Profitable Hospitality Podcast

People in hospitality often don’t realise that they’re ‘the most interesting person in the room’ at local events. If you're bogged down with running a business, it’s easy to overlook the opportunities right there in your local area – with the media, local associations, schools, social clubs and wherever people gather. In this interview, Ken Burgin talks with media and presentations coach Jaimie Abbott about how restaurateurs, managers and chefs can turn their experience and personality into a major marketing asset. It won’t always be TV or radio, but there are dozens of other ways you can become well known locally – and customers prefer to do business with people they recognise. You can contact Jaimie at JaimieAbbott.com.au   

It’s the world’s second most valuable trade commodity, and the word ‘coffee’ is always buzzing in the media and urban stories. Cafes are one of the fastest-growing segments of foodservice, and the latest serving options range from DIY espresso pods through to pour-overs and cold-drips.  In this interview, Ken Burgin talk with Christine Cottrell from Perfect Espresso and the Coffee Education Network, about the international trends she’s observed at coffee shows, competitions and cafes in Europe, the US and Australia. She and her partner have used this research to develop the Barista Bible and a wide range of industry training modules that are used around the world.  

It’s quite an achievement to grow and prosper for twenty years,  especially in a highly-competitive beachside suburb in Sydney. That’s the record of Rodney Sen and his family with this very popular business. It’s open seven days and nights and much-loved by the locals and tourists. In this interview Ken Burgin talks with Rodney about his role in the business, staff recruitment and loyalty, cost control, menu development and food production. They also discussed marketing, social media and their very active sponsorship of local and international non-profit groups. Plenty to inspire you here – check the Barzura website, connect on Facebook, and call in when you’re next in Coogee – the view is not bad!  

In this interview, Ken Burgin talks with sommelier Rafael Delgado, who's based in Florida. For him, helping customers discover and share the unified story between the food and the beverage program is the secret to successful wine sales, happy guests and repeat visits. “Every restaurant has its DNA and the wine list should match that DNA. Every wine list should capitalise on the story of each bottle of wine, whether it’s the variety, the region, the ideal pairing with a dish, the winery or winemaker story, or a special wine feature such as weight.” You can find Rafael at his blog OinosLogo and on Twitter. You can also hear another speaker on wine in Podcast 58: How to Sell More Wine.  

“The interested public can handle more, not less, information about food safety. The best restaurants will not wait for government; they will go ahead and make their food safety practices available in a variety of media and brag about them – today”. That’s the opinion of Dr Douglas Powell, a former Professor of Food Safety at Kansas State University now living in Australia. He's the author of the popular (and graphic) Barfblog and you can also find him at Powell Food Safety.  In this interview he talks with Ken Burgin about the gap between the industry’s commitment to food safety and the often careless, inadequate reality. They discussed staff training (much of it ineffective), temperature monitoring, raw food, verification of food origins, handwashing, cross-contamination and the illnesses that can result from careless handling. Illnesses that don’t just cause an upset stomach, but can also cause a long-term organ damage and even death.  At Profitable Hospitality you can download more than 600 Food Safety an

The world of hospitality is built on the back of family businesses – parents who worked hard and established a restaurant, cafe or bar, then bringing some or all of their children into the operation. Or it may be brothers and sisters who work together, building a business with shared skills and a deeper level of trust than is usually found between regular ‘business partners’.  In this interview Ken Burgin talks with business advisor Aristidis Semertzidis. Trained as an accountant, Ari has worked with family businesses of all sizes. He has helped them to understand the shared responsibilities of a ‘family constitution’ and establish proper financial systems. We also discussed managing business succession between generations, and protecting family assets that have been built up over the years. You can contact Ari at WorkingKapital and on Linkedin.  

Many restaurants and venues want to do more of their own professional-quality photography. They know that smartphone cameras are useful, but there are limitations, especially at night. Having a professional photographer available is great, but may be outside the budget. So what pro camera should they choose for food and customer photos, event shots and all the images needed to show off their facilities? In this interview Ken Burgin talks with professional photographer Mark Burgin, leading on from Podcast 68 on How to Use an iPhone for Quality Camera & Bar Photos. They discuss camera options, lenses, when the camera will be used, and the editing and post-production of photos. You may also have heard Mark in Podcast 5 talking about How to Work with a Professional Photographer. You can find his great work and wide-ranging hospitality portfolio at Mark Burgin Photography.com.  

