Hopefully, your staff would look forward to taking on additional responsibility. You need to ensure that they receive proper training and fully understand what they are doing. Then, all you will need to do is occasionally follow up and answer any questions that they may have.

Don't be surprised if some of your staff can actually do the job better than you. Once your staff has shown that they can adequately do their responsibilities, delegate some more to them. As time goes by, you have more time to focus on marketing. Then as you develop more restaurant marketing programs, you will need to delegate some of them to your employees.

Keep in mind that marketing entails everything that happens in your restaurant. One of the areas frequently forgotten about is the physical structure itself. When a restaurant opens up, a lot of money is spent and attention is given to every detail to make sure "everything" is perfect.

The atmosphere of your restaurant is important. You should change the atmosphere of your restaurant about four times during the year. It is important that your restaurant always looks "homey," comfortable and inviting.

Some operators change the decor slightly for every holiday. Guests appreciate this type of atmosphere. First and foremost your restaurant ALWAYS needs to be and needs to appear clean. This includes the floors, the walls, windows and seating areas. The rest rooms need to be spotless, bright and cheery. I believe that there is a strong correlation between a spotless, inviting rest room and a well-run, successful restaurant. This is also true of the kitchen. I have been in hundreds of restaurant kitchens and I do not believe that enough attention is given to this very important area. Ask yourself this question: "If the guest was to visit my kitchen, would they still want to eat at my restaurant?" If the answer is not a strong "YES," then, you have work to do.

The reason many restaurant operators neglect their kitchen is because they think their customers will never see inside. Health inspectors, employees, sales people, service people all see your kitchen and influence your business far more than you can imagine. Do you know how many people a sales person might talk to in a year? What would people who see your kitchen say about your restaurant? Would they come back to eat? Would they recommend it to a friend? Some restaurants actually plan for you to see the cooking going on. The restaurant is designed around you being able to see the kitchen. It is a form of advertising for their cleanliness.