MRM News: Innovating Event Management

Gather has entered a strategic partnership with Vista Equity Partners that will provide the event management software provider with capital to expand its Atlanta employee base and fuel product development. Gather is on track to power $1 billion in sales by the end of 2017.  Since its inception in 2013, Gather has driven events for more than 3,500 U.S. restaurants and venues, including Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, Rick Bayless’ restaurants and Darden Specialty Brands.

“The hospitality industry is increasingly turning to technology to streamline processes, and many restaurants and venues are identifying event programs as the most lucrative business arm to optimize,” said Nicholas Miller, co-founder and CEO of Gather. “Vista’s financial strength and software expertise will fuel Gather’s next chapter of growth, allowing us to improve our existing product and continue to help clients develop event programs that will serve as major revenue streams.”

With its cloud-based platform, Gather helps restaurants and venues manage and grow event programs into new revenue sources by streamlining sales and workflow, from initial inquiry to day-of execution and payments, providing coaching and support for long-term success.

“Gather’s innovative approach to restaurant and venue event management creates a powerful platform with intrinsic value for customers seeking expansion of their event programs,” said Brian Sheth, co-founder and President of Vista Equity Partners. “Our partnership creates a tremendous opportunity to strengthen Gather’s leadership position within a dynamic and growing market eager to adopt collaborative, high ROI software solutions.”

“We’re fortunate to be part of Atlanta’s growing tech community and look forward to tapping into an incredibly talented pool of software engineers, sales managers and other professionals to help take Gather to the next level,” added Miller. 

In this MRM News clip, David Williams, Gather’s Vice President of Sales, talks about the challenges of integrating technology within the hospitality industry and the company’s mission. 

 

MRM News: Innovating Event Management posted first on happyhourspecialsyum.blogspot.com

Does Your Restaurant Have What It Takes to Become a Franchise?

Just imagine: You’re filling the dining room every night. Sales are phenomenal, and you’re getting rave reviews in the local blogs and newspapers. Every night, your host or hostess needs to politely encourage walk-ins to call ahead to avoid the 45-minute wait.

Your restaurant — your baby — is finally off and running, and the future looks bright.

That’s probably not even too difficult of a scene to picture for most of you if you’re reading this article right now. After all, you’ve no doubt already put your heart and soul into building your restaurant dream. It may not even take much imagination at all to see the fruits of that hard work and dedication.

Whether you’re already at that stage right now, or you’re eagerly looking forward to that time in the future, an important question looms on the horizon:

What then?

Your Options

Technically, you can do whatever you want if and when your restaurant takes off. Assuming it’s profitable and you can entrust its day-to-day management to someone else, you could even potentially retire on your success.

Or, you could consider selling your restaurant and moving on to something completely different.

But, they say running a restaurant is in the blood. As an entrepreneur in the restaurant industry, you’re more likely considering how to expand your current operation or get into your next big restaurant venture. If that’s true in your case, you really have two major options available to you:

• Start another new restaurant from scratch
• Franchise your restaurant

You probably already know what it takes to start a restaurant from scratch, so you need to ask yourself: Am I ready for that level of commitment again? Do I have the resources, ideas, and energy to start over again? These are important questions because, as you know, starting a brand new restaurant is no easy matter.

On the other hand, expanding your restaurant into a franchise by opening additional locations can seem far easier, especially if you’re facing the dream situation described in the opening paragraph. But a lot of talented and experienced restaurant owners have overextended themselves trying to take on an expansion on their own when the timing and circumstances weren’t exactly right.

Is There a Third Option?

There’s actually a third option available that offers the benefits of starting with a successful brand and reputation, but avoids the heavy cost and schedule-crunching labor required to expand on your own:

You Can Turn Your Restaurant Into a Franchise

For most of us, the word “franchise” brings to mind images of the bright and shiny fast food logos floating over seemingly every street in America. And it’s true that fast food and other quick-service food establishments make great examples of franchise operations. But that doesn’t mean the principles of successfully growing your business through franchising don’t apply to other businesses, both inside and outside of the foodservice industry.

The food franchise model can actually work very well for your growing establishment, since other entrepreneurs (your franchise owners) would be shouldering the bulk of the financial and labor investment of expanding your business while you offer support and direction, and earn passive income through franchising fees.

