This is the Ultimate Guide to Restaurant Management,

 

Knowing how to open a restaurant is challenging but it can be done by anyone,

Yet,

The key to making that restaurant successful is behind the whole management framework,

In this fully comprehensive guide, here is what you’ll get:

1. What is Restaurant Management
2. Restaurant Management Fundamentals
3. Restaurant Management Jobs and Salaries
4. The Operation Workflow
5. The Standard Operating Procedures
6. Restaurant Management System

 

If you want to learn how to make your restaurant successful by following the restaurant management best practices,

Let’s Rock!

 

 

What Is Restaurant Management

 

Restaurant Management is the process of maintaining the day-to-day operations at a high level of efficiency,

And while having great food quality and atmosphere can be some of the factors that could make your restaurant successful,

If your management system is not well implemented,

All the restaurants could fail,

Simply said,

Restaurant Management is what holds your restaurant alive,

And it is what could potentially make it grow over time,

But now,

To understand why is restaurant management important,

I want to share with you what it really involves and what you need to know as a restaurant manager.

 

What good restaurant managers do:

The answer is simply,

You need to implement a system,

And good restaurant managers have been doing this for many decades now,

The systems and framework that one could approach varies from concept to concept,

Yet,

There are some fundamentals that all highly successful restaurant managers do:

 

 

I know that sounds like a lot,

But we will go through each one of them in the following section,

By the end,

You will have enough knowledge about what it takes to master restaurant management

 

 

Restaurant Management Fundamentals

 

In this section, we will cover all the tasks you need to know to run your restaurant successfully,

That will include:

1. Revenue Management and Generation
2. Cost Control
3. Data Analysis and Performance Tracking
4. Sales and Marketing
5. Menu engineering
6. Inventory Control
7. Staff Management
8. Risk assessment

 

A. Revenue Management and Generation

One of the main tasks of any restaurant manager,

Is to bring profit to the operations,

And in most cases,

That will translate into the simple sales of food and beverage,

Yet,

Good restaurant Managers know that to generate higher sales,

Other factors should be taken into consideration,

That being said,

To manage and grow your revenue,

Here are some of the top tactics that high-performing managers use to scale their sales:

 

 

 

As if those tactics sound like they are coming from nowhere,

Don’t worry,

You will understand more about them with the following sections:

 

B. Cost Control

The other side of managing a restaurant’s finances is cost control,

And this is where most restaurants fail,

Costs can be high,

And if they are not managed properly,

You can run into situations where you could lose money,

Restaurants Costs that we should keep track of are the following:

 

 

 

C. Data Analysis and Performance Tracking

As mentioned earlier,

Tracking your restaurant’ performance is crucial for any manager for many reasons,

One of the main ones is to understand where is the restaurant positioned at a specific point in time,

And coming up with strategies to overcome any potential problems,

Data analysis is crucial in any business operations,

But in the case of restaurants,

It will allow you to track:

 

 

And with that information,

You will then be able to perform various forecasts regarding the occupancy and sales of your restaurants,

We are not covering forecasts in this article,

 

D. Sales and Marketing

I can’t stress how important Marketing is for your restaurant,

And while most restaurant managers do not put enough emphasis on this topic,

This is your opportunity to stand out,

And uses those strategies to increase your brand awareness,

There are three main goals when it comes to marketing,

1. Increase Your customer acquisition
2. Increase Your Customer Retention
3. Increase Your Customer Loyalty

 

And to achieve those goals,

There are many strategies out there that can help you out such as:

 

 

We have a full section covering restaurant marketing as a whole,

If you want to go deeper into that topic,

Go ahead!