Growing restaurants always need to develop their management structure and systems. More staff and venues need different skills and different types of reporting and accountability. Melbourne’s well-known Apples & Pears Group have grown rapidly in the last few years – they now have more than 100 staff and 3 venues – the original Red Spice Road, plus Burma Road and the Orchid Room.  In this interview Ken Burgin talks with Gavin van Staden, Managing Director of the group, about developing his own management skills and those of his team. Growth is exciting, but it’s easy for profit margins to be squeezed unless a close eye is kept on sales, wages, cost of goods and marketing effectiveness. The growth and reputation of the group shows how well this is being done.  

So you’ve built up years of experience running a kitchen, bar or restaurant, and now you’d like to have more time at home or with the family. Great idea. Consulting often comes to mind when chefs, managers and owners look for another way to turn their knowledge into an income – surely people will pay for what you’ve learned? In this lively interview, Ken Burgin talks with Cindy Tonkin. She’s known as the Consultant’s Consultant, and has helped many professionals turn their skill and passion into a consulting careers. She shares some great insights on establishing credibility, the importance of marketing (all the time), client relationships, managing the paperwork and of course, how much to charge. Listen to the interview and check Cindy’s very useful website and books at ConsultantConsultant.  

Your online diary or blog is an opportunity to communicate directly with customers and online visitors – the latest news on menu changes, events, producers, the local area, staff and recipes. Plus information from ‘behind the scene’ – always of interest to a public obsessed with TV food shows! It will also give a boost to your search-engine rankings – Google gives preference to websites that are updated regularly. Your blog gives a human voice to your business and online presence - the casual conversations that people remember and value. In this interview, Ken Burgin talks with Clinton Power of Blog Success School – he teaches people how to set up a blog, and how to keep it regularly updated, interesting and widely read. We discussed why he prefers Wordpress as a blogging platform, how to use the right ‘keywords’ and posting format for maximum Google attention, content strategies, and where to find good photos to add interest to posts.  

In Podcast #64 we talked about stock control in bars - over-ordering, sloppy stock counts, storage problems, POS errors and stealing. In this second interview with Troy Kelly of Barmetrix, we bring the other elements of Gross Profit management into the equation: purchasing and sales. When you carefully manage all three, you’re well on the way to having industry-leading profit margins. Troy runs a full-time stocktaking business for bars, pubs and restaurants, and there’s not much he hasn’t seen or fixed. Whether you run a restaurant, bar, pub or upmarket hotel, you’ll find very useful tips and techniques in this interview he recorded with Ken Burgin.  

There’s no shortage of happy, sad or annoyed customers ready to speak up online. Yelp, Urbanspoon, TripAdvisor and Facebook make it easy for people to have an audience. It’s also easy for restaurant and bar operators to feel helpless and upset when they’re besieged by opinions, advice and putdowns. Help! In this interview Ken Burgin talks with Ed Charles of Tomato Media and food blog Tomatom. Ed is a business journalist who moved onto writing about bars, restaurants, food and producers. He’s also one of Australia’s original food bloggers, and now helps cafes and restaurants manage their online presence and reputation. Ed is a strong believer in businesses pro-actively shaping the story they want customers to hear – not just on social media, but with an interesting blog and a modern website. When you have a regular flow of good news, it will soon drown out the occasional grumble about a service error.  

It’s the extra brain in your pocket – a device that handles email, messages, websites, phone calls and also takes great photos. Smartphones have replaced most small ‘point and shoot’ cameras, and by being so available, there are a lot more opportunities for spontaneous customer, location and product shots in the restaurant, cafe or bar. In this interview Ken Burgin talks with professional photographer Mark Burgin. Mark uses big, black DSLR cameras for his professional work, but also loves spontaneous shots with his phone. He sees lots of possibilities with phone pictures, and some important limitations that need to be managed. We discussed his 4 C’s for good photography – Content, Context, Composition and Colour, and all the ways you can use a smartphone to take great pictures of your busy, happy venue. Find Mark online at Mark Burgin Photography and on Instagram at @MarkBurgin.  

