There are many ways to get into the restaurant industry. The quickest and simplest is to get a job at a restaurant. Become a server, cook, or manager. The easiest way to get into the business is to get a job at a food establishment.

There are more complicated ways because you may want to have more ownership in the restaurant. Franchising would be another way to get into the restaurant business very quickly. We see franchises every day-Dunkin’ Donuts, McDonanld’s, Chopped, and Burger King. They’re all around us. These franchises provide you with all the rules, regulations, and instructions.

You rent all of this from the franchisor, and the franchisor helps you establish your business. It is a quick way to get into the business. Quick meaning three to four months- especially if you’re buying a franchise that was already in existence and the restaurant was already open. If you choose to build a new franchise, it may still take only four months, but it’s going to be a lot more difficult because you’re dealing with the construction of a restaurant.

If you don’t want to become a franchisee and buy into somebody else’s product, you can always buy a restaurant that is closed. It has a kitchen, there are tables and chairs, and it has lighting fixtures, equipment. The kitchen is equipped, but it hasn’t been open for months. You’re going to buy it, clean it up, buy food, and start a new restaurant there.

That’s another fairly simple way to get into the restaurant business fairly quickly. More complicated ways to get into the restaurant business include developing a concept of your own brand-new restaurant and then find a bare space to design a kitchen and dining room. Now you may be 18 months away from opening your business because there are permits, licenses, fees, and training.

You need to establish how you’re going to buy food and test your menu. It’s a lot more complicated. That’s the most difficult way to get into the restaurant business. The speediest way is to work for someone in the restaurant business. If you want to be an owner, a quick way if you have the capital is to buy an existing restaurant that’s already open. When you buy it, it will continue to be open and operate.

A lot of research must be done to make sure that it is a restaurant that is profitable and will continue to be profitable. If it is not, then you could be buying someone else’s albatross, and you could be out of business quickly. If it’s not, but you have a great vision of how to reinvigorate energy into the menu and the concept and know that you can market it and build an entirely new crop of consumer for it, is a quick way to get into the restaurant business and be successful fairly fast.

The back of house of a restaurant operation is like a manufacturing section. This is where culinarians perform. In the back of house you have several roles that make the kitchen hum, including:
* Executive chef
* Sous-chef
* Line cooks
* Grill cooks
* Utility team

Everyone likes to be romantic when they talk about their food, but the back of house is like a manufacturer. It might seem unromantic but the stark reality is that raw materials come in the back door of a restaurant.

From vegetables, meats, to fish, everything comes in a raw state. It is butchered, sliced, and diced by the team in the kitchen. Then just like you take raw materials to build a car, the materials are manufactured into a wonderful meal that leaves the kitchen. Ideally, it’s beautifully plated and at the right temperature, ready to impress the guest receiving the meal at their table.

The kitchen, or the manufacturing team, is the back of house. These are the people who we call culinarians – ones who are preparing all the food.

There are also a lot of utility jobs in a restaurant. There is someone to clean the restrooms and someone to make sure that the plates, flatware, and glasses are sanitized and clean. These types of jobs are also part of the back of house function.

Hidden in between back of house and front of house, there are lots of jobs in the restaurant industry. It might be easier to say front of house and back of house, but there are lots of professional jobs in between as well.

Many professional jobs that are also now part of the restaurant industry. Restaurateurs need to make sure they have a good attorney and good accountants. They may even need consultants who help them navigate city codes and health departments, to make sure that they can get their certificates in a timely way.

Restaurant operations are complex, and there are many back of house functions that help bring the food and beverage operations to life.

