5 Things Only Restaurant Owners Would Understand

Owning your own restaurant is a very different experience from what most people imagine. In fact, most of your customers, and even your friends, probably don’t understand the job at all. Because it is a job. It’s not just telling everyone what to do and then kicking back and counting money. Most restaurant owners actually have a very similar experience when it comes to the misconceptions about their jobs.

Here are five things that other people just don’t understand.

1. Their Holidays Are Your Work Days

You know who doesn’t go out to eat on Valentine’s Day? Yeah, restaurant owners. You’ve likely changed the date you celebrate with your significant other in order to be able to do something special. When you know your restaurant will be booked a month in advance, it tends to make it difficult to take the day off. That goes for New Year’s, too. And maybe the Fourth of July. The fact is that when people want to go out to eat the most—when they have a reason to celebrate—are the days when you’re working your tail off.

2. “You Can Hang Out With Your Buddies All Day!”

Riiight. Many people think that owning a restaurant is just an extension of that bar you built in your basement. They imagine you just sit at the bar all day and give your friends free food when they walk in the door. Is that plausible? Only on television. If you own a restaurant, you’ve probably heard someone admiringly say something to this effect. If they only knew.

3. Managing Is A Delicate Skill

How many employees do you have working each day. Thirty? More? They all have different personalities, and none of them are having the exact same day. Some are having a good day, some are clearly unhappy for whatever reason, and a few are probably sporting hangovers. You have to ensure that these disparate folks all come together in order to provide the meal and service that your customers expect. Sometimes this feels like it requires a psych degree, but you pull it off somehow.

4. Everyone’s A Critic

And with Yelp, everyone’s a published critic for thousands of other viewers. While the average Yelp reviewer is just giving other people some more info on the restaurant, there are always the armchair quarterbacks who understand your job much, much better than you do. They’ve dined at your restaurant once, but they already recognize the structural issues you face, the personal flaws of your staff, and exactly what you could do better. They give it about two months before you’re closed for good.

5. It Can Be Incredibly Rewarding

When you explain all the minor and major inconveniences that owning a restaurant can put you through, many people won’t understand why you do it. It takes a special type of person to own and operate a restaurant, but if you put in the work, there’s nothing like the immediate gratification of a customer served well who says how much they enjoyed the visit and your personal attention.

At Marketing Vitals, we’re always working to help restaurant owners succeed. That’s why we created our data analytics software specifically for restaurants. Contact us today for a free demo!