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113: What to do when seasonal slumps catch your restaurant team by surprise
Episode 113 • 28th October 2022 • Turning the Table • Realignment Media
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Jim Taylor of Benchmark Sixty and Adam Lamb of Chef Life Coaching discuss restaurant budgets and how to avoid the seasonal slump blues.

Restaurant budgets can be tricky to manage during the year, especially when there is a dip in business.

In this episode, we'll discuss some tips on how to avoid the restaurant's seasonal slump blues and keep your restaurant afloat during tough times. building highly effective restaurant teams and balancing the equation of motivation versus inspiration.

Turning the Table is the most progressive podcast for today's food and beverage industry featuring staff-centric operating solutions for restaurants in the #newhospitalityculture.

Join Jim Taylor of Benchmark Sixty and Adam Lamb as they "turn the tables" on the prevailing operating assumptions of the restaurant business in favor of innovative solutions to our industry's most persistent challenges.

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Benchmark Sixty sponsors this show; check out their unique staff retention solution

in partnership with Realignment Hospitality

In Partnership with Chef Life Coaching

Turning the Table is a production of Realignment Media.



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Transcripts

Adam Lamb:

Welcome to another episode of Turning the Table,

Adam Lamb:

sponsored by Benchmark 60.

Adam Lamb:

Turning the Table is the most progressive weekly video cast for today's food and

Adam Lamb:

beverage industry, featuring staff centric operating solutions for restaurants in

Adam Lamb:

the hashtag new hospitality culture.

Adam Lamb:

And if you ain't in there, you should be.

Adam Lamb:

My name is Adam Lamb and I'm a career coach for chefs and

Adam Lamb:

hospitality professionals.

Adam Lamb:

And I'd like to introduce you to my co-host, Jim Taylor, a benchmark 60.

Adam Lamb:

What's up

Jim Taylor:

em?

Jim Taylor:

It's good to be

Adam Lamb:

back.

Adam Lamb:

It Well, we missed you.

Jim Taylor:

I missed you.

Jim Taylor:

Yeah.

Jim Taylor:

Like,

Adam Lamb:

like, like you, like you ghosted us for the last episode.

Adam Lamb:

What did you do?

Jim Taylor:

I was, I was playing golf.

Jim Taylor:

I was . I was on the California coast playing golf.

Jim Taylor:

I was lucky to have a chance to get away for a few days.

Adam Lamb:

All right, well, we'll get into that in a second.

Adam Lamb:

But this is episode 1 1 3 Seasonal Challenges for restaurant operators.

Adam Lamb:

We tried to have this episode last week, but it was interrupted by

Adam Lamb:

my co-hosts trip, but that's okay.

Adam Lamb:

This little lunchbox live stream is broadcast every week on

Adam Lamb:

Thursday at 12 noon eastern time.

Adam Lamb:

On Turning the Table podcast page on LinkedIn, YouTube, and the

Adam Lamb:

Chef Life Coach page on Facebook.

Adam Lamb:

You can catch the podcast version.

Adam Lamb:

Audio only everywhere you get your podcasts.

Adam Lamb:

You know, in about two days when I can get the workflow going.

Adam Lamb:

We ask that you share the show with someone you care about who can find this

Adam Lamb:

information useful and leave a review.

Adam Lamb:

So Jim, welcome back.

Jim Taylor:

Thanks, man.

Jim Taylor:

It's good to be back.

Jim Taylor:

. It's good to get back in the swing of things, you know, like, so look good to

Jim Taylor:

have a few days to sort of de decompress

Adam Lamb:

a bit on the beach.

Adam Lamb:

Yeah, it, and for those who are not following the show as they should

Adam Lamb:

because it is one of the quickest growing podcasts in the restaurant space.

Adam Lamb:

You just had a child not too long ago.

Adam Lamb:

Eight weeks.

Adam Lamb:

Two months today.

Adam Lamb:

I'm sorry, say that again.

Adam Lamb:

It's two months today.

Adam Lamb:

Two months today and having a child any easy.

Adam Lamb:

For either parent, so I say, bless your bride for telling you.

Adam Lamb:

Get the hell on outta here.

Adam Lamb:

When the opportunity came up and you decided to go to, well, you were gifted

Adam Lamb:

a trip down to California to play some golf and, and where did you end up?

Adam Lamb:

I'm sorry, Pebble Beach.

Adam Lamb:

What?

Jim Taylor:

Well, first of all, I should say it was Jen, my wife.

Jim Taylor:

It was her idea for me to go, I, you know, we were back and forth by said,

Jim Taylor:

Hey, you should go take this opportunity.

Jim Taylor:

So that's pretty cool.

Jim Taylor:

You're right.

Jim Taylor:

Bless my bride.

Jim Taylor:

Definitely.

Jim Taylor:

But yeah, we were Pebble Beach for a few days

Adam Lamb:

and.

Adam Lamb:

I've known, you know, I don't play golf.

Adam Lamb:

When I was in high school, I think I CADed for a couple years at

Adam Lamb:

the local community golf center.

Adam Lamb:

And I remember throwing a club my last day because I was like,

Adam Lamb:

God damn it, I'm never gonna, you know, be in this place again.

Adam Lamb:

. Yeah.

Adam Lamb:

And I, you know, I know that I have a slightly addictive nature and if

Adam Lamb:

I ever took up golf you know, I'd be like, Best clubs and everything.

Adam Lamb:

And so I decided like to opt out, create a barrier around that.

Adam Lamb:

And so what is it like to golf on Pebble Beach?

Adam Lamb:

Well,

Jim Taylor:

I mean, the whole ex being, especially being in the

Jim Taylor:

someone who loves golf, but also being in the hospitality industry.

