The Chef of a Sam Sneads restaurant gives his thoughts on the FiltaFry service.

Having completed the February training course, new Filta Franchise Owner Paul Casarotto speaks about his experience with joining the Filta team.

If you are considering starting a new business, like many others in your situation have faced before you, you have probably weighed the options of starting an individual business from scratch or opting for a franchise situation.  Comparing the two can be a daunting and confusing process, as both have pros and cons that can greatly affect your business and your financial stability in the years to come.  Investing in just about anything in an economy like we are facing today can be a scary process.  Fully considering your options and making the best choice for you is the best insurance you can have for your investment.

What type of risk taker are you?
You need to start the decision making process by taking into account your comfort zone as well as your goals.  With a start up, you have a higher risk of investment, as nearly fifty percent of all start up businesses fail in the first five years.  You will also find you will work harder to meet your goals, at least initially.  Without an established brand to back you up, you have to push yourself infront of your target customer and draw them into your doors.  While hard work and bigger risk may scare some people off, for the adventurous entrepreneur the payoff can be big.  Consider any major franchise out there today.  Each of those mega corporations started out as someone’s local, home-grown business.  If your dream is to own an empire, an individual business may be the best option for your investment capitol.

If you prefer to invest in a manner that is lower risk, franchising may be the better option for you.  Franchising provides a great opportunity to open a business without the requirement of building a brand.  The brand recognition, consumer loyalty and track record is there for you to see.  Franchises often have entire teams devoted to helping their franchisees succeed- from choosing the right real estate to walking you through supply orders, a franchisor is committed to helping you avoid mistakes. Franchisees reap the benefits of corporate advertising, as few individual businesses can hire design and marketing teams to promote their concept the way a major established corporation can. The downside to franchising is that you must run your business within the guidelines of the parent company, so despite having your own business, there is still the “boss” entity many wish to avoid.  There is tremendous opportunity for profit, but your ability to expand in your market may be limited by territory boundaries.

There is no “best” or “one size fits all” answer to the question of franchise versus independent business. In the end, both can be lucrative, both have risks, and both have their limitations.  Talking with other experienced entrepreneurs that have struck it alone as well as successful franchisees is the best place to start.  In the end, it is a personal choice as to which is right for you.

As you think about opening your own restaurant the very first question you should ask yourself is “Do I have the experience and capital I need to start this venture?”  If the answer is yes, the next question is most likely “Do I open a franchise or start my own brand?”  While the idea of starting your own brand may seem appealing, it is important to consider one hard fact.  Over half of the businesses that start as new ideas fail in the first five years.  That’s not to say this country does not need and thrive on innovative ideas, but when it comes to your financial outlook you owe it to yourself to look at franchising with a proven brand.

The benefits to franchising can best be summarized with one statement.  There is less risk to the investor.  This isn’t to say that there are absolutely no risks involved in starting a franchise.  However, the chances of succeeding with a new business and generally the fastest way to see your bottom line in the black is to open a franchise rather than an independent business.

Considering that by and large, the majority of new businesses that do not survive that essential first five years in business are independent businesses, one has to question why franchises are a safer bet for your investment capitol.  There is no one magic answer, but rather several contributing factors that when pieced together complete a puzzle that is much more solid and therefore a safer investment all around.

Brand Recognition and Loyalty

Think about starting a brand new business from scratch. As an entrepreneur you have to figure out how to reach your target market, how to communicate to these potential customers what exactly it is that you offer, and entice them to spend their hard earned dollars at your establishment.

A franchise owner gets to skip the majority of those processes.  If the franchisor has been on the market for any real amount of time the general population is probably quite aware of what it offers and has a good impression of business.  It boils down to habit.  People are comfortable with what they know.  A perfect example in the restaurant industry would be opening a Wendy’s franchise.  If you are hungry and have a limited amount of time to eat, and you know that Wendy’s is fast food that you enjoy and can afford, you are more likely to eat at Wendy’s than to try the new burger joint that opened down the street.  While there are always some people that are more adventurous than others, the vast majority would save trying the new restaurant for when they have more time and money at their disposal.

Marketing
Brand recognition and brand loyalty come from another benefit of franchising- marketing.  Marketing is something that costs quite a bit of start up capitol for a new business, but for a franchisee is generally done on a much larger scale by the parent company.  Looking back to our Wendy’s example, the parent company obviously can afford much grander marketing plans than the average start up could ever dream of funding.  The money the parent company spends on advertising has a trickle down effect, benefiting both franchisor and franchisee considerably.

Planning

It is safe to assume that the reason why most independent start ups fail in the first five years is lack of a solid business plan.  With a franchise, these common mistakes have not only been made, but quite clearly overcome, for the parent company to grow to the point it is offering franchisees a part of the business.

