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Fri, 20 Mar 2026 17:36:54 GMT

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The Three Pillars of Good Job Creation

There are three pillars of good job creation—jobs that create::

Economic Stability — Providing reliable wages, fair compensation, and consistent scheduling that workers can depend on.
Equity, Respect and Voice — Creating a workplace where every team member feels valued, heard, and treated fairly.
Economic Mobility — Offering clear paths for advancement and professional growth.

Why This Matters in the Restaurant Industry

The restaurant industry is considered low-wage work, with high turnover, which means that these three elements are often overlooked. Why spend time and money on addressing these issues when workers often abandon these jobs? Because what we need now, more than ever, is to professionalize the restaurant industry. We want our workers to look at restaurant work as a profession, even if they don't choose to stay.

Restaurants Shape First Work Experiences

Our industry is often the first job people have as they enter the workforce. We employ first-time workers at a greater rate than any other industry. That means we as an industry help shape someone's first experience of work. The student or young person, the immigrant, or the formerly incarcerated. This is why it matters that we, the restaurant industry, create good jobs.

How I Can Help You Become a Good Job Creator

If you would like to become a good job creator, I can help you map that out. From creating economic stability (wage and compensation models, scheduling models, benefit planning) to culture building (giving workers a sense of agency, belonging) to economic mobility (charting paths to advancement—even in a small business).

Healthy Staff First, Profits Follow

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 06:03:08 GMT

Restaurant work has been around since the 18th century. And from the beginning, worker health has never been the priority.

The first restaurants weren't designed for the people making the food. They were designed for the people eating it. Workers were there to create an experience, to serve, to perform. Their wellbeing? That wasn't part of the equation.

In 1907, a psychologist went undercover as a server to research the impact of restaurant work on the worker. She worked 13-hour days, seven days a week. She described bruises from carrying trays, arms aching from shoulder to fingertip, feet swollen and blistered. She barely had time to eat. When she did, it was leftovers, standing among dirty dishes.

That was more than 100 years ago.

Here's what's troubling to me: much of what she described still exists today. The long hours. The physical strain. The lack of breaks. The dependence on tips to survive.

The data tells the story. In 2018, food service ranked third overall for workplace injuries. Workers reported musculoskeletal disorders, burns, cuts, slips, and falls. Sexual harassment claims in restaurants are the highest of any industry. Stress, burnout, and substance use are significantly elevated compared to other occupations.

And the structure of the industry makes it worse. Tipped wages keep earnings low and unpredictable. Lack of paid sick leave means people work while injured or ill. High turnover means little investment in training or safety.

We've built an industry on the backs of workers we don't protect.

If we want restaurants to thrive, we need to start with the people who make them run. Better wages. Real benefits. Safe working conditions. Training that prioritizes health, not just speed.

What can this look like in real life?

1. Shoes and floors — are your floors hard concrete? Find the best mats possible and make sure everyone knows how to keep them clean. Then, offer vouchers for good work shoes to everyone who works for you. Give them a list to great websites or stores that sell those great shoes.

2. Ask your crew what they believe might help and what they would find value in. Is it a yoga instructor coming in a couple of days a week? Is it a gift card to for a massage? Is it a gym membership? Give them lots of options.

3. Mental Health — there are lots of ways to address this. It could be offering an Employee Assistance Package (EAP). It could be scheduling a training with organizations like CHOW.org that have programs specifically for restaurant workers.

4. Pay people well and on time. Yeah, obvious right? Here's what I mean: no one should have to worry about when their pay will arrive in their bank account. Offer direct deposit and debit card loading. Manage tips through a company that can offer flexible payment options for tips.

5. Encourage restful breaks — make sure your team takes breaks and support each other on breaks.

6. Family meal — this is should be a non-negotiable. An opportunity for everyone to sit down and relate to each other. No eating on the run, while standing at the bussing station.

7. Examine the flow of work closely (AI models can do this well) so that your staff economizes on steps and movement.

8. (This is controversial so — trigger warning) — think about healthy staff before you think of healthy bottom line. If it means closing two days a week, maybe that's what you should do. With healthy staff, you may find the healthy bottom line follows.

This isn't about being soft. It's about being smart. Healthy workers are better workers. Supported teams create better experiences. Safer kitchens run more efficiently. And profits will come.

The question is: are we finally ready to prioritize the people behind the plates? Let's start now. Let me know when you're ready to start and we can map this path together.

Three Pillars Of Good Job Creation

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 04:03:27 GMT

The Aspen Institute studies and empowers job creators to implement systems and policies that support good job creation.

The Three Pillars of Good Job Creation

There are three pillars of good job creation—jobs that create::

Economic Stability — Providing reliable wages, fair compensation, and consistent scheduling that workers can depend on.
Equity, Respect and Voice — Creating a workplace where every team member feels valued, heard, and treated fairly.
Economic Mobility — Offering clear paths for advancement and professional growth.

Why This Matters in the Restaurant Industry

Restaurants Shape First Work Experiences

How I Can Help You Become a Good Job Creator

Give me a call, and we can work on this together...

The New Restaurant Manager

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 04:14:28 GMT

I recently came across an IG post where a restaurant owner was complaining about how his servers made more than his general manager.

In fact, depending on the kind of restaurant, servers make more money and work fewer hours than anyone else in the restaurant.

I have never felt that was fair. (Yes, this is very controversial, I know).

I believe in pay equity. I believe that managers who take on more responsibility should be compensated. I believe that the two-tiered system (tipped minimum wage) is at the core of the problem. Servers would be the ideal candidates to step into the role as managers but they often don't want to take what they see as a pay cut to take on more responsibility.

Managers in restaurants are taking on the in-between role. In-between ownership and staff. They are asked to address issues with staff that they empathize with while representing ownership. They coach, manage, train, resolve conflict. It all falls on their shoulders.

In the past, good restaurant managers have been valued for their endurance, juggling all the various demands at once.

The position of manager should be a step in a career, not a pathway to burnout. If we want the restaurant industry to be a place where people want to come to work, we need to offer meaningful opportunities for advancement, while acknowledging the need for others to take on some of those responsibilities.

Rethink the tasks of the manager. Look at who in your organization is best suited to those tasks. Offer opportunities for others within your team to take on those tasks.

This is a new strategy to provide pathways to advancement. If you want to discuss this more, and need help with mapping this out, reach out for a consultation.

Exclusivity or Exclusionary - Why Restaurants Can't Continue to Raise Prices and Remain in Business

Fri, 12 Dec 2025 14:20:21 GMT

TLDR

A recent dining experience in the Hamptons reveals a troubling trend—restaurant prices are becoming so prohibitive that they're not just exclusive, but exclusionary. As operating costs rise and prices increase across the board, the restaurant industry risks pricing out the majority of diners and losing its essential role as an accessible community gathering place. We need to rethink our operating models before affordability concerns create an existential threat to the industry.

If you happen to find yourself on the eastern end of Long Island, make sure you have your own stash of food. Because if you don't, you will either not be able to afford to eat while you're there, or you will run up a huge credit card bill.

My disclaimer: I don't monitor my food budget. I'm lucky that way, or stupid that way. I eat what I want, often regardless of the cost, mostly because I enjoy good food, and I love eating out. I misuse my credit cards, sometimes spending money I don't have. It's a privilege I am completely aware of. So with that in mind, read on.

A $70 Lunch

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I drove out to Southampton to join my chef-husband, who was cooking meals for a wealthy family over the long weekend. I wanted to grab a light lunch, so I found a cute bistro where I ordered a glass of Sancerre and a chicken salad.

The check, with tip, came to $70.

I walked over to the grocery store. I love grocery stores — like window shopping for food — strolling the aisles and finding new products. I struggle like most Americans these days with affordability, and if I were actually shopping for my household groceries, I wouldn't go to this place.

The prices were prohibitive. Not like, "I don't see value it that" kind of prohibitive, but more like, "if I buy that, I won't be able to pay my rent" prohibitive. Eggs, milk, cheese, bread. Out of control.

As I walked back to my hotel, I passed several other restaurants and checked out the menus. It was not so demoralizing as it was obscene. I can't even…Where do regular people shop here? Is there a Stop & Shop nearby?

The $300 Dinner

At the end of the weekend, on Sunday night, after my husband finished an incredibly grueling week of work, we decided to go out for dinner. I was cautious, knowing that it wouldn't be easy to have a meal that wouldn't break the bank, or cost nearly an entire day's wages.

We settled for a nice, full-service Mexican restaurant. I normally would look at a menu like that and try to order intelligently — no entrees perhaps, a couple of appetizers to keep the cost down. I like to eat well, but I know if I only order one dish, I can keep the tab low.

The first item on the menu of starters was guacamole. $25. And it was downhill — or uphill- from there.

First, I should say that the meal was excellent. Michelin star good? No. But better than most meals I've had in a while. And the service was also good, but no better than what one should expect.

The check came. With tip, the meal set us back $300.

What the hell were we paying for? Two Modelos — $24. My cocktail was $18. I had a chile relleno, we had ceviche, an octopus appetizer, the guacamole and coconut cake for dessert. This price was what I would expect at a super fine dining restaurant; I don't think we've ever spent that much for an anniversary dinner.

Could I have anticipated this and said, no, we can't dine here? Sure. But I had been scouting restaurants all day, and this one — it was no different than any of the others that were open that evening. I felt trapped. If we wanted to eat a meal that night, a full meal, this was what we were going to spend.

From Exclusive to Exclusionary

I had a frightening thought. Is this the ultimate direction that restaurants will be taking? Increasing prices because they can, or because they believe that is the only way to make a profit? and in the process, leaving out entire populations of diners?

Who can afford to go out to eat once a week and spend $300?

This restaurant environment isn't just exclusive — it's exclusionary. There is a place and time for fine dining, expensive restaurants. But there is a disconnect here. Because if we keep going down this road, there will be no places for the rest of us to go.

