It's very possible to have a great restaurant that's a lousy business. One of the reasons independents, in particular, tend to have challenges in this area is that many people who own an independent restaurant may know a lot about running a restaurant but haven't developed the skills needed to build a successful business.

Think about the functions & skills involved in running a restaurant - management of the dining room & kitchen, menu planning & recipe development, purchasing, food preparation & delivery, customer service, hiring, staff training & development, facilities management, sanitation, etc. Now, consider the functions and skills involved in managing a business, any business - interpreting P&Ls & balance sheets, cash & financial management, business development, lender & investor relations, strategic planning & marketing, etc. It's easy to see that the knowledge and skills that might lead to the creation of a fabulous restaurant are quite different from those needed to manage and grow a successful business.

With the help of an outside advisor or CPA specializing in the restaurant industry you'll get proven insights and tools to help you better understand and manage the business side of your restaurant. With the assistance of an advisor you can create your own unique operating system. With an operating system in place, a restaurant becomes better organized, customers get more consistency, employees enjoy their jobs more and the restaurant is able to perform in a more predetermined, predictable fashion "without the owner having to be there all the time." Having a well-thought out and functioning operating system is one of the keys to creating a truly successful (and more valuable) business "and" a better life-style.

Another importing part of managing the business side of your restaurant is understanding "the numbers." Everyone knows the restaurant business is a "people" business, but it's also a "numbers" business. Success can't just be measured in terms of smiling, satisfied customers but also in the cold, hard realities of facts, figures and finances.

Harold Geneen, former Chairman of IT&T said, "The difference between well-managed companies and not-so-well managed companies is the degree of attention they pay to the numbers." While the numbers are certainly critical in any business, they are probably even more so in operating a restaurant. Dealing with perishable products, lots of employees and razor thin profit margins are just a few of the factors which leaves little room for error and the need to know where you stand, from a financial perspective, quickly and often. Only your numbers can tell you if your restaurant is performing the way it should be or not.



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