Restaurant coach Donald Burns says owners fail because they manage for today instead of leading for tomorrow. He walks through eight questions to clarify your "why," then explains why startups need tactics first and established restaurants need strategy to scale.
I bet you've asked yourself a thousand times, why isn't my restaurant performing the way I want it to? Well, I'm here to give it to you straight. There's one core reason why your restaurant isn't living up to its potential. Stick around. And I'm not only going to reveal that critical flaw, but I'm also going to give you some actionable steps to turn things around. Let's get your restaurant from sucks to stellar. You ready? Hey, Donald Burns, the restaurant coach, author of the youe Restaurant Sucks trilogy and the creator of the Restaurant Coach Method. So, do you want to the real reason your restaurant sucks? It's the same reason most restaurants suck. It's the same reason a lot of businesses suck. You ready? You're not thinking like an owner, you're thinking like a manager. And do you know what the difference is? Managers are focused on the day to day operations of the business. Owners are really focused on the long term vision and growth of that business. Managers focus on tactics while owners focus on focus on strategy. So let's break this down in a way that you can understand and make sure you're taking some notes today. See, the word strategy comes from Latin from the word strata, which means army. Strategy is the art of planning and executing tactical moves in a battle to achieve a desired goal. Do you see the difference? Again, managers focus on tactics. Tactics are specific actions or steps that are used to achieve a goal. And it's a step by step instruction that you give your team to get a task done. Now, if you want to improve your restaurant and your life, you need to stop focusing on tactics and start focusing more on strategy. So if you want to know the real reason your restaurant sucks, let's begin. It's because you're not thinking like an owner. You see, you're making decisions from a short term mindset. You're focused on the day to day. You're focused on the month to month. If you're really forward thinking, you might be thinking quarter to quarter. But here's the thing, you're not focused on the long term game. Now that's not saying that you can't have short term goals and long term goals. You definitely need both. You need to focus on the day to day and you need to focus on the long term. The problem is that most owners focus on the day to day and they actually ignore the long term. And when you do that, your restaurant's doomed. You see, when you're focused on just tactics, you're focused on what needs to get done. You're focused on right now. And again, you need to focus on strategy, you need to focus on long term plans, you need to focus on the why. You need to focus on the dream. Again, restaurants are not created to make money. Money is a byproduct of something much more important. See, the real reason your restaurant sucks is because you don't have a clear understanding of your why. Now, your restaurant might be making money, but here's the thing. I mean, are you happy? Are you really, truly happy? If you're not, you need to dig deep and find out what your real purpose is for being in the restaurant business in the first place. And if you're not sure, then you need to ask yourself a few questions to kind of get you back on the path to discovering your why and your passion. So let me give you some easy questions that you should answer. Number one, why did you start your restaurant? Number two, why did you become an owner? Number three, why do you want to be in this business? Number four, what do you love about your concept? What do you love about your restaurant? Number five, what do you love about your brand? Number six, what do you love about your team? Number seven, what do you love about your guest? And number eight, what do you love about yourself? I mean, the answer to these questions will be different depending on what stage your business is in. And here's the thing, also, what you love about your business changes as you grow and mature. Your focus needs to adjust as well. And if you're just starting out and you're focused on just the long term, you're probably delusional. When you're just starting out, you focus on the day to day and use your long term goals to guide you. And your financial reports are going to help you set short term goals. Focus on tactics and the day to day when you're just starting out. Now, if you're in a comfortable position where you're making the money you want, then you have a chance to start focusing a lot more on the long term and your why. And you're also in a really great position to build a legacy, to really start scaling out your brand. This is where you can start thinking about adding new concepts, new, maybe opening more locations or maybe even franchising. You can start thinking about adding more revenue streams and becoming more of a hospitality brand or what we like to call a restaurant empire. And if you're in a comfortable position, then you need to ask yourself if you want to stay comfortable or if you want to become great. If you stay comfortable, you're always going to be stuck in a rut. Now if you want to break free and take your brand to the next level, then you really need to focus on strategy again, not the tactics. You need to focus on the long term game and not the day to day when you start getting comfortable. You need to stop thinking like a manager and he's got to start really thinking like an entrepreneur and an owner again. Hey, make sure to hit that like and subscribe button for more tools and tips. And if you're super serious about getting on the fast track to making more profits and not working in your restaurant as much and having a restaurant run your life, then then please join my new online community called TRC Vault. It's a great interactive place where we have interactive chats and we have restaurants from all around the globe. There's trainings going on, live trainings on weekdays, Fridays. We also have a group of experts you can ask questions to. And the most exciting thing is that there's challenges that are going to help you create new habits and you can use those challenges to earn points and exchange them in for courses inside my restaurant Coach University. Just head over to therestaurantcoachvault.com to join our beta group for free. In my next video, I'm going to share the three paradoxes that hold restaurants back from reaching their full potential.
If your restaurant only works because you work 80 hours a week, it doesn't work.
