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Restaurant Marketing: Develop a Clear Sense of Direction By Jose Riesco
Restaurants are probably some of the most hectic small businesses that you can find anywhere. Restaurateurs face, on a daily basis, a plethora of problems and fires that they need to deal with, so it is only natural that they focus on the short-term results and operations and forget about the plans and direction.
Restaurant owners and managers don't usually have time and/or the energy to spend in long term thinking and planning.
However, if you are serious about improving your restaurant, you need to find the time to think and set clear goals for yourself, your employees and your business.
Your most important responsibility with your employees is to give them a clear sense of direction in their work. Psychologists know that the greatest single demotivator for the work force of a company is "Not knowing what is expected".
Bryan Tracy mentions a formula, divided in five parts that you can use to setup your personal and professional direction. It is called GOSAP, and each letter stands for one part. I've changed the order of the Brian Tracy original acronym (called GOSPA) because I think that it better reflects the process. The letters stand as follows:
"G" is for Goal
A goal is a specific destination that you set and move towards in a specific time frame. It must contain a deadline or else will be a pie on the sky that nobody will ever reach.
For example, your goal could be increasing your sales by 30% by the end of the calendar year. Another goal could be increasing your profit margin by 10% across your dishes in 6 months, etc.
"O" is for Objectives
Objectives are parts of a Goal that you will have to accomplish to achieve your long-term goal.
If we use the same example than before (increasing your sales by 30%), your objectives could be:
Or in the second example:
"S" is for Strategies
Your Strategy is the system that you shall use to accomplish your objectives to reach your final goal.
Again, for the first example, your strategy would be:
If we use the second example (increase your profit margin by 10%), your strategies would be:
"A" is for Activities
Activities are the tasks and functions that you or your staff performs each day. At present, they are probably all over the place with activities
You need to align your activities with your Strategies, Objectives and Goals if you want to make progress. The achievement of the activities needs to lead to accomplishing your strategies. When you accomplish your strategies, you will achieve your objectives, and, at the end of the time frame that you setup for yourself, you should be able to reach your goals.
"P" is for Priorities
You need to prioritize your Activities. Think what tasks will help you accomplish your Strategies and Objectives faster so that you can reach your Goal(s) sooner.
Write down your daily activities and start prioritizing them. You can use a numeric scoring like 1-10 or A to F (like in the schools).
Start by focusing on your most important activities first and go down the list this way. Try to delegate, postpone or drop (if possible) the activities that are not helping you make progress towards accomplishing your strategies, objectives and goals.
One of the primary qualities of top managers in high profit businesses is that they constantly think and act strategically. They are always thinking about the future, always one step ahead of their competitors.
That's why they are successful!
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