Why Restaurant Owners Wait Until It Hurts to Change

Speaker A: Foreign.

Speaker B: Hey there, restaurant pros. It's David Scott Peters, and welcome to the Restaurant Prosperity Formula Podcast. For over two decades, I've been guiding restaurant owners to success with the proven principles of something I call the Restaurant Prosperity Formula. I originally created the formula based on the daily practices of the most successful restaurateurs I coached. And it's now the foundation of what I teach restaurant owners like you so you can achieve success. What do I mean by success? Success is a restaurant owner who dictates the terms of their life in their bank account instead of the restaurants dictating those things for them. Success is a restaurant owner who has freedom from the restaurant, the financial freedom they never thought possible. How you define success is up to you. But I do know the way to achieving it is using the Restaurant Prosperity Formula. This season, I'm diving even deeper into the core elements of the formula. Leadership systems, training, accountability, and taking action. Along with my insights, you'll hear from special guests, industry experts, and inspiring success stories from fellow restaurant owners who've turned their businesses around and found their definition of success. In this episode, number 153, we're tackling why restaurant owners Wait until it hurts to finally change. Let's get started. But first, a word from our sponsor. Boost your restaurant's performance with the service with styles Secret shopping program. Get comprehensive reports with photos, customized visit templates, a vast network of experienced shoppers, and a fantastic scoring system so you know exactly what your guests are experiencing. You control the frequency and rotation. No minimums, no contracts, no cancellation charges, and no hidden fees. Enjoy industry leading reporting and scoring software plus a, uh, 10% discount off the price and. And your first shop is free. Set up a quick call today at www.servicewithstyle.com DSP. Hey there, Restaurant pros. David Scott Peters here. Today, I want to talk about something that might sting a little. And honestly, it should. Because if you own a restaurant, there's a good chance you already know what needs to change. You know your food cost is too high. You know your labor cost is out of control. You know your manager's not really managing. You know your team is too dependent on you. And you know your systems are either missing, ignored, outdated, or sitting in a binder somewhere collecting dust like an artifact from a restaurant museum. You know, that's the uncomfortable part. Most restaurant owners don't stay stuck because they lack information. They stay stuck because they wait until the pain gets loud enough to force them to move. And that's what this episode is about. Why do restaurant owners wait until it really hurts, really hurts to finally change. Why does it take a payroll scare? Why does it take food cost disaster? Why does it take a key employee quitting? Why does it take your spouse finally saying, I can't do this with you? Why does it take being exhausted, broke, frustrated, resentful, and wondering why the restaurant you built now feels like the thing that owns you? That's the conversation we're having today. Because the problem is usually not that you don't know what to do. The problem is that staying the same still feels easier than doing the hard work required to change. And that is where restaurant prosperity either starts or dies. Let's start with the first hard truth. Most restaurant owners don't change when things are uncomfortable. They change when staying the same becomes unbearable. There's a big difference. Uncomfortable is when you know your food cost is creeping up, but you tell yourself we'll look at it after the weekend. Uncomfortable is when your managers keep missing deadlines, but you say they're just overwhelmed right now. Uncomfortable is when you're working 70 hours a week, but you say it's just temporary. Uncomfortable is when the restaurant is making sales but you're not seeing cash in the bank. Uncomfortable is when your team keeps asking you the same questions over and over again because nobody has been trained to think without you. Uncomfortable is annoying. Unbearable is different. Unbearable is when your bank account can't cover payroll. Unbearable is when your manager quits with no notice and you realize nobody else knows how to run the shift. Unbearable is when you miss another family event because the restaurant needed you. Unbearables when your health starts taking the hit. Unbearable is when you look at the numbers and realize you've been working this hard to buy yourself a low paying, high stress job. That's when people change. Not because they suddenly discovered some new magical restaurant strategy, but because the pain finally got bigger than the fear of doing something different. And restaurant pros? That's a terrible way to run your business. Because when you wait until it hurts, your options shrink. You don't make your best decisions from panic. You make your best decisions from clarity. But when you delay change long enough, you don't get clarity. You get crisis. And crisis is expensive. Here's one of the most dangerous sentences in in the restaurant business, I just need to get through the week. Now listen, I get it. Restaurants are intense. There's always something. A cook calls out, the walk in goes down, a server has drama, a vendor shorted you, a customer is mad, the POS is acting possessed, and somewhere in the middle of all that, you're supposed to become strategic leader, building systems, training people, holding managers accountable, and managing prime cost. Sure, no problem. Maybe right after you unclog