How to Assess the Health of Your Restaurant

Peter Fernandez and his family own a small Japanese restaurant-sushi bar in South San Francisco. He and his wife are very busy keeping up with all that is needed to support the operation of this 70-seat, full-service, six-day-a-week restaurant. There is the purchasing, menu planning, staff handling, accounting and facility maintenance issues, in addition to daily shift-related customer service duties to perform.

Fernandez is a bright college graduate who saw himself working in computer technology before the call came to assume the role of caretaker of the family business. Earlier this year he found himself asking three of the questions that eventually cross the mind of every hands-on restaurant owner:

• Is this the best way for me to manage the business and my time?
• Is this the busiest I can make my restaurant?
• Is this the most profitable my restaurant can be?

These are the three pillars of a healthy restaurant. If you are concerned about your physical health, you go to a physician, who has his or her own checklist of what constitutes good health, and a battery of diagnostic techniques. When gauging the fitness of your operation, however, where do you start?

How can we be sure we are handling our responsibilities in the best way, managing costs most efficiently, and marketing our restaurant most effectively?