But it’s only a viable option if your restaurant meets three important requirements. Let’s discuss those requirements in more detail and determine whether your restaurant is well positioned to expand through franchising.

Plenty of Independent Competition

The first requirement that lends itself to successful franchising is a competitive — even crowded — marketplace filled with a large number of locations run by independent operators.

This well describes the fast food marketplace in the U.S. in the middle of the 20th century, when small, independent burger shops, diners, and soda fountains were operating all over the country, all doing pretty well on their own.

That’s when Ray Kroc — a traveling milkshake machine salesman — realized there was room in the market for a chain of fast-and-cheap burger joints that could concentrate on speed and quality. By limiting the menu and establishing uniform recipes and processes, he could duplicate the entire restaurant as many times as necessary.

That’s how one of the largest fast food franchise operations in the world, McDonald’s, was born.

Independent competition is a requirement for franchise success because the fact that many independent operators are succeeding in the market proves it’s a viable business opportunity where customers are willing and able to spend money. In nearly every population center in the country, restaurants operate in this kind of atmosphere.

Now, consider what a franchise operation can bring to the customer in that environment:

• Consistency of quality
• Consistency of selection
• Consistency of price
• Consistency of service

Right now, all the customers looking for dinner in the area have to gamble each time they choose a new place to eat. They have no idea whether their experience is going to be better, the same, or worse than it was at the last place they visited. If you were to open up a brand new restaurant, you’d be asking them to do so again.

A franchise operation, on the other hand, alleviates that uncertainty by promising an identical experience at every location. Assuming that experience is excellent — and if it wasn’t you wouldn’t be considering expansion — customers will naturally be drawn to consistency over uncertainty.

A Duplicatable System Behind the Success

Just opening up a number of different locations with the same name and decorating motif isn’t enough, though. A successful franchise is built on a collection of successful, easily duplicatable systems. What does that mean?

Let’s look again at Ray Kroc and the McDonald’s example:

When Kroc met the McDonald brothers in 1955, they were already running a highly successful fast food restaurant that stood out above their competition in San Bernardino, California. The secret to their success was an assembly line-style food preparation system (called the “Speedee Service System”), a very limited menu that eliminated delays caused by too many choices, and a highly recognizable brand, including the famous Golden Arches and bright red tile all over the restaurant, which McDonald’s still exploits to this day.

After buying out the McDonald brothers, Kroc quickly applied their highly-efficient production system and great visual branding to a host of franchise locations that popped up quickly all over the country. Everything was about the system, and creating consistency in quality, taste, and price.

As an added benefit, the franchise model allowed McDonald’s to control a greater economy of scale among suppliers, making each new location slightly more profitable than the last. Today, nearly 37,000 McDonald’s locations serve over 68 million customers every day around the world.

Yet, despite their being located in numerous countries with menus written in dozens of languages, a customer can enter any McDonald’s location, order a Big Mac, receive it in just a few minutes, and enjoy the same exact experience no matter where they are.

That’s the power of franchising a successful operation using duplicatable systems.

Adequate Training and Support

Even the most incredible food preparation system and duplicatable delivery process isn’t going to lead to a successful franchise operation if new owners and employees have a difficult time figuring out how to make it work.

That’s why the third essential ingredient of a successful franchise is adequate training and support from the parent company.

For the tens of thousands of entrepreneurs who bought into the McDonald’s franchise over the last 60 years, it was almost a no-brainer: Franchise owners confidently bought into the system because it was set up to be a true turnkey operation from day one. Every franchisee received everything they needed from supplier contact information and order forms to step-by-step process checklists, and even training for the kid who would be flipping the burgers. All they had to do was step into the role of owner and keep that well-oiled machine moving.

If you can provide a similar level of training and support for franchise owners interested in helping your restaurant expand, you can expect similar rapid growth.

So, Could Your Restaurant Become a Franchise?

Ask yourself:

1. Am I currently operating in a highly competitive market where most of my competitors are independent?
2. Does my restaurant run on a successful, easily duplicatable system? (And if not, can you get it there?)
3. Can I provide training and support to help others follow my system so they can get up and running quickly and easily?