Jim Taylor:

I mean, it was just right.

Jim Taylor:

Unbelievable experience.

Jim Taylor:

I mean, you don't see, you drop your golf clubs off at the, at the check in

Jim Taylor:

and you don't see them again for the weekend unless you're on the golf course.

Jim Taylor:

They just arrive when you are about to tee off or at the range when

Jim Taylor:

you need them, or you know, the.

Jim Taylor:

, even just down to the service level in the, in the hotel you check in and

Jim Taylor:

somebody gives you a tour of the hotel on your way to your room and talks

Jim Taylor:

about all the history and, you know, you get for the morning, you don't, they

Jim Taylor:

obviously charge a good rate to get there, but they don't penny pinch anything.

Jim Taylor:

It's all about the experience.

Jim Taylor:

You know, you can have whatever kind of nut milk latte you want in the

Jim Taylor:

morning made you deliver to your room.

Jim Taylor:

You know, there's, it's just, it's pretty impressive.

Adam Lamb:

And, and what was, what was your takeaway from that experience of

Adam Lamb:

like being like in the lap of luxury?

Adam Lamb:

I mean, granted, you know, they pay a good, you pay a good

Adam Lamb:

thing, but you get the value out.

Adam Lamb:

Is that what I'm hearing?

Adam Lamb:

It

Jim Taylor:

it?

Jim Taylor:

Yeah, for sure.

Jim Taylor:

Like I said, it was, it's not a cheap place to go, but there's,

Jim Taylor:

once you're there, there's no penny pitching on anything.

Jim Taylor:

It's everything.

Jim Taylor:

Unbelievably good value, incredibly good quality.

Jim Taylor:

The service was just over the top everywhere.

Jim Taylor:

You know, Nine guys, I think we had three servers at dinner.

Jim Taylor:

Hmm.

Jim Taylor:

You know, just the service was, was amazing everywhere we went.

Jim Taylor:

So yeah.

Jim Taylor:

At, at, at ev every single moment.

Jim Taylor:

Whether it was, you know, like I said, getting your coffee in the morning

Jim Taylor:

or turned down service at night, or what the lobby bar was like, The

Jim Taylor:

experience that, I mean, all of it was just you ne you kind of feel

Jim Taylor:

like you never have to worry about.

Jim Taylor:

Which as a customer in a hospitality space, really good feeling, right?

Jim Taylor:

I mean, Yeah.

Jim Taylor:

So yeah, I walked away feeling incredibly lucky to have spent a

Jim Taylor:

few days there and you know, can't wait to go back, hopefully one day.

Jim Taylor:

And

Jim Taylor:

. Adam Lamb: And how did Jen

Jim Taylor:

Was she like excited that you were coming back or she was like, Okay,

Jim Taylor:

I'm gonna send you on another trip,

Jim Taylor:

Oh, she

Jim Taylor:

was excited that I came home.

Jim Taylor:

We I got home from the airport, had a quick shower, hopped

Jim Taylor:

back in the car and went and.

Jim Taylor:

Jim Jeffrey's a comedy show in Vancouver which was, I mean,

Jim Taylor:

he's just off the charts too, so it was a great four or five days.

Adam Lamb:

So that's interesting that you were talking about, you know, you

Adam Lamb:

know how this sense of hospitality pervaded everything, and I think

Adam Lamb:

that this is a great conversation to have because especially going into

Adam Lamb:

some shoulder months going into that, there's a misunderstanding, but about

Adam Lamb:

what services and what hospitality.

Adam Lamb:

Yeah.

Adam Lamb:

Can you speak to that?

Adam Lamb:

And like,

Jim Taylor:

Yeah.

Jim Taylor:

I mean, and my take on that is service is just, you know, can I get a water?

Jim Taylor:

Sure.

Jim Taylor:

Here you go.

Jim Taylor:

Right.

Jim Taylor:

And hospitality was, you know, a place like that is one of the ho it's

Jim Taylor:

one of the more high end places in, you know, probably in the country.

Jim Taylor:

So that's one thing.

Jim Taylor:

But even if it's not, you know, for someone to recognize you,

Jim Taylor:

the, the day after you check in and use your name or, Right.

Jim Taylor:

Remember the coffee that you ordered the day before?

Jim Taylor:

You know all of those little touches, it was just a very hospitable experience.

Jim Taylor:

And, you know, like you said, the seasonal change thing and shoulder season, I've,

Jim Taylor:

in my experience, both as a customer and as a, as an employer, I think we've

Jim Taylor:

been guilty of seeing that change.

Jim Taylor:

You know, the service maybe diminishes a little bit because everyone's worried

Jim Taylor:

about cost and worried about revenue, and then it ramps back up for Christmas

Jim Taylor:

and then it kind of, you know, there's a bit of a hesitation again January,

Adam Lamb:

February.

Adam Lamb:

So what I'm hearing from you is, The things that made it special

Adam Lamb:

for you was not anything that actually cost money for an operator.

Adam Lamb:

It's actually the fact that being able to recall names or recall orders

Adam Lamb:

or to be able to greet somebody with some warmth that's actually authentic.

Jim Taylor:

Right.

Jim Taylor:

Yeah.

Jim Taylor:

You know, and you know, the funny, like you said about it not costing money, the

Jim Taylor:

the two things that stood out the most, the whole time that I was there, one was

Jim Taylor:

that every single time you were walking up towards an employee of any of the proper.

Jim Taylor:

They give you the right of way.

Jim Taylor:

So that I thought was very interesting.

Jim Taylor:

It was just very much about customer first.

