In a culture so ritualized to tipping for service, where do you begin explaining to your guests that a 20% service cost has now been baked in to your menu pricing, but ensure them the service will remain unparalleled? How do you motivate your team members when tips are obsolete, yet that's all they've ever known in the business? What significance does this have on your hiring strategies, and how does it compare from the big guy in town to the little guy around the corner? To hear Ken's thoughts on tipping, the guest experience, staff motivation and the effects this ideal poses to the industry, tune in to this week's episode and get an insider's look on Hospitality Included.

In this episode of Operating a Profitable Restaurant, RSI Partner and Strategic Development Officer, Matt Vannini went back out to Washington to chat with Steve Habecker of Norm's Eatery & Ale House to shine a light on the cold hard truth that taking inventory is your restaurant management team's greatest ally, not their biggest foe. Norm's, coined after one of Steve's beloved Golden Retriever's, is a dog-friendly neighborhood bar located in the Fremont area of Seattle. Having both a full food menu as well as a full beverage list (meaning countless beers on tap at any given time), Steve has become a true maven on the value of consistent inventory. Want to learn the restaurant inventory management skills that will have you grinning like a kid with a Disney Fast Pass on a sunny day? Tune in and take notes from the pro himself.

Restaurants not only thrive during the summer period, they surpass all financial norms. When the weather is nice the people will flock and sales skyrocket. So how do you ensure in these times of excess, that you’re still executing to the highest standards and providing your guests with unparalleled service? In this episode of Operating a Profitable Restaurant, RSI Partner and Strategic Development Officer, Matt Vannini heads out to Seattle to chat with long time RSI users, Tom and Tessa Aydelotte of the Doc’s Marina Grills, about what it takes to achieve outstanding operational execution for your restaurant(s).

RSI's Matt Vannini takes a moment to chat with Adam Schlegel, Co-Founder of Snooze A.M. Eatery, about the top ways to enable your team members to find success, keep them motivated, and reduce your restaurant's turnover!

This month at RSI we’ve driven the main focus for all of our content towards managing the minimum wage increases that have already effected various states across the country. In today’s podcast we're going to look at the different options that restaurants have when covering the deficit of a wage hike. We'll extend our best tips on restaurant accounting best practices of: surcharges, menu price increases and labor scheduling.

This month at RSI we've been focusing our article, blog posts, podcast and webcast on the simple rules for effective restaurant cash management. In today's podcast we will review the simple rules on how to manage an investment of initial capital as well as working capital. We're then going to review the ongoing cash management strategies for building your own treasure chest!

This month at RSI we've been focusing on educating our clients on the value of creating a successful restaurant budget. Today's podcast is going to contain three short and informative sections. First, we'll review with you why we are so passionate about budgets. As we teach our clients to do when they are making decisions, we will utilize our Decision Making Triangle to drive home the point. From there we'll go over the simple steps that you will need to take in order to create a successful budget for your restaurant. Lastly, and most importantly, we'll discuss how to easily incorporate your budget into your restaurants' day in the life for your management team.