FINANCIAL: 6 Keys to Financial Independence for the Restaurant Business Owner
As an entrepreneur, it is your job to make sure that everything is going to run smoothly so that you will have an income earning machine. You have to strive to the point that your business gets into financial independence, meaning that you do not have to borrow money just for it to continue its operation. But, in order for you to achieve such a status, you’re going to have to do a number of things to get to that point. Here are some steps to help you set up investment goals to help your business flourish.
DID YOU KNOWS…
Remembering Stan Lee
Stan Lee, the legendary comic book writer and former editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics, has passed away. Born in 1922, Lee was involved in the creation of some of the most iconic comic characters in the world, including Spider-Man, the X-Men, Iron Man and Hulk. Lee eventually became the figurehead of Marvel, known and beloved by comic book fans around the world. Despite the decade-spanning popularity of Marvel Comics, it wasn’t until the 21st century that Lee’s work really became a money-making machine.
A Downunder Existential Crisis
Bunnings Warehouse, a hardware chain, has sent Australians in a tizzy after upending tradition and suggesting people put onions on the bottom of their sausages. One local headline read it “Threatens to Tear Nation Apart” and a TV anchor claimed, “This will ruin Australia.” The chain hosts fundraisers outside their locations and were afraid the onions would fall on the floor inside their buildings should the onions be on top. This, apparently, is a grave sin in Australia. In related news: Real World Problems seem to be at an all-time low in Australia and we’re super proud of them.
Grass Tables
We’re all about having fun and interesting décor to make your restaurant memorable and Instagram-friendly. But sometimes things… get weird. Case in point: an Australian restaurant, Grill’d, has been getting roasted online after covering their tables in grass. To make it worse, the sod is starting to yellow. The restaurant said they did it as a “healthy reminder of where our produce really comes from.” We wonder how many people started pulling the grass out, though.
IS A NO-CASH POLICY A FORM OF DISCRIMINATION?
Why it matters to you: Whose business do you block when you go digital payment only?
You wouldn’t have thought that a choice to eliminate cash might be perceived as a form of discrimination. Well, a recent blog on GrubStreet makes just that argument. The author asserts by eliminating cash as a payment option, you are precluding a whole universe of guests from accessing your restaurant. To the extent that the blog refers to children who don’t have access to the banking system, and world travelers hoping to avoid exchange fees, the assertion is true and it’s a worthy consideration. However, when she cites her experience with a homeless person trying to buy a cup of coffee the conversation becomes far more complicated.
While the hope is that all people are welcome in your restaurant, what is your responsibility to accommodate the public-at-large? This is the central question. Many of you would assert that blocking a homeless person from entering your business isn’t a bad thing. We hope this would cause you at least some pause from the standpoint of your own humanity, but we also understand your instinct to make your restaurant accessible and attractive to the widest audience possible. This is your decision and it’s becoming increasingly easy to reach the conclusion that cash is no longer king. What you have to decide is whether the consequences outweigh the benefits.
[Source: GrubStreet]
WHERE YOU AT?
Why it matters to you: A “no call, no show” is chance for managers to learn.
The dreaded “no call, no show” is among the worst-case scenarios that restaurant managers deal with every day. Sure, it’s the employee’s fault for not fulfilling their responsibility, but does the analysis end there? No, because for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. If you are being honest with yourself, you need to at least try to understand the employee’s motivation before you judge. You do this by asking yourself some questions. Is it habitual? Was the schedule clearly communicated? Was a time-off request denied? Did they try to tell a manager?
Yes, it’s easy to point to the direct behavior of staff and have scorn. We would encourage a default to understanding a bad choice by a staff member before responding to it. If you can honestly answer the four questions above in a way to demonstrates you did your job well, then it’s on the employee. However, if you post your schedules late or if your time-off request system is unreliable, then you have a chance to make them better and serve all of your employees better. That doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences for the offending employee, just that you use every confrontation to refine your own performance and be a better leader to your team.
[Source: Toast]