When my husband and I opened our first restaurant in 1998, we aimed to be a place people could come to dine once a week, because the prices and the menu (French)were accessible. The atmosphere was friendly. It was a neighborhood bistro. Inclusive. We served families with small children and couples on a first date. Could we have charged more for our menu? Of course. But the purpose wasn't that. We determined what our purpose was and we embodied that.

An Existential Threat

This is what I'm afraid of: As the cost of doing business rises, restaurant owners will feel emboldened to raise prices and feel justified in doing it. When everyone in the community is doing it and the customer's income isn't rising at the same rate, the community that can support it will shrink. And the purpose that restaurants serve in society will dissolve along with it.

Restaurants will no longer be accessible to the majority, but to an exclusive minority. The delight of eating out will be confined only to the very rich.

Fine dining is certainly exclusive. A slice of pizza and a coke is inclusive. But making everything in between exclusionary will kill the industry. We can't just keep raising prices because it will create an existential threat — yes, I said it — to the restaurant industry. An existential threat.

We must rethink the operating models we use to run our businesses. Pivoting is our superpower. We've done this before.

The Minimum Wage Discussion

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 19:15:53 GMT

San Francisco voters recently passed a measure, as several cities around the country are starting to do, which will raise the minimum wage to $15/hour by July 2018. Its a steady ramp-up, one dollar per year, and, frankly at the rate that everything is becoming more expensive here, I don't know that $15 will look so great in three years. I'm very happy that the discussion has started and that we're on our way to giving hourly employees a better wage.

Real-World Impact: Stories from SeaTac, Washington

An article appeared in the Huffington Post last May about the effect the new minimum wage has had on the community of Seatac in Washington. They aren't going the gradual route...they just upped the wage in one fell-swoop. The impact? One worker could actually quit one of his full-time (40 hours a week) jobs to concentrate on his other full-time job and spend more time with his family. And start exercising.

Another worker decided he could start saving (What a concept!?) So when his car breaks down, he won't have to scramble to make it one month.

The $70K Experiment: One CEO's Bold Move

Another CEO in Washington decided to raise the minimum wage of his workers to $70K/year. The average employee in this company was making $48K/year. Wow. Imagine what the buying power that CEO just released! What would you do if you had an extra $22K/year? Buy a car? Send a kid to college? Save for college? Travel and spend? I read that this CEO has met with some resistance, from within his company as well as from outside.

The Restaurant Industry Challenge

As an employer, this may appear at first to put a huge strain on your ability to make money. After all, the food industry is probably the #1 employer of folks on minimum wage (I have no idea if this is true...it just seems like it is!). New York State recently created a mandatory minimum wage of $15/hour for fast food workers. Interestingly enough, this proves problematic as it begins to pull folks away from really important low-paying jobs, like child care, towards jobs at McDonalds and Burger King. Economists have said that minimum wage works to raise the folks on the edge of the middle class up into the middle class, but only if it is across the board.

A Management Meeting Reality Check

I realized this was an issue that needed to be addressed when I was sitting in a management meeting at a restaurant where I worked. The ballot measure for raising the minimum wage was coming up for a vote. The owner, talking to all the managers, kitchen and front-of-the-house, told us to tell all our team to vote against the ballot measure as it could mean the restaurant would have to cut back on staff to stay in business. Really? What planet did you come from? Who is going to turn down a raise? If making $15/hour means that you only need to have one job to make ends meet, that you could spend more time with your family, tuck your children into bed at night, or take a Sunday drive to the country...why wouldn't you vote for that?

The Business Decision: Finding Your Path Forward

Let's face it: no one gets rich on $15/hour. The point is to shrink the income inequality gap, which can only be good for everyone. The question really is, how does it affect your business plan? How does it affect your decision making? Raise your prices? Limit your menu to reduce the need for labor? Make a smaller profit? Eliminate tips?

Join the Conversation

In the next few blog posts, I want to explore this issue further. This is an issue with so many people weighing in. There are conflicting perspectives that a high minimum wage boost unemployment figures and is bad for business and that is reduces unemployment and is good for business. I want to hear from restaurateurs about what has worked for them, how you have adjusted your business labor model to account for these changes.

Setting Clear Expectations

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 19:22:52 GMT

You have an employee handbook you downloaded from your payroll company and you think, “Done!” Not so fast. That may have covered your legal obligations but it may not cover everything.

News Flash: without clear policies, you may find yourself facing a situation you never expected and no guidelines for handling it. Then you make a decision, and POOF! You find yourself on the other side of a lawsuit.

But there’s something else to consider here too. Your staff needs guidelines, a sense of what is expected of them, systems and knowledge that people are held to account. It’s about setting expectations for everyone in your business - staff, vendors, customers and even yourself.

Every time I’ve had to manage some HR situation, I’ve realized it boils down to one thing - there wasn’t a clear policy around the issue. Workplace relationships? Social media posting? Dress code? So many sticky and uncomfortable situations can be avoided with a policy. Admittedly, people violate policies, but they create a guideline for accountability and discipline.

Politics and Restaurants — Do They Belong Together?

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 15:24:22 GMT

Last month, I read about a Baltimore restaurant where a server who wore a Palestinian pin was asked to remove it. The whole thing blew up, social media, protests, and cancel culture. It wasn't pretty.

Before the election last November, servers at a Boston restaurant wore "No on 5"* t-shirts, and there were matching table tents. The same message was printed on checks.

Meanwhile, a diner in Connecticut displays a Trump poster right on the host stand. I was told that the owner often ranted on about Joe Biden.

All of this had me wondering: In such a divided time in the United States, should restaurants really be spaces for political discourse? Do politics belong here?

Historical Precedent

Historically, the answer is yes, politics and eating/drinking establishments can mix.

A hundred years ago, taverns and pubs weren't just watering holes — they were hubs of political life. Many "belonged" to particular movements or political bosses, serving as gathering places where ordinary people could connect directly with power.

Taverns functioned like newsrooms, places where information was shared and politics were mobilized. During Prohibition, speakeasies became moral battlegrounds. Juke joints offered resistance to Jim Crow. In the 1950s and '60s, lunch counters became the stage for desegregation protests. And bars have long provided safe havens — from Stonewall to today's LGBTQ+ spaces.

In every era, restaurants, pubs, and diners have been more than places to eat and drink. They've been sites of belonging, resistance, and political expression.

The Legal Right to Express

So, is it appropriate for a restaurant to take a political stand?

Absolutely. Under the First Amendment, you can express your views in your own business. What you cannot do is deny service based on protected categories like race, sex, religion, or national origin. But you can ask someone to remove a MAGA hat, or refuse entry to someone wearing a Nazi armband. Being a Nazi or MAGA isn't a protected class.

The point is: you're free to say who you are — and be proud of it. Those who disagree can take their business elsewhere. Just ask my friends at Mamaleh's in Boston: Proudly Jewish, and clear about it.

If you feel strongly about something, you can put it on the table, literally — like the "No on 5" campaign did.

If you feel tipping is an oppressive practice, you can eliminate tips, pay everyone well and tell your customers why you don't accept tips — like my friends at Wishtree in North Adams, MA.

The Hospitality Tension

Here's the tension, though.

Hospitality itself isn't political. If you want your restaurant to be about pure hospitality, then politics don't belong. Keep the focus on food, service, and the guest experience. You should still demand respect and safety for your staff.

It's a spectrum of sorts — on one end is the French Laundrys of the world, and on the other are the gay bars of the world. One is purely about food, atmosphere and service. The other is all about belonging and safety. They both work.

You get to choose what's important to you and how you express it in the space of your restaurant. Most of all that message must be clear to your staff. It might look like a dress code that is rigorously adhered to. Some customers may not like it. Some staff may not like it.

The Power of Choice

Ultimately, restaurant spaces can send a message. A rainbow flag. A Black Lives Matter poster. A server in a MAGA hat. Each is a symbol — and each tells me something about whether I want to walk in or walk out.

As a guest, I have a choice: to support or not. As an owner, you have a choice: to speak or stay silent.

And that's the heart of it. Restaurants have always been more than neutral dining rooms. They are stages for expression, for belonging, for values lived out in public.

So the real question is not whether politics and restaurants belong together. History has already answered that. The real question is: what do you want your restaurant to stand for?

*Question 5 would have phased out the subminimum wage for tipped workers in favor of a full minimum wage with tips on top.

What It Means To Open A Restaurant

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 15:46:43 GMT

Closing our restaurant was one of the most heartbreaking experiences of my life. After five years of serving customers the best roasted chickens in San Francisco, we shut our doors for good. We had lost our lease, which meant essentially we had nothing to sell, except our equipment, and all the money we had poured into building the space was lost. We had nothing left.

For years after closing Mistral Rotisserie in the Ferry Building Marketplace, I couldn’t bear to walk into the building. It was just too painful. I recognize now that was a form of PTSD. The last year had been emotionally brutal and I had forced myself to move through it as quickly as possible for the good of my family. The pain lingered.

It didn’t help that random people on the bus would recognize me from those days behind the counter and ask me, “When are you going to reopen?” “What are you and your husband doing now?”

One day, two years later, I received a call from a woman in Upstate New York. She was the sister of one of our dearest regulars, calling to tell me her brother had passed away, alone in his room in the Tenderloin. “But you brought Davey such joy and kept him well fed for all those years, thank you,” she said.

It wasn’t right. It was only at that moment that I truly felt the impact of what that closure meant. It wasn’t about me, or my family. It was much more significant than that. I had failed to see the breadth of my responsibility when we opened our business. I had failed to understand the consequences of the existence of our business to everyone and everything around it. I was determined to ensure other restaurants didn’t make the same mistake.

When restaurants open, it is a creation. A space is created for community. They occupy a space on the street or in a building. The space is no longer empty. Where nothing was generated before, something exists. We may not notice this until it becomes empty again. Let’s talk about what happens in between.

You become an employer. You have created jobs for people. Those people rely on you for livihood. They will be spending large swaths of time in service of customers, with each other, and with you. If that time is spent in harsh conditions, they are likely to find other work that suits them better. And if you don’t run your business well and can’t pay them, that’s on you.

