Restaurant

Then it will begin the long slow - decline into oblivion… and irrelevance.

And slowly fade – to black.

The restaurant business like a giant oak tree…

With large branches growing off of a big solid trunk

And smaller branches growing off the big branches

and still other branches growing off those branches

And – we even have new branches that grow off the trunk from time to time…

When we look BACK at our industry – it is a labyrinth of interwoven parts - That kinda make sense –

BUT when we try to look forward – it’s IMPOSSIBLE to predict where this is all going.

BUT - that is what we are going to discuss today – I am going share with you

My thoughts on where I think the branches are heading so you can decide which part of this amazing business you want to be in… or at least start moving toward.

People ask me all the time – What should my labor cost be..?

That is a great question…

And that is what we are going to talk about today…