Operations
“We are so grateful for having been connected with Dani.
This business can be exhilarating, rewarding, and incredibly daunting at times. Dani provided support throughout that roller-coaster ride. Her experience provides an incredible perspective, and we have relied on that perspective to provide much needed "reality-checks" as well as for advice on how to address the various challenges running a restaurant can present.
In addition, she has been a tremendous resource for sound strategic and business advice, and has a way of conveying this advice in a truly thoughtful way that is as encouraging as it is beneficial. Dani has a supporting and caring approach and - for us - she has been much more than a consultant, she is a friend.”
Mystery Shopping
We are often too deep in our own businesses to know what a new customer sees or experiences. A mystery shopper with unique and layered expertise experiencing your business as an objective observer can share clear and honest truths and offer detailed recommendations to build on your strengths and address problems in sympathetic collaboration.
Staffing
Hiring, training, managing your crew is a big part of this business. Each person who works for you has the potential to help your business succeed, every day.... and also has the power to torpedo all your hard work. Find, reward and keep the best people.... and quickly weed out those who should work elsewhere. Don’t listen to the nay-sayers: high turnover and chaotic scheduling are not inevitable. Warm, gracious, genuine hospitality can and should be hired for and trained for.
Strong hiring screens and clear job descriptions save time, money and headaches. Good training plans, manuals and SOP’s take time to set up but have big payoffs in productivity and peace. Eventually, you and your employees take care of each other with relative ease.
I’ve hired, trained and written SOP’s for food and bev temps, servers, chefs, dishwashers, small kids, rookie cooks, bakers in a prison kitchen.
I’m ready for whatever you need.
Disaster PlAnning
We can’t foresee every possibility, but let’s face it: if COVID-19 taught us nothing else, we learned that (like Aesop’s fable) there are ants, and there are grasshoppers.
Planning ahead for what might happen (looking at you, hurricanes and ice storms) will help you not just survive a disaster, but be strong and resilient for a thriving future.
Organizations that serve patients or residents particularly need to be ready to feed people no matter what, so let’s build meal plans and recipes, emergency procedures, cooking and serving plans.
Standard Operating Procedures
Many parts of running a profitable food business require standard operating procedures: recipes, inventory and food orders, food safety and sanitation, training, regulation compliance, staff scheduling, production schedules, catering, bookkeeping, cash handling. Tools, processes and systems are only good ones if you and your staff actually use them, and that might mean some customization is in order.