You have customers. Customers trust that you will give them something of value, something worth coming to you for. Well-prepared food. Maybe a new experience. Maybe nostalgia. You’ve made a pact with them when they walk in your door to provide something they want or need. It must be worth something to them or they will no longer walk in your door. And when you close your doors forever, they will no longer have access to that.

You have vendors. Vendors are happy you are there because you provide business for them. They are partners in your success. They can find whatever it is you need and deliver it to you. But if you don’t pay them in a timely manner, they can no longer trust the relationship and can no longer be your partner.

And perhaps you have investors. A financial relationship — perhaps a bank that loaned you the money to start your business. They are also invested in your success. Don’t push them away. They may have ideas or resources you aren’t taking advantage of, and they want to help. And when you close, they may have lost money, but they’ve also lost trust.

What does it mean to take care of each of these communities? It begins acknowledging what you don’t know, and finding ways to fill in that knowledge gap. Understand your financial situation because that will address the needs of two of these communities. Create a culture for your workers that has them excited and engaged and safe. And nurture your customer base by giving them something of value worth coming back for.

Helping restaurant entrepreneurs be accountable to these four communities is the core of what I do. It was from the anguish of closing my own restaurant that I came to learn this and heal.

Why The Restaurant Industry Must Change To Survive

Thu, 03 Apr 2025 15:36:56 GMT

This is a subtitle for your new post

I've been thinking about how to fix the restaurant industry for over 30 years. What's to fix?

It started when I ran into my high school English teacher on the 1 California bus one day on the way home from work. It was 1990, I had just finished my 7am to 3pm shift as a pastry cook at the Hyatt Regency. The bus was empty — it was the beginning of the line — except for me and Mrs. Burke. I was happy to see her — she was always supportive.

I filled her in on what I was up to. In a few months, I would be heading to Stockholm to work as a pastry cook at the Grand Hotel.

"Whenever I think about working in kitchens," she said, "I think of the book by George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London." And that's what got me started.

Before leaving for Stockholm, I purchased the book. It is a memoir of Orwell's time as a struggling writer, living in poverty and squalor, and working in the kitchens of restaurants in 1927, located in magnificent palace-like hotels catering to the super-wealthy. Restaurants in 1927 were only for the well-to-do; common folk went to pubs. It was fitting that she mentioned that book since I was heading to work in one such hotel.

In Orwell's 1927 Paris, the kitchen was one world — loud, harsh, hot, unpleasant, low ceilings, no sunlight, hot stoves. And the dining room was another, full of light and laughter, shining crystal and the sound of silver on porcelain, ladies and gentlemen dressed beautifully and blissfully unaware of what was going on on the other side of the door. The servers passed from one world to the other, showing one face in one world, another in the other. It was also a story of power dynamics and denigration. It would've been comical if it weren't so real and, sadly, contemporary.

I remember reading that book and thinking how things hadn't changed much. Working conditions have indeed improved, as a result of labor unions predominately. It bothered me that the culture I was reading about was so familiar. Why is it that way? From 1927 to now, why do people who work in our industry have to endure that, all these years later?

We've seen contemporary versions of this playing out in books, on TV, and in films. Those of us who have worked in kitchens point to those stories and say, "Yes! That's exactly right!" From Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential to FX's The Bear and last year's film, La Cocina (I walked out, it was so triggering), to name a few, the trauma of working in restaurants is toxic.

The COVID-19 pandemic pushed back the curtain even more on a deeply flawed industry, and created many new ones. At the time, I thought that the pandemic would facilitate positive change. Five years later, all it has done is pushed the industry closer to a cliff.

It is clear to me that in order for the industry to survive, we must see massive systemic change. This structure isn't working anymore, we just haven't hit the wall yet.

Restaurants are intertwined with so many parts of our society, our economy and our lives. In one post, I cannot write about all the different ways we are failing the restaurant industry and what needs to be done.

Okay, I am not a pessimist. I am a solution-finder. In my next installment, I'll suss some of this out. Stay tuned!

Fine Dining is Unsustainable

Tue, 10 Jan 2023 18:34:50 GMT

The headline in the New York Times announced that Noma, the restaurant rated #1 in the world, is closing — and its celebrated chef Rene Redzepi declares fine dining at the highest level is unsustainable.

Sea Bass En Croute - Restaurant Paul Bocuse

Finally. Someone at the top of the restaurant field calling out the obvious. I read Julia Moskin’s article and began to ask myself, what do we do with that? Where do we go from here? Is this type of dining becoming obsolete or irrelevant? And what about the rest of us?

I am no longer involved in the day-to-day operations of a restaurant, but the food industry and fine dining on the Michelin-star level has been part of my life for more than 30 years. I met my husband while working in the pastry kitchen at Grand Hotel Stockholm, one of Scandinavia’s top hotels. He was 25, French and had just come from working at Restaurant Paul Bocuse — working, not staging — and was consulting in the French dining room there. He had been Chef de Partie Saucier in one of the most prestigous Michelin-starred restaurants in the world. At that time, he had been cooking for 11 years, being shuttled from one fine-dining establishment to another by the Michelin-star mafia. It was his entire world and it has shaped who he is.

All this to say, I understand the origins of this culture, the values of this culture and how it operates. It holds perfection as its’ highest ideal . It is highly labor intensive. It operates under the assumption that one should be grateful to “touch the King’s ring” and so working 16 hour days for nothing is acceptable.

People go to work in these environments and then go and recreate them in their own spaces all over the world. This is an excuse given by some sucessful chefs for their bad behaviour and toxic work environments.

One of the outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the lifting of the veil on toxic work environments. The restaurant industry was hit particularly hard because workers came to realize they had options. Toxic work environments would no longer be tolerated. Talented workers left the industry in droves.

I look back on the past 40 years and wonder what the next shift will be. Chef Redzepi was right on when he said this is unsustainable. Labor, the heart of the restaurant industry, must become central to mission of any hospitality business in order for it to survive. Fine dining has taken that part of the equation completely for granted. So where does that leave us?

What has been at the center of fine dining is creativity. Chefs like Redzepi and Dan Barber have sought a way to sustain that creativity by altering the model. The Noma Project represents one attempt. After the pandemic, Dan Barber reopened Stone Barns promising a change in focus. Whether it will work, financially and culturally, has yet to be seen.

For fine dining, the ingredients are everything. I did the books for a very high end restaurant that spent $2000 a week on sea urchin. The servers made more money than the owner, while the kitchen staff was underpaid or unpaid. The owner was hailed as a genius. I couldn’t understand that model and left as soon as I could.

My only hope was that those young people working for nothing would soon learn the value of their labor, see the hypocrisy of it all, and transform the industry. I’ll be right there alongside them.

Good Intentions but Poor Execution: The James Beard Foundation and The Code of Ethics

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 15:48:44 GMT

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An article about problematic practices at the James Beard Foundation surfaced this week in the New York Times. The article, by The NYT writers Brett Anderson and Julia Moskin, reveals that the JBF is investigating their Award nominees for violations of the JBF’s code of ethics. The Foundation has opened a tip line, and hired private investigators to aid in determining if any of the chefs nominated for their highly prestigious awards could be accused of abusive behavior by their staff. If found to be in violation of the Foundation’s Code of Ethics, the nominee could be disqualified from winning, although their names would remain on the voting ballot. A good idea to hold those to account, but poorly executed.

I have been in the food industry my entire working life and I have always been wary of The James Beard Foundation. I have vacillated between being supportive of their mission to being cynical. Initially, I loved the idea that the culinary world was recognized as an art and that creativity in the American food world was being rewarded. But when I saw the Foundation elevating the same old predictable names, it seemed to be just a way for those who could afford it, to self-promote . Separate from the awards, the organization “invites” chefs to cook at the prestigious James Beard House — which they can only do if they can afford it, fly themselves and their team to New York and thus take advantage of the invitation. Chefs pay for their own promotion and bask in the endorsement of the JBF. The Foundation gives you a stamp of approval. Plus, it seemed to be celebrating gastronomic excellence that was predominately white, European and male. Despite being married to someone who fits that description, I saw inequity in celebrating colonialized gastronomy.

When they began giving out awards, many folks I supported were recognized, and I thought that was cool. But then, I had the experience of working for several chefs that were recognized with a James Beard Award. In all cases, their culture sucked. (Note: just the ones I worked for. I know many who are committed to better culture.) When those chefs received recognition, I became even more cynical about the JBF Awards processes. I was angry that these chefs had been given so much oxygen. The award acted as an endorsement for whatever they are doing. In some cases, it inflated their egos, gave them license to expect employees to work for unlivable wages or no wage at all. It gave them license to continue with the toxic behaviors that were happening behind the scenes.

Today, I applaud the Foundation for striving to be relevant, and being a supporter of and catalyst for change in the hospitality world. It is an organization that has transitioned from being “a body celebrating gastronomy” to one trying to “(drive) impact across the industry” (from their website) Bravo, how wonderful is that! Since 2017 with the emergence of the #MeToo movement, the dirty secret of abusive behaviors within the restaurant industry has been exposed. The James Beard Foundation is now taking that head on.

From the article: “By making itself the chief arbiter of restaurant excellence, however, the foundation also made many of the restaurant world’s most pernicious problems — inequity, lack of diversity in leadership, workplace abuse of many kinds — its’ own.”

To be relevant JBF had to address these issues. In response, they established an Ethics Committee to address just this.

However, they are using the same systems and processes to address those problems that created the problem. With a tip line (for anonymous reporting of abuses) and surreptitious investigations, they perpetuate the stigma of speaking out. We can no longer stay in the shadows and be cowed by the backlash. A poor culture will not survive the light of day. A healthy culture will not be destroyed by one angry unhappy employee lodging a complaint.

I believe that an organization that prides itself in elevating excellence in the culinary world should not be elevating the work of anyone who hasn’t done the work to address a toxic workplace. Hand in hand with that, JBF certainly shouldn’t be elevating anyone or any business that has a known problem that goes unaddressed.

Hiring a private investigator and opening an anonymous tip line fails to go to the heart of the issue constructively. Instead, this practice serves to perpetuate the stigma of speaking out, of covering up and silencing voices, without addressing the behavior itself.