the sink and remake Table 42's Burger. Because somehow medium rare is now a philosophical debate. So, yes, I understand why restaurant owners say, I just need to get through the week. But here's the problem. That sentence becomes a lifestyle. You say it this week, then next week, then the week after that, then suddenly six months have passed, nothing has changed, and you're still dealing with the same problems wearing different disguises. I just need to get through the week, through this week. Sounds responsible. It sounds like you're being practical. But most of the time it's avoidance with a name tag. It's how restaurant owners delay the work that would actually change their lives. The delay writing the checklist. They delay training the manager. They delay enforcing the standard. They delay looking at the P and L. They delay calculating prime costs. They delay dealing with the employee who has been poisoning the culture. They delay building the system because they're too busy surviving the chaos created by not having the system. That's the trap. You're too busy to fix the problem because the problem is making you too busy. And round and round you go. Look, restaurant pros say they're too busy to implement systems, even though systems are the thing that would give them back their time. Think about it. If you took the time to put together your manager checklist and your managers could walk in every shift making sure the restaurant was set up as if you were in the building your way every single time, would that not alleviate time for you? Would that not alleviate worry for you? If you put a system in place like the DSR tracker, to make sure that you get the information from your POS system, you know what cash is going to the bank, and you can verify it in the bank account without having to be the one that runs the bank every single day, would that not save you time? Would that not give you the confidence in your managers? They know what they're doing. If you had a system in place that your managers could order without going over budget, and if they were close to going over budget, that they couldn't place an order, they had to go find a problem and ask you for permission. Not go, hey, I don't understand. It's, hey, I need to spend a little more money. Here are the problems I found. Here's what I did to fix it. Would they not give you time back? Would that not give you the confidence to not be in your building, if you could give your managers a schedule and say, please write this on budget, and they did. Every single time, if they needed to go over, they had a plan to get back on budget, would that not save you time? Would that not give you confidence in your team? Would that not all of those things make you money? And as a restaurant Coach for over 23 years now, this is what I personally observed over and over and over again. I have a front row seat to this excuse. The good news is you can be coached out of it. Now let's talk about why restaurant owners really wait. Because it's not laziness. I don't believe that restaurant owners are nuts, not lazy. They are some of the hardest working people on this planet. You don't open a restaurant because you're looking for an easy road. That's like choosing to juggle chainsaws because you heard it was relaxing. Most restaurant owners are not lazy. They're exhausted, they're overwhelmed, they're emotionally attached, and they're afraid of what change will require. Because real change usually means confrontation. And most people change hate confrontation. You may need to confront a manager who's been underperforming for too long. You may need to confront the fact that you promoted someone because they were loyal, not because they were ready. You may need to confront your numbers and admit the business is not as healthy as the sales make it look. You may need to confront the fact that your standards are only standards when you're in the building. You may need to confront your own leadership. That one is the big one. Because restaurant owners love to blame employees. And sometimes, yes, employees are the problem. But if the same problem keeps happening with different people, that's not an employee problem anymore. That's a systems problem. That's a training problem. That's an accountability problem. That's a leadership problem. And leadership starts with you. I know that's not warm and fussy, but I'm not here to hand you a pillow and whisper sweet nothings about your labor cost. I'm here to help you build a restaurant that gives you freedom. And freedom requires responsibility. The moment you accept responsibility, you get power back. That's the good news. If everything is somebody else's fault, you're stuck. If you can say, I created this, I tolerated this, I allowed this, I avoided this, and now I'm going to change it. Now you have control. That's not shame. That's leadership. Let me give you a, uh, simple way to think about this. Your restaurant is always being trained. Every day by what you reward, by what you ignore, by what you tolerate, by what you inspect, by what you fail to inspect, by what you say matters, and by what your actions prove actually matters. If a manager turns in a schedule late and nothing happens, the restaurant learns schedules are optional. If a line cook wastes product and nobody tracks it, the restaurant learns waste is invisible. If invoices are not checked against what was ordered, the restaurant learns money can leak out the back door. If employees, um, show up late and there's no consequence, the restaurant learns time doesn't matter. If checklists exist but nobody verifies them, the restaurant learns systems are suggestions. If you answer every question for your managers, the restaurant learns thinking belongs to you. That's the brutal truth. Every