The Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide  and all our FREE Resources at https://www.makingdoughshow.com/resources

In today's episode, we are featuring a query from a fellow pizzeria owner in Muizenberg, Cape Town, South Africa, Anthony. 

According to Anthony, he established the Oven Baked Pizzeria in 2015 as a way to create sustainable funding for a Non-Profit he started in 2014. As far as the restaurant is concerned, they are hitting break even each month. However, running the restaurant does take up a lot of his time, and leaving less time for him to focus on Non-Profit.

So, I would like to give some quick tips on how to manage time in allocating multiple tasks or roles, the keys to the restaurant owner's freedom:

1. Develop leaders - If you are a business owner, you must train your people to become leaders who can make excellent decisions even without you. 

2. Audit your time - You need to understand where your time is going, what are those things that are taking much of your time that can be delegated.

3. Keep things simple - Be selective and focus on one project at a time so you won't complicate things.

The Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide  and all our FREE Resources at https://www.makingdoughshow.com/resources

In this special episode of Making Dough Show, we are answering a question from one of our avid podcast listeners, Rich, a Restaurant FOH Manager from Asheville, North Carolina.

Rich's query is about how to reduce mistakes when it comes to order-taking.

We all know that in the restaurant business, order accuracy is very critical. Inaccurate order can cause problems in restaurants.

Order accuracy is not only about providing excellent service, but it also concerns the customer's safety. For instance, some customers give special instructions because they may have allergies with a particular ingredient in the dish.

As part of our company's commitment to providing consistent order accuracy for our customers, here are some tips we can share:

1. Document all the FOH mistakes. What are the mistakes, and who makes the mistakes?

2. Conduct pop-quizzes as part of their training, specifically for Menu and POS knowledge.

3. Implement order-taking accuracy techniques:

4. Give consequences to those who commit mistakes:

Order accuracy is a crucial part of any restaurant's success story. Our employees need to know that what matters to us as restaurant owners or managers should matter to each and everyone in the company.

The Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide  and all our FREE Resources at https://www.makingdoughshow.com/resources

One of the main problems that torture the restaurant industry over the years is its high turnover rate. A lot of people in this business are not here for the long-term. It is a hard reality that every restaurant owner has to face.

In this special episode of the Making Dough Show, we are thrilled to have Jordan Boesch, the Founder, and CEO of 7shifts, as he shared his insights on how we can counter restaurant employees from leaving the workplace.

In this show, we also highlighted the role of technology in employee engagement, which is a critical aspect to keep people involved, committed, and enhance performance.

As the CEO of 7shifts, Jordan also shared his views on the importance of logging or documenting things in the restaurant regularly.

And lastly, we talked about the vision of 7shifts and how they are distinct from other companies that offer scheduling and labor management tools for restaurants.

>>> Special thanks to Jordan Boesch for this very informative interview.

The 7shifts is a labor and compliance management platform built to help restaurants schedule, evaluate, and communicate with their staff, founded in 2014. Boesch has led 7shifts into the doors of over 10,000 restaurants with the mission to simplify compliance and labor operations for restaurants.

For more info about Jordan and 7shifts, please visit their website: https://www.7shifts.com/jordan-boesch

The Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide  and all our FREE Resources at https://www.makingdoughshow.com/resources

February is almost over, and we are fast approaching the end of the first quarter of 2020! 

So in this episode, we are going to talk about March marketing and your gameplan. 

If you are thinking that you can grow your sales month after month, without a concrete plan, that's going to be a pipe dream! 

We got to be maximizing every opportunity to dominate our communities where we are located and grow our sales in different ways. 

Today, we are going over our Monthly Planner, particularly for March. Ultimately, if you take the time and fill out this planner, and put it into practice, you can map out your whole month with your various marketing strategies. 

By having a gameplan, whether it's your email marketing, social media, text message marketing, or on-the-ground promotions, you'll be able to find success. 

Use this planner to your advantage, bring it into action, and make some dough! 

#Restaurantowner #Restaurantmarketing 

The Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide  and all our FREE Resources at https://www.makingdoughshow.com/resources

When the cat's away, the mice will play.

Sometimes, it happens when people will do as they please in the absence of their supervisor or manager, especially in neglecting or breaking the rules.

As a restaurant owner or manager, did this ever happen to your operations?