If you can honestly answer “yes” to all three questions, you may have just found the perfect framework for the next chapter in your journey as a food service entrepreneur. Why not explore franchising as a viable growth strategy for your restaurant?

Does Your Restaurant Have What It Takes to Become a Franchise? posted first on happyhourspecialsyum.blogspot.com

MRM News: Amped Up for Franchise Growth

What Managers Can Do When an Employee Has Personal Issues

Usually, the only way to effectively manage attitude at work is not to let it be a personal matter, but rather to make it all about the work. But what about when it really is a personal matter that’s causing the problem?

How much do you need to know about what’s going on in an employee’s personal life?

When something is happening in an employee’s life outside of work that negatively affects the employee at work it can be very serious. For instance, it could be a clear medical issue – perhaps a newly discovered or acquired illness, or a disability of the employee themselves or a close family member. In such cases, you would understand fully that it is not your job to try and be that employee’s doctor. Make sure you respect that individual’s rights and privacy – make any reasonable accommodations that you can for the person. Be kind and decent. Perhaps your organization has some kind of employer-sponsored resources, such as an EAP (employee assistance program,) that can help that employee. You should help them find the right resource. Understand that the employee might have to take some time off – whatever sort of paid and unpaid leave is available for medical needs. Direct the employee to HR.

Not all issues are so straightforward. You just never know how employees are going to respond – at work or otherwise – to the things happening in their personal lives. Most people try to compartmentalize those personal challenges and keep them out of work. Some people don’t or won’t. Sometimes they can’t.

Remember that everybody – everybody – has a personal life. Some personal lives are more challenging than others. But everybody has personal challenges. There are some personal issues that are tough for anyone – even the most private compartmentalizer – to keep under wraps. The whole range of serious and difficult personal issues that affect human beings can show up at work in an employee at any time.

The question you should ask yourself is, “How much do you need to know about what’s going on in an employee’s personal life?” The answer: you probably want to know enough to be polite. What you need to know is how an employee’s personal life bears on their role at work.

It is not your job to be any employee’s therapist. You are not qualified, and it’s not appropriate. Nor should you try to be any employee’s life coach or counselor. You should not, nor do you need to, be trying to help this person manage or solve their problems at home. You need to help this person manage and solve their problems at work.

It’s clarifying to reframe this very complicated issue in clear and simple terms: “Is this person having troubles at work?” No matter what the problem is outside of work, what you need to do is make it completely clear that what’s going on at work is 100 percent the work. That’s not just hard-nosed boss talk. That can also be a real kindness.

The biggest favor you can do for this person and yourself and the rest of the team at work is refocus the discussion on the work.

Acknowledge that something may be going on outside of work. Ask if the employee wants to share with you the nature of the issue. Stop and evaluate whether or not your knowledge of that personal issue now obligates you to take action at work. Does the issue pose a danger to anyone at work? Evaluate whether this person is going to need some time off, and/or whether there are employee assistance resources that might help this person. If not, then the biggest favor you can do for this person and yourself and the rest of the team at work is refocus the discussion on the work: “Here are the performance standards. And here are the concrete expectations. Your time at work is measured entirely by meetings and exceeding those performance standards and concrete expectations. Exceed those standards and expectations, and no matter how bad you might be feeling outside of work, you can feel great about your time here.”

Of course, if an employee simply cannot leave those personal issues outside of work – if the employee cannot at least meet the standards and expectations at work -then the employee might need some time off or a leave of absence, or to be removed from the job entirely. You should always make every effort to help this employee avail himself of any employee assistance resources you possibly can. You could even volunteer to help personally somehow, outside of work. You can and should be very kind. But you just can’t have that person at work if there are not able to perform at work.

Maybe you are thinking, “Ah, but these are the very special cases.” Indeed. But remember, every employee is a special case. Some are just much better at hiding that fact at work than others. Keep your eyes and ears open for the signs and symptoms of personal issues outside of work, but keep your ongoing dialogue focused on the work.

When addressing personal issues with an employee:

• Acknowledge that something may be going on outside of work and ask if the employee wants to share with you the nature of the issue
• Do not try to help employees manage or solve their problems at home
• Make it 100 percent clear that what’s going on at work is 100 percent the work
• Evaluate: Does the issue pose a danger to anyone at work? Does this person need time off or time away? Are there employee assistance resources that might help this person?
• Refocus the ongoing discussion on the work: performance standards and concrete expectations.

