Want to know the #1 position that determines how much money you’ll make tonight? It’s not your chef. It’s not your bar manager.

Think you need to be in your restaurant 24/7 to keep it running smoothly? In part 2 of my chat with Michael Thibault from DFY Marketing Systems we share the story of a restaurant owner who spends four months a year away from his restaurant and still maintains exceptional operations.

How does an 85 seat sports bar in the middle of Wisconsin bring in $4M a year in sales? Michael Thibault from DFY Marketing Systems and I were catching up and I hit record on our conversation because it was too good not to share with you guys.

There’s a point where trying harder stops helping. You reorganize. You tweak systems. You move things around. You tell yourself once this one thing is fixed, everything will feel lighter. But it doesn’t.

How many times have you given your team member a simple task … restock something, call a vendor, go check the cooler … only to find out it never got done.

Your schedule might look fine on paper, but your team hates it. There’s one scheduling habit behind most of these problems and fixing it will make your team happier and your restaurant run smoother.

Most restaurant owners wait too long to deal with bad team behavior. You notice the little things in the first week — too chatty, too sloppy, not taking scheduling seriously — but you let it slide. Watch now to see how to spot problems early and stop them before they cost you.

Restaurant owners keep making the same mistake when promoting managers.

It feels like the right move. They’ve been around a while. They say they want it. You’ve got a spot to fill. But that decision backfires more often than it works.