Focus on one thing and do that well…

As an independent Restaurateur I wear a lot of hats. I manage all the marketing, sales, cost control, accounts and HR for my restaurants. In addition, I work in the venues so needless to say I start a lot of projects and often move onto something else before I can see it through. It’s an endless battle with me, my time and my brain!

I class myself as an independent Restaurateur meaning I have two venues and run these restaurants with my husband. I don’t belong to a large group and I’m not owned by a private equity company. I don’t have multiple sites with large teams of marketing, HR or accounts people to help run my businesses. The buck stops with me and I am responsible for it all. I’m sure this is the same for most small business owners, and Restaurateurs are no different.

Quite often I will go into my office with a million and one things to do but struggle to find a place to start. I really want to focus on my social media marketing and finalising that strategy. I need to finalise my on-boarding program for new staff and I must prepare for my leadership offsite with my team in two days and we have a new menu coming soon. This is just the tip of the iceberg and the list just doesn’t end there. To say I feel overwhelmed is an understatement.

So, how do I prioritise? I pick one thing and I commit to being present for that one thing alone. One project to work on and sink my teeth into it and give it my full attention for that day. I forget about the rest and pick one key piece of work that will have a positive impact on my business in the future.

Today it was budgeting wages for the end of the financial year! I know exciting stuff. However, considering wages are the biggest cost for my business it became my key focus. I also figured out a new and easier way to forecast and budget. I made changes to our rostering system, spent time analysing data and as a result saved myself some money and implemented a new process. Yes, I’ve missed calls and I have people chasing me for other things but that had to wait. Today I made a promise to focus on one task and feel like I accomplished it and more.

The thing is, we all have the same amount of time in our day. How we fill our day is up to us. What we spend our time on is what we prioritise at that given time. We may not be able to do this everyday but there are days when we can and we should.

What did you achieve today and what did you do to save your Restaurant money?