Jim Taylor:

That and getting out of the shuttle or getting out of the Uber or

Jim Taylor:

whatever it was when we got there.

Jim Taylor:

It wasn't a, Can I take your bag?

Jim Taylor:

It was, I am taking your, like, you are not allowed to be not

Jim Taylor:

allowed to touch any of that stuff while you're here, kinda thing.

Jim Taylor:

But that it was, it was a non-negotiable customer first.

Jim Taylor:

It's all about the experience and that doesn't, like you said, it doesn't

Jim Taylor:

matter if you're charging 10 bucks for an entree or a thousand bucks for an entree,

Adam Lamb:

you can still have that same approach.

Adam Lamb:

Right.

Adam Lamb:

It's almost like assuming the position, like I am the.

Adam Lamb:

In this space, I own it.

Adam Lamb:

I'm not trying to take anything away from you, but you don't

Adam Lamb:

have to worry about this now.

Adam Lamb:

Yeah.

Adam Lamb:

And I think I've worked for some pretty progressive hotel companies

Adam Lamb:

and I, there's a lot of work that goes into training insofar as the way you

Adam Lamb:

stand, the way you look at somebody.

Adam Lamb:

At what point do you actually approach them?

Adam Lamb:

You know, there was the.

Adam Lamb:

The ten two rule.

Adam Lamb:

So at at 10 feet, you look them in the eye, in two feet,

Adam Lamb:

you have to address them.

Adam Lamb:

And I thought that that was brilliant, only because it actually

Adam Lamb:

got me out of an awkward space.

Adam Lamb:

So you might think that I'm pretty gregarious and like to talk, but really,

Adam Lamb:

you know, I'm all in my own head.

Adam Lamb:

So to be in a position where I have to quote-unquote r.

Adam Lamb:

Follow this procedure, quote unquote in order to be you know, a good employee.

Adam Lamb:

It actually, it actually forced me to kind of come outta my shell a

Adam Lamb:

little bit and actually look people in the eye and say good morning.

Adam Lamb:

Hi, how are you?

Adam Lamb:

You know, Yes sir.

Adam Lamb:

No, sir.

Adam Lamb:

And I took all of that back into my space where, you know, I spent

Adam Lamb:

most of my time in the culinary side, but it was always like we.

Adam Lamb:

Like we don't play around on the edges.

Adam Lamb:

Like it's Yes sir.

Adam Lamb:

No sir, thank you ma'am.

Adam Lamb:

Whatever.

Adam Lamb:

And not, not, hey baby or any of that other bullshit.

Adam Lamb:

So getting back to shoulder season you know what causes

Adam Lamb:

seasonal spikes in labor costs?

Adam Lamb:

Yeah.

Jim Taylor:

We did get, We've been asked that

Adam Lamb:

question a few times.

Adam Lamb:

Yeah, exactly.

Adam Lamb:

Like, especially because we all know it's coming.

Adam Lamb:

We were, we are in the budget meeting.

Adam Lamb:

We know that these are the soft months.

Adam Lamb:

And I think, I don't think shoulder months or soft months are the ones

Adam Lamb:

that are given the most attention to.

Adam Lamb:

But you know, we all know this is coming yet somehow it all seems

Adam Lamb:

to like grab us by the pants.

Adam Lamb:

Mm-hmm.

Adam Lamb:

. Jim Taylor: Yeah, we, I don't think that

Adam Lamb:

involved in, but with a, with a group that we've been working with, we, we actually

Adam Lamb:

were helping them proactively plan.

Adam Lamb:

Canadian Thanksgiving and everybody knows that Canadian Thanksgiving is the quietest

Adam Lamb:

weekend of the year in restaurants, right?

Adam Lamb:

Everybody eats at home.

Adam Lamb:

So we, we did a bunch of proactive work with them on here's what the forecasting

Adam Lamb:

looks like, and here's an, you know, help work through what they were gonna need

Adam Lamb:

to do in order to prevent the spike in percentage on labor costs in that week.

Adam Lamb:

And out of eight locations, one of them actually accomplished

Adam Lamb:

it, the rest of them.

Adam Lamb:

They still went, you know, knew what it was telling us.

Adam Lamb:

We knew what happened last year.

Adam Lamb:

We knew what happened in 2019.

Adam Lamb:

Forget 2020, and they still didn't respond quick enough to the tune of

Adam Lamb:

8,000, almost $8,000 at each location.

Adam Lamb:

So the company lost what, 35, $40,000 in one week.

Adam Lamb:

And I guess the next one coming is, is January, right?

Adam Lamb:

And just what, what happens from the Christmas business model to the, to the

Adam Lamb:

January business model, at least in the colder parts of the country and Canada.

Adam Lamb:

Right?

Adam Lamb:

Yeah.

Adam Lamb:

And I think a lot of it has to do also with the fact that we've been through, you

Adam Lamb:

know, three years of complete uncertainty.

Adam Lamb:

What we, what we knew before Covid.

Adam Lamb:

Now no longer holds.

Adam Lamb:

So it's almost like so will people come out?

Adam Lamb:

Is there gonna be another is there gonna be another omicron rise?

Adam Lamb:

I mean, I look at all the statistics and you know, there's starting

Adam Lamb:

to be a rise in Europe, which is about three weeks in front of us.

Adam Lamb:

And so our operators actually looking at that to try to consider how best to staff

Adam Lamb:

their restaurants in order to maximize their opportunity for flow through.

Adam Lamb:

So

Jim Taylor:

prior to.

Jim Taylor:

Pandemic related stuff.

Jim Taylor:

How did you used to prepare your kitchens?

