Expert Interview: Jonathan Munsell Interviews Equipment Specialist Lenny Douglas from Tundra Specialties

Best Practices for Restaurant Owners and Industry Professionals Monthly Benchmarking and Money-making Teleseminar:

How To Insure You Have The Best Restaurant Supply, Parts and Equipment Company For Your Start-up and Existing Restaurant

Jonathan Interviews Lenny Douglas with Tundra Specialties.

Opening and maintaining a restaurant is always a challenge.  This conversation will help you on your way to building a success from the start.

• We talk about the very basics (The Restaurant Development Process) of starting with a drawing, mapping out the plan in order to get a good understanding of the goal.
• We talk about understanding the options from big equipment, to counter equipment and storage, all the way to small ware.
• We even talk about what to look for in an equipment vendor.

About your Hosts:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jonathan Munsell owns two restaurant brands and a catering company. Jonathan Munsell works with current and aspiring restaurant owners specializing in restaurant startup and growth. In 2007, Jonathan launched Restaurant Success System conducting national seminars and professionally speaking on restaurant startup, restaurant operations, restaurant marketing and finance. Learn more about Jonathan by visiting www.RestaurantSuccessMonthly.com

Lenny Douglas is the Sales Manager for Tundra Specialties, which is a company that specializes in restaurant parts, supplies and equipment.   Lenny grew up in Tampa Florida.  He moved to Colorado in 1997, waited tables and was bartender for several locations.  Lenny attended University Colorado in 1999 for Computer Science, then made a change in direction and left engineering school.  Lenny then worked for a foodservice sales position with Old Timer Foods working with Regional Restaurants selling a variety of food products.  He met Rob Fenton, part owner and Sales Manager with Tundra, and has been working for Tundra Specialties since January 1, 2003, starting in the Outside Sales Team.

You can find out more about equipment and connect with Tundra Specialties by visiting their website www.etundra.com or check out their blog  “The Back Burner”

Their blogs about the foodservice industry at The Back Burner, which is written by the employees of Tundra Specialties, a company specializing in restaurant equipment and food service supplies.

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Effectively Manage Your Restaurant and Your Life.

Effectively Manage Your Restaurant and Your Life.

If you’re like most restaurant owners, you have more to do than
time to do it.

But too many Restaurant Owners get so wrapped up in their business, they forget to take care of the other aspects of their lives. And the results can be devastating! Families are neglected, friends are lost, and the physical and mental health of the restaurant owner declines. (Just to name a few.)

So here are some tips for being able to successfully manage your company and your life:

• Put systems into place- mistakes are made when processes are not systematized. When processes are consistent, fewer mistakes are made and there are fewer fires to put out.
• Take a day off- despite the temptation to work a 7-day week, take at least one day for yourself. You will see your productivity and your health improve. (Not to mention how happy your family will be to see you.)
• Go home- set a time schedule for yourself. Schedule the number of hours you will work and stick to that plan.
• Set your priorities- there’s always another crisis to solve. So be sure to make special occasions with friends and family a top priority. Don’t allow a restaurant “emergency” to hold you back. After all, there’s bound to be another one tomorrow.
• Automate your business- this is sometimes  an odd topic for restaurant owners, but there are many places to automate your restaurant and I am not just talking about the POS System. If you haven’t taken the time to realize the value of automation, do so soon. Places you can automate – Any recurring task like weekly emails or marketing mailers, costing your food, paying your bills can even be automated and save you a ton of time. With your business on auto-pilot you have more time for other things.

None of the stuff in this email is new to you. You know it all. But unless you are willing to take these suggestions to heart, you will never be able to effectively manage your life.

And remember, nobody ever lay on their deathbed wishing they had spent more time at the Restaurant!

I would love to hear your thoughts on the topics I present and their link to True Restaurant Success. Please do not hesitate to share – Leave a Comment

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Become a Welcomed Guest… Not a Pest.

Whenever you come into someone’s life, you’ve got the choice: “welcomed guest” or “unwanted pest.” And we all know which one is most likely to make the sale, right?

But let’s face it–most people will not instantly welcome marketers with open arms. Your prospects are busy, and they don’t want to think about you and your products. So, business owners need to learn the tricks of becoming the most popular guest at the party.

First, you need to be consistent in your marketing. The majority of small businesses are inconsistent in their follow-up. They might send an email or direct mail piece and then wait months before sending another one. Without consistency, your prospect has no idea who you are. Can you imagine how quickly emails from unknown senders get deleted? Furthermore, inconsistency can cause a perception of ineffectiveness. Nobody wants to buy from a company they don’t trust.

