You Have Skills to Run Restaurant Kitchens!

Do You Have Skills To Own One?

Chefs Turned Restaurant Owners Need These Skills!

 

For a Chef to be a successful restaurant owner, they need to be good at running a business. He or she should always be thinking about how to make delicious food while also being cost-effective.

I know from experience as a chef who has launched restaurants that having skills outside of the kitchen are the critical elements of a startup’s success or failure.

If you are a chef and want to open a restaurant, you must also be business savvy. You must know just as much about the cost of goods sold and profit and loss statements, as you know about menu development and plate presentation.

Because the finance side can get so many restaurant owners in trouble, it’s essential to know the business skills that chefs need if they want to run their business successfully.

Chefs Turned Restaurant Owners Need These Skills!

Administrative

Budgeting

Business Acumen

Business Sense

Computer Skills

Conceptual Thinking

Control Labor Costs

Cost Control

Cost Reduction

Customer Service

Food Pricing

Food Safety

Food Regulations

Food Science

Food Service Management

Hiring

Inventory Management

Inventory Rotation

Kitchen Management

Local Foods

Ordering

Operations

Product Selection

I’ve highlighted some of the most critical tasks below.

Chefs need to keep an eye on negative or positive trends in revenue and operating expenses; specifically, the income generated from food and beverage sales, as well as expenditures tied to payroll and other operating outlays such as rent, taxes, utilities, and supplies. Many industry experts recommend preparing P&L reports each week, if possible. It makes it easier to study results for months or years.

Many Chef and restaurant owners have found themselves in debt due to their inability to stick to a budget. Others fail because they have no budget.

During your startup phase is where you should establish your budget. Utilizing a budget to monitor and control expenses is essential. Even more important than tracking expenses, a budget allows you to project profits based on customer purchases.

By estimating how much revenue and profits your business will produce in a given month, you will be in a position to handle unexpected costs kitchen repairs or promising investments, such as opening a catering service. Without having a budget as a point of reference, your restaurant could be in for a disaster, and you would have no idea.

Food and labor costs take up 50%–75% of a restaurant’s total sales, and food outlays alone can account for 28%–35%. To keep a restaurant’s food cost needs to be a regular analysis must be performed, and all percentages must be calculated accurately to be useful. Once you have identified your food and labor cost figures, they can be in line with industry averages. You can have the most popular restaurant in your neighborhood, but if your food costs are out of control, it doesn’t matter.

Marketing: You must take control of your marketing strategy, and a great place to start is online. Manage your reputation by encouraging happy customers to post positive reviews, respond appropriately to negative feedback, utilize social media, and search engine optimization (SEO).  Try different marketing avenues; don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. Most marketing specialists recommend a varied approach, but you don’t have to break the bank to reap the benefits of a diverse advertising strategy.

Performance Evaluation: Assessing the output of employees, departments, and the organization as a whole should be done regularly to see where improvements are necessary.  You must have a strategy for measuring your employee’s performances. It doesn’t have to be a rigid system. There are many ways to introduce an evaluation system that fits well with the existing culture of your restaurant.

 

Finally, having a set budget is possibly an essential element of all as it creates a foundation for the business and a benchmark for measuring its performance.

All of these tasks are in my

Seven-Step Restaurant Success Plan.

You Are One Decision Away From Learning How to Start a Restaurant!

What Are You Waiting For?