Jim Taylor:

For that type, a seasonal change, whether it was cost or dropping

Jim Taylor:

revenue or, Cause I was all front house

Adam Lamb:

and we all know that the biggest cost is in the back of the

Adam Lamb:

house, so put it all on me baby.

Adam Lamb:

Right.

Adam Lamb:

So you know, I spent 25 years in South Florida, Fort Lauderdale

Adam Lamb:

specifically, and we got really, really good at being able to gauge

Adam Lamb:

seasonal spikes and and slowdown.

Adam Lamb:

And there's a couple different things that go into that.

Adam Lamb:

I mean, when you think that you know, the local population is probably slowing

Adam Lamb:

down all the, all the people from Quebec come down and start flooding.

Adam Lamb:

So it's like a weird mix.

Adam Lamb:

So typically what would happen is September 1st, the first week

Adam Lamb:

of September always sucks because everybody's going back to school and

Adam Lamb:

then it starts slowly, incrementally.

Adam Lamb:

Coming up and then Christmas and New Year's is hell week, like

Adam Lamb:

everybody's, you know, holding on.

Adam Lamb:

Yeah.

Adam Lamb:

And then right after that, it, again, there's a big pull down.

Adam Lamb:

So generally speaking, what would happen is we would staff up right around

Adam Lamb:

September, those first three weeks.

Adam Lamb:

and start pulling in people, getting them trained so that everybody's in

Adam Lamb:

their position and we're rock solid.

Adam Lamb:

Yeah.

Adam Lamb:

And then as it came down on the other side, which would've been April,

Adam Lamb:

May, the staff is basically winnowed out and there's basically nothing

Adam Lamb:

but you know, chefs and kitchen managers left in the kitchen.

Adam Lamb:

, Yeah.

Adam Lamb:

Right.

Adam Lamb:

To write, to write out the summer.

Adam Lamb:

And that's why most of the service staff go.

Adam Lamb:

Florida to block Island or somewhere else in Maryland

Adam Lamb:

seasonally and go back and forth.

Adam Lamb:

But I don't know too many people that can actually consistently do that just

Adam Lamb:

because it's such, it's such a tear on the body, man, . So I'm a data freak.

Adam Lamb:

I just love diving into the data.

Adam Lamb:

And the more I learned, the more it became clear to me that if I wasn't

Adam Lamb:

prepared before, These seasonal spikes that I be like left out in the cold

Adam Lamb:

because you cannot make up that space from a revenue standpoint quick enough.

Adam Lamb:

Right.

Adam Lamb:

Or from a cost standpoint.

Adam Lamb:

And I'll be the first one to say that there was a time when I.

Adam Lamb:

Pencil whip the case is shrimp in the freezer.

Adam Lamb:

I'm sorry I didn't , I did it.

Adam Lamb:

But you know, you, you're coming down to the end end of that 30 days.

Adam Lamb:

And for most of us, our calendar year fiscally ends December 31st.

Adam Lamb:

So if you make a mistake in October, there is no way you're

Adam Lamb:

gonna make it up in, in December.

Adam Lamb:

No way.

Adam Lamb:

Just can't happen.

Adam Lamb:

So then all of a sudden you start looking for creative ways in.

Adam Lamb:

Sorry, I'm just I'm, I, I won't speak to the employer, but yeah.

Adam Lamb:

He knows

Adam Lamb:

. Jim Taylor: He already knows about it.

Adam Lamb:

You confessed.

Adam Lamb:

I did.

Adam Lamb:

I had to go up to finance and go, I, I, I don't know what to do.

Adam Lamb:

This is, I was very young in my career and it was, it literally

Adam Lamb:

started out as one box of shrimp.

Adam Lamb:

In the freezer.

Adam Lamb:

Mm-hmm.

Adam Lamb:

. And in three months it was a case because I could not make up the gap between what

Adam Lamb:

was there and what the revenue dictated.

Adam Lamb:

So it was like a slippery slope.

Adam Lamb:

And I wish somebody had told me that I was being that stupid at the time.

Adam Lamb:

But

Jim Taylor:

and most of the other chefs and, and bar managers

Jim Taylor:

who've done the same thing, I

Adam Lamb:

mean, is is there a case of vodka on the floor?

Adam Lamb:

I don't know.

Adam Lamb:

Could be.

Adam Lamb:

Well,

Jim Taylor:

and it doesn't even have to be a case of vodka.

Jim Taylor:

Is that bottle half full

Adam Lamb:

or three quarters?

Adam Lamb:

Right.

Adam Lamb:

And And before the technology caught up for it, caught up to it, it was

Adam Lamb:

like, is it one fifth, one quarter?

Adam Lamb:

And now you've got these systems where you put the bottle on and it's

Adam Lamb:

calculating exactly what it is, which is fantastic from a control standpoint.

Adam Lamb:

It still doesn't answer the fundamental question about like,

Adam Lamb:

how do we get into these conundrums?

Adam Lamb:

Like how the productivity metric could actually save us from those

Adam Lamb:

types of those types of conundrums.

Adam Lamb:

Like having to make those type of decisions in the moment, because

Adam Lamb:

I get that if you can maximize your flow through, you're in

Adam Lamb:

the, you're in the cap bird seat.

Adam Lamb:

However, as things start to, as they start to trend off, Like maybe more quickly

Adam Lamb:

than you're actually able to calculate.

Adam Lamb:

Right.

Adam Lamb:

Cause that's what happens.

Adam Lamb:

Like everything happens like that and you're like, Oh shit, I gotta,

Adam Lamb:

I gotta cut the staff tomorrow.