Catering is a real benefit to restaurants. It can take a lot of forms. I can cater by having you pick up food at my restaurant. So, it could be as simple as a deli catering out a sandwich platter that Mr. or Mrs. Customer is going to pick up. That’s easy.
It could be that I’m delivering that sandwich platter. That’s still easy. It could also be that I’m delivering that sandwich platter and providing a service staff member to serve it for you at your home or your party. So, catering increases what we call same-store sales.
If I have 20 seats in my restaurant and, on average, I get two turns at lunch and two turns at dinner, that means that 80 people are going to be able to dine in my restaurant.
If my average check is $10, that means that I have made $800 that day by people eating at tables in my restaurant. But, I can also prepare food for 80 people at a catered event that will not be in my restaurant.
The consumer would pick it up or I would deliver it. I would still get $10 a person, maybe even more, because I’m supplying all of these disposables.
Now, I made $800 in my restaurant that day from people who came in and sat at tables, and at least $800, if not more, by catering one event for 80 people. So, I’ve increased my same-store sales — meaning, my same four walls, my same hours of operation — just by sending out catering.
Catering can typically be prepared when I’m not in the lunch or dinner rush. When I’m doing garde manger in the morning, prepping food for lunch, I could be cooking the catering food and putting it in the refrigerator to be delivered or picked up later. Catering is an extremely positive and profitable benefit for restaurants.

Now, that is catering that doesn’t happen at my restaurant. Many restaurants may have a banquet room where they offer catering. That is a place mostly for celebratory events. I guarantee it’s dark most of the week and they’re perhaps using it on the weekends. But they can use that room at any time. It does increase same-store sales as well. But you’re paying rent on that.
I’m a proponent of catering. My favorite kind is preparing food, getting it out the door, and letting people eat it elsewhere because I’m getting paid that revenue. I’m not cleaning it up; I’m not worried about China plates and flatware disappearing, and I’m not worried about someone taking up a seat in my restaurant while they’re on their smartphone for 45 minutes. I’m just getting it out the door and getting paid for it.
So, catering, again, can be very profitable. However, from an operations perspective, you need to prepare a good catering program. It can’t be haphazard, because then you will wind up spending more money than you’re making. Maybe you’re not buying or packaging properly.
You need to make sure that it’s well-packaged so that, when it gets to the guest, it looks great. Maybe they’re going to heat it at home. That’s all well and good, but it still has to look and taste great. Therefore, the way you package food makes a big difference.

In the restaurant industry, the customer-facing employees that greet you when you walk in the door are referred to as “front-of-house.” The host, front-of-house manager, or dining room manager are all important and frequently assist guests.

Yet, there are many front-of-house positions. These are the employees who closely interact with guests. Their roles include:
* Maintaining a consistent pace within the dining room
* Ensuring fast and efficient service
* Correctly charge guests
* Processing checks

The restaurant manager, host, and reservationist are the first to interact with the guest and show hospitality. They ensure that the dining room runs smoothly and that guests who arrive with a reservation are seated promptly. Our front-of-house team also includes servers and bussers because it encompasses everyone who has direct contact with our guests.

Sales and Service Sectors
Front-of-house employees work in the sales and service segments. They sell catering orders, take reservations, and assist with wine selections. They ensure food is ready for pickup and that tables are available. These employees also assist individuals who may need help with the menu. The service segment as a whole participates in the guest’s service. Waiters, bussers, sommeliers, and bartenders all fall within this category.

The Impact of Food Ordering and Delivery Systems on the Hospitality Industry
Many restaurants are adopting what I call commissary models. It’s where you buy food and beverages through a delivery service (e.g., Grubhub, Seamless, Uber Eats) and have it delivered to your home.

In this scenario, front-of-house employees take the reservation and deliver the food. The front-of-house manager, or owner, is in charge of the entire operation. They make sure that everyone is on the same page. Guests continue to receive the level of service they expect from the restaurant.

Let’s take a look at how a successful last can be modified and changed in footwear and the footwear business to increase sales and reach a new audience.
We love the last. We had success with its sales, but we can’t make the same shoe we made last spring. So to continue using this last, we have to take and modify certain things about the footwear we’re producing on the last.

