As a restaurant owner and restaurateur, you’ve seen the TV shows, but how many episodes can you watch before you can apply what you see to your restaurant business? What can you glean from a one-hour episode that will set you on the path to more profit? Is one restaurant’s solution the same for you, or is your situation different? How is it different? What are the shows not showing you? How much is the guessing and grasping costing you? How long will your customers tolerate your penny-wise and pound-foolish approach to resolution?

Once we perform an Operations Assessment, we’ll put together a plan to change course and put your restaurant business on the right path. Hiring us to find the root causes and recommend solutions may not be enough if you lack the depth of knowledge to execute the plan. In that case, you may want us to execute the solutions side by side with you. Reach out to us for a conversation about your restaurant. We can execute the plan without hesitation or faltering. We’ll get it right and your restaurant will be on the path to profitability in no time.

CULTURE & GUIDING PRINCIPLES

Is your team aligned behind a set of common goals? Are you clear about how you will manage conflict, establish trust, and build a culture of accountability?Does everyone know what a “good job” means or do you endlessly chase cost reductions without celebrating successes? If your company is not unified behind a set of well-articulated guiding principles, we can get you there. Without them, any success you have is dependent on luck, instinct and muscle. That’s not sustainable.

MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE

Your managers are responsible for executing your vision and delivering your brand to the public. If you have too many managers, profits suffer.  Not enough managers, or the wrong organization structure, and your brand will never be what you intended it to be. We can help you organize manager work and routines that make your business perform at peak.

LABOR MANAGEMENT

Labor is the most expensive category to manage in hospitality, yet most businesses stick to the outdated “cut-em-when-we-get-slow” strategy. Labor needs are predictable and can be controlled with systems. We can teach you how to get your labor under control permanent.

BACK OFFICE

The fun stuff is finished. The restaurant is beautiful, the food is great, and service is impeccable. But how are you doing at managing the business side of the business? Tipshare, cash handling, income statements, inventory tracking, invoice management and employee systems can get sloppy in a hurry. Let us identify and implement the right systems and protocols for your business that will allow you to see where the money is coming from, where it is going and to give you the platform from which to control problems.

BRAND ALIGNMENT

Is your team aligned behind a set of common goals? Are you clear about how you will manage conflict, establish trust, and build a culture of accountability? Does everyone know what a “good job” means or do you endlessly chase cost reductions without celebrating successes? If your company is not unified behind a set of well-articulated guiding principles, we can get you there. Without them, any success you have is dependent on luck, instinct and muscle. That’s not sustainable.

SERVICE STRUCTURE

Ever been to a New Jersey diner where the servers wear tuxedo shirts and pants? A little weird, for corned beef hash and eggs, no? We work backwards from customer expectations to develop service models that work. Fast casual, full service, alcohol vs no alcohol, service sequence, queuing, cashiering, impulse/add-on, front/back waiters vs. servers/server assistants, food runners, tip structures, handhelds, call ahead, reservations, and pay-first systems: the right configuration is vital for optimizing profits. Let us help you get yours right.

TRAINING SYSTEMS

Hiring great people is only part of the equation. Training them to do their jobs well is arguably much more important. We are fluent with most every job function in every conceivable food and beverage operation and can craft a training program that delivers low turnover, high customer satisfaction and higher profits.

MANUALS & HANDBOOKS

The foundation of any training program is its structure. Your guiding principles and company culture aspirations must be reflected in your position training manuals and employee handbook, whether they’re electronic or printed. The training process must be managed carefully and intentionally. “Follow Sally around for a few days until you get it” is not a training program. We work backwards from what the customer should experience to build training programs that bring your brand to life.

VIBE & FEEL

Guest sight lines, music, temperature, and smells are critical to a guest’s first impression. All too often, owners and managers neglect to seriously consider what a guest sees and feels when they enter a restaurant. Our fresh eyes can help you see your business in a new light by focusing on layouts, signage, internal traffic patterns, sounds and general stage management of your concept to ensure that your guests feel how you want them to feel when they dine with you.

MARKET POSITION

If you’re trying to sell bagels to an audience that prefers breakfast tacos, it doesn’t matter how good the bagels are. We evaluate the ability of your business to serve your intended audience while identifying your actual audience.  Then we develop a strategy that positions you to succeed. Sometimes it’s ok to offer something new that no one else offers in a way that no one else offers it, and sometimes it’s not ok. Regardless, we can get you on track to build customer count and loyalty.

MENU ENGINEERING

Restaurants are unique. They are both production facilities and retail facilities under one roof. As production facilities, the cost of ingredients and the labor used to make finished products must be organized on the front end if there is any hope of managing results after the menu launches. We create menus that reduce unique ingredients, maximize time-and-motion efficiency, and deliver profit. Our chefs are skilled at creating menus tuned to your market’s needs and we won’t launch it unless the ingredients, labor, equipment and costs line up with demand and your ability to execute it.

COCKTAIL | BAR MENUS

If food menus generally deliver margins between 68% and 73% and bar menus deliver margins between 75% and 80%, it stands to reason that you’d want a good bar program. Furthermore, with cocktail margins generally landing north of 80%, it makes sense to offer a compelling drink assortment through a quality craft cocktail program. Let us make your bar a more prominent experience for your customers and a greater contributor to your profits.

INVENTORY MANAGEMENT

Food and beverage commodities are the building blocks of your finished products. In restaurants, they’re often perishable, consumable, easy to steal, easy to ruin, and your employees often feel empowered to experiment with them to make new items you never asked them to make. Unlike #2 pencils for sale at Staples, the cards are stacked against restaurant business profit from the back door forward. We can help you implement best practices to control how you order, receive, store, prepare and manage your inventory to maximize profits and improve your guests’ experience.

EFFICIENCY | PROFITABILITY

Industrial engineers measure production efficiency in terms of “time and motion” or throughput: how fast can I make something that has the highest quality in the fewest possible steps. We can help you with production efficiency and quality through our evaluation of your processes, recipes and layout to find ways to help you make more money while giving your customers a better experience.

KITCHEN SYSTEMS

Computer systems are great, but if you don’t know what to do with all of that data, you’ll just drown in it and not be any closer to tight execution. We ensure that you are fluent with several key systems for managing food cost before recommending computer solutions. Production setting, invoice management, ordering / receiving practices and food handling discipline must all be mastered before you can graduate to more complex systems that rely on a sound understanding of the basics. We start there and can marry your operation to the best systems available once you master each philosophy.

ONGOING SUPPORT |MANAGEMENT

Corporate offices exist for a reason: to provide support to operators and to hold them accountable for delivering results through systems (not through being good at winging it). Blue Orbit can serve as your corporate office by inspecting your facility, systems and financials regularly. We can provide guidance and coaching to managers while being able to spot trouble before it festers into something the guest sees. Let us know if you need regular oversight and coaching to keep your restaurant in top shape.