You have the funds and everything else you need to open your restaurant. Or maybe you already have. Either way, have you asked yourself what next? How involved would you want to be in the operations? Do you want to give the reigns to the manager? There are different kinds of restaurant owners. From chef-turned-owners to silent investors, their level of involvement also may vary. Regardless of the kind of owner you are, you still are responsible for the restaurant and how it’s run.

Running a tight ship or keeping things relaxed around the restaurant is really up to you. As long as you get things done and get your staff operating like one single unit, things will be running like a well-oiled machine. You don’t have to be a pushover, neither do you need to be a scary boss that no one can open up to. Strike a balance, innovate, inspire and constantly improve.

Define your role

Define your role before anyone else’s. Create enough room for yourself to grow because opening a restaurant is only the beginning. If you have the vision to grow, you will need to hand over the reigns to someone else one day for you to move on to bigger things. As the owner, if you’re new to the business, learn every trick of the trade by being a hands-on boss. Learn about every nook and cranny of your restaurant. Your staff is busy doing what they do. It’s you who can zoom out and see the bigger picture. Once you know your own business like the back of your hand, you can slowly move onto working on growing it.

Keep your staff close

Your staff is the backbone of your restaurant. You might be in control but it’s they who run the show. In today’s times people switch jobs for a very small salary bump. Don’t lose out on your best people over this. Learn what the market standard is, and pay them accordingly. Once you have that out of the way, train them as well as cross-train them. No one aspires to be stagnant. A waiter aspires to be manager some day. The dish washing boy might want to be a line cook, and so on. Let them do the job they’ve been hired for and when it seems like the right time, let them train to get to the next level or even another function within the restaurant so they understand the business better. This also works as an incentive for them to stay.

Treat customers right

After all this, you don’t need anyone to tell you that without customers you won’t have much of a business. Your restaurant might have the best decor, food and service, but without customers coming in, you’ll have nothing to show for. A foolproof way of improving is paying attention to feedback. Customers always give feedback – online or offline. Talk to them while they’re in the restaurant, ask them to give their feedback either written or online. If it’s positive, thank them and move on. If it’s negative, don’t disagree or lash out at them. That’s the last thing you want to do. “Bad publicity is good publicity” probably doesn’t work for a restaurant. You need to understand what went wrong and work on it if you have to. If they didn’t like the food, there’s nothing much you can do since it’s a matter of personal taste. But if they have something to say about the service or an incident at the restaurant, or something about the food that you can fix, do it. It not only shows that you’re a decent restaurateur, but also that you care about your business.

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Your team, your customers and yourself – these are what will be the foundation of a good business for you as a restaurateur. Excuse the chiché but a restaurant is as good as its last meal. And for a customer to be pleased with a good meal, you need a good team in the restaurant. As the boss, you create and turn a group of people to work well together.