What would be better practice?

To be considered for a JB award, a restaurant should be required to have a program in place that addresses and holds space for a healthy culture. Restaurants must have a path to accountability built into the culture of their space, including the behavior of leaders at the top. If the work has not been done, restaurants and their chefs should not be elevated as leaders in the industry.
The Tip Line: This reinforces the stigma of blowing the whistle. JBF should actively interview those who work within a restaurant or with a nominated chef. Any restaurant that is confident in its’ policies would have nothing to hide. If someone is afraid of losing their job for speaking out, well, that is a huge red flag.
Now this is radical: Eliminate the awards! Celebrate excellence in some other way. I’m not sure what that might be. The awards have had a nasty effect of reinforcing poor leadership practices. Chefs get big egos, become celebrities interested in perpetuating their own self-importance, rather than working to make the industry better. The hundreds of people who will work for them will suffer.

Culture is something that must be consciously created. Restaurateurs have ignored this for way too long, and the James Beard Foundation’s Ethics Committee should not act as Culture Police. Rather, they can act as a resource for restaurateurs for building a better culture. Providing workbooks, and leadership training materials, and helping restaurants write their own code of conduct. This would go far in making culture conversations front and center, making a difference for everyone (including vendors, customers, staff, and management).

What “The Bear” Gets Right and Why That’s So Wrong

Mon, 25 Jul 2022 18:39:35 GMT

A week ago, Hulu released a new series called “The Bear”, a story about — well, what is it about? Restaurants? Chicago? Family? All of that. There’s much to unpack here, honestly.

or someone who has worked in food service my entire career and is married to a chef, I can say the creator, Christopher Storer and the writers got so much right. That is why, in so many ways, it’s so wrong.

The show is entertaining and thoughtful to those uninitiated in the restaurant world. For us who have spent our careers here, fiction imitates life so precisely that much of the show is painful to watch. Like in the, “oh God, I can totally remember when that happened to me” sort of way. “Funny/Not Funny”.

Each scene and interaction provides a glimpse into the complexity of issues in the restaurant business. Beautifully shot, and tightly written, “The Bear” highlights the toxic but human aspects of restaurants, laid bare by the #MeToo movement, the pandemic, and social justice issues of the past two years. It exposes the tensions on a macro scale (from the community perspective) and a micro scale (interactions between workers). If you are wondering why restaurant workers left the field in droves after the pandemic, imagine what it would be like to work at The Original Beef of Chicagoland.

The premise of the show: Carmy is a celebrated chef who has come back to Chicago to take over his brother’s Italian sandwich shop after his brother commits suicide. The story is packed with tensions that make for a compelling story. The themes of confronting change — the change in communities, the changes that the restaurant industry must face to survive — are central. Nostalgia gets in the way of change. The chaotic nature of the restaurant world hasn’t changed in like a hundred years.

Richie, Carmy’s “cousin”, is steeped in nostalgia. He worked the front of the house for Mikey, Carmy’s brother, the chef. He’s the soft-hearted but foul-mouthed bully, resisting Carmy at every turn. He reminds me of many people in the restaurant business, who love the customers, love the free-wheeling space, but despise structure. He makes it toxic for everyone around him. Richie resists Carmy’s new sous chef, Sydney, who implements structure. His solution to unruly customers is to take his gun and empty a round into the air to stop the action. Richie waxes nostalgic about the Windy City, especially when the bar next door closes and is up for sale. He never went in there, he admits, but he loved the stability it gave the neighborhood.

I can appreciate Richie’s take on community. I know this intimately. I owned my own small shop, a rotisserie serving customers in San Francisco’s Ferry Building. We had regulars who loved our food, and people in the community we served. Once, I received a love note from someone who thanked us for providing comfort food for their dying partner. After we closed, I was stopped on the street by strangers asking when we would open another place. I knew our closing left a hole in the community. It wounded me.

I feel like the creators and writers got this so right, it reopened that wound for me. Beautiful shots of Chicago, of small neighborhood dives, of people going to work. The writers managed to work all this into dialogue — In one episode, Ebra, the cook from Somalia, reads aloud to the kitchen crew. A review of The Beef as dropped in the paper.

“Can the Windy City evolve without losing its true essence? We wonder at times if nostalgia clouds our true judgment and creates an angry desire for perfection with every turned over spot.”

Richie also perpetuates toxic culture to preserve “the delicate eco-system” that is the restaurant.

In one episode, where the toilet in the bathroom explodes, Richie is in the bathroom with Neil, the plumber/handyman (played by real-life chef, Matty Matheson). When Richie jokingly pumps the plumber as he bends down to fix the toilet, Neil protests.

“Isn’t this an HR violation?”

“I AM HR!” Richie responds. Oy. Funny/not funny.

Neil then takes the opportunity to ask Richie if they are hiring. They conduct a job interview right there in the bathroom, with Richie insulting Neil right and left until it breaks into a brawl on the dining room floor.

I’ve never seen this happen before in a restaurant, which is not to say it never has.

“The Bear” feels real because it peels back the curtain, exposing the complexity of issues facing the restaurant industry/restaurant workers. I could go on and on about how the creators and writers of “The Bear” get it right. From the verbal abuse to a line printer spewing out orders, sending the kitchen into chaos, the pastry cook who would rather experiment with his donuts, to Tina bringing her son into work after he’s suspended from school, the focus on the clock. Fuses getting blown, toilets exploding, pilot lights not working. Doing whatever it takes to get the food out. Carmy declaring that “paperwork just isn’t my jam.” as he deals with a delinquent IRS issue. There is nothing that you see or hear that doesn’t fit.

Details that, to the unintiated, fly by on the screen provide very real insight to the restaurant world. Episode 4 opens to strains of Wilco’s Impossible Germany, and the workers on their way to work. Manny rides the bus, Sydney takes the El, Carmy walks. This is the reality of the urban restaurant worker. They often travel long distances late at night or early in the morning to get to the job. Marcus, the pastry cook, decides to sleep at the restaurant in order to save money on his commute and be at work early. This is something the general public takes for granted. What happens when the city decides that the bus line you ride to work isn’t necessary anymore and shuts it down? Or the subway stops operating at midnight?

On the micro-level, I could go on for another 2000 words about how each character and their interactions expose the good and the bad of restaurant culture. I’ll stop here. Watch the show.

Culture Chronicles — Saturday Morning

Sun, 20 Mar 2022 18:43:58 GMT

Yesterday, I was running errands in my 2005 Volvo station wagon. It was Saturday and the weather was mild. I had my window down, enjoying a mild breeze.

Montana has been forgiving this winter, one might say. The temperatures have been gentle, in the 30s and 40s. On this day, it was downright balmy.

I took a left turn off of Prospect onto Montana Ave, and I heard a man yell, “Go back to California!” I turned my head. A man in a pickup truck was yelling from his open window. I caught his eye. No time to react. I just kept driving.

Immediately a series of thoughts went through my head.

Ok, now I have to change my license plates. I have new Montana plates, but the California ones are attached with rusty screws and I’m not sure how easy it will be to attach the new ones. So I’ve been putting it off. My husband and I have talked about how unsafe we feel riding around with our California plates…we get many unsolicited comments in the Winco parking lot, while packing our groceries into the back. There are places we’ve driven not far from here, where we literally don’t feel safe. Like something out of a movie, where a giant Tundra comes up behind us and runs us off the road….we watch too many movies.
“Go back to California!” — too bad, I’m here for good. Deal with it. I have as much a right to be here as anyone. Besides, my husband and I have brought our talents and our money. You should be grateful we’re here. You should be welcoming. What the fuck.
Gladly. I’ll go back gladly. To get away from shits like you. To enjoy the life I had in a flawed but beautiful place. To have great and healthy food, abundant variety (you have to understand, my husband and I are food folks and we are suffering here…), to have diverse cultures surrounding us that bring richness to our lives. Yes, there are shootings on the freeways, and homeless people living in tents. All of that makes me more aware of the struggles of others. It makes me more compassionate. I see my neighbors suffer and I want to ease their suffering.

The man in the pickup truck was white. He was older, like my age. His outburst was an expression of his frustration with change. He wasn’t a migrant to this state, or so he perceives it that way. (Can you imagine how the Blackfoot or Salish people felt when they saw his ancestors? “Go back to where you came from!” was met with a bullet from a Winchester rifle.) At some point, all white people were migrants here. He is afraid of the erosion of his way of life like my presence means that his way of life is threatened.

These are the times we live in. Or is this the way humans have been since the beginning? This resistance to change is a constant throughout human existence. Sometimes it is silent, like a snake hiding underground, waiting for the dark when it can come above ground. Sometimes, it becomes a raging dragon and kills millions of us. Then our humanity gets the upper hand, and cuts the dragon’s head off, only to find it has grown a new one, just as vicious as the one before.

Ancestral Trauma

Tue, 15 Mar 2022 18:50:37 GMT

When I was 7, I had a best friend who lived around the block from me. Her name was Karen. Karen’s parents were divorced — in fact she was the first person I’d ever met with divorced parents. It was 1969. And I was 7.

Karen lived with her mother, but her father was very much on the scene, and many weekends, she would go up to Grass Valley to visit her father’s father who had a ranch. Karen invited me to go up there with her one weekend. Karen’s mom drove us there.

On Saturday morning, we piled into their light blue Ford Rambler and headed north. I was a little anxious as I had never had a sleepover in a place I didn’t know. I was unsure. It was hot, probably summertime. When we arrived, I was introduced to Karen’s grandfather — an affectionate man with a sunny disposition. I could tell he loved having Karen and her sister around. He welcomed me by my name, Betty. Karen, her sister, and I spent the rest of the day, playing in the watering hole, until dinner time.

After dinner, Karen and I were sitting on the living room floor watching TV, with her grandfather sitting in a chair nearby.

Then, for some reason I will never understand, Karen’s mother chose to say, “ You know, Grandpa, Betty is Jewish.”

