That was the hardest two-minute ride in my life.
Hey everybody, Ryan Gromfin here – author, speaker, chef,
restaurateur, founder of TheRestaurantBoss.com, ClickBacon.com,
and ScaleMyRestaurant.com.
So today is all about your goals, not someone else's goals.
Someone else may have a goal to be on the peloton for 45 minutes.
If I can get through 20 minutes, I'm happy, right?
Obviously, that was a little bit of a joke when we started out, but still,
the point is this is about comparing your goals to your goals, not your
goals to someone else's goals.
That's always going to lead to stress, that's always going to
lead to depression, that's always going to lead to you wondering
why you aren't further along.
And so one of the things that I deal with a lot here is when I’m helping
clients with our software, Click Bacon, they'll come in with this
preconceived notion that their food cost is supposed to be a certain
number, or their labor cost is supposed to be a certain number.
Let me tell you right now, if you read an article or if you talk to
any restaurant consultant or coach or chef or anyone who claims to
know anything about this industry and they tell you that your food
cost should be this, kick them out of the room as fast as possible.
If it's a written article, shred it.
If they're in your face, fire them and kick them out of
the room as fast as possible.
I can never tell you what your food costs should be and I never will.
I can't compare your restaurant to someone else's.
Sure, there's industry standards and general places where you should
be, but 33% food costs are 28% food cost, I can't say that one is good
or one is bad until I have more data.
So compare your food cost to your food cost, not to your neighbors.
Your neighbor may not be buying some of the food that you're buying.
You may buy more convenience products, drive your food cost up.
You may be including your to-go containers because you're mostly a
to-go restaurant in your cost of goods sold, that's going to drive that up.
You may buy your desserts, that's going to drive that up.
Now whereas their food costs may be lower because they're not doing
any of that, but their labor costs might be higher, that's where
we get prime costs, but today's not a video about prime cost.
If you're interested in prime cost, just google the restaurant boss prime
cost, I have tons of videos on that.
What we're here to talk about today is your goals in making sure that you're
only comparing your goals to yourself.
Another example that I hear a lot from people is that their restaurant's
been open for five, six, seven, ten, twenty years; they still have one
location, but some new guy opens up down the street, and within
a year, they have two or three locations, what are they doing wrong?
The person with 10 years, what are they doing wrong?
Why they only have one location?
They get on the phone with me.
Ryan, what am I doing wrong here?
Well, they may not be doing anything wrong here, but why are they
comparing themselves to someone else?
We don't know that other person may be very well-financed, that
other person may have come in with massive investors, that other person
may not even be making a profit.
I work with restaurants all the time that have three-four locations
that aren't making any money.
They're in hyper-growth mode, well, that's great, they're well-financed,
they have the capital support, that's part of their goal, but that
doesn't mean that that's your goal.
You first have to establish what your goal is before you
can worry about other people's.
What's your plan, what path are you on?
One of the things if you get on the phone with me that you'll hear me
say when you ask how I’m doing is, I will say I'm living the dream.
Now once in a while people ask me and say, hey, Ryan, are
you actually living the dream?
And the answer is yes.
I am living the dream.
That's not because I’ve achieved all that I want to achieve, I'm nowhere
close to achieving all that I want to achieve in my business as the
Restaurant Boss, but I'm on the path.
See, I set out for a 20-year goal.
About seven or eight years ago, I set up a 20-year goal and I
know exactly where I should be.
If you're not where you want to be, have you mapped it out and
how do you even know that you're not exactly where you should be?
You may not be where you want to be but you might be exactly where you
should be based on your actions.
So only compare yourself to yourself.
Only compare your goals to the amount of action and planning that you
have put in to achieve those goals.
So when I say, am I living the dream?
Absolutely, it's because I am exactly where I should be.
When I mapped out the 20-year, I didn't put necessarily exact numbers
or exact YouTube subscribers or exact income levels, or anything
like that, but I had a general plan and I'm exactly where I should
be considering I’m about eight maybe nine years into my plan.
I have benchmarks, I had a five-year benchmark, a 10-year benchmark, a
15-year, and then a 20-year benchmark.
I am about to hit my 10-year benchmark, I am about to be
exactly where I’m supposed to be right now in my business.
So the answer is yes.
I'm living the dream not because I’ve achieved everything that I want to
achieve but because I am on the path.
So the question is if you have a goal to make x amount of dollars
or let's just say that you have a goal to make x amount of
dollars, the question is, by when?
If you have a goal to have a certain amount of units,
the question is by when?
And then if you calendar that out and work backwards and put together
your plan, you can tell yourself if you're on the path or not.
The only time you should be stressed out is if you're not on the path.
We can't hit the fast-forward button and make the next
10 years go by like that.
If we could, I would do it like the video game, lemmings.
I think you might remember, right?
You can set up all these characters and then instead of sitting and
watching the whole thing play out, you just hit the fast forward button
and you're done, you pass the level.
Well, I wish I could just set everything up and hit
the fast forward button but I can't and you can't either.
So the question that I have for you is if you're feeling any
sort of pressure, any sort of stress, any sort of overwhelm.
If you're feeling like you're not exactly where you're supposed
to be in your life right now or your business, ask yourself the
question, how do I know I'm not where I'm supposed to be and how
would I even know if I were there?
Do you have the plan?
Are you comparing your goals to your actions?
Are you comparing your goals to your effort or are you only comparing
where you are to others around you?
And if you do that, you're always going to be in a sad,
depressed, stressed state.
So, I hope today's video was helpful for you, and please
remember that systems create freedom, freedom creates
value, and value creates scale.
Have an absolutely amazing day, bye-bye.
Are you struggling to grow your restaurant business?
Are you failing to find the time to do all the things you
need to do because you're stuck doing everybody else's jobs?
This sucks, I know, I've been there.
You're not alone.
The difference between where you are now and where you want to
be is a plan and some new tools, and that is why I created scale.
It's my newest course for restaurant owners who want
to grow their businesses and build an extraordinary brand.
Learn more at www.ScaleMyRestaurant.com.
I hope you enjoyed this week's training video.
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Remember, systems create freedom, freedom creates
value, and value creates scale.
Manage systems, develop people, and be awesome.