How hard is managing a restaurant?

Being a restaurant manager is a difficult job. It's fast and stressful, and requires a special combination of skills and personality traits (most importantly, staying calm under pressure). Long days turn into long nights and it feels like you're constantly trying to catch up. Your average day running a restaurant will cause you to work shifts of more than 10 hours.

And those hours will extend much further on weekends. A well-rounded manager must be able to multitask, think quickly, and maintain a constant calm attitude despite “putting out fires or dealing with difficult people”. In addition, restaurant managers must be fluent in all aspects of restaurant operations, including reception and reception functions.

Restaurant management training

offers formal instruction and practical exercises designed to improve a leader's hard and soft skills.

As a manager, the more real experience you have in the business, the better you will be at solving problems when something goes wrong. Profit margins in the restaurant industry are notoriously tight, so managing expenses is paramount, especially in companies with a lower volume. While everyone's career path is different, the best restaurant managers will have had at least some experience in every position in the restaurant. Creating management objectives helps leaders focus on their tasks, focus on specific skills, and provides a plan for continued growth.

Online programs, such as the ServSafe Manager course and eCornell, offer excellent restaurant management certification programs for busy professionals. We have several restaurant management tips that will help you feel confident as you approach the next steps to develop your restaurant business. For example, instead of having a manager open the restaurant, you can trust a longtime employee to carry the keys and open or close it. While most managers have at least a high school diploma and many have graduated from college with degrees in hospitality, it's not uncommon for someone who didn't finish high school to start at the bottom of the restaurant food chain and make it to management, or even own their own restaurant.

Amid rising minimum wage and higher supplier costs, Brown says: “Sometimes you have to adjust operating times depending on when they open up or adjust the size of your management staff. Short-term goals may include skill sets that improve the leader's ability to manage a restaurant and that are effectively aligned with long-term goals. Using Facebook groups or forums to ask people in the restaurant industry for advice will surely help you become a better restaurant manager. When your restaurant isn't adequately stocked, your team will struggle to prepare food and serve customers properly.

Ernest Dargatz
Ernest Dargatz

Freelance food geek. Bacon expert. Certified internet buff. Typical coffee nerd. Avid coffee evangelist.