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EFFORTLESS, INC.
PO Box 280
Gig Harbor, WA 98335 USA
(800) 767-1055
(253) 858-9255
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| EHC #551
Insights for the Professionally Curious |
August 22, 2008 |
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One of my more difficult weekly tasks is to decide what information I am going to leave OUT of the Complimentary Edition of the EHC. It's not that I don't love you all, just that the folks who are paying for my weekly rants deserve to get their money's worth ... even if that money only averages out to 75 cents an issue. So I apologize for the necessary surgery ... and hope you may eventually decide your business is worth another forty bucks a year! |
Good Morning!
This is the long Labor Day holiday weekend in the US, an exciting and confusing time of the year. It isn't quite summer but it isn't quite fall. Students head back to school full of hope ... and often uncertainty. The pace of commerce is about to shift into ram speed for the run to the end of the year ... but not really for another week or so. It's a lovely/scary sort of Limbo Land experience.
So enjoy a last few days of down time but be aware that there is immediate work to do, strategic changes to make and limited opportunities to exploit. In tough times, your staff and your business look to you for leadership, not just an ability to manage the status quo.
Managers have subordinates, leaders have followers. Be a leader.
Bill Marvin
The Restaurant Doctor |
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 Six Star Hospitality(tm)
Rethinking Restaurants
A subscriber asked me for my opinion on a book called "Waiter Rant" based on the popular blog of the same name. He said, "You won't like it."
So I bought the book ... and I loved it! Rough and irreverent in places, but I thought very insightful and well-written. So why would I talk about this book in an article about Six Star? Because I think it points out exactly why the Six Star Program is so needed in the industry. Granted, not all independent owners fit this description, but I have certainly seen it (and lived it) myself. See what you think. The author writes:
Over the years I've come to realize that [the owner's] anger and anxiety stem from his fear of losing everything that he's worked so hard to create. [He] is no stranger to failure. He flunked out of a dozen jobs before finding success as a chef. He also has a strained relationship with his ex-wife and children back in Italy. Now, at forty-six, he has a new wife, a new son, and a robust business. [He's] got a second shot at hainess. He doesn't want anything to mess that up, but I worry his anxiety will destroy the very thing he wants to protect.
[His] worrying has turned him into a jumpy, irritable, and angry man. Like a soldier just home from war, his eyes are always scanning the horizon for threats. Constantly fidgeting, he tenses up and moves away if you place your hand on his shoulder. This anxiety hurts him in social settings. Because thoughts are banging around the inside of his head like electrons colliding inside a particle accelerator, his attention span can be measured in nano-seconds.
You can be having a conversation with him when suddenly, and for no reason, he'll stop talking to you and walk away. He does this to vendors, staff, and even his customers. While [he] has the capacity to be a very charming, nice, and considerate person, he's usually on his best behavior only when dealing with people who have something he wants.
[He] doesn't have the energy or inclination to be nice to people he perceives as beneath him. Believe me, if you work for [him], he thinks you're beneath him.
There is more that you would probably recognize, but you get the idea. My vision of Six Star Hospitality is that of an elegantly simple system to provide the logic, methodology and support structure that enables every independent restaurant to operate with effortless excellence. Doesn't that sound a lot more fulfilling?
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 The Labor Day Opportunity
Words of Wisdom from Joel Cohen
Note: I originally published this note at this time last year. I am recycling it now as a reminder that you can still make 2008 your best year ever ... but you have to DO THE WORK!
Labor Day marks the change from summer to fall, from vacation to school. It also
marks the start of the final lap -- the homestretch -- in your quest to complete
a great year before hitting 2009.
It's like New Year's -- a new page and
another (yes, another) chance to make a change and do all the things you said you
were going to do, but never did.
Labor Day gives you and your restaurant
a last chance opportunity to follow through on all the things you said you would accomplish last January 1st
... but just never got around to doing.
In plain English, you've got four
months to be better than you are now, to be greater than you are now. Now is the
time ... the best time ever to make these changes so you can pull ahead of the
pack of competitors who are comfortable just being comfortable.
If you're
waking up in the morning, going to your restaurant and just waiting for guests
to come in, then you are settling for comfort ... and your business is not going
to grow.
The Comfort Factor is the number one reason why restaurants
don't increase their profits. It's not the economy, it's not the competition,
it's not the war, it's not the gas prices. It's just being
comfortable.
Are you ready to sprint to the 2008 finish line, or are you
comfortable just sitting on the sidelines being a spectator?
Running a
profitable restaurant, or working in one, in whatever position, role or capacity
is NOT a spectator sport. You have to get up for the game every single day and
play to win.
Want more? Subscribe to Joel's (free!) Weekly WOW.
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The Six Star project
is taking on a life of its own. I appreciate the 250+ operators who
have helped the cause by responding to the general survey. Have I heard from you yet? If not, it's not too late to share your thoughts.
The program designers will need to invent ways to do things that have always seemed impossible ... so what would you like to see invented? The next few EHC surveys will take each element of the Six Star program and ask you to go WAY outside the box of what you think is possible.
Essentially the drill is to complete this sentence: "Wouldn't it be cool if ______" Go crazy! Be unreasonable! We want to know the resources you wish you had at hand if your wildest dreams could come true. Then we'll see how close we can come to giving them to you.
 The August Survey
Fiscal FitnessThe Internet opens up possibilities that were unthinkable only a few short years ago and Six Star will take full advantage of that.
A common complaint of independent operators is the amount of time they spend pushing numbers so we will automate as much of the grunt work as possible. This survey will give you an outline of what we already want to create ... and we need your ideas to help us see even more radical applications.
The numbers may not be the most exciting place to start, but the programming will probably be the hardest piece of Six Star to develop and we need to get started. So let's see how big a game you want us to play. If you said you wanted to be part of the development process, this is the way to do it right now. You won't be able to field test something until we have created it!
As usual, I will send copies of the survey results to everyone who participates. In the meantime, you can download copies of all past EHC surveys -- including the massive WOW Ideas collections. Click here to add your thoughts to this month's survey. |
 Here's What You're Passing Up To Save 75 Cents!
In This Week's EHC Special Edition ...
- Three Urgent Ideas - two things to do -- and one thing you should definitely NOT do -- in the next two months
- Know Less, Learn More - how one subscriber discovered an easy way to be an expert with a difficult employee
- What Did You Learn From Your Staff Today? - one operator's breakthrough insight into his "best" host staff ... triggered by a conversation with a waiter
- Special Offers on Management Resources - while I am still in that business
Solve the problem of what to talk about in your next staff meeting. Upgrade to the EHC Special Edition and get it all!
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