Second, establish your expertise. Too often entrepreneurs, struggling to survive, send emails and direct mail pieces simply to promote their products. Now, promoting your products is great. But you need to do a lot more than that with your marketing. Your marketing messages should be positioning you as a respected authority in your industry. Be sure to include testimonials, endorsements, and awards your company has won, along with your sales message. Of the thousands of small businesses I’ve worked with, there’s no doubt that the most successful ones have established themselves as experts.

Third, educate your prospects. Your follow-up must be informative. You need to provide valuable information. If you’re showing up with no value, you’ll wear out your welcome fast. You need to communicate that you are on their side and deserve to be trusted. You’ll accomplish this if you provide them with accurate, insightful information.

Just remember, when your marketing becomes consistent, promotes your expert status, and educates your prospects, you will soon have prospects knocking at your door, rather than you knocking at theirs.

Clate Mask

www.infusionsoft.com

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Tough Times Require Tough Bosses

Help people see what you are trying to accomplish

For the past two decades we have been training leaders to manage people by empowering them. Leaders who were authoritarian, who behaved like a parent instead of a coach, were seen as dinosaurs at the end of their era. Times change.

This is how a recent conversation with a client, an enlightened and successful leader, unfolded: “I was speaking with my boss and he told me that, right now, I need to be more directive with my team. I told him I wanted to ask my coach if she agreed.” She was clearly skeptical of his advice. My response? “I agree.” We then had a conversation about what it meant to be directive in 2009, and the techniques and skills she would need to employ.

How, after all these years of helping people to draw on their ability to align, motivate and energize people could I possibly suggest she be more directing? Because the current situation requires it, and that is what situational leadership is all about. The times don’t require a return to command-and-control, but they do require leaders to tighten up on fundamental people management principles.

When to be More Directive as a Leader

1. When the environment is uncertain. When there is a high level of uncertainty the ability for people to make clear and confident decisions diminishes. The signs and signals they usually use to guide them are unavailable or conflicting. In these circumstances people can become paralyzed. Their failure to make a decision means action is also stalled. If people are unable to make decisions you will need to step in and help them.

2. When time is of the essence. When there is a high sense of urgency around getting things done, a more structured leadership style is appropriate. This is the time to be more prescriptive around ‘what’ and ‘how’. This can feel uncomfortable and may require some de-programming around how you typically manage. This is the time to provide crystal-clear expectations and closely monitor progress.

3. When accuracy is critical to success. Ensuring things are done right requires you to spend more time reviewing the output of your team. Don’t be afraid to get out the red pencil and provide very specific correction and feedback. Communicate the importance of attending to details and insist people double-check things before they pass them along to you.

4. When the demand to deliver intensifies. When you are feeling increased pressure from your manager you need to translate that into a productive action plan for your team. Interestingly enough, stepping up your cheer-leading behavior rarely leads to increased activity and focus on the part of others. To send a message that something has shifted and people need to behave differently, you need to change how you communicate.

Key Principles for Effectively Directing the Work of Others

These are basic people management skills you likely learned when you took on your first leadership role. Discipline in applying them will help you provide structure and focus for others, create critical feedback loops, and enhance your team’s ability to execute under pressure.

1. Provide an overarching vision. Help people see what you are trying to accomplish and how their work connects to broader goals and objectives.

2. Set clear expectations. This includes specificity around deliverables and timelines.

3. Monitor progress. Commit to regular check-in points at critical intervals.

4. Engage in root cause analysis. Obstacles should be uncovered and discussed. Reasons for delays or gaps should be thoroughly explored and understood. Ask more questions and be more wary of accepting the first answer you get.

5. Review priorities. As new and competing issues emerge you need to re-evaluate objectives and timelines and re-direct your team as appropriate.

6. Re-confirm expectations and deadlines. Follow up meetings with short notes in writing as reinforcement.

It is critical to follow-through and formally review delivery against expectations. Recognize achievement. Discuss lessons learned.

Good leaders have an arsenal of skills and techniques available to them, and know when and how to apply them. There are times when giving people a lot of latitude and gentle steering are appropriate. There are times, like the ones we find ourselves in now, when you need to provide more structure and discipline. It doesn’t mean you stop being supportive and encouraging. In fact, this is the time to be supportive – not just verbally and emotionally, but by providing the clarity, guidance, and accountability that will help your team succeed.

Rebecca Scham, Financial Post Published: Monday, March 23, 2009

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