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“First-rate people hire first-rate people, second-rate people hire third-rate people.”  - Leo Rosten. The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. Don’t ever practice on the customer. No train, no gain. “Give your guests what they remember and give them something new each time they visit.” - Restaurateur Danny Meyer School is never out for the pro. Sullivan’s Law of Meetings: The meeting you must attend this week is scheduled on the day you are to attend a seminar that you paid for six months ago.  You did not have any meetings the week before.  You do not have any scheduled for the next week. Opportunity “The reason so many people never get anywhere in life is because when opportunity knocks, they are out in the backyard looking for four-leaf clovers.” - Walter P. Chrysler, auto manufacturer CLICK HERE To order the animated QuoteZILLA Meeting Energizer

Add power to your sales letters.  Do you send letters to local businesses or current customers touting your menu or catering business? Have you ever wondered what the most powerful section of your sales letter is?  Research shows that the postscript is one of the first (sometimes only) items a customer looks at.  Use the P.S. to restate your key point, emphasize a deadline, and /or pique the customer’s curiosity enough to read the entire letter.

How to hire great employees:  “Seek out the great employees who already work for you.  Interview them, find out what makes them tick.  Write profiles of great employees.  Find out what qualities they have in common.  And then look to hire people with those same qualities.” 
- The Motivational Manager.
 
When You Call for References
Because of the possibility of defamation lawsuit, most employers are reluctant to provide negative information about a job applicant.  How can you get a true picture of the job seeker? Try asking past employers to describe the candidate’s strengths.  If the list is short or vague, you’ll have learned a lot without any risk of litigation.
(Source: Speakout, National Speakers Ass. 1500 S. Priest Dr. Tempe, AZ 85281)

This Incentive Improves Retention
 “Our program HOOF (Helping Others Obtain their Future.)  It’s available to all employees and it can be applied to any type of schooling, from auto mechanic school to culinary school to an MBA.  I have 65 employees on the program to date.  During the first year, the company provides $1 per hour worked, up to $1,200.  That increases each year until the fourth year, when it’s $1.75 per hour up to $2.100.  Employees must maintain a C average or better and they only receive the money after the semester is over, which keeps them committed for at least that period of time.  The restaurant business is notorious for high turnover but our employees stay, often more than a year if not more.  If a server upsells an entrée or sells one extra iced tea, or if someone in the kitchen saves one steak from being wasted, the program pays for itself.”
Source: Rob Anderson, Anderson Restaurant Group as seen in Restaurant Business,

Here’s the free May 2005 edition of the Sullivision  
E-Newsletter you signed up for. Check out our e-news archives, quote of the day, product catalog and free downloads at www.Sullivision.com

Let’s Get Fiscal:
The Other Side of Profitability
Copyright 2005 Sullivision.com
By Jim Sullivan

There’s an old joke that’s sad, but true, about our industry:
Q: How do you make a small fortune in the restaurant business? A: Start with a large one.

Noted economist John Maynard Keynes said, “The engine that drives enterprise is not thrift, but profit.”  True. But the other truth is that the hospitality industry is the only business I can think of where there are more ways to lose money than make money.

So lets start with the basics. Lesson Number 1: All money is not created equal. For instance, $100 in sales is $100, less expenses and taxes. A $100 saved is $100. So while “making more money” is important, it’s sometimes just as critical to lose less, too! Here’s a few practical and creative cost control training tips for those of us who need to watch our “waste”:

• Teach everyone on your team Profitability 101. 
  The first few pages in your training manuals, and the first topic covered live in your new employee Orientation or videos should be “Restaurant Economics 101”, even before “Guest Service”. Why would a server or cook understand the importance of suggestive selling or following recipes without first understanding the basics of gross versus net in our business? They first need CONTEXT to make their behavior coincide with your training objectives. Show them how expenses relates to revenue, explain how higher costs makes it harder to invest money in people and training. What’s the point of teaching service skills, selling skills or cost control if there’s no perspective to the Big Picture?
  
  
• Teach employees how to manage their personal finances. If they’re frugal at home, they’ll be more frugal at work. Offer this seminar semi-annually and invite spouses, too.
  
  
• Show them the money. Most of your team members think that restaurant owners are making a fortune. Post your monthly invoices for electricity, water, heat, gas, food, beverage, insurance, and rent on bulletin boards so employees can review the so-called “invisible” costs of doing business and compare it to their own expenses at home.
  
  
• Sell and market “waste watching” to your team with posters in your work areas, prep areas and break areas. Take digital photos of the commonly tossed, damaged or over-portioned items with their cost per unit displayed in large type, like the cost of glassware, sugar packets, napkins, silver ware, ketchup packets, or an extra ounce of meat on a sandwich or alcohol in a drink, etc.
  
  
• Raffles. Every month post each employee’s name on a sheet of paper. Choose the raffle goals based on the behavior you want to reinforce for the next 30 days: attendance, promptness, sales, working safely, cost control. For instance, if it’s a cost control raffle in a restaurant: any time someone breaks a plate or glass, cross their names off the list. Whoever is left has their name entered into a raffle for a prize drawing.
  
  
• Keep knives and blades sharp. 
  Believe it or not a sharp knife actually minimizes the likelihood of cut fingers. Plus your team works more productively and it usually results in less waste and therefore better yield.
  
  
  
• Follow your recipes. A driving force behind high food costs in the kitchen or behind the bar result from cooks or bartenders that choose to follow their own recipes or measure “by eye” instead of using the prescribed spoons, cups, scales or jiggers.
  
  
• Sell more of what you have. The fact is that a restaurant doesn’t make money buying, we make money selling. So focusing your customer-facing employees on skills related to menu merchandising and soft-selling may be your best cost-cutting strategy of all. Selling doesn’t cost, it pays.

Come see us at the NRA Show:  I’ll be presenting a brand new program called Many Houses, One Servant: The Art of Multi-Unit Management at the NRA Show on Sunday May 22nd at Noon. Be sure to come by, it will be awesome!