Do you notice a shift in your operations or standards, whether you are there or not there? How about the performance of the team, does it change when your manager is present or absent?

We recently went through this season in our restaurant that whenever the manager is there, everything goes well and fast. The staff is out, and things are spotlessly clean.

But the moment the manager steps out of the restaurant, the team's standard suddenly goes down. It's as though people are quite not on top of it without supervision.

And this is quite alarming.

The Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide  and all our FREE Resources at https://www.makingdoughshow.com/resources

What is the best productivity advice you can give to a fellow business owner?

Today I have an absurd practical tip for you in increasing the productivity of your team.

We all know that in the restaurant business, efficiency is very crucial.

To ensure that we don't waste time and deliver our desired results, we have this one rule in our company that may apply to your team as well:

Never assign more than one person to work on a simple task.

When two people need to do a simple task together, the amount of time it takes doesn't decrease. It does not divide by two, but in fact, it multiplies by two.

The Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide  and all our FREE Resources at https://www.makingdoughshow.com/resources

How to walk purposefully?

A few days ago, our front of the house manager was talking to me about our team. She said, "Did you know that we need to teach our people how to walk purposefully?"

Puzzled, I asked her what she meant by that.

I got blown away with her answer. She stated that we must train our people on how to walk purposefully -that is to walk with urgency, walking with an awareness of their surroundings.

To walk purposefully is not about being rushed, nor ignoring details. It is about being laser-focused on a task at hand.

For instance, you need to read the body language of the customers in one table who probably need a to-go box. Or that other table is almost done as you bring them the check.

To walk purposefully is having to anticipate what the customers would require next and provide them with the service that is needed.

It is going to require an enormous amount of multi-tasking and presence of mind that our servers need to implement, and I admire my team for that.

Today, we are talking about one of the greatest sins in customer service. And that is complaining about your customers.

Have you ever caught yourself complaining about your customers in front of your people?

If you are the owner or the manager, or you are in a leadership position, it's a huge NO-NO!

No matter how demanding a customer can be, we should NEVER complain   babout them.

It has nothing to do with the customers, but what you do with the culture of your company.

It's about the practices of your company on how you deal with demanding or rude customers.

How you manage this kind of situation sets the tone for your whole team, how they roll their eyes because you roll your eyes.

You and I must remember the long term effects of the different attitudes, the gestures, or the words that come out of our mouth. It's because everybody is watching.

As they are watching you, your people will do what you tolerate. Just like parenting, they will do what you do, not what you tell them to do.

The Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide  and all our FREE Resources at https://www.makingdoughshow.com/resources

Working in the restaurant business can be very tough. The hours can be long and dull because the operation can be remarkably busy or too slow. It's exhausting.

As restaurant owners, what can we do to overcome the stress and make things easier for us in managing our business?

Apply the 80/20 rule.

Here's my question for you:

What is 20% of the different aspects of the restaurant business that is going to have an 80% impact?

For instance, what is 20% when it comes to your marketing?

What is 20% of your menu offering? Or management?

What is the 20% when it comes to things you're stressed about and your frustrations?

What is going to have the most impact?

What problems can you solve that will have an 80% impact instead of solving little problems with no outcomes?

If you find yourself completely stressing over too many details in your business, you are solely putting your health and your team in a disservice.

Stop stressing over things that nobody cares about. It's perfectly fine to relax and stay calm. Don't get too overwhelmed with so many issues that you may be dealing with.

Be disciplined. Dedicate your time and energy in solving problems that are going to have a tremendous impact on your business.

The Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide  and all our FREE Resources at https://www.makingdoughshow.com/resources

Our people are the greatest asset of our company. That's why it is imperative to create effective retention strategies that will keep our staff in our restaurant.

In today's episode, we are sharing with you, our best strategy to make our people stay with us - hosting weekly meetings with our team.

As a business owner, you must realize that the performance of your people at work can be heavily influenced by what they are going through with their personal lives.

There are five reasons why having weekly meetings are vital in managing your restaurant staff:

1. It is a simple way of gathering some intel.

2. It helps you check the pulse and the health of the team.

3. It allows you to cast the vision of your company.

4. It is an excellent opportunity for you to give feedback in a casual setting.

5. It is notably relevant for receiving feedback from your team.