 

E. Menu engineering

If you have never heard about menu engineering,

Let me put it this way,

In your menu,

Some items will be more popular than others,

And some will be more profitable than others,

So the best way to determine the popularity and profitability of your items,

And to come up with solutions and either redesign your menu or increase the profitability of some items,

Is to run a menu engineering,

And here is what it looks like:

 

 

There is 4 Classification:

 

STAR: High profitability; High Popularity

Plough Horse: High Popularity; Low profitability

Puzzle: High Profitability; Low Popularity

DOG: Low popularity; Low Profitability,

 

If you want to learn how to apply menu engineering strategies to your restaurant and download the spreadsheet,

Here is a full guide that covers all menu engineering strategies,

 

F. Inventory Control

The main goals of controlling your inventory are:

 

 

Sometimes you can fall into a situation where either,

You are losing money due to bad purchasing which increases the spoilage rate of your ingredients,

Or you can find yourself having sold fewer or more items than registered in your Point of Sale System,

In that case, you will need to find out the reasons behind those discrepancies and come up with solutions,

Here is a full guide on how to control your inventory,

 

G. Staff Management

Managing your staff is probably the most important task in restaurant management,

Because without proper staff management,

All of the other tasks will be useless as the internal service quality is the point in making your restaurant successful,

So here you should learn:

• How to keep your staff motivated
• How to be a Great Leader
• How to control staffing schedule

 

We have a whole section of restaurant staffing,

If this is something you want to learn,

Feel free to take a look at it,

 

H. Risk Assessment

There are many ways out there to assess risk,

Yet,

There are 4 main areas you want to focus on to make your restaurant successful:

• Competitors
• Consumer Behavior
• Valuation
• Policies

 

Let’s go ahead and start with the competitor analysis.

 

Competitors:

When it comes to competitors, you want to make sure you are analyzing the right one,

For that, you need to analyze only the direct competitors,

There is an article about the different types of competitors, you can go ahead and read It later on,

But for now, we only need to know about direct competitors

And those are the ones with the exact same concept as you,

Which means,

That your analysis of their results will better reflect your restaurant’s potential results.

And here is what you should look for when analyzing a direct competitor:

• Information about their concepts
• Average customers per operation
• Average check per operation (how much 1 person is paying)
• How long have they been doing business
• Information about their employees
• How well the business is doing financially
• What is their Competitive advantage
• If any failed, why?

 

Obviously, you can always gather more information,

Now another thing you want to consider,

What is the consumer behavior in that particular segment,

Let’s see how you can do that in the next section.

 

Consumer behavior:

Naturally, this is not easy,

Analyzing human behavior is always a big debate in society,

Yet you can rely on some insights to determine how is the consumer behavior in your segments,

And then the idea is to shape your competitive advantage around those behaviors.

Let’s look at the current situation,

Covid-19…

It had a huge impact on the whole planet,

But when it comes to consumer behaviour, we have noticed a couple of important changes:

• Life at Home
• Remote Working
• More Aware of Health & wellbeing
• Convenience is a priority
• Shopping and consumption patterns

 

Those are only a few ideas and they are way more changes that happened during the crisis,

Feel free to read this article that shows how the covid affected consumer behavior.

Now, why is this information useful?

You can now shape your operations around those behaviors,

And you will have a better idea of what kind of management systems to avoid,

Which ultimately reduces your risks of failing.

Now in the two sections, we will take a more macro-oriented look, and let’s start with the valuation.

 

Valuation:

Here I want you to know that there are a couple of metrics that give great insights into how a particular segment is doing.

I have put together this table that shows you different valuation metrics, and what they mean for your segment:

 

 

Analyzing these metrics requires a bit more financial knowledge, which you don’t need for this article,

However we have a whole section dedicated to that topic, so make sure to take a quick look at it.

There is one last factor that will tell us whether the segment is actually risky or not,

That’s all about the policies…

 

Policies:

This is unfortunately something that is out of your control,

Yet, it could be for the better or the worst,

You should always be aware of any policies or regulations that might affect your business,

So read and understand all the policies related to your business when it comes to:

• Location
• Taxes
• Accounting
• Food safety
• Licenses and permit

 

If you want to learn more about the policies of your area,

Check your local government policy website, you should find all the information there.