Adam Lamb:

Yeah.

Adam Lamb:

And then I'm stuck.

Adam Lamb:

Part of it's

Jim Taylor:

about making up for lost revenue or preventing seasonal spike,

Jim Taylor:

but part of it's about having a better understanding if the business level,

Jim Taylor:

if the level of productivity remains the same through every month of the.

Jim Taylor:

but customers behave differently.

Jim Taylor:

Oh.

Jim Taylor:

Than our labor cost is gonna change

Adam Lamb:

no matter what.

Adam Lamb:

Wait a second, man, that, that's like juicy.

Adam Lamb:

So you're saying it's basically the same overall, but depending on whether or

Adam Lamb:

not your customer feels like it's been a tight fiscal quarter and he doesn't

Adam Lamb:

necessarily wanna buy the dessert, Right.

Adam Lamb:

The customer spend drives everything.

Adam Lamb:

Is that what I'm hearing You.

Adam Lamb:

. Yeah.

Adam Lamb:

So

Jim Taylor:

I usually, you know, one of the examples that I get into

Jim Taylor:

a lot, and you and I have talked about this before, but mm-hmm.

Jim Taylor:

, consider the difference between, in, in the restaurant business

Jim Taylor:

between December and January.

Jim Taylor:

Mm-hmm.

Jim Taylor:

, and let's say this is not in Florida, this is in a market where.

Jim Taylor:

Things slow down dramatically in January.

Jim Taylor:

Right.

Jim Taylor:

The differences between December and January

Adam Lamb:

are significant.

Adam Lamb:

I can, I can tell you the market that I'm in right now, which is Ashe,

Adam Lamb:

North Carolina, there's that fourth season with all the leaves turning.

Adam Lamb:

Mm-hmm.

Adam Lamb:

, which is like that pop in October, but right after that it drops way down man.

Adam Lamb:

Way down.

Adam Lamb:

Right.

Adam Lamb:

Yeah.

Adam Lamb:

And it, everybody's just holding on for dear life.

Jim Taylor:

We find there's low hanging fruit quite often as if you can maintain

Jim Taylor:

the same level of productivity in.

Jim Taylor:

Consistently.

Jim Taylor:

Then the low months, you know, the, the months where the revenue's gonna dip,

Jim Taylor:

you're gonna see a spike in labor costs.

Jim Taylor:

And that's normal because it's based on less customers.

Jim Taylor:

Mm-hmm.

Jim Taylor:

and less spend per customer.

Jim Taylor:

But it also means that in the months where you have more customers and

Jim Taylor:

more spend per customer, your labor cost is actually gonna come down.

Jim Taylor:

And that's not a bad thing.

Jim Taylor:

It doesn't mean you're short.

Jim Taylor:

So, you know, quite often it we, What we're trying to find ways to

Jim Taylor:

do is help cons help clients and restaurant operators and all of this.

Jim Taylor:

Understand that, let's say a 25% total labor cost in December is actually too

Jim Taylor:

high and a 30% labor cost in January might be too low, which probably sounds crazy.

Jim Taylor:

It maybe should be 22 and 30.

Jim Taylor:

. But if you look at that over the course of the whole year, it's

Jim Taylor:

gonna even out to 27 or whatever it is that you wanted to get it to.

Jim Taylor:

Right.

Jim Taylor:

So you know that looking at it in terms of how productive the business

Jim Taylor:

is really helps to remove stress around why is my cost spiking?

Jim Taylor:

To make sure we capture opportunity in months where

Jim Taylor:

there's opportunity available.

Adam Lamb:

Totally get it.

Adam Lamb:

And, and this leads me to my next question, which is traditionally

Adam Lamb:

speaking, using a labor cost metrics.

Adam Lamb:

You know, are we actually shooting ourselves in the foot with the

Adam Lamb:

way our budgets are established?

Adam Lamb:

Huh?

Adam Lamb:

I mean, there is a lot of work that goes into a, a yearly budget.

Adam Lamb:

Yep.

Adam Lamb:

And you know, to be called into one of those meetings and

Adam Lamb:

having to defend yourself or.

Adam Lamb:

The advocate for higher prices.

Adam Lamb:

I mean, I've been in those, both of those situations where I've had to like bring in

Adam Lamb:

every possible document that I can counter like, Okay, so these are the trends.

Adam Lamb:

This is what's going on.

Adam Lamb:

And I'm telling you that sometime between this time and this time,

Adam Lamb:

the market reports will tell you straight up what prices are gonna

Adam Lamb:

be, but yet a lot of times, you know, nobody wants to hear that.

Jim Taylor:

No, they just wanna look at the percentage or the dollar amount

Jim Taylor:

that came outta the bank, right?

Adam Lamb:

Yeah.

Adam Lamb:

Because at the, in the end of the day, it is just dollars in dollars out, right?

Jim Taylor:

A hundred percent.

Jim Taylor:

It is.

Jim Taylor:

But if, if the budget's written on percentage, and this is a, a,

Jim Taylor:

we shouldn't, I shouldn't use the term argument, but this is a good

Jim Taylor:

discussion and debate that we get into.

Jim Taylor:

If the budget is written on percentage and you expect that

Jim Taylor:

percentage to remain flat all year.

Jim Taylor:

We can tell you from without even looking at a p and l, without even

Jim Taylor:

knowing what color the walls are in a certain restaurant, that if the

Jim Taylor:

percentage is the same in December as it is in January, there's a good

Jim Taylor:

chance the business left money on the table in December and overworked

Adam Lamb:

the team in January.

Adam Lamb:

Right?

Adam Lamb:

And that's every operator's nightmare, right?

