The Five Keys to Successful Restaurant Goal Setting -Part One

​Having team goals with a written, executed action plan is essential to running a successful food service operation whether you’re a 200-seater restaurant or a four-wheeler food truck. In a study by Bersin by Deliotte, they found that organizations that make it easy for employees to set clear goals and monitor their progress were four times more likely to score in the top 25 percent of business outcomes.

For the best operated businesses, usually by the 4th quarter of the year, owners or corporate leaderships whip out the financial results for the current and past years and begin the arduous task of creating their financial forecasts and team performance goals for the coming year. These are then sent off to the rank and file managers to achieve. I know as multi-unit manager, I would sometimes look at the expectations and say, “Are you kidding me!” and initially lament about the bonuses I was not going to receive in the coming year. Shortly thereafter, I would start working on a way to achieve it if my team had any chance to succeed. And consistently succeed we would, not only reaching the goal, but usually surpassing it because our self-esteem and employment depended on it. I knew from experience I would have to:

• Establish effective S.M.A.R.T. Goals

• Involve the team in creating an action plan

• Set up a follow up and feedback system

In this blog we will focus on establishing SMART Goals.

Fortunately, early in my educational and restaurant career I was introduced to S.M.A.R.T. Goal Setting. It is a systematic method to creating an actionable goal. You may be saying, this is not new stuff. True, this concept has been around for decades in one form or another. But many small business owners or manager don’t use any form of goal setting at all so don't have a target to work toward. With out a target a team can easily stray and time and money can be lost. Here are the five key components that will help in your writing your goal objective:

• Specific –Target a specific area for improvement.

• Measurable – Decide how progress is going to be determined.

• Attainable– It must be something your team can reach with the resources available.

• Relevant – It must have a positive impact on growing your business and help you to meet your long term goals.

• Time-related – Specify when the result(s) can be achieved.

So, a goal in your restaurant could look something like this:

Improve the restaurant food cost from 24.5% to 23.1% of total sales of $750,000 or -1.4% by the end of 2nd quarter 2023.

Does this meet our 5 step S.M.A.R.T. goal formula?

Specific: Yes, it establishes a specific % to meet.

Measurable: Yes. It can be tracked monthly and quarterly by inventory and financial reports.

Attainable: Yes, It would be the manager’s job to achieve this through setting up action plans for their culinary and hospitality teams. But let's check it by doing the math. First, I must calculate what the food cost at 23.1% of my half year projected sales would be. My half year sales goal is $750,000 so food cost of 23.1% of it would be $173,250 for the period. $173,250 divided by 2 quarters (26 weeks) I have to hit a spending target of $4478 per week. Now my team knows their weekly spending target.

But if I am currently doing 24.5% food cost on similiar sales of $750,00 it is a cost of $183,750.

$183,750 - $173,250 = $11,500. That is the amount of the improvement I would need to improve over the next two quarters from my current trend to achieve the goal. That sounds like a lot, but is it really?

If I divide the difference $11,500 by the number of days the business is open in the two quarters 182, then I only have to improve $63.18 per day. That seems achieveable.

Time- Related: Yes, there is a definite end date. I can also set up interim follow up checks. In this case, I would do it weekly.

What are some of the goals you would like to achieve in 2023? Here are a few ideas:

• Improve cook times

• Retain more employees

• Develop a second in command

• Improve your Guest Check Average

• Book more catering events

If you would like to learn more about setting S.M.A.R.T goals for your team. Join us for one of our live webinars. Check sheduler here. Each 1 hour live webinars be only be $19.99 and be recorded if the date does not work for your schedule. If you would prefer a private goal setting session you can contact us at info@restaurantsuccesscenter.

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