day you don't change. You are still teaching. You're teaching the wrong lesson. And that is where waiting becomes so expensive. Because a problem you tolerate for one day is a mistake. A problem you tolerate for three months is culture. And once it becomes culture. Now you're not just fixing a behavior, you're unwinding, uh, a belief system that's harder, that takes longer, that costs more. That is why I push restaurant owners so hard on accountability. Accountability is not good being mean. It is not about yelling. It is not about walking around with a clipboard like some petty dictator looking for fingerprints on the reach in door. Accountability is clarity plus follow through. It says, this is the standard. This is how we do it. This is how we train it, this is how we inspect it. And this is what happens when we don't follow it. That's not mean. That's leadership. Your best employees want that. Your best managers want that. The people who fight accountability are usually people, uh, benefiting from the lack of it. Don't miss that. Think about it this way. Your strong employees have to make a decision every single day. When you don't enforce your standards, when you start to teach people that things are optional because you don't want confrontation, because you're not willing to hold someone accountable, you're not willing to protect the standard. Your strong employees have to make a decision every single day. Do they continue to work that hard? Or when they see that these things aren't enforced, do they make a decision to lower their standards? Or worse, do they decide, this is not a place I want to work. See, they've got to make that decision every day. And I will tell you, those good employees are often relieved when the standards are finally enforced because they're tired of carrying the weak performers. Now, I want to talk about money. Because in restaurants, pain often shows up in the bank account before the owner is willing to admit the real issue. A lot of restaurant pros look at sales and think we're busy, so we should be fine. No, busy does not mean profitable. Busy can actually hide the bleeding. A packed dining room can make you feel successful while your prime cost is quietly eating you alive. You can have strong sales and still be broke. You can have a line out the door and still be losing money. You can be popular and unprofitable. Popularity does not pay the mortgage. Profit does. And if we're being real, cash does. And if you're not watching prime cost, if you're not tracking food cost, if, if beverage costs, labor costs, waste, theft over portioning, scheduling, overtime, discounts, comps, no sales transfers, all of it, then you are not managing the business. You're hoping the business works out. Hope is not a financial strategy. Hope is is what you do when you buy a lottery ticket or when you let your teenager borrow your car. It is not how you run a restaurant. This is why restaurant pros wait until it hurts. Because the numbers were whispering. The numbers were whispering for a long time before they started screaming. The P and L was whispering. The food cost was whispering. The labor percentage was whispering. The declining cash balance was whispering. The missed invoice checks were whispering. The waste was whispering. But if you don't have a system to listen to the whispers, eventually you get the scream. And the scream is usually expensive. That's why I teach restaurant owners to know their numbers. Not because I want them buried in spreadsheets. Not because numbers are fun, although some of us are sick enough to enjoy them. I teach the numbers because numbers tell the truth before your emotions are ready to your gut can lie, your team can rationalize, your sales can distract you. Your numbers don't care about your feelings. They tell you what is happening. And when you know what is happening, you can do something about it before it becomes a crisis. This is why I teach the prime cost is the one number you must know to have any chance to make money in your business. Why it's so important to set up your systems to be able to track your food costs, your poor cost by category, bottled beer, draft beer, wine, liquor, labor costs by position. Because when I have targets to shoot for, KPIs key performance indicators, what my food cost should be poor cost by category, labor costs by position. I can put systems in place to achieve those numbers. I can measure those numbers and see where I hit or miss. And I can make change because here's ultimately what prime cost is to old timers like I was raised before, it was called prime cost. It was called controllable expenses. In control of management. How they hire, fire train, utilize people, Purchase product. Utilize the product. By knowing those numbers, I can take control of those numbers. I can teach my managers the systems they need to achieve our KPIs. See, without knowing that, it's much harder to run your restaurant and much more expensive. And chaos wins. Now, let's shift the leadership. Because sometimes the pain is not financial first. Sometimes the pain is emotional. M It's the weight of being needed for everything. It's the phone that never stops. It's the manager who can't make a decision without you. It's the team that treats you like the answer machine. It's the feeling that the restaurant runs only because you personally drag it across the finish line every day. And here's the hard part. A lot of restaurant owners accidentally train their teams to be dependent. They don't mean to. They want to help. They want things done right. They want to protect the guest experience. They want to avoid mistakes. So they jump in. They answer the question. They fix the schedule. They cover the shift. They solve the vendor issue. They handle the