Adam Lamb:

To have to cut and cut and cut, send people home in a month where, Most

Adam Lamb:

of them are actually looking towards some type of holiday, right, that

Adam Lamb:

they need to support their family.

Adam Lamb:

And then right after that get so jammed up that they, you know, can't spend any time

Adam Lamb:

with them because of short term thinking.

Adam Lamb:

So I'm curious to know, but like, why would anyone, any operator out there

Adam Lamb:

decide to even take a look at this particular process when, as far as they

Adam Lamb:

know, It's as good as it's gonna get.

Jim Taylor:

Well, I mean, I could answer that in lots, lots of

Adam Lamb:

different ways.

Adam Lamb:

But , I know it's a loaded question, man, but I think you're used to that for me,

Jim Taylor:

right?

Jim Taylor:

Yeah.

Jim Taylor:

So, okay, so why, Why should I look at something differently?

Jim Taylor:

Because prices are different.

Jim Taylor:

Menus are different.

Jim Taylor:

Wage structure's, different employee benefits are different.

Jim Taylor:

Supply chain is d.

Jim Taylor:

Everything is, the entire industry has changed.

Jim Taylor:

Yep.

Jim Taylor:

So if the strategy doesn't change along with it, you know, it's,

Jim Taylor:

it's likely not gonna keep up.

Jim Taylor:

And, you know, that's why we talk about this all the time is, you know, the way

Jim Taylor:

that we're trying to approach this is it's the end of, we've always done it this way.

Jim Taylor:

Right, Right.

Jim Taylor:

Right.

Jim Taylor:

If all of those things, I mean, just consider the wage structure in restaurants

Jim Taylor:

and menu pricing in restaurants are so dramatically different based

Jim Taylor:

on labor shortages and inflation.

Jim Taylor:

Right.

Jim Taylor:

If we haven't adjusted the way we look at targets and budgets of in, in

Jim Taylor:

correlation, we're behind the eight ball

Adam Lamb:

already.

Adam Lamb:

I I can, I can only imagine what operators in, say, Belgium or Germany

Adam Lamb:

or the UK are looking at right now because with, you know, 300,

Adam Lamb:

500% spikes in their energy costs.

Adam Lamb:

Mm-hmm.

Adam Lamb:

, I mean, I, I've heard from a couple of our partners.

Adam Lamb:

Folks are like, like, like, it's cheaper for me to close the doors, man,

Adam Lamb:

everyone knows in Florida that there's gonna be a hurricane at some point.

Adam Lamb:

Yeah, right.

Adam Lamb:

Why not build in some infrastructure, some resiliency in the budget to be able

Adam Lamb:

to support that what they say is one, one in a hundred or one in a thousand.

Adam Lamb:

Like that's the excuse.

Adam Lamb:

It's, it's once in a deck.

Adam Lamb:

Like I don't care when it is.

Adam Lamb:

Like we all know it's gonna happen and.

Adam Lamb:

If anybody's listening to this in Florida, you know, water's arising, and my Miami's

Adam Lamb:

already starting to pump out streets.

Adam Lamb:

So if you're not planning for that, how are you gonna

Adam Lamb:

manage anything in the future?

Adam Lamb:

Because it's always gonna be disaster after disaster after disaster.

Adam Lamb:

And so if you're in an area that's troublesome, aren't you doing

Adam Lamb:

your due diligence by saying like, Should I have my business here?

Adam Lamb:

Should I move?

Adam Lamb:

It kind of ties into the same thing.

Adam Lamb:

Having a business that's flexible, that's, that's that's ready to meet

Adam Lamb:

any particular challenge, whether it's not shut down or whatever.

Adam Lamb:

I think, I think we gotta take the blinders off.

Adam Lamb:

I think we gotta take the blinders off and say there, there will be

Adam Lamb:

other things that are gonna be coming.

Adam Lamb:

The pandemic is not over.

Adam Lamb:

I don't care what anybody else says.

Adam Lamb:

And if we're not planning for this, there's no way to keep staff.

Adam Lamb:

And as we all know, Jim Taylor.

Adam Lamb:

Retention is the new cool.

Adam Lamb:

Retention is the new

Jim Taylor:

cool . Well, and, and you know, just one last comment on that, the,

Jim Taylor:

the way that all of these variables have changed in the industry, you know, back

Jim Taylor:

when you were a sous chef and when I was, you know, managing a Florida, oh boy.

Jim Taylor:

If someone said, Hey, your labor cost percentage is high, Based on the

Jim Taylor:

way that wages and, and new prices were, you probably needed to like

Jim Taylor:

send one person home an hour and a half early and hit your target on

Jim Taylor:

the whole shift with two people less.

Jim Taylor:

Right?

Jim Taylor:

And it, it just, the same approach of cut hard, work harder, go in on

Jim Taylor:

your day off, do your admin from home, all of that type of stuff.

Jim Taylor:

It just doesn't work anymore.

Jim Taylor:

Right.

Jim Taylor:

Because the industry's short-staffed as it is.

Jim Taylor:

And now we're trying to find ways in shoulder season to hit

Jim Taylor:

targets by just working harder.

Jim Taylor:

And it's just, you know, it's gonna compound and, and make things.

Adam Lamb:

Working harder is not the answer.

Adam Lamb:

We

Jim Taylor:

say this all the time.

Jim Taylor:

Was it difference between hard work having to work

Adam Lamb:

too hard?

Adam Lamb:

Yeah, but I spent my entire career, you know, with that idea of like,

Adam Lamb:

if I just work a little harder, if I just like, you know, I just

Adam Lamb:

focus in just a little bit harder.

