The food service industry caters to a universal need of humans – to be nourished. However, the way food appeals to humans isn’t at all universal. Mankind is a diverse group and there isn’t one particular operation of food service that could satisfy this diversity. This is one reality that aspirants in the restaurant business find difficulty to accept. Many hopefuls think they can catch everyone, but such efforts end up in failure. Trying to cater to everyone results into not being able to cater to anyone at all. It is best to just concentrate on a small part of the market, say ten percent or so, this way, you can offer the best service for that part of your choice. This is done by doing a market analysis – the study of the potential target market.

The senior market is composed of people who are 65 years or older. Seniors generally live on fixed incomes, from their pension or sustenance by relatives, and thus have a rather inflexible spending power. Most seniors usually go to family-oriented eating places such as lunch buffets because they offer good food and services at affordable prizes. Less active seniors usually prefer smaller portions as they may have smaller appetites. When targeting seniors, it is best to make them special by offering senior promotions, or lowered rates. You can also market your restaurant as senior-friendly by emphasizing safety features such as ramps and handlebars.

The late adult market is composed of people aged 50 to 64. They are usually the ones who are experiencing the empty nest syndrome, where grownup children have left the home. This market usually has the most stable financial status as they could be in the most advanced stages in their careers. At this point, price usually doesn’t matter. This is the age when people start trying to really enjoy life and its pleasures. So the main concern is good food and service. When targeting this market, it is good to present your restaurant with elegance and sophistication. It would be wise to invest more on ambience and class.

The middle aged group is composed of people who are around 40 to 50 years old. This are very productive years as most executives and prominent career persons fall in this market. Money is rather plentiful and thus spent with more generosity. In this age, people are quite fond of trendy and high-end, fine dining restaurants. Many people in this market already have grandchildren and thus this is also good for family-friendly eating places which that are more formal than those frequented by the senior market.

The young adult market consists of people in their mid twenties to just before reaching middle age. This is an age of great effort for established families. The main concern here is enjoying children and keeping a good relationship with them. People belonging in this market usually look for eating places that are conducive for bonding with their children. Places that offer food fast, and with bigger quantities such as family brunch buffet restaurants which are big hits for this market. It is important to offer comfort and a laid-back ambience for this type of market.

The young market comprises of those in their early twenties and younger. This is probably the most diverse market. The main concern of people in this market is instantaneous gratification with low prices. This is the primary market for the fast food industry. A good strategy for this target market is keeping updated with the latest trends and offering food services in association to what is “cool” and “hip”.

Bill McRea is the publisher of Knowninfo a premium website dedicated to providing Information, Marketing Strategies and several great informational eBooks like How to Start a Successful Restaurant Business. Visit our site daily for updated information, and unique products.

To learn what type of licenses and permits you will need for the area your business will be located in, you need to talk to your county or city clerk. You will also want to check out the zoning ordinances and sign regulations that may apply to the type and location of your business.

Before you even think about obtaining licenses and permits, you will need to apply for a Federal Employer Identification Number or EIN. You can do this by visiting the IRS website. They will ask a few questions and you will be issued an EIN. This number identifies you to the government (IRS) as a business owner. Everyone who owns a business must have an EIN.

Below are some of the licenses and permits that you may need for your restaurant business.

1. A License for Business– Depending on your restaurant business location, you may be charged a percentage of your gross sales, or a simple yearly fee to operate your business.

2. A Food Handler’s License or Permit– This is necessary for the selling of edible goods. Each state and county have their own set of rules and amount of fee charged. You will be inspected regularly by health inspectors to make sure you are running a clean restaurant business.

3. A Liquor License– having a liquor license will allow you to sell alcohol. It is essential to have one if you plan on selling any alcohol in your restaurant business. The type of license you apply for will depend on what sort of alcohol your restaurant will serve. Many states will require that you obtain a one license for beer, another for wine, and yet another for hard liquor. The state only allows a certain number of liquor licenses for an area. If none are available you, you will need to purchase the license from someone who already has one and is willing to sell. These can be renewed yearly, unless you have committed an illegal offense such as, selling liquor to a minor, or selling liquor you do not have a license for.

