Learning & Development

Trainual is NOT for everyone. Mom and Pop restaurants and small, single-unit restaurants should move along. If your plan is to grow your restaurant into a multi-unit empire, Trainual is a tool that will help get you there.

Trainual is a learning management system that takes every process, practice, and standard in your restaurant and turns it into an interactive playbook that you will use to onboard and train your team

If your business is growing fast, Trainual will help you organize, standardize, and automate your people operations.

Unless the restaurant you are running is a franchise with a huge library of learning material, joining RestaurantOwner.com is a must. Seriously, for $29 a month, you have access to a HUGE library of insights, training, tools, & resources.

All the tools you can need are editable templates. Checklists, manuals, handbooks, forms, business plans, and best practices are all included with a membership. Signup and commit to spending time getting better as an owner each and every week for the duration of your business.

Why haven’t you signed up yet?!?

Restaurant Rockstars is the home of Restauranteur Roger Beaudoin’s Restaurant Academy.

Don’t let the price tag of $599 scare you off. This course is worth multiple times its selling price. If you are a first-time owner and don’t have a hands-on mentor or the money for a consultant, buy Restaurant Rockstars to get the education you need in order to be successful. This course includes the entire course on Restaurant Finances and includes their staff training modules to train your team on customer service.

If you don’t need the full academy, both the staff training and financial training are also available a la carte.

The New One Minute Manager

This is an updated version of the classic. This is a super quick read about managing people and getting results

7 Habits of Highly Successful People

Less about leadership and more about personal development, Covey’s 7 Habits is the granddaddy of all self-help books and a must-read for all adults regardless of profession.

Extreme Leadership

This is a recent addition to my essential reading list and cuts to the core of successful leadership: accountability. I recommend the audio version if you are a fan of Jocko’s podcast and enjoy his style.

The Oz Principle

Another book on accountability, The Oz Principle preaches individual ownership as the key to success using the Wizard of Oz as an allegory. This book has a TON of filler, but the concepts within make it worth pushing through the fluff.

Multi-Unit Leadership

My first foray into multi-units was much more difficult a transition than I anticipated. Jim Sullivan’s book helped adapt my leadership style to one more suited to a leader that is only on-site a few times a month.

Fierce Conversations

To this day I still use the conversation framework presented in Fierce Conversations to prepare for difficult discussions.

Good to Great

Good to Great is a case study spanning nearly two decades that seeks to define and analyze the common denominator that made them all great: A Level 5 Leader.

5 Dysfunctions of a Team

Told as a short, fictional story, The Five Dysfunctions of a team illustrates the obstacles of building a team and shows ways to overcome them.

The Experience

Nobody does service and relationships quite like Disney. The Experiences explains Disney’s principles of service.

Zingerman’s Guide to Great Service

Written by the owner of a world-famous deli, Zingerman’s Guide to Great Service is one of the best resources you can ask for if you want to improve your restaurant’s customer service skills.

How to Win Friends & Influence People

Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friend’s and Influence People” was voted inside the top 20 of Time Magazine’s most influential books of all time. The simple techniques will help you make people want to work for you.

Emotional Intelligence 2.0

Have you ever heard anyone talk about the dichotomy of the terms book smart and people smart? Emotional Intelligence explains and standardizes “people smarts” by explaining the emotional intelligence equivalent of IQ: EQ.

It’s My Pleasure

Learn about relationships the Chick-fil-A way.

First, Break All the Rules

This book is an instant classic. Utilize this book to understand how to build a strong culture and be a different type of manager.

Getting Things Done

No matter how crazy your life or business becomes the systems taught in David Allen’s classic are timeless and adaptable to technology. Learn to take control by putting his GST practices into action today.

Setting the Table

Restauranteur Danny Meyer expresses an opinion with this book that he and I share: the hiring of employees is the most important process that occurs in a restaurant and literally lays the foundation for success or failure.

Your Restaurant Sucks!

Funny and cathartic, Your Restaurant Sucks will help you confront and overcome unsavory realities that might exist in your restaurant.

Restaurant & Bar Marketing

I have listened to Erik Shellenberger on a number of podcasts in addition to reading both of his marketing books and I can promise you this-dude knows his stuff. This should have a home in your office.

Restaurant & Bar Marketing II

A follow-up to his first book, Restaurant and Bar Marketing II is also required reading.