At that time, I thought being Jewish was something to be proud of. I knew it was something that made my family different — we had seders, and lit Hanukkah candles and Santa didn’t come to our house. And my grandmother had a Yiddish accent and lived in Coney Island.

Karen’s grandfather asked me to come and sit on his knee. I did and he started to bounce me there and stopped calling me Betty. I was suddenly “Jew” and “Jew-girl”. At first, I thought he was being funny. And then he said, “you know, they used to make lampshades out of little girls like you.” For the rest of the weekend, I avoided him and he never called me by name again.

It was at that moment that I decided that maybe being a Jew was something to hide from people. I should hide being Jewish as best I can. Only if I knew someone else was Jewish, then it was safe. Otherwise, I could be Jewish at home and that would be enough.

As I grew up, my Jewish community grew — many of my high school friends were Jewish, and our city had an old and thriving Jewish community. Open and free, as the pendulum swings in our favor.

It hasn’t always been that way. It occurs to me that my ancestors knew how to survive. They stayed close together in shtetls or they concealed themselves. They knew how to hide. (like Esther in the story of Purim!)

This is how I learned this lesson.

A Job Posting Outside the Box for an Outside-the-Box Moment

Tue, 21 Sep 2021 19:00:32 GMT

Everyone is talking about how hard it is to get folks to apply for restaurant jobs. After this time in lock-down, all the restrictions on dining across the country, restaurant workers have had some time to reassess their careers and what they want in a workplace. I've talked with restaurant folks who all say the same thing: culture has to change if we are going to attract people back to this industry.

You can't solve a problem with the same thinking that created it… that's a quote from Albert Einstein.

The Problem with Traditional Job Postings

Let's begin with the job posting. So you want to attract people to your job. You pull out that tired old posting you always post when you are looking for servers and line cooks. SO boring. If I am applying for a server position, I KNOW it's going to be a "fast-paced environment". Have you ever worked in one that wasn't? Frankly, food service people thrive in that environment.

I'm calling bullshit on all those job postings! No wonder you aren't attracting the people you want.

Job postings in the past have always been about 1) how great the company is, 2) the tasks of the position and, 3) the requirements of the position. Yada, yada, yada. And benefits. Of course, you get a meal with your shift. That isn't a benefit (and if you think it is, that's sad…really).

Writing a Job Posting That Connects

How do you write a job posting that knocks people's socks off? Stand in the shoes of someone who is looking for work. Paint a picture for them about what each day might look like. They want to know what a day working in your restaurant will look like, what they can count on. How will it feel every day to walk in the door?

If you are appealing to folks who haven't been working in restaurants for a bit, or who never have, paint the picture of what it looks like to connect with customers again, get them present in the ad to what it was they came to this industry for, and play that up.

An Example of a Better Approach

It might look like this:

What does it look like to work for us? Each day you can come to work, knowing that your hard work is appreciated, that your identity is recognized, you will learn something new, and you are part of a team that has your back. Everyone is treated equally, compensated well, heard. Health and safety are a priority because people who are healthy and feel safe do their best work. You will know what's expected of you and you will have all the tools at your disposal to fulfill those expectations – and if you don't, you have space to say so. If you want to make a career of this work, we will help you with that. And if you just need to be here while you figure it out, we can help you with that. We are creating a new kind of restaurant environment – come join us to make that happen.

And what we expect from you is an open heart, a desire to work hard, a love of the industry. We know you're great - no need to prove that to us, we hired you. A willingness to take responsibility, be accountable, and find solutions that work for everyone.

We are creating a new kind of restaurant environment – come join us to make that happen.

Now, someone who cares about what you care about will respond to that ad.

If you think you'd like me to craft a perfect job posting for you, let me know.

What is Culture to a Restaurant?

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 19:28:34 GMT

Culture is, in a nutshell, values articulated through actions.

So, for example, if you believe that all your staff should be treated with respect by customers, you wouldn’t tolerate a customer who was rude and abusive. You would have a protocol for handling such customers and everyone would follow that protocol.

Many restaurant owners aren’t clear about their culture, which is one reason the industry has a poor reputation. Without a clear culture, whatever walks into the space that day is your culture. The nasty customer, the hungover line cook, the stressed-out single-mom server. When culture is clearly stated, everyone has an idea of what’s expected.

Seemingly Harmless

Sun, 20 Sep 2020 19:14:09 GMT

The customer drives up in his giant white SUV and all the servers know what’s coming. Its mid-afternoon, a fairly slow time at the restaurant, which always gives him enough time to strike up a conversation with whomever he’s decided to hit on today.

The other servers urge the prettiest (and straightest) among them to hide in the bathroom while one of the queer ones handle Customer X. When he walks in, he asks, “where is my girl?” — is this a brothel?

He’s a good customer, eats a full meal including dessert, orders our newest boozy slushie and sits for an hour or so at our outdoor tables. No one wants to offend him by telling him to leave them alone. He’s badgered one server for her number, kept her talking at the table for 15 minutes when there was work to do. He’s asked the queer servers about the availability of others.

As I witnessed this for the forth or fifth time, I thought, “why are we putting up with this? What gives him the right, really, to make someone fearful or uncomfortable in their own workplace? Isn’t it time this stopped?”

I’m not the owner, so I didn’t want approach him right then and there. But I walked back to the kitchen and brought it up with the owner, a woman who shares my commitment to change this industry, and one of the servers listened in.

“This has got to stop. As an HR manager, and for you as the owner, we have an obligation to protect our employees from the stress of having to manage this.” I said.

She agreed, when the server — not the one hiding in the bathroom- chimed in, “He’s harmless. He’s just like my dad, he wants the attention and to prove his manhood. We just create a united front when he comes in.”

A “united front”? Like a battleground. We are talking about the workplace. I explained to her, we could just wait until his kind dies off…” Actually that wouldn’t work. He’s brought his adult son in with him sometimes to see this spectacle. His son sees this whole charade, and may even think this is normal. His behavior indicates a lack of boundaries.

On this day, the day after the passing of a great feminist icon, we must remember that we cannot continue to abide this behavior. Even if we feel we can just ignore it, and it doesn’t bother us. Because it objectifies people, particularly women. It’s a micro-aggression. It may seem innocuous. It may seem harmless, but it can lead to absolute harm. It demeans anyone on the side without power.

We are not talking about Harvey Weinstein here. Its just a small step. For me, its a message to my staff that they are valued, safe, should never be objectified. By co-workers, by management or by customers.

Leadership

Mon, 14 Oct 2019 19:00:13 GMT

I began working in kitchens when I was 25 years old. I was living in New York City. Having given up life in a office to pursue a career as a pastry chef, I took a position in an executive dining room run by a major hospitality corporation. I felt lucky to get the job; they said they'd train me. The last guy in the job jumped the turnstiles on his way to work, got arrested and never showed up again. Just don't get arrested, they said.

Before that time, I had never worked in an environment where men somehow felt it was acceptable to comment on a woman's looks, or what she might be like in bed. My value as an employee had never been questioned before based on my sex. I had never worked in a place where people made sexual comments openly to co-workers. The food business was new to me and I wanted to belong. It didn't matter to me much at the time; I felt like I had to be part of the club so I accepted it as the culture in this new career I had chosen. I played along. It was 1987.I moved back to my home in the Bay Area shortly after that, and landed a job in a different sort of environment, a big hotel where all the pastry cooks were women and the pastry chef was a man. He was respectful of all of us, intent on training us well and as a result well liked. I liked working for him, he led the pastry department and was a good role model. It was a professional shop.

The Cost of No Leadership

The hotel was unionized which meant that when business ebbed, the ones with the least seniority were cut so I ended up moving to Southern California to work. I found a position in a hotel as a pastry cook. The hotel had no pastry chef because for a long time they had been bringing pastry in from outside. The chef decided to hire me, kind of as a favor to his friend in San Francisco. He figured he could stick me in a corner of one of the hotel's restaurant kitchens and let me do my thing. I had no direct supervision and no mentors.

This chef already had a reputation. It was rumored that he was let go from a huge position with major hotel chain after being charged with sexual harassment.

I took my job seriously and did the best I could without any guidance. I liked making my cake recipes and introducing my own cookies. Every Sunday the hotel had a brunch buffet and I took great pride in producing all the pastries and cakes for the table.

The "pastry department" kept all its production in refrigerators accessible to all the restaurant staff and often, when I arrived in the morning, I would find the shelves of the reach-in in disarray. If I spent Saturday preparing for the brunch, I would come in Sunday morning to find at least half of everything eaten by the wait staff and line cooks from the restaurant. I would bring this to the chef's attention and he ignored me.

The chef had assigned a young man to work with me, someone who no one in the main kitchen liked, and who had worked many stations before being banished to pastry. He took immense joy in continuously baiting me, making lewd remarks and gestures, spending most of his time fooling around and telling me my pastries sucked. I told the chef about the sexual remarks; his advice was to "ignore him." It was 1989.I also have stories of chefs that would never tolerate that type of behavior in their kitchens. One could tell immediately the effect those leaders had on the culture. After having worked in Europe for a short time, I came back with my husband to the states where we both found positions in a hotel. The executive chef was a dog; his comments even made the male cooks cringe. As a result, some of the other men in the kitchen took this as carte blanche to make comments of their own. One day, after hearing something particularly disgusting (way worse than "pussy grabbing"), I blew up. I didn't go to HR but I should have. I was furious. I heard rumors that the chef was going to find a way to "get rid" of me.

When Leadership Changes, Culture Changes

Within the next few months, I left but that chef left soon afterwards. My husband took over as executive chef and immediately, the tone became professional. That kind of talk was unacceptable and I think everyone was relieved.

These experiences articulate a basic tenet of leadership: As a leader, if you model a certain behavior, that behavior becomes acceptable in the culture. People may be sexist or racist, but if they are surrounded by a culture in which that behavior is frowned upon, they will not act upon their prejudices. If bad behavior is exhibited in the leadership, it becomes sanctioned.

Taking the High Road

Sexist and racist behavior has been sanctioned in our industry longer than in any other. It is time to take it out of the shadows and take leadership in transforming our culture to one of safety for all. We can take the high road.