4. A Sign Permit– Before you put up any signs for your restaurant business, contact your city officials to see if there are restrictions on the type of sign, size, location, and how the sign is lit. You should also get written approval from your landlord before you put up any sort of sign.

5. A Music License– Any establishment that plays copyrighted music, will need one of these. Whether you have a band, DJ playing CDs, or Karaoke. The fines can be steep for not having a music license. They usually run from $5,000 to $20,000, so it’s a good idea to obtain this license.

6. Fire Certificates– You will undoubtedly be inspected by the fire department before you open your restaurant business. They will educate you on all regulations you will need to follow, and will do routine inspections on your business. Other permits you may need include: a Police Permit, a Sellers Permit (allows you to buy wholesale goods without paying sales tax), and a Building or Zoning Permit.

The laws and regulations of any area are subject to change, it will be important to join your local and National Restaurant Association. Keep informed on the changes in local government also.

Mario Churchill is a freelance author and has written over 200 articles on various subjects. For more information on how to open new restaurant checkout his recommended websites.

Selling your restaurant requires quality prior planning if you are going to realize the maximum value for the business. This planning is not much different when getting out than when you first got into that business.

What things did you look for when you bought your restaurant? Of course, profit was probably the key consideration, followed by a great location, a niche market, a solid system of operations, and a vision for growth. Aren’t these the same things you need to concentrate on if you are going to market your operation to someone else?

A strong focus on the basics, about twelve months prior to getting out of your operation can take you from where you are at now, to a maximum market value. Let’s look at some of the top areas you may wish to concentrate on right away:

1. Bookkeeping. A clean, organized and understandable set of financials are critical to the sale. A close friend once said, “A business with no profits on paper has no value”, and this statement is close to being very true. You will want to show where your income came from, what you spent on expenses, and what kind of cash flow exists. If you cannot show these numbers, all the profit in the world will not make any difference to a buyer if you cannot prove it. A professional accounting firm can give you feedback on how to structure your systems.

2. Profits. You simply must be profitable and there are ways to do it. By concentrating on your highest cost areas such as labor, food and beverage, you can make good headway by making your purchasing more efficient, watching your inventory levels, and what you are charging for your products. Obviously profit generation is a very large topic and worth looking at closely. Have you had an operations analysis done on your business recently? A restaurant consultant can conduct this analysis inexpensively and give you a list of things to work on.

3. Location. This includes making sure you have a lease that is of value to your prospective buyer, or terms on the real estate that will provide enough profit for the buyer at the end of each month. Imagine the interest level of a buyer who finds out that you have only 4 months left on the lease. Hard to get too excited about that, especially when most states require certain minimums on the lease terms if you are selling a liquor-beer-wine operation.

4. Appearance. Just like a home that needs “Street appeal” to get buyer interest, your restaurant is the same way. Fresh paint, neat landscaping, clean windows, an organized office, a clean kitchen…you get the idea. Put a checklist together of what you will get done each month, and by month twelve, you will have completed the list.

5. Legal. If you operate as a corporation, would you consider selling the stock in your corporation to the buyer, allowing you to simply walk away? For some sellers, this option may make sense. Seek the services of a qualified attorney on how best to structure your business for a future sale. While one structure may work for one type of operation, it could spell financial disaster to another. This is a good time to seek professional legal advice.

6. Staffing. If you have been running the operation on your own, doing a lot of the work yourself, are you simply selling a “Job” to the new buyer? Think about what your buyer will be looking for and set up your systems now for maximum value in the near future. You will want to hand over a smooth running, fully staffed, profitable operation to a buyer. Now, what the buyer will do will be anyone’s guess!

So far, we have concentrated on a twelve-month exit plan. What if you need to get out of your restaurant quickly, like thirty or sixty days from now? If your need is that pressing to get out of a business, you will undoubtedly have your reasons for this pressure. An immediate lack of profit, a terminated lease, costly repair problems or something else is triggering this pressure.

You will be hard pressed to realize the maximum price for your business if you are a desperate seller. It makes sense at this time to enlist professional services of a restaurant consultant to walk you through your options, and how you can get the maximum value out of the operation.