What Managers Can Do When an Employee Has Personal Issues posted first on happyhourspecialsyum.blogspot.com

Greene Turtle to Expand Shell and Pie Five Goes International

Seattle Restaurants Cope with Higher Minimum Wage

Several cities in the U.S. have raised the minimum wage paid within their city limits beyond the federal or state minimum wage, and others are considering following suit. With more than half of the country’s minimum wage workforce employed in occupations related to food service and preparation, the restaurant industry could arguably be the industry where the effects of a higher minimum wage will be felt most profoundly.

How will the industry deal with the changes on the horizon?

Actions taken by restaurants in Seattle, Wash., may prove instructive, or cautionary. Seattle’s $15 minimum wage, currently one of the highest in the nation, took effect January 1 for employers with more than 500 workers, which includes many of the city’s restaurant chains. Smaller employers will be phased in over the next few years. In most other areas of the state of Washington, the minimum wage is $11 per hour.

To compensate for those higher personnel costs, the city’s restauranteurs are combining tried-and-true business practices with innovative solutions. Many restaurants have raised their prices; some modestly, some substantially. Most, if not all, are paying closer attention to standard business disciplines such as watching hours worked and keeping overtime to a minimum, while others are trying more radical ways of dealing with the mandate of a higher hourly wage.

To cope with the higher overhead, one Seattle chain adopted a no-tipping approach with an unusual twist. Schwartz Brothers Restaurants replaced optional gratuities with a 20 percent service charge on each guest check at three of its fine-dining restaurants in Seattle. A handout given to patrons as they are seated says that each restaurant “[R]etains the full service charge and 100 percent of these funds are distributed to our team members in the form of wages, commissions and benefits.” When it implemented the service charge, the company eliminated the tip line from the credit card slips at the three establishments, and reclassified their workers as “commissioned employees,” which enabled it to pay them less per hour than the $15 mandate without running afoul of the city’s statutory requirements.

Under the city’s statute, minimum wage is defined as “[A]ll wages, commissions, piece-rate, and bonuses actually received by the employee and reported to the Internal Revenue Service.” According to restaurant employees who asked that their names not be used, front-of-house employees said they are paid $12.50 an hour by the company. Servers and bartenders receive a 13 percent commission on their sales, four percent of the service charge is retained by the house and the remaining three percent is shared among back-of-house employees, host, servers’ assistants and expeditors. The change in procedure has also meant a change in employees’ pockets and purses. While several back-of-house employees said they were making slightly more money under the new system than they made prior to its implementation, front-of-house employees said they are taking home noticeably less. Several requests for comments from the restaurant chain’s management have gone unanswered.

Although the approach may seem like exploiting a loophole in the law, industry experts opine that the practice is lawful if done correctly.

“As long as there’s no tipping involved and it is always just the service charge, then what they’re doing is perfectly legal,” Dr. Michael Cheng, director of Florida International University’s Food and Beverage Program, said.

However, it was important that the restaurants eliminated the line for gratuities when they added the service charge.

“The restaurants that are doing it correctly note that a gratuity has been added, and they don’t have a ‘tip’ line on their bill,” Cheng said. “[Otherwise, guests] get their check, they don’t see the service charge added on and they leave an additional tip on top of it.”

Other Seattle establishments have adopted variations on the service charge theme. Frolik, a bar in the downtown hotel Motif, adds a 20 percent service charge which the bill says is “retained by our hourly Team Members,” though the hotel charge and credit card slips have a line labeled “Addtl tip.” Motif is operated by Destination Hotels. Palomino, a Restaurants Unlimited, Inc. establishment, adds a 3.9 percent “Living wage service charge to offset the cost of Seattle’s minimum wage.” The menu goes on to explain that, “This is not a charge for service provided.” Credit card slips continue to have a line for gratuities. No tipping, no service charge

Another Seattle chain, Ivar’s restaurants, operates 26 stores in several formats across Washington. It instituted a “no-tipping” approach at two of its full-service restaurants within the Seattle city limits, but instead of adding a service charge or automatic gratuity, the restaurants raised menu prices by approximately 21 percent and began sharing that increase among all hourly employees. The chain’s rationale was that, with tips already averaging 17 percent, the change would mean a net increase of only four percent for its guests. However, most of the guests didn’t understand the plan, didn’t like it, or both.