angry guest. They remake the system in their head every day because it's faster than slowing down to train someone else. And in the moment, it feels efficient. But long term, it creates dependency. The team learns, don't decide. Ask the owner. The manager learns, don't own it, Escalate it. The business learns, nothing moves without the owner. And then the owner says, why does everyone need me for everything? Because you train them that way. Ouch. But useful. Ouch. You cannot create freedom by being the hero every day. The hero is always needed. The hero is always called. The hero is always exhausted. If you want freedom, you have to stop being the hero and start being the architect. Heroes save the day. Architects build something that doesn't need saving every day. That's the shift. And yes, it's hard, because being the hero gives you a hit. It feels important. It feels necessary. It feels like leadership. But in a restaurant, real leadership is not being needed for every decision. Real leadership is building people, systems, and accountability so the right decisions can happen without you standing there. That's prosperity. That's restaurant prosperity. That's when the business starts serving your life instead of consuming it. So what do you do when you realize you've waited too long? First, don't waste time beating yourself up. That doesn't help. Guilt is not a strategy. Shame does not lower your food cost. Regret does not train your managers. You need ownership, not self punishment. There's a big difference. Self punishment says, I'm terrible. I screwed this up. I should have known better. Ownership says, this is mine, I can fix it. I'm going to take the next right action. That's where we want to go. And the first action is not to fix everything. This is where restaurant pros mess it up. They hit a breaking point, get motivated, and suddenly want to overhaul the entire restaurant by Tuesday. New checklists, new meetings, new recipe costing cards, new scheduling systems, new manager expectations, new inventory processes, new training programs, new culture, new life. Easy there, cowboy. That's not change. That is a panic makeover. And panic makeovers don't last. You don't need to fix everything at once. You need to pick the first domino. The first domino is the one area where change will create the most immediate relief or expose the most important truth. For one restaurant, that might be prime cost. For another, it might be manager accountability. For another, it might be scheduling to budget. For another, it might be food production and waste. For another, it might be line checks. For another, it might be manager meetings. But pick one. One area, one rhythm, one standard, one system. And then you work it until it sticks. That is where taking action comes in. Not thinking about taking action, not taking or talking about taking action. Not buying another notebook and pretending that counts as taking action. Actual action. You choose the system, you train it. You explain why it matters. You set the expectations, you inspect it, you follow up, you correct it, you repeat it. That's how you. How you make change happen. Not with drama, not with a grand speech, not with a team meeting where everybody nods politely and then goes back to doing whatever they were doing before change happens. Through consistent, boring, repeated follow through. I know, very sexy, but boring done consistently will beat brilliant. Done occasionally, every single time. Think about it this way. It doesn't take a lot to make something happen. Think about the doors in your pass as you go through the kitchen to the dining room. If you've got those old fashioned ones, they're small hinges. These small hinges swing big doors. They support all the weight, they handle all the energy. They allow people to go in and out all the time safely. Small hinges make big change happen. They give you the momentum you needed to be successful. And that's all. When we pick one system, we're installing small hinges that can support, can support you and your team and the change you need to make happen safely, easily. It doesn't have to be big one System implemented consistently can create momentum and confidence. Now let me give you a few examples of, uh, first dominoes. If cash is tight and you don't know why, start with prime cost. That means food cost, beverage cost, and labor cost. You need to know where the money is going. Not once a year, not when your accountant sends you a report from 45 days ago. You need a regular rhythm. If your food cost is too high, start with recipe costs and cards, waste tracking, key item tracker, invoice checks and portion control. Don't guess track. If labor is out of control, start scheduling to a budget. Not scheduling based on feelings. Not scheduling based on who complains the loudest. Not scheduling like you're building a family reunion. Schedule to a number. If managers are not executing, start with weekly one on one meetings in a clear. Manage your responsibilities. Not vague expectations like be better. That's useful. Tell them what ownership looks like. Tell them what must be done daily, weekly and monthly. Tell them how success is measured if employees keep doing things wrong. Start with training. Not watch Jessica for two shifts. And uh, good luck. Actual training, written expectations, demonstration, practice, verification, sign off. If the restaurant only runs well when you're there, start with checklist and inspections. Not checklists as decoration. Checklists that are used, verified and managed. Remember, checklist nobody inspects is just paper with ambition. The key is not, not which system to choose first. The key is that you choose one and stop negotiating with chaos. Because chaos will always argue for more