Building a Better Boss

Fri, 01 Feb 2019 19:00:29 GMT

In my last blogpost, I talked about how expensive it can be to constantly have to replace employees in your business. It has an economic cost as well as a less quantifiable cost, like the cost to company morale and customers' experience. So how do you keep employees happy, for the moment and on an ongoing basis?

Retaining employees doesn't necessarily require paying them more than anyone else in town or offering platinum benefits, although that certainly can help. If you don't keep your wages somewhat competitive, people will eventually leave no matter how great a work environment you provide. There has to be an additional value beyond wages that your company brings to the employee. Most people who are building their careers want to be paid well, but they also see the value in the other important pieces you can offer that don't cost you lot of extra dollars. These pieces just require extra thought and an action plan..

Why People Really Quit Their Jobs

Let's look at why people decide to quit a job. According to studies by Accenture that measured reasons for employees' unhappiness, the greatest percentage can be attributed to not liking the boss. Think back on any job where you quit: Did you quit the job, or did you quit the boss? I can remember one boss who put her feet up on my desk whenever she came in to talk to me and yelled at me for every mistake, real or perceived. I had to quit before I'd get fired for yelling back!

According to Eric Reed's article in TheStreet, the food service and hospitality industry is one with a reputation for mediocre bosses because managers often rise to their position based on skills that have nothing to do with their ability to manage people. They have mastered the line, or they understand the menu better than anyone else. The transition from line cook to sous chef to general manager isn't easy for someone without leadership skills. Often there is little time or money to be spent on training and development. Our industry is the hardest hit by this short-sighted thinking.

The [second] most common profile for mediocre bosses is a high-turnover, low-skill environment. This may often be a retail or low-wage service industry position, one in which workers rarely stay very long so the corporation spends little on training or development. (Fast food alone has a turnover rate of 150% annually.)..... managers rarely receive the support or preparation they need to do the job well.

The other reasons why people quit? According to the Accenture study: 1) lack of empowerment, 2) internal politics, and 3) lack of recognition. It all starts from the top. All part of the same issue.

Management Training

It would make sense that if people leave a job because of their manager or boss, having better leaders/managers could make a difference in having people stay. Let's start thinking long-term in developing leaders. Here are a few ideas:

Identify leaders – First identify people in your organization who have either natural skills for leadership or those who are interested in developing themselves as leaders. People who are able to take ownership of their work, and can lead others to do their best work. In this process, be aware of any unconscious bias you may have around what a leader "looks" like. The leader in your organization may be hiding in plain sight! That busser, barback or dishwasher may surprise you someday.

Invest in coaching. Put a program in place to train leaders in leadership, whether it's a leadership program outside of work or a coach you bring in once a week. This has many benefits: 1) employees understand you are serious about leadership and good management , 2) all employees see for themselves what's possible in your organization, 3) leaders get ongoing training designed to deal with real issues in the workplace.

Role Models for the Culture. When you started your business, you had a strong set of values that informed your decision making. And now it's time to translate those values into a culture in your business. Often it's these values that draw employees to work for you. But if your managers haven't been thoroughly trained in it, they won't be good ambassadors for that culture. Be clear with your staff that culture matters by having your managers act as role models. I often remember the wonderful staff I had at one of my businesses. We made healthy simple food there, and connected with our customers on a personal level. We took care of our staff the same way. Our values and the way we demonstrated our values through our culture had our staff want to stay and work with us.

Create Structure for Everything . "Oh no!" you say? "I hate structure!" Well most people love structure in the workplace because it gives a clear map to what's expected of them. Furthermore managers need good structures from which to evaluate someone's success. In fact managers can be instrumental in developing these structures! What do I mean? Here are a few examples: 1) a training manual for all positons 2) a clear policy around advancement and wage scales 3) a clear guide for managing disciplinary issues.4) regular check-ins with employees.

Building the Future of Restaurant Leadership

My philosophy is if you create great managers and pathways to success, in any industry, you will create a place where people want to stay and do their best work.

Our industry in the past 30 years has become more of a profession than an occupation. We have people who have chosen career in the culinary field rather than fallen into it. Our industry can no longer assume that we don't need the structures that other businesses need to serve employees. Employees everywhere want to be empowered in their jobs and have recognition for what they bring to their work. By crafting better managers, our industry will go a long way in improving retention in an industry that has one of the worst retention rates in the country

Do You Know what Your Employee Turnover is Costing You?

Fri, 30 Nov 2018 19:00:24 GMT

The October unemployment figures came out last week and I don't need to tell you the results; unemployment is low, and wages are increasing. In most industries at least. In the food space, particularly restaurants, an industry with very low margins and very little wiggle room, rising wages and low unemployment have combined to create a terrible labor shortage.

You are most likely concerned with finding warm bodies as opposed to finding someone who is the right fit. Maybe you are also dealing with intense competition from other industries in your region that pay better for less labor intensive work. In the SF Bay Area, we've seen our well-trained employees jump ship to work in better paying tech jobs with better perks.

In today's market, the employee/job seeker seems to have the upper hand. It's a buyer's market, the "buyer" being the employee/job seeker. Once you have enrolled someone in working with you, are you invested in keeping them? If the answer isn't "yes" it should be!

The True Cost of Employee Turnover

The cost of employee turnover is perhaps greater than you think. The National Restaurant Association has estimated the cost of replacing an employee in our industry can range from $4K to $14K per employee. The Center for Policy and Economic Research has created a neat little calculator to help you determine the real quantitative cost of turnover. Find it here.

Once you have an idea of what it's costing you to hire that person's replacement, you can begin to see the enormous value in focusing on retention. Let's examine this more closely.

Quantifiable Costs

There are real quantifiable costs of having to replace an employee.

Screening and recruiting – Today, you will post on job boards online so it reaches more people and many of the boards help you isolate by keywords. It's easier than it used to be for potential candidates to find you and to apply for your position. Many of these boards have made it easier for your manager to sort through the many resumes and applications you receive.(cost savings over the old days!) But someone still has to spend time looking over resumes, calling, arranging for interviews with the team, etc. Let's assume about four hours per applicant, all together. That includes the time each member of your team spends evaluating the new hire.

Administrative costs – The cost of on-boarding the new hire includes the time your HR person or manager spends going over all the paperwork, the employee handbook, the online portal you have for your payroll, going over policies, benefits enrollment. In many small businesses that don't have full time HR departments, the manager is accountable for this so you are pulling the manager away from essential functions of his/her job.

Training – Depending on the position, this could be more or less costly. The more skilled the position you are replacing, the more costly it becomes. Let's assume for the moment we're talking about a manager, someone responsible for a team of people. The new hire will need more training around your processes and culture, and the learning curve can be steep. Realistically it may take the better part of a month to get someone completely trained.

Non-Quantifiable Costs

There are very real soft costs of employee turnover as well.

Trust and social capital suffer. Teamwork is essential in our workspaces, and takes time to develop. The kitchen and dining room perform a dance every night based heavily on trust and teamwork. If the person next to you on the line is constantly changing, it is nearly impossible for you to develop a sense of trust with that person immediately and it can take a while to develop it. High performing teams require a high trust context and that takes time to develop.

The overall morale of the team can suffer when there is high turnover in the workplace. The high turnover might be for a variety of reasons which all eat away at how the remaining folks feel about being there. I worked for one company that had ridiculously high turnover. In fact, I probably had to cut at least 5 termination checks a week. Most of the terminations were people who had worked for less than two months before leaving. Employees who stayed became resigned to the fact that whomever they were training would be out the door in a few weeks. They became resentful of management who didn't care enough about the quality of the candidate. And they couldn't do their own jobs well while training others.

Quality of food and service can suffer which nobody wants! A team of folks who have worked together closely, who have come to understand the menu/winelist, who have become familiar with customers - this is what maintains the quality of everything you are trying to create in your business.

The Path Forward

You may be asking yourself now, "how can I reduce my turnover without spending more money than I'm saving? I mean, employee benefits would be great to offer, and I wish I could give everyone a $2/hour raise. But I can't. So how can I compete?" This is precisely what I intend to tackle in my next post!

You can find this post on Bernoulli Finance's site as well under The Workshop

If not now, when?

betty@redtruckrestaurantconsulting.com (Truck) — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 19:00:14 GMT

The Food + Entrepreneurship Conference opened yesterday in San Francisco at The Village on Market Street. The conference is hosted by La Cocina, the local food-business incubator is in its second year and yesterday's events were well attended. The outcome of the election last week was on everyone's mind, and so the discussions took on an urgency. I think if the elections had gone the other way, the tone would have been one of possibility. Now the mountain may be harder to climb.

I attended the breakout sessions that addressed activism in the food business because I've been deeply curious about how to run a small food business with an eye to social justice. I ran my own businesses with the intention of taking care of my employees, my community and the environment. I look around and see so many businesses answering that same call and I want to learn how they do it profitably. I mean the nuts-and-bolts of it. What do their balance sheets/income statements look like?

I will write more about what I learned and what inspired me about the day, but one moment really stood out for me.

Can You Fight Social Issues & Run a Good Food Business?

After lunch, I listened in on a panel discussion let by La Cocina's Leticia Landa called "Activist Owner: Can you Fight Social Issues & Run a Good Food Business?". The speakers were Cristina Martinez from South Philly Barbacoa, Anthony Myint (The Perennial) and Shakirah Simley (Bi-Rite Businesses). One common thread the messages: Begin with an intention to fight social issues, plan your business culture and profitability around that, and all else will follow. Cristina who spoke through an interpreter, said she has created community through her food and her employees, paying them better than most restaurants in Philadelphia, and so drawing loyal talent to her kitchen. Shakirah and Anthony both spoke to providing living wages to workers, providing training and support, and giving back to community.