While there may be extra costs involved in franchising, those costs are easily made up by the fact that the brand image and loyalty are firmly in place, large scale marketing is done by the parent company, and the majority of the business mistakes have been overcome before you hand over your first dollar.  In today’s economy, safe is the best bet you can make with your investment capitol.

It is not just working mothers that worry about the balance of home life versus career these days.  Study after study has shown that employees that have a life outside of work have the best attendance records, performance records and are involved in less accidents at the work place than their over worked counterparts.

It may be very tempting in lean economic times to cut back the hours of your non-salaried employees and allow your salaried managers to pick up the slack.  While the impact on your bottom line may be a sort of instant gratification, the long-term result is likely to put you in the red more than you saved to begin with.

A few things to consider:

Stress- Just because a manager is away from home more with an increased schedule load does not mean that their responsibilities at home have decreased accordingly.  We all know the feeling of their not being enough hours in a day, and an over worked employee still has to juggle their home life.  Pushing tasks back into sleeping time will over time create a less than alert manager, causing reactionary time to fall dramatically.  Safety is a big issue- a tired manager is less likely to notice safety violations and less likely to be accurate in reporting, both of which can have dire consequences to your business stability.

Dissatisfaction- It may seem downright silly, but Little Johnny’s soccer game or Sally’s dance recital may be just as important as work.  Employees that are not given an opportunity to enjoy family events or handle personal problems at home quickly become resentful of their employment. An unhappy employee is an unproductive employee as a rule. Once the loyalty is shaken effort on the job is likely to decrease, the impact of which a restaurant owner will see translate to the bottom line.

Attendance- Even the most dedicated employee can only do so much.  While your plan to cut payroll may look like a smashing success in the first few months, the wear and tear on your salaried employees will show itself in time.  Emotional and physical wellness go hand in hand, and historically employees with adequate time away from work have less illnesses and injuries as a result.  Likewise, they are less likely to feel the need to “call in sick” to attend to personal matters if they have no reason to fear a backlash if they need to request time off work.

Even if your top-performing manager is eager to pick up the extra work, it’s beneficial in the long run to require and encourage downtime.  Balancing your scheduling needs while understanding your employees do have needs outside of the restaurant will result in happier employees. Happy employees get sick less and make less safety mistakes. Happy employees also provide better service.  Superior  service, as we all know, is the best recipe for a successful business.

Doubltree Head Chef gives his thoughts on the FiltaFry service.

Every employer’s nightmare is a workman’s compensation or unemployment claim.  You do not have to have a degree in human resources or employment law to successfully protect your business and it’s assets from claims.

The nature of restaurants is it’s own evil.  Accidents happen from slick kitchen floors, customers are at risk of being burned by hot liquid (just think about the McDonald’s coffee fiasco), emplyee claims (mainly around burns from fryers) and turnover in employees is higher than in almost any other industry.  This is a recipe for disaster in the way of claims against your business, but there are several things you can do to protect yourself and your restaurant.

Policies and procedures are generally well outlined if you own a franchise and the training required by the franchisor will likely cover these in detail for your new employee.  If you own a non-franchise restaurant you need to think carefully about your own policies and procedures and make sure they are clearly laid out in a manual you personally review with each new hire during the training process.  If you aren’t experienced in writing, it may be worth your investment to hire an outside agency to review your manual and make necessary adjustments.  Handing a manual to a new hire is not enough, especially if they have worked in restaurants before coming on board with yours.  They are likely to think it’s the same across the board, and may gloss over important pieces of information that could prevent an accident.  If you do own a franchise, this review is equally important.  In either situation, yearly reviews of the manuals in the form of a group meeting is well worth the effort.  By doing so, there is no room for confusion or forgetfulness that can result in cut corners and inevitably accidents in the workplace.

Paperwork is something no one enjoys, but it can be your lifeline in the event a claim comes against you.  Document everything that happens, regardless of how small.  For insurance issues, detailed documentation of what occurred, how the situation was responded to, witness statements that are signed and dated, and follow up processes implemented can make all of the difference in liability.  If the injured employee broke any of your policies and procedures be sure to detail that information along with any disciplinary actions taken.

For unemployment claims, your paper trail is the only thing that can protect you.  In each of your employee’s files you should have signed copies of their acknowledgment of the handbooks rules, details of each time they were late or called out of work, and very detailed reports on any disciplinary problems that arise.  Even if your employee is given a “verbal warning” you need to have it documented that the warning was given and have the documentation signed by the employee acknowledging the issue.  Most states are at will states, meaning either party can terminate their employment without any real reason, but when it comes to an unemployment claim it is you versus the employee on who was in the right.  Even if there was only one violation to your policies, documentation of it can protect you if it comes to review by the Department of Labor.