time. Chaos will always say not today. Chaos will always say after the weekend. Chaos will always say when things slow down. Chaos is a liar. Things do not slow down in restaurants. You have to create control while things are moving. That's the job. Now I want to say something directly to restaurant pros who's listening right now and knows this episode is about them. You, my friend, are not broken. You are definitely not stupid. You are absolutely not weak. You're probably tired. You are probably carrying too much. You are probably surrounded by people who depend on you more than than they should. You may have built a restaurant that works because of your effort, not because of your systems. And that, my friend, is fixable. But only if you stop waiting for the perfect time. There is no perfect time. There is only the next decision, the next standard, the next conversation, the next system, the next act of leadership. And yes, it may be uncomfortable. You may have to disappoint people who like the old version of your leadership, because the old version let them get away with things. You may have to have conversations you've been avoiding you may have to admit you don't know your numbers as well as you should. You may have to look at your restaurant differently, but the alternative is worse. The alternative is staying trapped in the business that demands everything from you and gives you too little back. I don't want that for you. That's not why you opened your restaurant. You didn't do this so you could become the highest paid firefighter in the building. You did this because you wanted opportunity, freedom, impact, a better life. Maybe pride, maybe legacy, maybe financial security, maybe all of it. But none of that happens by accident. It happens when you lead differently. And leading differently starts before the breaking point. That's the real lesson. Don't wait until it hurts. Listen. When it whispers. When your numbers whisper. Listen. When your managers are struggling. Listen. When your team keeps asking the same questions. Listen. When your spouse says you're never really present. Listen. When your body says, I can't keep doing this. Listen. When your bank account says something is wrong. Listen. Pain is information, but crisis is what happens when you ignore the information too long. So here's your challenge. Identify one thing in your restaurant you already know needs to change. Not 12. 1. 1. The one you keep thinking about, the one you keep postponing, the one you complain about but have not truly addressed. The one that makes you say, I know, I know. I need to fix that. That's the one. Write it down. Then ask yourself three questions. First, what is this problem costing me? Money, time, stress, guest experience, freedom. What is the real cost? Second, what standard have I failed to define, train or enforce? Because most reoccurring problems live there. Third, what is the next action I can take this week? Not someday. Not when it slows down this week. Maybe it's scheduling a meeting with your manager. Maybe it's pulling your prime cost. Maybe it's creating a your first checklist. Maybe it's reviewing invoices. Maybe it's implementing a waste tracker. Maybe it's finally having a conversation with the employee everyone knows is a problem. Whatever it is, make it specific. Change does not start with a feeling. It starts with a decision, then an action, then an then follow through. That's how you move from chaos to control. That's how you move from survival to prosperity. That's how you build a restaurant that no longer requires you to sacrifice your life to keep it alive. And restaurant pros. That's the point. Let me bring this home. M. The breaking point is not being the change. Well, let's start it again. The breaking point is not beginning of change. It is the bill coming due for change you delayed. Read that one again in your head. The breaking point is the bill coming due for change you delayed. But you don't have to wait for that. You can choose earlier, you can act sooner. You can stop negotiating with chaos. You can stop pretending busy is the same same as productive. You can stop being the hero and start being the architect. You can build the systems, you can train your people. You can hold your managers accountable. You can know your numbers. You can create a restaurant that gives you freedom from your restaurant and the financial freedom you never thought possible. But it starts with one honest question. What am I tolerating that I already know needs to change? Answer that honestly, then act. That's where prosperity begins. I'm, um, David Scott Peters and I'll see you next time.

Speaker A: Hey, that was an awesome episode. I want to thank you for taking the time to take action on building a better, more prosperous restaurant. Before you go, I want to give you these three 1. By combining leadership and taking action with systems and training being checked by accountability, you are on your way to creating prosperity for you and your restaurant.

Speaker B: 2.

Speaker A: I have something I need from you. Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you happen to listen to podcasts. By leaving us a review, other restaurant pros seeking out this information are able to find it. I read the reviews and hearing how this information has benefited you does wonders for me, me and three if you find any of the discussions helpful, share them. The more restaurant pros who have access to them, the better we become as an industry. For more restaurant resources or to get in contact with me, connect with me@ah davidscott peters.com Be passionate about what you're doing, be persistent, but more importantly, become better and help everyone around you become better and your restaurant is going to kick some ass.