What I learned from all the years I have worked in the restaurant business starting from … when I was able to physically work.

Running a restaurant business is a very hard business. Opening a restaurant is the easy part, keeping it profitable and running is the hard part. This is for my sister, her husband, my parents, and my many uncles and aunts that still are still in the restaurant business. You guys admire me. You guys make my job as a software developer sitting in front of a computer screen all day look easy.

1. Keeping the customers happy is job #1 and it’s what keeps a restaurant running and profitable. Even just one customer makes a big difference. If that one customer have a positive experience, he or she will usually spread the word and lead to more business down the road. On the other hand, if you anger just one customer, it can have the same affect in a negative way.
2. Always have a good relationship with multiple suppliers, even if they sell the same products at a higher price. You can’t sell food if you don’t have the the ingredients. No matter how much business you have, the bottom line is you can’t sell something if you can’t make it.
3. Always keep a tab on your competition. You got to know how your competition is doing compared to your business. When a new restaurant comes into town, you got to go check it out and see what they are doing and learn from them as well. See what they are doing and now doing.
4. Managing human resource is the hardest job of maintaining the restaurant business. Managing supplies and customers are actual easy compared to managing the employees of your business. If your employees are happy, then your customers are happy, if you employees are not happy, your customer experience will suffer. Keep your employees happy and they will keep your customers happy.
5. Get to know your customers, by name if you can. Know what they like and not like. Talk to your customers, and get to know them. Repeat customers are the best and most profitable kind of customers.
6. If you make a mistake, go out of your way to correct it and keep them happy, even if it means loosing some money this time around. Be honest and say you are sincerely sorry. In the long run, happy customers will return your ROI many more folds.
7. Don’t ask your employees to do something you are not willing to do yourself. For example, cleaning the toilets or doing anything else. If you are not even willing to do it yourself, don’t expect your employees to do it. There are times, as a manager, I had to clean the toilets myself.
8. If you got robbed at gun point, the thing to do is just give the robber the money and what they want and get them out as soon as possible. As long as you are alive, money does not matter.
9. There are times you just have to say no to a customer or reuse their business. 99.9% of the time, you will have good and reasonable customers. There are the .1% of the customers that are just impossible to please. For those customers, its better to just let them go, or even better, sent them to your competitors.
10. Give back to the community. Good karma will come back to your business, probably in many more folds.
11. When things gets busy, just keep calm. On some of the days, the customers all seem to want to come in all at once or your telephone keeps on ringing without stopping. Just keep calm and keep things moving. The worst thing to do is just freeze and do nothing. Keep things calm and things flowing what I call “controlled chaos”.
12. Delegate work. Yourself as a manager, should be to manage the restaurant. List out all the things that needs to be done and delegate out the work.
13. Serve your employees and treat them with respect. You as a manager are there to serve and assist your employees. They are the ones that brings in the money for the business so keep your employees happy, they will in turn, will keep your customers happy.
14. Your restaurant atmosphere is just as important, if not more important, than the food you serve. Keep the atmosphere clean and comfortable for your customers. There is nothing more disturbing to your customers than a good food served on a dirty dish.
15. Always keep busy. Keep yourself busy even if there is nothing to do. Keep the parking lot full even if there are just a few customers. Customer psychology and impression of your business is very important. Which customer would want to come in to an empty restaurant. Park a few cars in front of the restaurant if there are no cars, even if it has to be your car.