“A lot of customers looked at the menu and got sticker shock,” according to Margo, a bartender at Ivar’s Salmon House. Once the plan was explained to the guests, many understood it and a few even loved it, she said, but in the main it proved unpopular with the restaurant’s clientele. In March 2017, the chain rolled back the policy and reverted to the traditional method of leaving gratuities to the discretion of the guest. The plan wasn’t particularly popular with the restaurant’s front-of-house people, either, some of whom felt the pinch in their wallets.

“I may have made a bit less under that plan,” Margo said, noting that her take-home pay has improved since the roll-back.

Since going back to the old way of doing things, Ivar’s has increased its focus on business basics to cover the increased labor costs.

“I’d like to say there’s one silver bullet, but there’s not,” Ivar’s spokesperson Kirsten Wlaschin said. “We’re focusing on expanding top-line sales, enhancing menu offerings, looking at product sourcing, facility costs, maintaining our cost structure,” and similar practices. However, she said the chain is not reducing any employee benefits in its effort to cope with the higher costs.

“That is steadfast with our ownership group,” she said.

While certainly the largest, Seattle was not the first city in western Washington to institute a higher minimum wage for workers at certain restaurants. The Seattle suburb of SeaTac, a 10-square mile city of nearly 28,000 residents that surrounds and encompasses Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, raised its minimum wage to $15 per hour as of January 2014 for transportation workers and hospitality workers “who work in a restaurant or retail outlet that is within a hotel, public facility, corporate cafeteria, conference facility or meeting facility,” according to that city’s statute. Generally, that means workers in the area’s many hotels, conference centers and at the airport are under the higher minimum wage, which has since increased to $15.34 per hour. Those who work at stand-alone restaurants are under the state minimum wage.

Some businesspeople in SeaTac fully embrace the new paradigm, which poses challenges but also has some silver linings.

“We’re seeing lower staff turnover than before the higher minimum wage was enacted,” Bob Schrader, general manager of the Marriott Airport Hotel in SeaTac, said.

In addition to providing repeat guests with the consistency that comes with seeing familiar faces, that means reduced costs for acquiring and training new employees. The higher minimum wage also means more applicants for the hotel’s open positions.

“It makes us more attractive to workers who live in nearby areas that don’t have the higher minimum wage,” he said.

Those silver linings will disappear when and if the disparity between the minimum wage in SeaTac and other communities disappears but for the near future, they are tangible benefits to be enjoyed.

While many restaurant operators grudgingly accept the higher minimum wage as a reality of doing business, others embrace and actively support better pay for their workers. MOD Pizza, named the fastest growing quick-serve restaurant by research and consulting firm Technomic, is one of them.

“The move toward a higher minimum wage is quite consistent with what MOD is all about,” Bob Barton, MOD Pizza’s CFO, said. “We have been a leader throughout the U.S. to see that the folks who work for MOD are being paid a living wage, so we have had a tendency to pay beyond the minimum wage in most markets that we’re in.”

Of its 215 restaurants across the U.S. and the United Kingdom, MOD Pizza has four restaurants in Seattle that are covered by the $15 minimum wage. Accordingly, those stores had to make adjustments.

“We’ve had to be thoughtful about pricing relative to what the minimum wage is,” Barton acknowledged. “Our pricing in the downtown Seattle area is a bit higher than some of the other markets to try to help offset some of that cost.”

What will the future hold?

Many question what the mandate of a higher minimum wage will mean in the long run. Tony, a server at one of the Schwartz Brothers restaurants, said he does not believe the higher wage is sustainable.

“The model may have to change,” he said. “Otherwise, either prices will go up so high people will stop going to fine-dining restaurants, or servers’ pay will drop to the point that these restaurants won’t be able to hire good people.” He also wonders whether the changes will embolden more restaurant workers to unionize, which could lead to even higher wages, commensurate increases in prices, and perhaps further reductions in patronage as a result.