Should you simply hand over the business sale to a realtor or broker to sell? Not right away if you want the maximum long-term value. Prior planning, a vision for what type of transaction will best serve your purposes, and consulting advice on how to squeeze every last dollar out of that operation are all critical components of getting your just rewards.

Kevin Moll is a noted author and President of Restaurant Consultants, Inc. Specializing in restaurant startup ventures and troubleshooting, his services are available worldwide. He can be reached at 1-800-961-6005 or through the Internet at http://www.restaurantconsultant.org

Increasing sales volume (getting more customers to your venue)
Increasing price (put up your prices on your menus)
Cutting costs (decrease your food, beverage and wage costs)
Increasing the average spend (get your customers to buy more every time they buy of you)
Combining price and sales volume will no doubt post increased revenue. Cutting costs will also result in savings.

Restaurant marketers (ie you the business owner or manager) mistakenly assume that the only means of increasing sales is to net more customers. While its true that selling to more people will definitely make your sales go up, there can also be several other, more innovative ways of increasing turnover, such as increasing frequency of sales to the same customer or making higher value sales to him/her.

It does follows that turnover also increases when customers spend more each time they buy from you (increasing spend) and when they do it more often (increasing frequency). McDonalds used this technique to great aplomb when it taught its sales force to prod customers with the seemingly innocuous poser: “Would you like fries with your burgers, please?” A simple question like that, marketers testify enabled the snack food giant to increase its turnover worldwide by $19 million a day!

Hence the four variables that impact sales in any business are:

1. The Prospects -, i.e. the number of people who express an interest in doing business with you (people that call you or look at your website etc…)

2. The Conversion Rate, i.e., how many actually buy from you and become your customers

3. Their Average Spend, i.e. the average amount that each customer spends when they buy from you.

4. Number of Transactions or Frequency of Sales – The number of times, on average, that customers buy from you in a year

If we were to express these four variables as a mathematical equation, it would look somewhat like this:

Sales = Prospects X Conversion Rate X Average Spend X Number of transactions

Clearly, sales can be increased by improving any combination of these four variables. Now let us examine each of these sales drivers more closely.

Increasing Sales, i.e. Increasing Conversion Rates
Buying decisions are seldom made on the first contact. In fact, according to the National Sales Executive Association, US, you can increase your sales by up to 80% simply by following up on the same, old customer!

Here are some statistics from their survey:

2% of sales are made on the 1st contact
3% of sales are made on the 2nd contact
5% of sales are made on the 3rd contact
10% of sales are made on the 4th contact

This implies that 80% sales are made on the 5th-12th contact! In other words, that’s the amount of time, energy and resources that you have to spend on ensuring full conversion rate from every prospect!

Increasing your conversion rate can increase sales substantially, especially if you are starting from a low base. So how many pieces of marketing do you need to send from your restaurant?

Increasing Frequency
This is by far the most powerful sales driver. You have already attracted and converted a prospect. A more formidable challenge is selling to the same customer over and over again. This is well worth your time and effort as research indicates that it costs six times more to attract a new customer than it costs to re-sell to someone who has bought from you before. So, even if you are unable to sell to the same customer, do lot of and cross selling. Turn him/her into your brand ambassadors and through him/her sell to his/her friends, family and colleagues.

Increasing Spend
In marketing parlance, this would imply up-selling. The Average spend from a customer can be increased both by cross-selling and up-selling. Cross selling simply means selling customers a different but related product, in addition to what they asked for. This is as simple as up selling to a more profitable and higher prices menu item.

Increasing Price
Realizing that the increasingly affluent and demanding consumer now comprises a very large spending force at the top end in all developed economies, clever restaurateurs have subtly began to increase price on the same value of product. This strategy is being effectively deployed across sectors in the food and beverage industry. Price increase however is a risky strategy and should be resorted to only when there is a perceived (if not real) enhancement in the value of the product in the consumer’s mind. This can very effectively be done through a media blitz, before and after announcing a price hike that presents you as a very exclusive, well differentiated brand from the low-priced, run-of-the-mill competing products.

