The Key to Fantastic Growth? Knowing What You Don't Know

In this episode of the Restaurant Success Podcast, Matthew Mabel explores why even the most successful multi-unit restaurant entrepreneurs can hit a growth ceiling — and how to break through it. Matthew reveals that the key to fantastic business growth lies in identifying and addressing what you don't know. Drawing on decades of experience advising independent restaurant companies generating tens of millions in sales, he explains how first-time multi-unit owners often develop blind spots that hold back their restaurant operations, profitability, and long-term expansion. From unrealistic confidence to learning by costly trial and error, Matthew walks through the common traits he sees in successful restaurateurs and shares how the best operators seek out the missing pieces to catapult their businesses forward in sales, profits, and net worth.

Key Topics Covered

• Why success can create blind spots for first-time multi-unit restaurant owners
• The common traits Matthew sees after decades of advising restaurant entrepreneurs
• How "unrealistic confidence" can plateau a growing restaurant business
• Why learning by trial and error is the most expensive path to growth
• How the best restaurant operators identify and install the missing pieces for success
• The role of peers, restaurant associations, and expert advisors in accelerating business growth

Links Mentioned

• How Restaurateurs Avoid the Perils of Owning the Only Company They've Ever Known
• How to Discover the Missing Pieces to Increase Your Restaurant's Success

Resources Mentioned

• Website: www.surrender.biz
• Free initial consultation available

Connect with Matthew Mabel

Matthew works with owners of successful, independent, multi-unit restaurants to improve:

• Profit growth
• Sales optimization
• Guest count increase
• Unit expansion
• Employee engagement
• Brand loyalty

How to Support the Show

• Subscribe to the Restaurant Success Podcast and Newsletter
• Rate and review the show
• Visit www.surrender.biz for additional resources

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to the Restaurant Success Podcast. I'm Matthew Mabel, veteran restaurant advisor, coach, consultant, and speaker devoted to multi-unit independent restaurant unit, profit and revenue growth, internal harmony and ownership freedom and flexibility.

This is your weekly entree of the advice, strategy and tactics that I currently provide to my best clients.

Today we're going to talk about something that might surprise you.

We're going to talk about the key to fantastic growth, and it comes down to knowing what you don't know.

I'll explain why even the most successful multi-unit restaurant owners can have blind spots, what those blind spots typically look like, and how the best operators move past them to reach another level entirely.

Let me tell you, success and growth can play a trick on a first-time multi-unit owner. It can make you seem like a first timer forever, even after decades of operations.

And here's why that happens. When you spend your entire career building one company, you have no ownership experience with other brands or organizations to fall back on.

Now, I collaborate with many extremely admired companies.

We're talking about businesses with sales in the tens of millions and profits in the millions. Everything they have ever heard reflected back to them, from their guests, from their investors, from the community, confirms them as screaming successes.

But even with these incredible results, I look around and I realize that some aspects of running a great restaurant company in the twenty-first century remain missing.

And the reason is simple. They just do not know the details. They've never been exposed to them. And let me tell you, I make these companies much more successful once they learn them.

So here's the bottom line for multi-unit operators.

The level of your achievement is directly related to what you can learn, and how fast you can learn it.

When it's your first time doing anything, you don't know all the details.

Now, let me paint a picture for you.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of being a parent is getting to witness all the "first time" things. Right? 

From first steps to first plane ride, to first time at the ocean. Their first purchase, the first time staying at home by themselves, or hanging out unsupervised with friends at a coffee bar or bookstore. 

Each of these has a unique aspect. But while raising children often feels like a delight, growing a restaurant often feels like the opposite. The challenges you face in your business can be unexpected and can make you feel uneasy or unworthy. And that's a tough place to be, especially when everything around you is telling you that you're a success.

So what do I see when I work with these first-time multi-unit owners? After decades of working with them, I know they commonly share certain traits. Let me walk you through them.

First, there are always aspects of greatness.

I can always identify one or two aspects that these successful owners owe their success to. Maybe it's hospitality. Maybe it's menu development, marketing, leadership, or business or site selection. There's always something they do extraordinarily well.

But then there's the flip side, and that's ignorance. I don't mean that in a negative way. What I mean is that eventually, owners must learn all the aspects that do not come naturally to them.

And since they remain busy running their growing business, they tend to learn by trial and error. That's a slow and expensive way to figure things out.

Now, here's where it gets really interesting. Some of these owners develop what I call unrealistic confidence. These pitfalls hold them back because they think that the one or two things they master overcompensate for the areas they don't do well with. At the extreme, they think their existing talents negate the need to learn about new aspects of our business. And let me tell you, this ends up backfiring. It plateaus their companies, or worse.

But there's good news too, and that's opportunity.

The most successful people move out of their own way and reach out to peers, restaurant associations, and other experts to find the knowledge they need to be completely prepared to run a great company.

So to optimize success, know what you don't know.

My biggest successes in catapulting restaurant companies forward in sales, profits, and net worth, with numbers moving upwards in the millions of dollars, have always involved installing those missing pieces.

By the way, if this topic resonates with you, I've written a couple of articles in the past that connect directly to what we've been talking about today.

The first one is called "How Restaurateurs Avoid the Perils of Owning the Only Company They've Ever Known." It goes deeper into what happens when you've spent your whole career inside one organization and how that shapes your blind spots. If you've never worked in a company you didn't own, you're going to want to read that one.

The second is called "How to Discover the Missing Pieces to Increase Your Restaurant's Success." That one is all about identifying those blind spots and becoming vulnerable enough to address them, especially in a flat market where every possible element needs to be working in your favor.

You can find links to both of these in the show notes.

Let me tell you about how we might work together. I work with owners of successful, independent, multi-unit restaurants to grow their profit, sales, guest count, and unit count. My unique approach bonds employees and guests to restaurant brands and allows owners to enjoy the freedom and flexibility they have earned.

To schedule a call with me to discuss how to achieve your biggest goals, follow the link in the show notes. The initial consultation is complimentary, and we can discuss which big moves might be right for your operation.

Thanks for listening. If you haven't already subscribed to the Restaurant Success Podcast and Newsletter podcast, please do so, and rate and review the show. Find more information in the show notes at Restaurant Success Podcast dot com.

Also find tons of information you can use in print, audio and video form at my website, www dot surrender dot biz. Thanks again and see you next time.