Adam Lamb:

Everything's gonna be work out.

Adam Lamb:

Yeah.

Adam Lamb:

Can I ask you a question?

Jim Taylor:

Sure.

Jim Taylor:

Why

Adam Lamb:

aren't you in a kitchen anymore?

Adam Lamb:

I am right in back of me.

Adam Lamb:

Well, it's, it's, you know, you know, there's, there, there, there, there comes

Adam Lamb:

a certain point in every chef's life.

Adam Lamb:

If I can just say this out loud, that we have to consider our own

Adam Lamb:

mortality and our own physicality.

Adam Lamb:

I've had two back surgeries and neck surgery.

Adam Lamb:

I, I know what it's like to like spin and jump on a saute station and

Adam Lamb:

slam it all day long or expedite.

Adam Lamb:

A 500 cover early bird, and yet I understand that there are some physical

Adam Lamb:

limitations, but they go against the idea that I am still a young man, my.

Adam Lamb:

Opportunity now is to leverage everything that I've experienced and learned to

Adam Lamb:

support others in the pursuit of the HO hashtag new hospitality structure.

Adam Lamb:

Because I know that a lot of us came in in the industry with the same ideas

Adam Lamb:

and the same hopes, and didn't ask for what we want because you know, there was

Adam Lamb:

just no asking, man, nobody gave a shit.

Adam Lamb:

Now.

Adam Lamb:

Things have opened up a little bit, and I celebrate that and I want to support

Adam Lamb:

the next generation of, you know, leaders mentors, supervisors, chefs.

Adam Lamb:

I celebrate that.

Adam Lamb:

So I'm not going to sit on the sidelines and just expect someone else to do that.

Adam Lamb:

I mean, I wanna throw my hat in the ringing or my toque

Adam Lamb:

in the ring, as it were.

Adam Lamb:

So, why, why do you ask?

Adam Lamb:

Why am I not in a kitchen

Adam Lamb:

? Jim Taylor: Well, because, you know,

Adam Lamb:

too, that there's a difference between hard work and having to work too hard.

Adam Lamb:

Right.

Adam Lamb:

And that's where our industry's at right now.

Adam Lamb:

The, the restaurant industry never will be easy work.

Adam Lamb:

It's, it's, it's grind.

Adam Lamb:

It is, Right.

Adam Lamb:

It's long hours.

Adam Lamb:

It's shift work.

Adam Lamb:

It's split shifts.

Adam Lamb:

It's, you know, split days off it's work on holidays.

Adam Lamb:

That stuff's never gonna change because our industry

Adam Lamb:

is in service of other people.

Adam Lamb:

So it's gonna be there.

Adam Lamb:

, but having to work so hard that you're burnt out, that you're exhausted,

Adam Lamb:

that you're having mental health challenge, that you know, that

Adam Lamb:

stuff comes to the forefront more.

Adam Lamb:

Actually in, in our experience with, with the restaurant groups that we've

Adam Lamb:

worked with, the overworking and the workload management stuff comes into

Adam Lamb:

effect and into account more in downturn season than it does in busy times.

Adam Lamb:

I've, I've taught, I've talked to so many chefs lately,

Adam Lamb:

just lately and they're all kind of singing the same song about like this.

Adam Lamb:

There there's a deep sadness that they're completely undervalued by

Adam Lamb:

their employers, by the customers.

Adam Lamb:

And they don't know what to do because if it was up to them, they would still

Adam Lamb:

hang in there because they like, it takes a very, very special person to commit

Adam Lamb:

themselves to a life of service, as you said, whether it's in the front of the

Adam Lamb:

house or the back of the house, you know, I get certain positions, there's a little

Adam Lamb:

bit of power, you know, behind the bar you got all the power to break the chain.

Adam Lamb:

Of an expectation that someone should actually appreciate how much work you put

Adam Lamb:

in when they will never, ever understand.

Adam Lamb:

That is kind of like my job one because, and only speaking for

Adam Lamb:

myself, getting in the industry, I was like kind of locked into this

Adam Lamb:

immediate feedback loop of instant gratifications put up a great plate.

Adam Lamb:

Someone comes back and says, Hey, that's really great.

Adam Lamb:

Thank you very much.

Adam Lamb:

And all of a sudden I feel.

Adam Lamb:

Which, which belie the fact that really as a mature professional, there is this

Adam Lamb:

whole idea about delaying gratification and building things for the future.

Adam Lamb:

And so in this stage, as an elder in the community, as I claim I

Adam Lamb:

think it's my responsibility to be able to build those structures in.

Adam Lamb:

Because again, like you said, the people that are coming into

Adam Lamb:

the industry now are asking.

Adam Lamb:

Not, Well, certainly they're not asking, some are demanding a certain way of

Adam Lamb:

being a certain expectation of their job.

Adam Lamb:

And I was just looking at LinkedIn.

Adam Lamb:

There was a, or I'm sorry Burnt Chef added a new module to their,

Adam Lamb:

to their free educational platform about re employee retention.

Adam Lamb:

And one of the things was like being incredibly realistic.

Adam Lamb:

Communicating what the possibilities are.

Adam Lamb:

Right?

Adam Lamb:

And I thought that that was brilliant because as Chef Dodge told us before

Adam Lamb:

in another episode, you know, there's a disconnect behind people coming in the

Adam Lamb:

industry and what they think will happen and what we know the reality to be.

Adam Lamb:

But it's not to say that our job is to like slam them down and

Adam Lamb:

say, Your reality is nothing.

Adam Lamb:

Our job is to kind meet them in the middle and say, Okay, so what is possible?

Adam Lamb:

And.