Restaurant Marketing Ideas is the most comprehensive restaurant marketing toolkit available for your business and is packed full of pre-designed, ready to go marketing promotions to dramatically increase sales to your restaurant, café or hotel.

http://www.squidoo.com/restaurantmanagementtoolkit

Once you have the “right” person hired, there are some key things that you should keep in mind.

1. Develop a training schedule. Unscheduled training will lead to extra hours and lower productivity. Explain daily objectives for each trainee and trainer. Create a training program and checklist. Have the trainee and the trainer sign off each shift that the objectives have been completed. This also helps to ensure that they trainee is staying on schedule and your training is consistent. Keep the sheets in the staff’s file in the office.
2. Provide a free meal each shift to each trainee. Allow them to order from certain sections each shift. This will give them a chance to try different items. Example: Day 1 – Apps, Day 2 – soup/salads, Day 3 – mains… How do you expect them to sell the items if they have never tried them? “Oh, I’m sorry, I’ve never tried that.” Would you order it?
3. You need to compensate the trainer as their productivity will be lower. They will not be able to take as much of their normal workload. Less tables for them = less money. See if giving a free meal to the trainer is enough compensation for training vs. extra hourly. If not, perhaps you could let them make their own schedule the following week. Look for something that they will find a bonus, without costing you extra dollars. paying them more is an option, but the most expensive option.
4. Document the training. This will save you piles of money if you end up in Labour Court down the road. See point number 2.
5. Spend some time explaining to new staff that you understand they will make mistakes and this will cost the store money. You expect mistakes, but excessive, unnecessary mistakes will not be tolerated. Explain the cost of everyday items to the staff. Example: This plate costs $32.50, this knife, $2.87, this napkin $0.04. Restaurant/bar staff seem to think that the store makes about 80% of every dollar sold. Explain that the average net income is about 5%. When they sell a dollar, the store makes a nickel.

Again, you will always be hiring and training. Sure, May and September are the busy times for turnover, but if you have a system in place and a plan…you should be good. Remember that they want to work for you and they want to be trained. When they are trained properly, they are less likely to quit and go and work for your competitor.

Top Shelf Consulting has been helping Ontario restaurants increase profits since 2000. Specializing in Menu Engineering, Cost Controls, and Service Selling, Top Shelf offers both one-on-one consultations as well as full-day seminars.

Check us out at http://www.topshelfconsulting.ca

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Since the creation of food service waiters and servers have been pouring coffees, teas and sodas for their customers. A tradition of service that dates back as far as history records serving food.

Nothing new for today’s restaurant diner except maybe a bit more variety in the choices of drink. And with servers and waiters vying for more and more tip income it only stands to reason that they are pouring more and more free refills.

So where is the problem? Your customers are getting better service and your wait staff is getting better compensated. All looks good on the surface.

But the question arises, are you getting paid for all those drinks, sodas and coffees? You certainly are paying for all the ingredients. Do your sales reflect the prices that should be charged?

The Need to Control Server Prepared Drinks

But what happens when the server forgets to ring up the soft beverage? Your servers and waiters are already pouring the same amounts of soft beverages so your food cost takes a hit. If they don’t ring the drink to begin with (even if by mistake) then you are out the income that is supposed to offset the heavy pouring that is already taking place.

What you need is a way to enforce the ringing of at least 1 beverage/drink per person ordering food. Sounds simple, but not all point of sale systems can do this.

The Solution to Control Server Prepared Drinks

Some restaurant point of sale system have a feature that will allow you to establish items on your menu that will require a beverage, beer or drink be rung to match. For instance, you can set entree’ items to require a beverage, beer or drink be rung to match. Of course, your software company should make a provision that a “No Drink” button be on the screen for those rare instances when a person doesn’t even have a water to drink.

Prior to sending the order to the kitchen the software will scan the ticket to verify that items requiring a beverage do have a corresponding item. If not the software should display a warning message prompting the server to ring the appropriate item before allowing them to proceed.