The Challenge of Balancing Ideals and Reality

All day, I had been thinking about how we need to extend this conversation across the country, and how California needs to share this message to other states. A young woman raised her hand to ask a question. She was from Foodlab Detroit(I think, that was the name...definitely Detroit). She explained how hard it is to encourage her clients, new food entrepreneurs, to do all these things that one needs to do to be responsible business owners. it felt like she was saying, "This is all fine and good for you folks but that's just too much to ask of someone who is trying to build something for themselves." She was passionate. I, for my part, have always wondered as a white, middle-class woman, where do I get off telling business owners that they should rethink profitability? This is hard enough to make money without having to think about activism.. So am I trying to impose my own vision of the way things should be without being realistic about the hardships of being a food-entrepreneur?

Look, I understand what it is to be a food industry worker and a food entrepreneur. I know that this is an industry which lags far behind in doing the right thing by its employees. Living wages, sexism, racism. All issues screaming for reform in our industry.

Why We Must Be the Ones to Change This

We need to begin. We, of all the folks, know what it's like to struggle on minimum wage, to work without health insurance, to endure sexual harassment and hostile work environments. We are the ones who know this. That is why we have to be the ones to CHANGE this. It has to start from us.

We should want to take care of each other and set an example for entrepreneurs everywhere. Our work is to nurture in every way.As the Jewish prophet Hillel the Elder said, " If not us, who? If not now, when?"

The First-Time Worker

Sun, 13 Mar 2016 19:00:12 GMT

February labor numbers came out this week, and no surprise, the food industry is one of the leading creators of new jobs in the private sector.

While 242,000 new jobs were created in February, more than 40,000 of those jobs were created in the restaurant industry. One in five of these new restaurant jobs were filled by first-time workers. (see "Half of QSR Jobs filled by First-time workers, promotions", National Restaurant Association March 4, 2016)First-time workers. Immediately that set the wheels turning in my head. I think the implications of that are profound.

If you currently own or operate a small restaurant business, you understand exactly what this means. The person that walks in your door, asking for that minimum wage job, has never had an employer. You are their first. Most likely, you are asking them to do things they've never done before. This is the beginning of a relationship. Not just the relationship between you and them. It is the relationship of the newbie to the value of their work and labor. You have the chance to impact that in a positive way.

From another perspective, if you were sending that person out into the world to work for someone else, wouldn't you like to send out a capable, well-trained individual so that our whole industry becomes stronger? Wouldn't you like to send that person out with a strong sense of confidence in what they do, so they can grow in whatever they do, even if it isn't being a line cook?

After all, nearly one third of all Americans say that their first working experience was in some form of food service. We are training America's workforce in a very real way. How do we do that responsibly?

6 Essential Things to Teach First-Time Workers

I have created a list of 6 things I think are essential to teach the newbie in the hopes of contributing to their worth as employees, for you and for others:

The importance of showing up! : ok, this seems obvious, right? Does the employee understand what that means? Getting to work on time, being ready to work when you get there, calling in when you are running late. You as an employer need to be strict about this or this can lead to really bad habits, even for your best worker. I have worked in places where the time and attendance is so strict that we have lost really talented people because they couldn't be on time if their life depended on it, let alone their job. We are not like office workers; if someone shows late in the restaurant, the business can grind to a halt. Instill this sense of urgency.

Teamwork: Think of the best place you ever worked. Something needed to be done, you were swamped, someone stepped in and helped, you worked like a real crew. In my restaurant, lunch was a dance between cutting meat, serving customers, ringing people up, calling back to the kitchen for reinforcement. It was so much fun, my team was completely in sync. No one stood around and watched. All the best work environments from the perspective of productivity and employee satisfaction work well as a team, so it is important that they learn the value of chipping in when needed, even if "it's not my job". (and teach them NEVER to use that phrase!)

Expectations: From the get-go, let the newbie know exactly what will be expected of them. As part of your company's training protocol, create a list of clear expectations for all employees, and ones that are specific to positions. For example, servers are expected to know the menu and wine list. (seems obvious but some newbies may not take this very seriously). When someone doesn't have a clear idea of what is expected of them, they end up doing what they THINK is expected of them, and you may have very different ideas about that.

Giving them room to ask questions and make some mistakes: Everyone should feel that questions are welcome, and questions should be taken seriously and handled in a timely manner. So for example, if the employee has a question about their paycheck, pay attention, answer it or get them to someone who can. (I am not a millennial, but I understand this is one work quality of this generation...they want to know "why") When mistakes are made (and they will be), set some time aside to discuss it with them in a constructive way. Use words like, "tell me what happened" and "what do you think you could have done better", and "how do you think we can avoid this in the future?" Give them a chance to talk. Yelling and scolding does nothing to improve anything; it fosters fear and secrecy. Unless this person does something repeatedly that you have told them repeatedly not to do, there is no point in raising your voice.

Listening skills: Constantly check in with your employees, new or old, and encourage them to be frank with you about their concerns. I think some employers believe that this gives the employee the mistaken impression that they have some power or say. Work is not a democracy, but this conversation allows you to explain your policies and why you do things the way you do. This is your chance to strengthen your culture, to hone it and understand how it is being lived out everyday. And for the employee: it helps them to understand how they fit in the work equation.

Logistics of Getting Paid:

I am shocked as a payroll manager how many people have NO understanding of the W4 or how this document affects your pay. And when it come to benefits, it's the same thing. It would be an amazing gift to a newly employed individual who has never seen this document before to have someone sit down and explain it in detail. I know, you just want to leave them alone with the new-hire paperwork for 15 minutes so you can get back to the kitchen, be done with it and get them working. Right? This is the way so many employers handle new hire paperwork, I know. I've seen it. The long range effect of this: an individual who has no idea how their pay is being taxed or why, who has no idea whether the health plan they signed up for will be adequate, has no understanding of premiums or co-pays or deductibles. They work 100 hours in a pay period, look at their check and have no idea why it is so much less than they expected and they blame you.

Help a newbie understand the deductions on their check and what they are for: I've had people come to me with questions about the MED (medicare) deduction on their check, wanting to know why we were deducting for medical but they weren't covered. I've had people complaining that our payroll company took out too much in social security and they wanted me to reimburse them. People should be versed in the lingo of their paycheck and how it works. If you can teach them this, they will be better off for the rest of their working life. They may even become better citizens.

Direct deposit or live checks: If you offer direct deposit, explain to them the convenience of this, and the possibility of setting up more than one account for direct deposit so they can start saving. Also let them know that if they close the account, they have to let you know well in advance.

Make sure they understand they need to look at their check stub each pay period and if there are any problems, they should let you know immediately. They should feel that they can come to you with any problem they have.

The Impact You Can Have

Imagine the implications of being someone's first employer. Pretty heavy, huh? You may not take that too seriously, but if you do, image the impact you could have on someone's life. Like your amazing history teacher in high school who made you love history for the rest of your life. This employee could come to remember the great leadership skills you taught him or her and become a great employer too. Just a piece of my mind...

Accounts Payable Tools

Sun, 17 May 2015 19:00:30 GMT

If you are a business owner who is deeply immersed in the daily functioning of your business, there are probably important areas of running your business that don't get your full attention. Not that you don't want to give those areas attention; you know they are crucial. What ends up happening when you turn your attention away from one area to handle another? Sometimes you end up being reactive and not proactive in the management of your business.

Being reactive is what most of us are when we first start out. It's about putting out fires (hopefully not literal ones!) and keeping the costs down as much as possible. You may be thinking that doing things yourself is one way to keep costs down, and it is. But you can only spread yourself so thin before things start to fall through the cracks. The invoices are missed, deliveries are held up because an invoice is due, you have to run down to the gas company to pay your bill because you forgot and they are about to shut off the power. Hopefully that doesn't happen to you. And you certainly can't move forward in any proactive way when these things are happening all the time.

What You Need from Bill Payment Management

When it comes to paying bills and managing costs you want to:

get your bills paid on time and manage your cashflow

minimize the time-suck that is data entry

be able to see how what you are spending compares to your revenue

The Evolution of AP Management Solutions

In this wonderful age of technology and the internet, a few really powerful solutions have been developed to help you with this. A few years ago I was introduced to an early player in this field of AP management, bill.com. It eliminated the hassle of filing (one of my pain points...HATE IT...such a waste of time), it helped with managing payments and approvals, integrated well with the accounting system. But I still had to code the invoices and it didn't have the ability to create any sort of useful report from the information

A Restaurant-Specific Solution: Sourcery

A few weeks ago, I was introduced to another AP management solution that has been developed exclusively for restaurants. Its called Sourcery and one of the developers, Adam Ferris, led me through a demo. Restaurants present a whole different beast when it comes to vendor management. We are highly transactional. And the product we purchase today will most likely be sold within the next day or so. You need to know that the product you bought today is being paid for with dollars you make in the next few days. Sourcery has this reports page that allows you to input a sales number for the week, and it gives you, based on your invoices, your food spend for the week. Then it breaks it down by category so you can see how much you've spent on meat, produce, etc. as a percentage of revenue. It's great to be able to bring sales information into the accounts payable equation and that is just one of the things I like about Sourcery.

Another thing that is really attractive: they input and code the invoices for you.

They function as your AP manager! . After sending the invoices to Sourcery, they appear on your online account already coded. You still can edit the way the invoices are coded, but essentially this frees you up to do other things. You also can set the system up to pay invoices when they are due or have more control over when the payments go out.

The Importance of Cash Flow Monitoring

In any case, it is still important to monitor cash flow...bill.com has a cash flow functionality as it connects with your bank to upload deposits so it tells the system how much money you have to spend on paying bills. Sourcery tallies your payment batch in a field on the top of the screen, so you need to know how much you want to pay out.

Why AP Management Systems Make Sense

Accounts Payable management systems make so much sense for the small business owner. They function as a partner in your business. They must have great customer service because you have choices.

faIt is also my firm belief that keeping certain functions separate from your accounting system makes sense. Your accounting system, I believe, should be for producing financials. By separating the operational pieces, you are technically creating different departments that can be run by experts. And these AP management solutions are like separate departments of your business.