Before Yelp, Urbanspoon and Facebook there were newspaper reviews and annual restaurant awards – respected, sought after and still relevant. Reviews turn the spotlight on one venue; restaurant awards compares similar businesses against a range of factors, including food, beverage, service, atmosphere and value.   In this interview, Ken Burgin talks with Cath Kerry, an experienced restaurateur who now trains judges for the annual Restaurant & Catering Australia awards. We discussed how the judging process works to ensure a fair comparison between venues, and how judges assess the quality of food, beverage, service, atmosphere and value. We also talked about international and ‘timeless’ standards, and how relevant they are for modern casual, formal and ‘fine dining’ restaurants. Winning an award or even being a finalist is a great boost for your reputation – here’s what the judges look for.  

It’s much more than pushing buttons – good coffee making and barista skills involve technical ability and sensory awareness. Plus a welcoming smile and the ability to handle pressure.  In this interview, Ken Burgin talks with Christine Cottrell from Perfect Espresso and the Coffee Education Network about the 8 key training areas for staff who make coffee. These include knowledge of beans and machines, managing workflow, grinding and dosing, plus extraction and brewing. A skilled barista will also know the four milk skills, understand an espresso menu, be able to maintain their machine and have solid customer service skills. It’s a big list, and can be complex work - Christine's excellent Barista Bible is a great resource for business owners and trainers.    

Like to pay less tax? In this interview I’ve asked accountant Amanda Fisher from Connected Accountants in Sydney to give me the lowdown on how business operators can catch extra tax savings before the end of the financial year. We know that wages, F&B and utilities are allowable costs, but what about the many ‘non-cash’ deductions like deprecation on the value of equipment, education, the cost of unsaleable wine, bad debts and retirement savings? Wherever you are, it’s worth spending time with your accountant to help find every possible legal deduction. This interview will get you started.  

Alcohol is valuable, so ordering, delivery, storage and service must all be done with extra care. Errors can occur in valuation of the stock used, Point of Sale readings, and reconciling the two. And if they don’t balance, what’s the reason? In this interview Ken Burgin talks with Troy Kelly from Barmetrix. Troy runs a full-time stocktaking business for bars, pubs and restaurants, and there’s not much he hasn’t fixed: over-ordering, sloppy stock counts, storage problems, POS errors, below-average Gross Profit and good old fashioned stealing. When Troy puts quantities and figures under the microspope, the truth is there for all to see. Listen to this interview and you’ll have new ways to improve your profit margins – this week!  

Steve Vallas is the proprietor of Honey Bar in South Melbourne. Offering ‘a drink for every mood and a toast for every occasion’, he’s created a popular venue with a friendly, casual atmosphere, good food and a great space for functions. In this interview with Ken Burgin, Steve describes how he uses Twitter and Facebook to make personal connections with current and future customers – to have conversations, answer questions, and to let them know about future events. He prefers to invest time into social media ahead of traditional advertising and the discounts most competitors rely on - the results have been excellent.  

Here’s another list of free or low-cost software and online services that I use and recommend. Everything from word-processing to video production, photo fixing and faxes. Suggestions and feedback welcome – what are your favourite productivity or creativity tools? This list follows the first set on Podcast 23: 10 Great Tech Tools to Make Your Work Easier and there will be more! LibreOffice – a free alternative to Microsoft Office, doing most of the same functions. Teamviewer – access your mother’s computer screen when she calls for help and you're in a different city :) Asana – online project management for teams, eliminating the confusion of email and keeping everyone on the same page. Slideshare – put Powerpoint presentations online so people can watch them on the web. FaxMate – customers still want to send faxes occasionally, so here’s a simple service that handles your fax number and emails you what’s sent. Animoto – turn photos into short compilation videos with a music track. Great souvenirs for a spec

Resentment, aggression, angry words and bullying – strong emotion show up in many ways at work, and the effects are felt by everyone – even customers. In this interview Ken Burgin talks with Duncan Morris, an experienced counsellor and social worker who has also worked as a manager in large organisations.  Duncan explains the nature of anger, what causes it, and how managers and supervisors can handle angry situations when they flare up. Our job as managers and business owners is to create a safe and respectful workplace, and when there are angry outbursts and negativity, the situation needs to be handled quickly. This is a challenge for many supervisors, especially if they are young or inexperienced. You can contact Duncan at Watersedge Counselling.