If the guest does not want a soft beverage or simply wants a water then the appropriate key should be depressed, this will then allow the order to proceed. Management should inspect the nightly sales reports to observe how many “No Drinks” or waters are being served by each server. If one server seems to be out of line with the others then a problem may have been discovered.

The Benefit To You

The benefit to you is simple. You get paid for what is served.

The cost to you is nothing extra. You are already paying for the beverages being served. You are just not getting paid for them.

Take a look at what you could be loosing right now.

• $1.50/Drink
• $90/Mth 2 Drinks/Day
• $135/Mth 3 Drinks/Day
• $180/Mth 4 Drinks/Day
• $225/Mth 5 Drinks/Day
• $270/Mth 6 Drinks/Day
• $2.00/Drink
• $120/Mth 2 Drinks/Day
• $180/Mth 3 Drinks/Day
• $240/Mth 4 Drinks/Day
• $300/Mth 5 Drinks/Day
• $360/Mth 6 Drinks/Day

Mistakes happen. Items are left off the ticket and after the customer is gone it is too late to recover. Your restaurant point of sale system should help reduce your loss by reminding your servers and waiters to properly ring all soft beverages, beers and drinks.

About the Author

Jerry D. Wilson is Director of Internet Sales for DirecTouch Restaurant Point of Sale. 25 years of hospitality experience has given the knowledge to write several articles about restaurant point of sale software and how it can enhance your restaurant or bar operation. Please visit DirecTouch Do It Yourself Restaurant Point of Sale or DirectRetail Do It Yourself Retail Point of Sale for more information.

Kevin Moll, a national restaurant consultant says, “A restaurant owner’s number one priority should be the marketing and promotion of their business. If your guests don’t know who you are and where you’re located, you’ll never have a chance to show them how great your business is”. According to Moll, the trick is to avoid direct competition, fill your unique niche and let your guests know in no uncertain terms that they’re special by giving them what they want. “Easier said than done, but I’ve found a few methods that have proven themselves highly effective over the years” says Moll. Here are some techniques that restaurant owners and managers can employ to set themselves apart from the competition.

BRAND YOURSELF WITH A GREAT BUSINESS NAME–
The branding of your business is an unwritten guarantee of quality in the eyes of your guest. When making a dining decision, “Guests have expectations that must be fully delivered upon,” says Moll. “Everyone wants to make a good choice when going out to eat, and it makes logical sense to deliver more than what they’re expecting”. Great food and great fun is a combination that usually results in lines out the door. As such, “The goal of every operator should be the clear branding of who you are, what you offer and what makes you unique”. Moll notes that your business name should, to a great degree, reflect who and what you are.

ENSURE A COMPLETE EXPERIENCE THAT’S SERVED WITH PASSION–
Offer your guests things they can’t easily get anywhere else, served by passionate people. ”That’s the whole story,” says Moll. Promoting and serving premium quality and unique products, offering a larger than normal choice of beverages, making sugar free and low carb options available, and staying on top of emerging trends will help set your operation apart from the others. However, your employees are, “Where the rubber meets the road” says Moll. “Hire passionate people that care about what they do, and that have a real desire to please others” is key. “Your people don’t care about mission statements, profit margins or market position” Moll states, adding, “They want a sense of purpose, a clear goal to shoot for every day, and the recognition of accomplishment. When an employer can successfully offer an employee a sense of purpose and meaning, that employer will quickly outpace the market in share, sales and profits as evidenced by the amazing growth of Starbucks”.

MAXIMIZE INCOME BY CREATING ADDITIONAL REVENUE STREAMS–
“A restaurant owner must offer the right thing at the right price at the right time in order to maximize revenues” Moll says. “This can include packaged goods to go, selling various retail items, offering carry out and drive through services, value packaged meal deals, food and beverage combos, entrée and dessert specials, seasonally theme-based food items, special kid meals and anything else that your guests want to buy”. A recent study by Bain & Co. revealed that the average business looses more than half of its customer base every four years. In light of these facts, Moll encourages operators to look at selling more than just food and beverage items. “Why limit your sales opportunities to just menu items?” asks Moll, “When at the end of the day, one dollar looks the same as another regardless of where it came from”.