Adam Lamb:

I'm working to make sure that everyone understands that this is

Adam Lamb:

an honorable, profitable profession that's worthy of their time and effort.

Adam Lamb:

And if they're called to be in this industry, then come on in.

Adam Lamb:

I don't want anybody scared like, Oh my God, like I read all the papers and solve

Adam Lamb:

We Together can make it a better place, and that's why I'm partnered with you.

Adam Lamb:

Well,

Jim Taylor:

and and vice versa.

Jim Taylor:

And you know what, it's.

Jim Taylor:

It's the role of the leaders in our industry to protect the people in

Jim Taylor:

the industry, to find new ways to do things, to keep up with what change is

Jim Taylor:

happening, you know, to look at other industries in terms of how they have

Jim Taylor:

weathered these types of storms before.

Jim Taylor:

Yep.

Jim Taylor:

You know, all of those types of things.

Jim Taylor:

I mean, even Google right now talking about this productivity

Jim Taylor:

thing we were looking at earlier.

Jim Taylor:

The CEO of Google announced about a month ago a company-Wide Simplicity

Jim Taylor:

Sprint, is what they're calling it.

Jim Taylor:

Company as a, as an organization worldwide to look at ways to become

Jim Taylor:

more productive because they're aware of the fact that so many variables are

Jim Taylor:

changing that they can't keep up with just things like pricing or layoff.

Jim Taylor:

Right?

Jim Taylor:

Or put a hiring.

Jim Taylor:

They have to find ways to be more productive.

Jim Taylor:

And the same applies

Adam Lamb:

for our industry right now.

Adam Lamb:

You know, if we're not willing to look at other industries

Adam Lamb:

to see what works for them.

Adam Lamb:

Like, I know that you like to say that this productivity thing came

Adam Lamb:

from manufacturing, but I was like playing around with this in 2006, 2007.

Adam Lamb:

It was already out there.

Adam Lamb:

It just hasn't, it wasn't effectively applied like , like I laugh so

Adam Lamb:

much when we first got together.

Adam Lamb:

I'm like, wait a second.

Adam Lamb:

It's like I was off by one decimal . Yeah, but it just, But it just.

Adam Lamb:

That that solution existed and that we're all kind of tapped into it.

Adam Lamb:

So I think it behooves all of us as operators and especially because we're

Adam Lamb:

in a relationship with our customers.

Adam Lamb:

We're in a relationship with our fellow managers.

Adam Lamb:

We're in a relationship with our associates.

Adam Lamb:

And, and I think that's where it kind of comes back to, you know,

Adam Lamb:

this whole idea about hospitality is all about relationship.

Adam Lamb:

And if we fucking forget that man, then what the hell are we

Jim Taylor:

doing here?

Jim Taylor:

And the same, it goes for customers and staff, right?

Jim Taylor:

Yeah.

Jim Taylor:

The term we use all the time is you gotta protect your people.

Adam Lamb:

I have, I have a really great question for the next episode, but I'm

Adam Lamb:

gonna hold off on it right now, , because it would, it would launch us into

Adam Lamb:

another thing because there was someone who dme on a social media platform

Adam Lamb:

about a situation with with the guest.

Adam Lamb:

And his question was like, how do I as a small business owner protect

Adam Lamb:

my staff and also, Honor my guests.

Adam Lamb:

Mm-hmm.

Adam Lamb:

when my guests might not necessarily be acting appropriately, but neither did we.

Adam Lamb:

So it was a really great conversation, especially on the tail end of this

Adam Lamb:

whole thing with James Gordon, you know, going into a restaurant and like

Adam Lamb:

being an asshole, and then like being banned for , like the cancel culture.

Adam Lamb:

Like, yeah, probably some people should be canceled, but you know what?

Adam Lamb:

I'll due process.

Adam Lamb:

I'm sorry, I, I, I just don't go for that shit.

Adam Lamb:

And it prevents people from actually owning their own bad behavior and perhaps

Adam Lamb:

apologizing and trying to make amends.

Adam Lamb:

So I am all down for.

Adam Lamb:

For trying to bring in harmony in these particular situations.

Adam Lamb:

But I will save that for our next episode.

Adam Lamb:

Good job.

Adam Lamb:

Cause I'm sure you got a lot to say with it cuz I'm sure you've had plenty of

Adam Lamb:

I'm sure you've had plenty of, you know.

Adam Lamb:

Yeah.

Adam Lamb:

Yeah.

Adam Lamb:

All right.

Adam Lamb:

Well, for another day.

Adam Lamb:

Well, for next week, for sure.

Adam Lamb:

. Thanks, Jim.

Adam Lamb:

Thanks, Adam.

Adam Lamb:

You bet.

Adam Lamb:

Thanks for joining us on this episode of Turning the Table with

Adam Lamb:

me, Adam Lamb and Jim Taylor.

Adam Lamb:

This episode was sponsored by Benchmark 60.

Adam Lamb:

We're on a mission to change the food and beverage industry by focusing on

Adam Lamb:

staff mental health and wellbeing.

Adam Lamb:

By forecasting and actively managing workload productivity.

Adam Lamb:

Over 200 restaurants and food and beverage operations have discovered for themselves

Adam Lamb:

how to increase staff retention and become a preferred employer in their

Adam Lamb:

market by using our proprietary system.

Adam Lamb:

If you'd like to have an operational culture that everybody wants to work for,

Adam Lamb:

then check out Benchmark 60 on the web.

Adam Lamb:

www.benchmarksixty.com.

Adam Lamb:

Thanks for taking the time to be with us and the courage to try new things.

Adam Lamb:

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