I feel Like I'm Pounding My Head Against The Wall

Without ever meaning to, I have been mentoring restaurants and breweries since 1995, when I made a video (yes video cassette) called Frankenbrew. I have to admit, I really enjoy it too, seeing all the different concepts that folks come up with, and the satisfaction that I, in some way, helped. Through our immersion Course, I know we have had well over 130 students open breweries, all over the world. And no doubt many of them have come up with ways to sustain their businesses and have been successful for years.

But when it comes to teaching how to actually run the business, by this I mean the business system, most students and others - many who read this - are like “yeah, yeah, but show me how to put together a brewing system on the cheap.”

As for our exact business system, the one I teach and write about, I can think of only two businesses that actually use it. Colorado Boy in Montrose, and Crash Burger, also in Montrose.

Steven Woods who owns Crash Burger is a friend and retired fire fighter. He and his fellow firefighters, when not working at the firehouse, would do construction and it was these guys that did the build-out at Colorado Boy. Steve was nearing retirement and wondering what his next adventure would be, so I suggested he come work with me and I would teach him to brew. So he did.

We worked together for almost 2 years, and while working he would talk about wanting to open his own restaurant. I suggested he think about a burger joint, but keep it as simple as possible, sort of like In ‘n Out Burgers. One thing led to another and he found an old Texaco Gas station on Main Street and went to work. I suggested a name, Crash Burger, because I had read somewhere that the sound of “K” was easy to remember and thought it would be cool if in each Crash Burger location you had something crashing into it. The one on main has a rocket crashing into the roof.

My one caveat in helping though, was he HAD to use the business system. And he has! He….

• Identified the positions

• Made training checklists for each position

• Made daily checklists of duties for each position

• Made side work checklists for extra things that needed to be cared for weekly

• Made a GM (general maintenance) book which is a reminder of things to be done occasionally

• Made an audit system so that the owner knew the system was being done

• Made a Scoreboard that tracked daily sales, labor and cost of sales, ensuring the business was profitable day to day

• Steve came up with a cool Oyster, so the vibe was that of a ‘50’s gas station. The menu board at the drive up is even on the tailgate of an old pick up.

This little burger joint, one block away from a McDonald’s, does 70 to 80 thousand a month, isn’t open in the evenings, closed on Sundays, and has no liquor license. He does use real quality ingredients and his prices are very reasonable.

It’s so profitable he doesn’t feel the need to open anymore. The reason it’s profitable? His products are excellent, creating a real value for his customers, and he follows the business system religiously.

So I keep trying to get brewery owners to also follow this very simple system. As I’ve said in the past, brewery owners spend so much time, money and energy to build out their brewery and get it open, but yet ignore the business system, which takes only a fraction of the energy compared to building the brewery in the first place, and can make all the difference between a break even business and a profitable one.

It sounds like I’m just promoting this little book, and sure why not? But in all these articles I’ve written, everything that’s in the book is in these articles. No cost, just there to read. I want the brewery business to thrive and in this challenging business climate, we need all the advantages we can get. The Business Operating System is the easiest way to get there.