Now,

As previously mentioned,

I want this guide to be as valuable as possible for you,

So in the next section,

I will briefly share with you some of the current risks and challenges that you should watch out for.

 

Current risks and challenges :

Here are some of the current challenges that the restaurant industry is facing:

• Covid-19
• Waste management
• Employee management
• Supplier/Contractor management
• Costs Control
• Labor shortage
• Supply chain disruption
• Quality staff recruitment
• Product traceability
• Consumer behavior
• Poor digital Marketing
• Cultural barriers

 

And there are many more out there,

So make sure you go through the risk and segment analysis many times,

Now that you have an understanding of what restaurant management fundamentals are,

In the next section, we will talk about what kind of jobs restaurant management offers,

And what are their average salaries,

 

 

Restaurant Management Jobs

 

In this section, I’ll give you the job description of 6 restaurant management jobs,

As well as an idea about their respective average salaries in the US,

Let’s Rock!

 

A. Restaurant General Manager

a. Job Description

The Role of a restaurant’s General manager is to oversee the operations as a whole,

And that will include:

• Budget Management
• Staff Management
• Marketing strategies design
• Finance Management

 

Restaurant General Managers must ensure the profitability of the restaurant regarding its owners.

 

b. Average Salary

Restaurant General Managers in the USA have an average salary that ranges from 25.000$ to +300.000$ per year

 

B. Restaurant Floor Manager

a. Job Description

The role of a restaurant floor manager is to oversee the operation as it is happing,

He is the master of the service workflow,

That means that Floor Managers are the ones that oversee the workflow of the entire service,

Their roles include:

• Following the SOPs
• Overseeing the service workflow
• Managing and coordinating the staff
• Preparing the mise en place for the next operation
• Reporting to Restaurant General Managers
• Implementing upselling techniques
• Increase guests satisfaction

 

b. Average Salary

Restaurant Floor Managers in the USA have an average salary of 51.000$ per year

 

C. Restaurant Dining room Manager

a. Job Description

Restaurant Dining Room Managers’ main roles are the following:

• Overseeing the dining room experience
• Customer complaints management
• Ensure cleanliness of the dining area
• Increase customer satisfaction
• Make sure the service workflow is running properly.

 

 

b. Average Salary

Restaurant Dining Room Managers in the USA have an average salary of 45.000$ per year.

 

D. Restaurant Assisstant Manager

a. Job Description

Restaurants’ assistant managers’ duties are to provide assistance to floor and dining room managers,

That means that they will help them with their tasks whenever the operation is too busy,

That will include:

• Employees supervision
• Mise en place supervision
• Quality of service
• Customer complaints

 

b. Average Salary

Restaurant Dining Room Managers in the USA have an average salary of 41.000$ per year.

 

E. Restaurant Bar Manager

a. Job Description

Restaurant Bar Managers are the ones that will oversee the beverage operations,

This will obviously depend on whether your restaurant is offering a bar service or not,

But some of their roles include,

• Bar Inventory Control
• Reporting
• Sales control
• Staff management
• Mise en place
• Beverage menu in some case

 

b. Average Salary

Restaurant Bar Managers in the USA have an average salary of 45.000$ per year.

 

F. Restaurant Administration

If the restaurant has huge operations,

The General managers will have to delegate some administrative tasks,

To focus on running and expanding the restaurant as a whole,

Some of those tasks will all have a manager and their respective salaries are the following:

 

a. Marketing Managers

 

Restaurant Marketing Managers in the USA have an average salary of 69.000$ per year.

 

b. Finance Managers

 

Restaurant Finance Managers in the USA have an average salary of 90.000$ per year.

 

c. Project Managers

 

Restaurant Project Managers in the USA have an average salary of 88.000$ per year.

 

 

Restaurant Management: The Operations

 

Knowing how to operate a restaurant to make it successful is crucial

And In this section,

We will be taking a closer look at the operations themselves and here is what we will cover:

1. What are restaurant operations
2. Restaurant Operating workflow
3. Restaurant Operating metrics

 

What are Restaurant Operations?

