Ken Burgin

Restaurant Productivity

Kitchen Management

The 7 Day Food Cost Diet – help your cafe or restaurant to lose the fat!

Feeling heavy, slow and financially unfit? Time for some urgent action – cut, reduce and tighten. Staff might complain and want to quit – lazy is always more comfortable. But the business will be slimmer, healthier and much more sexy after you’ve pushed through the pain barrier! Day 1 – Lighten up the Fridge and Freezer. That’s where up to 80% of product value is stored. Do you really need to hold enough for a

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Nat shares his dislike of crap food, and millions agree…

What is it about Nat the muso cook that people love? [warning: lots of swearing]. He’s raw and real (his dad was a chef), he hates fake food, and he’s getting media attention. What can we translate from this into restaurant & cafe land? Enthusiasm ✅, energy ✅, love of real food ✅, potty mouth 🤔. … I asked a bunch of restaurant mates if Nat actually helps the industry: Absolutely yes I love him.

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Why The E-Myth is Still So Relevant for Cafe & Restaurant Owners

It was published 24 years ago in 1986, and reverberated like a thunderclap in the world of business. You’ve heard that saying ‘work on your business, not in your business‘ so many times you could scream. That’s from the The E-Myth!, and author Michael Gerber’s message is still electrifying, even in a world run by digital systems… and facing virus restrictions and dislocation. Years ago I ran one-day management events for restaurant owners and would

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Working Remotely – resources for cafe & restaurant owners

There are a lot of new habits and skills to develop – by nature we hospo people just ‘walk around and do it’. Working from home or away from a venue doesn’t come naturally or easily, and if we have to keep a ‘social distance’, we need very different tools and ways of working. We need to sit down more… Here’s a bunch of resources to help make your remote work almost as good as

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Show the Sparkling Cleanliness of Your Business to Reassure Anxious Customers

News about the spread of Coronavirus is not good, and people are starting to panic – we need to stand as islands of calm and true hospitality, while taking important precautions. It’s also time to take urgent management action to protect your profitability. You can stand out from the crowd by being spotlessly CLEAN and HYGIENIC. Here are some quick ways to make this obvious to customers. There also need to be special precautions with

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Reducing the Drama When Staff Resign

Had someone quit unexpectedly? It’s costly, especially if they hold an important position. A colleague found out her operations manager was planning to leave, when the news slipped out accidently. She moved fast to cover the gap, and reflecting on it later, said: Part of the problem is that most staff don’t know how to resign or handle these situations professionally… Sound familiar? No-one wants good staff leaving, ever, but if it’s going to happen,

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Petty Theft – Where Do You Draw the Line With These ‘Grey Areas’?

Ever seen staff help themselves to food, drink or even cash, and they seem to think it’s OK? You call it shrinkage, waste, ‘unders’, discrepancies or theft. What do they call it? It’s the grey areas that cause problems: drinks or food for friends and family, sloppy work that results in waste, or taking home left-overs. Grey has to become black or white. Does the culture you’ve created reward honesty, or overlook those who break

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Ask Staff to Use this ‘Briefcase Technique’ if They Want a Raise

Here’s the thing: we don’t mind giving staff a pay rise if they plan to add more value. But most times, they don’t know how to negotiate for a raise in a convincing way. Ramit Sethi’s Briefcase Technique, outlined in the video below, is a great way to help them understand what you really want to hear. If they do plenty of preparation, you only have to say yes – the case they make is

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Can we talk about cash?

With many cafes and restaurants reporting up to 80% of sales being made on card, the traditional informal cash transactions and ‘owner’s cash bonus’ have become much more difficult to manage. They’re going away – forever. We’ve relied on cash shortcuts for… The great kitchen hand with a visa problem, who is happy to work long hours for $20 ph in the hand. The electrician who comes immediately because he’s paid cash. The cook with

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Restaurant Roster System

How to Choose a Restaurant Roster & Staff Scheduling Systems

These systems have become indispensable if you want to control wage costs and manage labour allocation. Rostering is one part of their function, and they should also allow interpretation of Awards and pay conditions, integration with payroll systems, and collection of employee data. Plus easy connection with a bookkeeping system like MYOB or Xero, and dashboards to track results. This list is regularly updated, and descriptions are taken from their websites. Terminology varies between different

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