Food businesses have to run smoothly at all times; else, you’ll have unsatisfied customers every time. And to make things flow like melted butter, sometimes you have to put emotions aside if you work alongside spouses, children, siblings, and aunts and uncles.
Handling a food business with close relatives can be fun if you know how to play the game right. If you don’t, then you could expect tensions to flare up every day at work. Scuffles between family members, especially regarding the business, are inevitable but not entirely unavoidable.
Couple has started their own cafe
As long as you follow these tips and tricks, you can ensure satisfactory relations between you and your co-worker relatives.
- Speak Clearly And Listen Attentively
Nothing causes problems more than miscommunication. Got a work-related issue you need to solve? Hold a meeting immediately and take the necessary steps to fix it. Never let issues fester. They’ll end up exploding when you least expect.
Say everything you need to say, and don’t hide information. Your relatives deserve to know what’s causing the rift. If you were the reason for the trouble, you need to listen and understand what you did. Then work together with everyone else to clean the mess. Leave personal issues at home. And if the problems are too much to handle, ask the help of a private consultant.
Constant communication is the foundation of any outstanding business. Like the best BBQ restaurants in Houston, family food businesses thrive when team members communicate. Why do you think some restaurants have many branches?
Have the receivers repeat the message to ensure they heard you correctly. Doing this is especially crucial in the kitchens, where one wrong move can make or break the entire dish.
- Create An Organizational Chart And Stick With It
Even if you’re working with family members, you’re required to know who does what. Everyone working in your restaurant should know that, too.
Give every member a clear role. Each person should also know whom to report to and who reports to them. As much as possible, let each individual have a specific responsibility that doesn’t overlap with others.
Having a set schedule also clarifies to everyone involved when they should come in for work. For food businesses that are open daily, there has to be staff available and ready. Before things go out of hand, assign ad hoc duties to some people if the ones in charge are not present.
- Recruit Outside Help
Ideally, you’d want relatives to work in the family business. It’s easy to contact family members, as some may be living under the same roof. But there are benefits to hiring ‘outsiders.’
For one, you’ll be getting fresh new eyes and a fresh point of view to improve your business. There’s a high chance your parents or siblings all ‘see’ the same things you do at work. Someone outside the family is bound to spot the cracks that need filling and the loopholes that can get tangled, hindering smooth operations.
Another benefit to having outside talent is giving a chance to well-deserved members around your community. You never know if your neighbor secretly has some expertise in the kitchen until you hear from them. Sometimes, they might even be better than your most experienced cousins!
Long-time customers may also find delight in seeing new faces in your restaurant. If you treat your non-familial team members like family, new customers can and will feel that. The delicious food and positive energy in a restaurant will turn visitors into regulars. You can start a loyalty program with that and launch your food business to great heights.
- Don’t Bring Work At Home
Not everyone enjoys having homework assignments. When you get out of school and start joining the workforce, you wouldn’t want it either. The only good thing to bring home from a food business is take-out.
After a tiring business day, leave work at work. If your restaurant is in some way also part of your home, leave behind business matters until opening the next day. You may get exhausted seeing your family in the morning and at night. So, make sure that after slaving in the restaurant, you’ll make space for family time and family time only.
During off-hours, enjoy one another’s company. Talk about sports or movies or schedule vacations for the whole clan. Do not talk about work at the family dinner table no matter what.
- Plan For The Future And Celebrate Small Wins
A successful family business is one where the people make beneficial plans every step of the way. Even if your restaurant has been running since your great-grandpa’s time, one force may let everything you built crumble.
Time can muddle your vision and may make you feel complacent. Sometimes you need to return to your roots and think like a rookie business owner. What else are your customers looking for? What dish do you need to take off the menu? You can answer questions like these by reviewing some restaurant management tips you may have encountered as a newbie.
And for every compliment and good review your restaurant gets, go ahead and celebrate! Positive reinforcement boosts morale and allows people to keep improving. Your relatives will enjoy work as much as they enjoy reunions and out-of-town trips together.
A Family That Works Together Stays Together
Working with relatives need not be a challenge. You know each other better than anyone else outside the family. So, use that to your advantage when running a business together. Always keep communication open, and everything else good will follow. Before anything else, you are a family, and the business you’re working on shouldn’t break that strong bond you have as one.