Others, including Cheng, say innovative solutions such reclassifying employees as commissioned rather than tipped employees, could face legal challenges, particularly for those restaurants or chains that add a service charge and continue to include a tip line.

“When a restaurant that has an automatic gratuity or a service charge continues to include a tip line on its guest checks, the waters are muddied,” Cheng said. “If they didn’t eliminate the tip line, are they really creating a category of commissioned employees or are they still tipped employees?”

Cheng’s point also raises the question of the historical precedent. Front-of-house employees have historically been considered tipped employees. Whether reclassifying them as commissioned employees is sufficient to overcome years of history may be something a court will ultimately be asked to decide.

Seattle Restaurants Cope with Higher Minimum Wage posted first on happyhourspecialsyum.blogspot.com

Want to Experience Thoughtful Growth? Get Creative with Your Franchise Marketing Campaign

From cows painting on billboards to sub shops full of firehouse-themed décor, restaurants’ brilliant and memorable marketing campaigns are everywhere. But how do these brands come up with such successful creative marketing campaigns?

Here’s the secret: These brands know their niches and are creative in developing campaigns that are uniquely theirs and that resonate with their audiences. Successful franchises are laser-focused on their specialties and develop enduring, relatable messaging.

Franchise restaurants must find creative ways to engage customers in both existing and future markets. Want to see your franchise succeed? Here are three creative marketing strategies that will help you engage customers and keep them coming back.

 Incorporate Heroic Core Values

The founders of Firehouse Subs had a relatively easy time choosing a theme for its branding, décor and marketing. Chris and Robin Sorensen had firefighting in their blood. Their efforts to incorporate fire hoses and gear in their restaurants and their heroic commitment to community service rang true with their customers.

Their television marketing emphasized good food and service and positioned them as “the hero of all subs,” a tagline that persists at the brand’s core today. From the franchise’s inception in the early 1990s, it also has demonstrated a dedication to improving the communities where Firehouse franchises are located by helping raise money for local charities. And just more than a decade ago, they started the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation, which collects donations to provide equipment for firefighters.

Weave the ideals your franchise is built on through all of your marketing campaigns. If your company is built on sustainable practices, quality food, and giving back to your community, emphasize those qualities in all levels of your business, from corporate messaging to commercials.

 Savor Your Brand Story

Chicken Salad Chick CEO Stacy Brown was surprised by her own success when she started selling homemade food door-to-door to support her family. Before long, she realized she needed to either start a restaurant or close up shop. She took a leap of faith in 2008, and Chicken Salad Chick was born.

Chicken Salad Chick has grown exponentially since then, with 65 locations, but its leaders continue to embrace its compelling and charming story — right down to the fashionable “chick” holding a basket of food in the logo — by relentlessly focusing on what they do best: chicken salad. The restaurant offers chicken salad with onions, barbecue chicken salad, chicken salad with fruits and nuts — you get the idea. The franchise’s humble beginnings and tasty chicken salad remain at the heart of its menu and marketing campaigns.

Having a great product is only the beginning. Keeping a focus on what you do best and telling your brand story to customers through your creative marketing campaigns helps you stand out among your competitors.

Don’t Be Afraid to Milk It

Chick-fil-A has been depending on its quirky and lovable cows to remind people to “Eat Mor Chikin” since 1995. While most other brands were relying on flashy television ads and billboards full of product photos, Chick-fil-A used 3-D cows and plain talk — but sketchy spelling — on its billboards to draw customers in and keep them coming back. Twenty years later, the campaign still appeals to crowds of chicken lovers.

Although the campaigns change slightly, as do menus, the creative marketing of Chick-fil-A has consistently capitalized on its clever cows, who now have their own calendar and Cow Day.

Successful franchises simply cannot lose sight of the significance of creative messaging. Effective campaigns begin with exceptional content and designs that authentically connect with audiences, that have staying power and that continually engage customers. While digital is the hot topic in marketing right now, campaigns that begin with strong visuals and memorable copy allow campaigns on traditional, digital, and social platforms to perform at a higher level.

Want to Experience Thoughtful Growth? Get Creative with Your Franchise Marketing Campaign posted first on happyhourspecialsyum.blogspot.com