Who's in Charge: You? Or the Restaurant?

A consultant we had for one of the franchise systems I was involved with once told us that when you have franchisees talking about working 70 or 80 hour weeks, they were really just bragging about how inefficient they are.

There's some truth there. Not to belittle someone busting ass to make ends meet, but too many hours is usually a sign of poor processes, insufficient training/poor hiring, and an unwillingness to delegate.

Specifically, when it comes to marketing, most owners find other things to occupy their time. Face to face marketing is outside the comfort zone of many operators, so it gets pushed to the bottom of the priority list.

So the questions are:
- Is marketing as important as doing the schedule or payroll?
- Do you schedule your week, or at least your day, or do you take each day as it comes to you?
- Are your current efforts effective? Bad markets often expose mediocre tactics for what they are.
- Did you intend to buy yourself an $8 an hour job when you opened, or did it just evolve that way?

For marketing ideas and discussion with other restaurant operators, visit the forum at The CommonMan Group.