OWNER DEDICATION AND ATTENTION TO THE BUSINESS–
“We found that more than one-third of all restaurant guests have dietary needs and restaurateurs that filled that niche generally do well” Moll notes. “The engagement point between what guests need and the owner’s direct and focused attention on those needs results in loyal diners that come in more frequently, and that’s key to building sales”. He adds, “Plus patrons like to see a regular face that cares about them—that’s why this is called the hospitality industry”. Owners that deliver true hospitality are those that enjoy the rewards of what Moll calls the most competitive business on earth.

BE UNIQUE AND DIFFERENT–
Don’t waste your time trying to block your competition when you can avoid it, Moll advises. Carving your niche in the market and laying leadership claim to that market will clearly set you apart from the other dining options, and can turn a hum-drum restaurant meal into a dining experience says Moll. The result of niche marketing is that you stand out from the crowd and because you’re offering better quality products in a unique setting, guests see your operation as something special. Niche restaurants are usually the most profitable and those that have market leadership positions must constantly look to further exploit that niche. As Jack Welch notes, “Today’s niches are tomorrow’s big things”. Regardless of how you get there, the objective is clear: To be the restaurant of choice.

LOGIC MARKETING–
After a new restaurant opens, operators usually get caught up with the daily demands of running their business. Moll suggests taking the time long before opening to determine which marketing efforts are worth the time and money. He adds, “Relevant and interesting menus, excellent signage, holiday promotions, guest e-mail or mailing list, a quality web site, personal relationships with local hotels and related business partners, excellent media contacts, and giving back to your community are all simple basics of marketing your business”.

_______________________________________________________________________________

For More Information:

Kevin Moll

Office: 1-800-961-6005 Mobile 1-720-363-0164

http://www.restaurantconsultantsinc.com

Inventory Control

How well you control your inventory may well be the most important aspect deciding your restaurant’s future. If you allow costs to spiral out of control and make poor decisions as far as choosing what menu items to serve and their ingredients, your restaurant won’t last very long. However, you can maintain stringent control over your inventory and costs with a proper food costing and inventory program. This type of program will allow you to keep track of your inventory, monitor item pricing and specification, verify prices, check invoices against orders, create recipe cards, monitor taste and yield, scale recipes, cost your menu by category, evaluate item popularity and profit margin, calculate actual food and bar costs and compare actual versus projected costs. A good costing software program will allow you to reduce your food costs by 8% or even more.

Leasing

Leasing your restaurant equipment may be a good option for some restaurants. Leasing does not require large down payments and the lease can be extended for long periods of time. Leasing may be advantageous to help control the startup costs of a new restaurant.

Efficiency

The proper management of your restaurant will also be key to your restaurant’s success. You will need to make use of a professional point of sale system, as well as an accounting system. Automation in the ordering process can increase efficiency and reduce confusion for employees. The more efficient your restaurant runs, the better chance at success you’ll have.

Advertising

Word of mouth is said to be the best advertising you can get, it’s also free! Offering great food and great service is the best way to attract great word of mouth advertising and loyal customers, but when getting started, you shouldn’t ignore other methods of advertising including the old, reliable yellow pages, large Internet directories, local circulars and newspapers, coupon offers and more local advertising options. Test all paid advertising carefully to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth, and if it’s not bringing in business, drop it.

In summary, control those costs and get efficient and you will be on the road to long term restaurant success.

Lydia Quinn writes for R & I Solutions, makers of Cost Genie restaurant costing software. Get a free demo at: http://www.costgenie.com

During peak times, many people don’t like having to wait 15 or 20 minutes for a table to open up in a restaurant. They will likely go somewhere else instead of waiting around. However, if you offer alcohol, a high percentage of them will decide to enjoy a drink during that wait period instead of eating at a different location.

Most restaurant owners will tell you that they sell a large amount of alcohol. They will also tell you that they are able to sell it for a substantial profit too. Many restaurant owners have come up with a good solution to slow times with alcohol too. They can offer buckets of beer at 5 pm so an after work crowd shows up. They can also offer great specials on drinks and appetizers during the afternoon so that people will be enticed to drop in.