Hear from Friday’s Front Row Manager about his experience with FiltaFry.

When it comes to the kitchen, you can’t cut corners. This where all of the magic is done. The chefs prep the food, make it, and present it in a way that makes it the most interesting for the diners. It is imperative to be able to keep an orderly kitchen that is safe and clean. Kitchens have many stations. These vary from prep, saute, salad, pizza, and even more. This varies dependent upon what the restaurant serves and how large the kitchen is. It is important to have all that is needed to make amazing meals. For example, if you have many different types of pizzas it is important to have all of the toppings stocked up and fresh just waiting to be thrown on top. Space requirements are important to maintain and a good restaurant manager will know and understand the space limits given.

Stocking your kitchen properly is important, too. Making sure that you have all of the necessary equipment and also have them in working order can make it easier. It can be better to get used equipment as it would save you money while still providing quality materials that are smaller. For larger equipment, it might be better to just pay out full price on new materials because it will last much longer and is cheaper in the long run. The other option is to lease equipment that stop working sooner than most things.

The most important thing about running a kitchen is safety. There always needs to be more than enough space for workers to move around the cooking equipment. The workers jobs need to be done while not compromising safety. All hot food needs to be handled properly and all workers need to be trained in doing exactly that. Working out a process of how you want all things handled is key to being able to keep safety number one. There should be a list of all necessary steps for this goal. Maybe making a handbook would be the best idea. You could section it off and have all employees read the books then do on-site training to confirm that they all understand perfectly.

Keeping a safe kitchen is the key element needed to run a good restaurant. As long as you keep it a safe environment, things will run smoothly. People will get hurt very rarely, making it easier for you. You won’t have to find a replacement or deal with unemployment for example. You will also get the food out faster and the quality will make the customers come back again and again. On top of that, your employees have the right to be kept safe in a risk free environment. They also deserve it. Keeping yourself aware and alert to the space requirements from the beginning will make it a well oiled machine before people even apply to work there. These are just a few tips and tricks to keep in mind for running a safe and efficient kitchen.

As a restaurant owner, you have enough on your plate in regards to overhead costs.  Commercial insurance is one way that you can easily save money in a tough economy.

Location, Location, Location
Any established restaurateur knows that location is everything.  It affects your target customer base, your traffic and your pricing strategies. If your business is in the start-up phase, you may want to consider leasing your property.  Many times, insurance is built into the cost of the lease, which can help net substantial savings month to month.  Even if its not offered at the onset, you may want to discuss this option with the property owner as a negotiating point.

Safety First

We have all heard it before, but safety in the workplace is about more than just protecting your business assets from lawsuits.  Obviously no one wins when an employee is injured.  Injury results in lack of production, medical expenses, and workman’s compensation issues.  It also will greatly affect your insurance premiums.  Make safety a priority- educate your employees on safety procedures to keep your kitchen and restaurant free from accidents and have proper disciplinary actions in place to discourage short cuts. All too often just being a little lax on safety procedures can lead to major accidents, but even the smallest of accidents can cause those dreaded insurance premium hikes.  Many insurance claims are centered around the fryers.  Taking away this liability by utlilising cooking oil filtration and fryer management servics, like FiltaFry, can help.  Keeping accident rates low will insure your premiums stay the same.

Careful Reporting

You may think that you are on top of your claims, and that they are reported carefully, but your employees may not be as concerned or knowledgeable about the impact they have on your insurance premiums.  If an accident does occur, make certain your reports are done promptly and are concise.  Track all incidents that lead to accidents, make necessary adjustments to prevent repeat scenarios, and educate your management team as to the importance of this aspect of their job to prevent major loses.

Knowing your insurer

If you run a franchise, you may be locked in by your contract with a particular insurance company.  If the choice is yours to make, be sure to do your homework and find a company that has competitive rates and good reviews from past and present clients.  Shopping around is a must, and if you are not comfortable or knowledgeable with exactly how commercial insurance works find an insurance broker that is well regarded.  Your local Chamber of Commerce is a great place to start to find the right broker.   A broker that specializes in hospitality insurance will understand the type of claims you may face and be able to lead you to the perfect company for your business needs.

Avoid Coverage Gaps

Missing a renewal date by just a few days can cause a major increase in your out of pocket expense even if no accidents occur during the lapse.  Have a plan set in place to regularly review your paperwork associated with your claims, be certain loose ends are tied up and that the information is easily accessible.  Renew early whenever possible, as you may find this gives you a small discount and will help you avoid any last minute quote changes.