We know we have a successful last, we know that it sells well, we know it looks great. So we can change any number of design features. We can do something as simple as changing the top-line cut of the shoe. If it’s athletic, we can put a collar and change the shape of the collar, the height of the collar, the Achilles pen, so on and so forth.

If it’s a dress shoe, we can change the top line cut by putting a dip on one, an asymmetrical dip somewhere on the top line, or put some sort of embellishment on a top line that wasn’t used in the previous spring season.

We’re also going to be changing our materials and colors for the new season. Those are simple changes that help to make the same last we used last spring, look, have the shoe look completely different next spring, just by its color, it’s cut.

We can also do other things. We can take and change the component tree or the structure of the footwear. The structure is the way the bottoming is done: the heels and the soles.

Last spring we used just the very thin, a ladies shoe and we used a very thin sole and just a simple high heel, like a spike kick. Next spring, if we wanted to, we could do a platform. We could do a full platform, we could do a partial platform under the ball and a higher heel, which we may have marketed as a 10-centimeter heel last spring.

We put a two-centimeter platform under the front, we add two centimeters to the heel to maintain the balance, which is part of the last itself. Now we can market the thing next spring as a 12-centimeter heel. Same last, completely different footwear.

This is a way of taking a successful last and amortizing it out over time without looking like you’re repeating yourself.

In the hospitality industry, hotels are often described as two distinct businesses. One is the operating business, which involves the renting of the guest rooms and the provision of food and beverage. The other is the real estate business, owning the land and building which house the hotel property and operations. Those two distinct attributes, the fact that hotels are both an operating business and a real estate business, have been the cause of many of the major changes in the hotel industry over the past 30 years.

Going back to the 1990s, Marriott split into two companies, an operating company and a real estate company. The reason it did so was because investors felt that those two businesses were distinct and that the skill sets necessary to maximize both were different. There was inefficiency from having both under the same ownership structure. Due to increased online hospitality education on what works best, the hotel industry has largely moved in that direction of separating asset ownership from day to day operations.

One of the key concerns of hospitality and hotel investors is making sure the relationship with the manager of the property is on an even keel. Hotels often have a tension in that managers are compensated primarily on the basis of top line revenues while owners are compensated on the basis of bottom line profitability. Those two different attributes, as to how they are compensated, can lead to challenging relationships, especially as the business gets weaker during a economic downturn.

There is a whole field, in fact, of advisors and counselors that provide hospitality education and help hotel owners and managers work through these relationship issues. This affects everything from approving annual budgets to capital renovation plans as well as the day to day attributes that go into the hotel business.

Hotels often expand into what is called neighboring businesses. This concept is in addition to their core business of operating rooms for overnight guests.

Many hotels in resort destinations may feature a timeshare component. Overnight guests can buy weekly intervals of units.

It’s not uncommon for hotels to be a part of apartment buildings in urban areas. Residents who own apartments above or below the hotel property feel a unique sense of pride or value. They are happy having their units affiliated with a luxury hotel brand. As a result, hotels have expanded into businesses that are complementary to the hotel industry.

In resort markets, hotels have evolved into timeshares, residential condominiums, lot sales, and even community care facilities for the elderly.

Hotels need a large quantity of support space to ensure operations run properly. You might have basement sales offices, accounting offices, paint shops, upholstery repair shops, and more to assist the process. Yet, revenue is in selling guest rooms and food and the provision of food and drinks.

There is a lot of pressure in the hospitality industry to maximize the space in the hotel that generates money. Hotels must optimize efficiency with “facility programming.” It’s also essential to minimize the areas that are simply required for the support of the operation.

