Restaurants are one of the hardest businesses to start - saving a struggling one is even harder. With all problems, it’s about the evaluation, developing a comprehensive plan and then working through the plan.

With the restaurants that I deal with, often times the self-evaluation is not objective enough. You don’t have to go down with your ship. Use these tips and suggestions coming from my years of experience to plug the holes and get back to smooth sailing.

It can be hard to step back and really identify the problems for someone so close to it. A lot of times there is trouble gaining accredited outside sources or advisors. Don’t be afraid to ask friends, family and customers for their input. Various and honest perspectives will give you a good gauge on what the problems really are within your restaurant.

Don’t think the outside advice and perspective gets you out of the self-evaluation part. Here is a short list of questions to ask yourself that will uncover the real problem areas. If any of these are hard to answer then you may have found the problem that needs to be fixed.

• What has your sales line done over the last several years? Is it up, is it down, or is it flat? What about guest counts?
• Are you relevant in the community? What are people saying about you? Look at the reviews online to get a barometer of guest reaction and sentiment. What does your staff say about the operation? How about your friends or vendors?
• Can you describe your concept in three words are less? What is your brand? Do you think your guests understand what your brand is? How about your staff? What are you famous for?
• When was the last time you adjusted your food and beverage menus? Did you stay consistent with your brand statement?  What was the staff’s reaction? How about the guests? How did it effect sales?
• How does your place look from the outside and from the inside? When was the last time you made modifications to the facility? What was the amount of this expenditure? How about the time before? Did you like the results? Did sales fluctuate? How about staff attitude? What did the guests think?
• What is your marketing plan? Is it written down? Are you on a timeline? Do you have a budget? Who implements the plan? What are the results? Are you measuring the results? What are they?
• How is your online presence? How is your Facebook page? How often do you update it? Is there a chef’s blog? Do you use SEO? What is the size of your email list? How often do you communicate by email to that list? What have the results been? Do you collect emails in the store?
• What is your plan for enhancing service to your guests? Do you have written training materials? Do you use them? Do you update them periodically?
• Who trains the new staff? Do they work off a schedule? Is there testing of the staff? How does management do in the coaching of the staff to success?

I didn’t mean to be depressing, but you need to get into the habit of self-evaluation. Now that you have some outside opinions and you have spent the time evaluating your establishment, you should have a gauge on where you are and the areas that need improvement.

Now it’s time to create a plan. You must be detailed enough in your plan and determine various measuring devices to help you along the way. Your plan needs to have the following:

• Clear vision
• Written plan
• Written regimen
• Written timeline
• Probably some level of budget
• Coaching by a trainer
• Measurement mileposts of success

With the problems identified and a detailed plan in place, it’s time for action. Of course it won’t be easy, but if it was easy, everyone would be doing it. It will take a lot of work, but with any hard to accomplish goals, outline a plan and stick with it - results will definitely follow.

Want some more tips on how to promote your restaurant and fill your seats?