Q: We’re heading into a new fiscal year with a positive but cautious attitude. How can we drive ahead to get the best results during the next 12 months?

A: Quarter 4 is full of the promise of a new year and a rekindling of goals. As the leader of the organization, provide a framework within which the team can write great goals. Here are five areas on which a successful restaurateur must focus his/her team. Have each person on your leadership team take a fresh look and meet with them to discuss after your discovery process.

Define and refine vision, purpose and values- Start with some quiet time as the leader, then get your team together. Evaluate how the company is progressing and whether it is on track to meet the vision. Sharing your vision will help the team feel fully engaged. Great employees want to play on a winning team that is going somewhere. After refreshing your vision turn to the purpose of the organization. Why is the world a better place because your company exists? Once you know where you are going and why you exist, revisit your values, evaluate how they are being used and how the employees behave within them. Adopt the behavior a leader must have, cast your vision, define your purpose, live your values and talk about them all frequently.

Improve the guest experience- Look at your business from the perspective of your guest. Ask your frequent guests what they like and don’t like. Scrutinize the entire experience from the moment the guest drives up to the moment they drive away. Dine in your restaurant(s) daily as a guest with friends for one to two weeks in different meal periods and see the experience through the eyes of the guest. Record your observations and form your hit list of what needs to happen and share it with the team.

Enhance the employee experience- Sit down with every “A” player in your company (about 20% of the workforce are “A” players). Ask them for direct feedback with leading questions such as, “Would you enthusiastically join our company again?” Force them to look at how the workplace could be improved for the employee experience to be top notch. Measure employee satisfaction with benefits, compensation, development, recognition, incentive programs and training. Highly engaged employees produce 3 times the profitability than non-engaged. You don’t have to have a fancy compensation program or offer a library of benefits; just provide a caring place to work with direct feedback and as little drama as possible.

Increase profitability-Study your financial data. Discover trends in the profit and loss statement. Begin at the top. Look at the food to beverage mix, and then study the product mix report on what is selling. Most number one sellers in a category have not hit their limit for price increase. The largest sellers will have huge impact on the bottom line. Next move to product cost to improve your purchasing practices with your vendor on your best products. Vendors know more than they’re given credit and can save you money just by simply asking the question of, “How can I get my price down on these items?” Work down the P&L and question every line item and how it can be improved then set goals with your team.

Advance systems- All high performing companies have excellent systems. Break your business down into buckets of systems and evaluate whether your systems are adequate to grow your organization. Start with financial and IT; you should receive clean financial statements on a regular basis and use that information to teach, train and develop managers and staff to be great financial leaders. IT systems must be solid and supportive if you expect high performance from employees. Customer and guest systems should be focused on feedback, service and relationship management. Sales and marketing systems need to be focused on external and internal communications, product development, quality assurance and sales building. Lastly, evaluate planning systems to determine whether the appropriate time and effort are spent evaluating the business and driving it forward with well-planned goals and execution.

Pull the leadership team together to meet for a day or two to discuss these areas. Determine the areas in which the most critical few things must be done. Write down three. These “critical few” should drive 80% of team effort. The remainder of the goals, no more than six, should take the remaining 20% of team effort. With this approach, you’re guaranteed to create focus in your organization and get better results.

For more information on improving profitability and driving sales, contact AMP Services at [email protected]. Rick Braa is the founder of AMP Services, an accounting and consulting firm specializing in helping companies grow profitability.