Today’s hotel industry
Over the years, the hotel industry has evolved into two basic organizational types:
* Hotel operating companies who run hotels but rarely have significant real estate holdings
* Privately or publicly held hospitality enterprises owning real estate
Many well-known hospitality companies like Hilton Worldwide, Marriott International, Hyatt Hotels and others may own few (if any) properties in terms of controlling the involved real estate. Similarly, many hotel ownership groups don’t take part in the day-to-day of hotel operations.
Only a few organizations work both sides of hotel operations. Some examples of publicly traded hotel groups include LaSalle Hotel investors and Pebblebrook Hotel Trust. Meanwhile, privately held companies, like Lubert-Adler or Colony Capital own various real estate groups, including some hotels.
Hotel perks make guests happy
In the hospitality business, we have this saying, “you don’t replace the carpet in the lobby when it wears out, you replace it when fashions change or when customer expectations change.” This adage is the definition of functional obsolescence (when hotels or other businesses no longer meet their customers’ expectations.)
Hotel managers are familiar with the constant pressure to keep properties fresh, and for facilities, services and other features to always meet customer expectations. We know that though a hotel may have adequate TVs, if they have only 12-inch screens—or other flaws—guests aren’t going to be incredibly happy.
Keep investing in customer satisfaction
Expect to make large annual reinvestments for room upgrades and to refresh hotel lobbies and restaurants.
It requires significant effort to manage daily hotel operations, particularly any investments needed to ensure a hospitality property’s image for years to come.

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The hospitality industry offers a variety of rewarding roles. We encourage people to consider careers beyond servicing and managing rooms, food, and beverage. Completion of an appropriate hospitality education could lead to roles requiring managerial expertise to manage and control the operations in several departments.

There is a complexity of services and managerial effort that sits on top of the direct operating departments. We have an administrative and general department with a manager that oversees all the departments. These departments include marketing, maintenance, housekeeping, finance, human resources, and information and telecommunication services

The marketing department conducts sales and marketing activities to drive business for rooms, food, and beverage. Within this department are roles like marketing managers, marketing coordinators, sales managers, sales coordinators, and reservation agents.

Maintenance departments keep things working and looking their best. Responsibilities include keeping the hotel looking fresh and keeping the landscaping looking attractive. The energy department keeps ensures the air conditioning and heat work well.

The information and telecommunication services department manages a fair amount of hardware and software systems. They make sure charges from guests in the gift shop get properly transferred to their ledger to be paid when the guest checks out.

We hire for a lot of positions in the hotel. The housekeeping department requires room attendants and housemen. We hire public space attendants to look after our lobby, bar, hallways, and other public gathering areas. We also hire front desk agents, bell door attendants, cafeteria attendants, PBX operators, also called guest experience agents. There are roles that support our back-of-house spaces. Managers in food and beverage, front office, and guest experience supervise all staff. All of the openings are within our operations. The restaurant is a separate entity from the hotel, so we do not hire for these positions.

As a business, it’s important that you meet and exceed customer expectations. Consumers need to see value in the products that you offer.

There are two types of loyalty – attitudinal and behavioral.

Attitudinal loyalty is when a customer likes a brand but they don’t necessarily buy from them. Behavioral loyalty involves liking and buying from a brand.

So, how do loyalty programs generate loyalty towards a brand? They do so in two ways. The first is that you give them a reward for buying your products, such as points. The points can add up to provide discounts.

For example, after spending a certain number of nights in a hotel or taking a particular number of flights with an airline, a customer might earn enough points for a free weekend away or a free flight.

Rewards are important, but what’s more important now is recognition. Many customers enjoy surprise rewards, too. For example, if a customer is checking into your hotel and you offer a free wine as part of your loyalty program, it’s a nice surprise for the customer.

Every big hotel company, such as Marriott and Hilton, provide loyalty programs to their customers. Similarly, the big airlines, like United Airlines and American Airlines, also provide great programs.

Companies use something known as Customer Relations Management, shortened to CRM. These are huge databases that use sophisticated data mining, artificial intelligence, and deep learning to figure out the consumer behavior.

If you have lots of data about the purchasing behavior of a consumer across the course of the year, you can use this data to estimate when the consumer is likely to travel throughout the year. You can then adjust your prices and rewards to provide more attractive offers to customers to boost their loyality to your brand.