When it comes to restaurant operations,

It refers to all the activities and tasks that are needed to run the business successfully,

It comes down to the quality of service and the workflow framework adopted to make each one of the shifts successful,

The main goals of having clear restaurant operating procedures are:

 

And to achieve those goals,

Some the of activities and tasks that will be carried out are:

• The service workflow
• The service standards
• Mise en place
• Purchasing management
• Stock control
• Complaints Management

 

The main actors that play in the operations of a restaurant are:

• The waiters
• Restaurant Floor Managers
• Restaurants Bar Managers
• Restaurant Dining Rooms managers

 

Now let’s take a closer look at what a proper operation workflow looks like,

 

Restaurant Operating Workflow

The restaurant Operating workflow refers to all the steps that the service team will have to achieve,

To carry out the operations successfully,

And while this will vary depending on many factors such as the concept, types of food…

I wanted to give you an idea of what an operating workflow framework could potentially look like:

 

 

Restaurant Operating metrics

Now,

If you remember we mentioned at the beginning of this guide that tracking performance is key to making a restaurant successful,

But how do actually track those performances?

Well, there are a couple of metrics that you dive into,

And they’re separated into 4 Segments:

1. Sales metrics
2. Costs Metrics and benchmarks
3. Marketing metrics
4. Operational Metrics

 

This is an article covering each one of those segments with their respective metrics,

If you want to learn more about those you could take a look at it,

Yet,

I will share with you those metrics,

 

Sales Metrics

 

Costs Metrics

 

Marketing Metrics

Operational Metrics

 

 

 

Restaurant Standard Operating Procedures

 

In this section, we will take a look at what SOP refers to,

Here is what we will cover:

1. What is SOP
2. Why does it matter
3. Resources on How to Write an SOP

 

A. What is SOP?

SOP stands for Standard Operating Procedure,

And this is a document that every business should have,

SOPs are documents that outline the steps required to carry out specific tasks while being in line with the restaurant’s values,

Implementing systems by using SOPs is crucial,

Especially when you want your brand to have high-quality standards that stay consistent over time,

You can implement standard operating procedures in a different department such as:

• Food and Beverage
• Marketing
• Finance
• Kitchen

 

And the main goal is to provide clear instructions about each department,

Where you outline how you want the specific job to be done,

And it has a lot of benefits,

 

B. Why does it matter?

Here are some of the reasons why implementing various SOPs within your restaurant is crucial:

 

 

C. Resources to write an SOP

Writing an SOP when you know your business is not a hard thing,

I have found a couple of resources that give great information about how to do it,

If you want to take a closer look at it,

There you have it:

• Lucid Chart
• Document 360

 

 

Restaurant Management Systems

 

In this last section,

I want to share with you a way that you can use to facilitate and automate some parts of your restaurant management process,

And this is by using Restaurant Management System,

Let’s go through:

• What are their features
• Benefits

 

A. What is Restaurant Management Systems?

Restaurant Management systems are software that helps you with the operation of your restaurant,

Sometimes managers can feel overwhelmed by the amount of work that must be done to get the restaurant to a certain level of success,

And restaurant management systems are here to make things easier and automate the workflow,

They can include:

• Inventory control
• Ordering system
• Reservation and capacity management
• Website management
• POS
• Kitchen Management
• Staff Management

 

B. Benefits

 

 

 

Summary

 

I hope you have enjoyed this Full guide on Restaurant Management,

You now have a good amount of knowledge to make your restaurant successful,

If you want to stand out from other restaurant managers,

You must go through each one of those sections deeper and get the most out of it,

But now,

What’s next?

After Becoming Restaurant Manager,

I wanted to learn how to become a real leader in the industry,

For that reason I suggest you go through this section where we have plenty of articles showing you how to become a leader,

That being said,

Stay Safe and See you Soon!