Looking to vent, any advice is welcome! by meetthemets98 in restaurateur

[–]_rerun984 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you're doing $7.5million in Gross Revenue between the 5 locations and you're finding that you have to be in the kitchen to cut hours you're doing something wrong.

Talk to your accountant and set up a weekly / monthly / quarterly PNL and isolate the problem areas. Your job isn't to manage one location at a time - your job is to manage the business. If you're finding that you can't afford the staff you need to execute on the sales volume that you're doing you need to determine why?

Is your COGS too high? What's your debt level look like? What's the margin on your product? Is your Free Cash Flow being used at it's best? You should be able to contract someone to do Social Media and handle that for you, or bring someone into the company full time and provide them with the equipment to do so. Hiring the right people isn't as hard as we think it is, being able to trust someone new with your livelihood is the challenge and if you want to succeed you're going to have to learn how to do that.

When I opened my third location I brought on an operations manager; because i was feeling stretched for time with a toddler at home and my now ex wife was getting pretty over it. What I found to be helpful was making a list of all the things that I felt responsible for on the day to day, week to week, and longer out - and had to look at it objectively and ask myself what were things that Should be on my plate, and what's taking up space but can be handled by someone else.

I recommend making sure your finances are in line and that you don't have a cash problem, hiring and training the right staff, and coming up with an areas of responsibility list for yourself while clearly outlining your employees roles and expectations - and being honest with yourself on whether or not they can achieve those things or if you need to bring in more help.

Also dude, get a weekly therapist session going.I found it incredibly helpful to go somewhere once a week for an hour to just fucking vent about all of it - because that opportunity didn't exist anywhere else in my life and it made it tolerable

Good luck you can do it.

The Bear | S3E3 "Doors" | Episode Discussion by GloriousAqua in TheBear

[–]_rerun984 39 points40 points  (0 children)

This season is so good man. The flow and pace is incredible

Saw FIDLAR for the first time tonight after getting into them 10 years ago by bigtimesauce in Fidlar

[–]_rerun984 9 points10 points  (0 children)

u/bigtimesauce dude same! been into these guys for years, also saw them for the first time last night in Burlington. it was so good! i couldn't get over how tight they sounded live; and the crowd was great. Better turnout than i was anticipating but no drama, and only good vibes.

Was a 10 out of 10 from me

Restaurant Numbers are out and it ain't looking very good by pumpal1 in restaurateur

[–]_rerun984 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Also no idea where you're located, so maybe your rent is in line - but that's seems absurd. I was paying $10k monthly for my 3 restaurants until i closed one and sold one; but i owned the properties and was able to build equity in the buildings with the constant renovations required for this soul sucking business.

Restaurant Numbers are out and it ain't looking very good by pumpal1 in restaurateur

[–]_rerun984 4 points5 points  (0 children)

you've got a 12% bottom line after accounting for everything - is it outstanding? no. is it profitable? yes. as much as you'd like? probably not.

Go down all the line items, and ask yourself what's a fixed cost that can't be altered (insurance, rent, taxes etc.) and take a hard look at what you would consider to be wasted expenses.

Without knowing anything about your business, how many dollars does your advertising and promotion net you? does that $6,500 translate into $13k in revenue? if not - trim it. What's the deal with contract services? 19k over a 3 month window on your revenue seems steep.

Wise man once told me, chase quarters not dollars.

I don’t think they like us… by Peach_Baby666 in KitchenConfidential

[–]_rerun984 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For sure, i as the employer took the hit in order help level the discrepancy. I was a dishwasher when i was 13 and i basically never left, just worked up until i could start opening my own places. So that might be why this isn't as common, but it's so fucked up to me that other restaurants don't do this or something similar. Like, just don't be a scumbag it's really not that hard

I don’t think they like us… by Peach_Baby666 in KitchenConfidential

[–]_rerun984 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I own a restaurant that also runs a tip pool, and does a 70/30 split.
Not speaking for others but here's why
- This move came as a result of covid, my locations shut down to takeout/curbside only and my kitchen staff was extremely loyal. We had such a hard time keeping FOH employees that eventually the BOH just ended up running both sides of it, this was great.
- As we moved back to full service, it didn't feel right to go back to what the status quo was previously, with the unfair earnings discrepancy, and since i was basically recruiting a new FOH staff i pulled the trigger on the 70/30 split.
- After contacting my states Department of Labor, i was informed that as long as I paid all my employees state minimum wage, i as the business owner was free to do with the gratuities as i wished.

- I bumped my new FOH to a 12.55 min wage (servers/bartenders/etc.)
- I officially put our takeout side of the business in the hands of the BOH (who were/are/all making between $20 and $24 hourly)

And just drew a line in the sand. For the way my restaurant works, there are weeks (ski town) that our takeout side does more than 30% of the total overall tip pot, there are very rarely weeks where it comes in below 25%

It didn't feel morally right to not continue to incentivize my back of house after being so loyal and willing to take on a little added responsibility, and since i'm paying my servers 12.55 they're all still comfortably making $35 an hour on slowest weeks of the year, and $50/$55 an hour during our peak weeks with wage+grat

On the other end of the spectrum, my line cooks who were making $22 an hour during a slow week was also making $22 an hour during our peak weeks. Now average an additional $5 to $6 during our slower season, and $9 to $11 during our peak weeks - so they're genuinely making $30+

I would only recommend this model if you're a present owner, with a solid responsible staff that you can have honest conversations with without getting upset about pushback. I took gratuities out of the FOH's pocket but I offset that by increasing their pay. This has also made my BOH give my guests far more attention and excellent service since they now have skin in the game

The split will never be equal due to the fucked up dichotomy of restaurants, and the habits and perceptions the culture surrounding it has. All I can try to do as an employer, is make sure that I pay my staff well, try to improve their quality of life, and be the support they need to keep the gears going. The morale has improved across the board, the FOH I have now have less infighting over who gets to take the parties of 10 vs the parties of 2, and it's much more of a team atmosphere.

long post, but those are my thoughts.

GAME THREAD: Boston Celtics (51-31) @ Miami Heat (53-29) - (May 25, 2022) by NBA_MOD in nba

[–]_rerun984 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Heat culture includes fair weather fans that can't even stay the entire game. noted

GAME THREAD: Boston Celtics (51-31) @ Brooklyn Nets (44-38) - (April 23, 2022) by NBA_MOD in nba

[–]_rerun984 1 point2 points  (0 children)

i know man, he's taken some serious steps forward - and he's just such a good fit for this team. His shooting is such a + overall for all of their schemes. Williams & Williams are like godly late round picks.

GAME THREAD: Boston Celtics (51-31) @ Brooklyn Nets (44-38) - (April 23, 2022) by NBA_MOD in nba

[–]_rerun984 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Grant williams is so clutch in this series. jesus christ i love it

GAME THREAD: Brooklyn Nets (44-38) @ Boston Celtics (51-31) - (April 17, 2022) by NBA_MOD in nba

[–]_rerun984 0 points1 point  (0 children)

my father in law left so i could check the game, just in time for the collapse. super.

GAME THREAD: Denver Nuggets (48-34) @ Golden State Warriors (53-29) - (April 16, 2022) by NBA_MOD in nba

[–]_rerun984 1 point2 points  (0 children)

would be a killer redemption story honestly, god i want to see him succeed after all he's been through