Collecting the Information You Need - Let's Start with Sales

Fri, 20 Mar 2015 19:00:26 GMT

The first restaurant we opened had it's own cash register. I can't even remember now if I could call it a point-of-sale because it didn't even vaguely resemble the devices we use today. This was 1998. I think I had just bought my first cell phone. The cash register was a primitive thing that held cash and made change. This is what it those things looked like:It couldn't tell me much about what we sold, just how much money we were supposed to have at the end of the night. The credit card machine wasn't attached to the cash register, I think you could swipe the card, you didn't have to call a number for an authorization code, but we were barely beyond those days.

The Evolution of Restaurant Technology

But I digress...we are now in the 21st century and all that is thankfully behind us. Transactions are smooth and fast, traveling at lightening speeds across wifi connections. And one of the most beautiful inventions for the retail world is the new-and-improved point-of-sale, aka the POS.

Without going through the amazing growth in this industry, I will start by saying that as late as 5 years ago, if you wanted to purchase a POS that would give you more agility than a cash register would give you, you needed to purchase a very expense system. It had monitors, printers, and back office CPU, cords and wires coming out everywhere. It was a huge investment but it made it possible for restaurant owners to track everything. How much of each dish was being sold, which server was selling what, what time of day was slow, etc. With a regular cash register, you could enter in dollar amounts, and maybe the receipt might have had a time of day on it.

Why Modern POS Systems Matter

When figuring out how my restaurant was going to make money, I realized also that I needed to be able to complete a certain number of transactions in an hour. Those old cash registers...well, the world operated at a much slower pace.In addition, if like me, you wanted to have your finger on the pulse of your business without pouring over receipts and spreadsheets all day, you invested $10-$20K in a system. Lots of hardware to break. And it did. In the middle of service. On Christmas Eve. Today, it is a completely different story. Thank God...I guess. I haven't decided yet, but I think it's a very good thing for new business owners. Transactions are so seamless and fast. However, as a bookkeeper, I have found some issues.

The Cloud-Based Revolution

Today many POS systems are cloud-based. All you need is a tablet, costing less than $1K, and a subscription to a service and you are in business. Square, Revel, breadcrumb are a few that I have had clients use. And they are always evolving so when you read this, things may have changed. Where I found these systems suffer is in the reporting functions. These systems are excellent information gatherers. But the important thing is how that information comes out so it can be used.

The Critical Importance of Reports

I can't stress enough how important these reports are. The reports are important on two levels.

The Compliance Level and The Strategic Level....more on this in my next post.

Do You Know Your Numbers? Part 2: The Income Statement AKA The Profit and Loss

Fri, 20 Mar 2015 19:00:17 GMT

So here's a continuation of the discussion about numbers, the chart of accounts and the second part of those "all-so-crucial" financials....Now there are Income and Expenses. These items are part of the Income Statement or what is often referred to as a Profit and Loss Statement. The income bucket gets filled by the water spigot. The water in the income bucket should be used to pour into the expenses buckets....These buckets will be emptied at the end of the month.

Understanding Your Major Expense Categories

Some of these buckets are more important than others. For example, food cost. This is also known by accountants as Cost of Goods Sold or COGS for short. These are special expenses because, without these, you have nothing to sell. And you guessed it, you want only a small amount of water going in here as possible...ideally somewhere around 30%. Because this water gets dumped at the end of the month. The next bucket that the water goes into...Labor. Here you ultimately want only around 25%. The remaining expenses....I call these Operating Expenses. All the water in all the expenses buckets gets dumped at the end of the month.

The Goal: Retained Earnings and Building Equity

At the end of the day (figuratively speaking) you want about 10% profit at the very bottom of your P&L, in the bucket labeled Retained Earnings and you will be well off. (at least in the food business)..Retained Earnings accumulate in the bucket and at the end of the year flow onto the Balance Sheet as an equity item. If it is negative, it is reducing your equity. If it is increasing it builds equity and value in your business.

Bringing It All Together

So here is the scaffolding for the accounting system. I hope I've managed to make it a bit easier to understand. Please post below if you like this, if it makes sense, or if something is confusing

Do You Know Your Numbers? Part 1: The Balance Sheet

Sat, 21 Feb 2015 19:00:19 GMT

When we opened our first restaurant, I became the designated numbers person. After all, I had a good college education and since my dad had put up the money, I felt I should be accountable to him. My partner was the creative force, but he also understood food cost and labor cost and had an idea of where things should be.

Choosing the Right Accounting System

The restaurant we purchased came with a computer. The accounting system loaded on that computer was Quicken, which was, I soon found out, completely inadequate for business. Quicken is a tool for personal accounting and if you are already acquainted with it, good for you. Won't be robust enough here to get you where you want to be.To start, go explore QuickBooks, either the online version or desktop. I like QuickBooks for small business owners because it is very user-friendly, the interface makes workflow smooth, it is easy to learn and there is tons of support from a large variety of sources. The advantage of online is that you can access it anywhere and you never have to purchase the upgrade. Also Intuit is spending a fortune on making it the best product they offer, and it has improved significantly from the product I once used to run my business.

The other really important part of either the desktop or online version is the plethora of products that integrate with it. So your banking information seamlessly integrates, as does your credit card transactions (purchases you make with your card). And most new iPad based POS systems are integrating with QuickBooks now, so you can easily download your daily sales. You can spent less time with paperwork...YES!

Understanding Accounting: A Simple Approach

When I started this first venture, I had an allergy to accounting. My disclaimer: I failed my accounting course in college, and it nearly prevented me from graduating. I've come a long way. Now, accounting is something I'm very comfortable with but it's taken more than 15 years. It shouldn't take YOU that long! So let's make it simpler and hopefully, this little tidbit of information will cause light bulbs to go off.

The Bucket Analogy: Understanding Your Balance Sheet

Imagine your business is a set of buckets. Each of these buckets will represent an "account" in your accounting system. Accountants call this the "chart of accounts". The water going into these buckets represents the value of your business. Some of these buckets will be dumped out (expenses) and some of them will remain mostly full with a little leak in them (depreciating assets). Others you hope will keep getting bigger (equity).

When you begin your business, you open a bank account. Here is your first asset! You fill that bucket with water. And from that asset you are going to purchase Furniture & Fixtures, Leasehold Improvements, Equipment, Inventory, etc. You get the idea. These will be called your ASSETS, and they are also Balance Sheet accounts. If you imagine the bucket called your bank account has water in it when you purchase these things, water gets poured out of your bank account bucket and into the assets buckets. This is all that your business is worth.

How Assets Balance with Liabilities and Equity

Who put that money in the bank account? You? Investors? Was it a loan? Here comes the second part of the balance sheet accounts, the one's that "balance" out the first part. Liabilities and Equity balance out the Assets...this is part of the brilliance of double entry accounting. The water in your buckets needs to remain balanced...if it comes out of one bucket, it goes into another. If you received a loan to put money in that bank account, it is a liability equal to the amount of money in the bank. If it is someone's investment, it is equity equal to the amount in the bank. That represents how much skin that investor has in the game.

Next Part: The Income Statement, AKA Profit and Loss

How Your Business Has Consequence

Sun, 25 Jan 2015 19:00:24 GMT

I've been thinking a lot over the years about how entrepreneurs start businesses. I believe initially we start with an idea ...it might be something we want to do, something we think others need, something that is an expression of ourselves in the world. I am a huge believer that this is more of what the World needs...(World meaning humanity or even on a natural level, Earth).However when you start a business, whatever it may be, suddenly, you are bringing that into the realm of others, engaging those around you and creating, in essence, community.

In my first blog, I touched on the consequence of opening your business to a community, and how it is a commitment you make to bring a space to life so others can engage. Here I want to talk about other ways your business alters the community in which you live.

The Weight of Being an Employer

The most profound change between what you were before you started your restaurant and what you are now: you are an employer. Hear the weight of what that means. You are now responsible in ways that may have never occurred to you. These new relationships your business has created are far-reaching and profound. People work for you to help bring your vision to the world. And you, in turn, make it possible for them to feed and shelter themselves and their families. A major part of an employee's day (if they re full-time) will be spent in your care...you must provide a safe and secure environment for them to work. You must make sure they have proper rest periods, that they can take a day off if they are sick and not risk losing their jobs, that they feel they can perform their jobs without feeling threatened.

Understanding Your Legal Responsibilities

With the intention of protecting employees from business owners with less enlightened perspectives, the government has passed laws to support employees. Minimum wage. The establishment of OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Association). Division of Labor Standards Enforcement...a whole host of alphabet soup designed to keep employers in line. Sometimes you may find...I should say one time at least in the life of your business, you will have an occasion to curse one of these agencies, when something you didn't think was going to be a problem, sneaks up to bite you. Maybe you fire someone and don't get them their final paycheck in time...they take you to the labor board. Or someone claims they injured themselves in your kitchen and you know they twisted their ankle skateboarding.....But ultimately these agencies are designed to help the employee. I am hoping that you, happy reader, are not the type to take advantage knowingly of your employees. However, you may be doing something that violates some of these laws without knowing it. Its a really good idea (Red Truck-speak for DO THIS!) to get to know as much labor law as you can as it relates to your business. Enroll in free courses offered by your Employment Development Department. Get brochures. Find your favorite site that keeps you up-to-date about local changes in laws in your area. Here's one link to the EDD site for California. Here's another link to the State of California's Department of Industrial Relations.So the upshot: As a new employer you now have a responsibility that extends from your employee to the government of your community. A relationship has been set up to make sure you do the right thing (but you were going to anyway) the way that they need you to do the right thing. It would behoove you to understand their expectations.

Creating Partners, Not Just Employees

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, how about the deeper, more meaningful message that Red Truck wants you to come away with: Everything you do in this new role of employer can have some sort of effect on employees which adds a new layer of consequence to your business. I think that's pretty heavy.

You may want to change the language a little too. Employees can be partners in your venture, there to help you get your product out with your message. Wouldn't you want them to walk away a better person for having worked with you? What does that mean? Having greater knowledge, greater skills, more confidence and self-esteem. You may not be able to pay them as much as you'd like, but if you can give them this? That would be a remarkable relationship to have. I would work harder for an employer who gives me that, wouldn't you?