It can be an added expense for your restaurant to offer alcohol though. You will have to purchase the supplies to make a variety of different drinks. You will also need the machinery to mix them and the glasses to serve them in. This could result in one more supplier to deal with too as you won’t be able to get your alcohol from the same supplier that you get the food ingredients from.

The only way that you are going to get your customers to want to pay for the drinks they order though is to make sure you have the best ingredients available. Don’t try to cut corners by purchasing cheap alcohol. You also need to have bartenders in place that have plenty of experience making various types of drinks that your customers are going to request.

Keep in mind that staff under 21 years of age can take the orders for the drinks, but they won’t be able to deliver them to the customers. Either the bartender or someone else that is at least 21 years of age will have to take them to the tables. This usually isn’t too much of a problem unless you have the majority of your employees under the age of 21.

There are strict guidelines for obtaining a liquor license and it will depend on the state. You will also have to make every person asking for alcohol is verified as being legally old enough to drink. If you don’t this can result in fines being imposed and even the restaurant being shut down. Staff also needs to watch for signs for intoxicated individuals in the establishment. They should not be serving them any more alcohol.

Should you decide to serve alcohol in your restaurant, you need to be aware of your responsibilities. You have to make sure all people drinking alcohol in your establishment are old enough. Never take their word for it, check ID – make sure all of your staff is well aware of this as well. Make sure they stop serving alcohol to those that are visibly intoxicated and should not continue to drink.

Patricia Farnham – Restaurant industry veteran, owner/operator, author and enthusiast. She recently put her considerable expertise (gained from many years of managing other peoples restaurants), to the test. She purchased a failing operation and turned it around quickly. If you’re considering starting your own restaurant, or buying an existing operation, there are vital concepts you need to know to make it profitable. Check out her opinions regarding opening a restaurant on her website.

William Shakespeare wrote, ‘All the worlds a stage, and all the men and women merely players’. One company that has exemplified that quote is the Walt Disney World Co. based in Orlando, Florida.

Disney is recognised as one company which creates such “magical”experiences. The Disney challenge is to ensure that all of the 36,000 staff are playing a role in a show which exceeds all expectations.

The Disney approach to people management has helped gain them the reputation of providing a leading benchmark for quality and service in America.

Disney does not just “hire” people for jobs, they “cast” performers for a “role” in the show. The emphasis is in finding ‘people oriented’ cast members who are willing to adapt to the high standards established, and not necessarily on the skills an applicant may have.

Their ‘casting process’ introduces each applicant to the culture of the company, and the important role which they will play in the future success. This way there are no surprises, and it is this approach which helps to maintain turnover at approximately 20%.

Success on the “Restaurant Stage” requires the development and choreography of many different aspects, such as a great cast, script, support and direction.

Quality ‘Casting’ or recruitment, is critical to everything else in the production.

As an owner or manager, you are more director and choreographer of a performance. Your front of house staff, are the actors, and your customers are the audience for whom they must perform.

The supporting crew is responsible for ensuring the script and show is executed as planned. As director, you have to prepare your cast to recognize guest cues, deliver their lines and improvise when it will add to the enjoyment of the performance.

Think of a typical theatre performance- the audience files in, the curtain goes up, the actors make their entrances and speak their lines. If each and every cast member, not to mention the writer, director, stagehands, customers, makeup artists, and lighting technicians, have prepared themselves and the theatre well, the audience enjoys the show and tells others about it.

However, despite the proven talents of individual members of the cast or the presence of an award-winning director or the skills of the backstage crew, the whole thing can be a magnificent flop if just one person fails to do a job on which everyone else depends.

Filling out your service cast with people who can star in their roles is the key to success. But casting for a restaurant show is far more involved and difficult than hiring just anybody to answer a phone, or take orders and deliver food.

The next article, ‘The casting call’ is about how to attract the right cast members.

For previous articles please visit the Archives section on our website.

My company, Lexington Interactive, provides eLearning courses specifically for the Restaurant & Hotel Industry. For a free trial of our wait staff eLearning course, visit http://www.lexingtoninteractive.com.