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Flipping Restaurants and Business Growth With Bradley Lum · Speak In Flow

• 0:00
  Melinda Lee: My guest today is Bradley Lum. He is a restaurant
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  consultant, founder of Bradley Lum LLC. He has over 30 years of
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  flipping businesses turning them from not profitable to
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  profitable. He has currently eight thriving companies of his
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  own. He's here to share how he helps a restaurant owners,
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  increase sales, improve their workflow, as well as improving
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  effectiveness in their communication. I find it
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  fascinating the similarities that restaurant owners and their
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  teams have with corporate leaders and their teams. So
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  listen carefully on the similarities. Listen for how
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  communication breakdowns can lead to failing restaurants, as
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  well as failing teams. I hope you enjoy this episode. Hello,
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  Bradley. Glad you're here.
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  Bradley Lum: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
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  Melinda Lee: Yeah, I'm so glad it's good to see you. Again. I'm
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  excited to dive into this topic, because I think it's so
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  fascinating. So you are a restaurant consultant right now.
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  And you're helping restaurant owners revamp and become
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  profitable and, and so these restaurant owners have teams, so
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  they're working with their teams ranging from three to maybe even
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  100 people. And I find it interesting, because corporate
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  and corporate, we have teams as well. And so what do you think
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  are just really quickly are some similarities, that might be a
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  restaurant team to a corporate team,
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  Bradley Lum: um, a lot, some of the similarities is would be the
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  kind of the brigade, you always have the owner, and the owner
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  has a vision, the vision needs to be kind of relayed down to
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  upper management all the way down the line. And if everybody
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  has that, that vision in mind, that's that goal. It's a lot
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  easier to execute.
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  Melinda Lee: Yeah. And I think the key word is if right, if
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  everybody. And you didn't mention to me, I thought was
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  fascinating now that you consulted these different
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  restaurants, that 80% of restaurants fail, due to lack of
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  communication? Is it right? More about that? Yeah.
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  Bradley Lum: Right. I'm really a lot of restaurants and I'm sure
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  you've been to a lot of mom and pop restaurants just have
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  somebody who opened a restaurant or bar restaurant, and they
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  really didn't have any restaurant or business
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  experience. And it's kind of, they're just they're buying a
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  product, turning it into something and selling it and
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  taking the money and doing whatever with it. But there's
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  really no structure. And, you know, being able to help
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  restaurants, structure their their business. So there's a
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  line of communication, a line of, you know, there's leadership
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  and a vision. Everybody has this map of where they where they
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  want to go, and how to get there. So. So in that sense,
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  it's very similar to corporate America, because I think that
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  that's the goal, right, is to instil that vision.
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  Melinda Lee: Yeah, because a lot of the managers they're just
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  like these mom and pops, they have a product and they're
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  really good at making the product, they want to sell it.
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  But as a manager as well, you they get promoted, usually,
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  because they're really good at that one specific craft or
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  expertise. And then they get promoted. And then now suddenly,
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  you have to, you'd have to shine you have to start leading other
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  people to bring this vision together, and they don't really
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  get training, or they're not really doing it very well in
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  terms of identifying what is the true vision because now you have
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  to think broader, and vision. And so tell me about visioning.
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  What is the challenge that people that leaders have with
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  visioning? Because I think it's broader, and it's, it's
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  ambiguous? Is that the case you're finding?
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  Bradley Lum: Yeah, and, you know, trying to get even get the
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  vision out of the owner can be really tough sometimes, because
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  the bottom line is, you know, we want to make money. Okay, but,
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  you know, maybe defining like, How much money do you want to
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  make? It would be a good, good start, right. Some people might
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  want to expand, but it might be too early to even think about
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  that. And also the exit strategy, you know, that's
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  another part of the vision that they they need to have because,
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  you know, a lot of restaurant owners just get into the
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  restaurant business and then you know, 20 years down the line
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  there, what do we do with it, you know, just try to pass it
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  off to our kids, but our kids are, you know, they grew up in
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  the restaurant and they don't want to, they don't want to take
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  on this, you know, business that kind of took their or
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  relationships with their parents away because they were always
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  there or or whatever the case may be, but most kids don't.
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  Unless a business is thriving, right? I'm sure that the kids
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  have whatever I don't know, star but you know, just name any any
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  restaurant that's, you know, totally thriving became
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  something I'm sure they'd want to take it over but if it's just
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  a small one restaurant operation yeah most kid Yeah,
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  Melinda Lee: that's me. That's me. Yeah. No, my father. Yeah, I
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  was like, No, I'm not. I'm sure you wanted you to. Yes, yes.
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  Yes. So it was important to have that vision both like going
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  forward and also exiting? What are some of the questions? Or
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  how do you help the, the restaurant owners to define the
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  vision? Can you share a little bit more you talked about? What
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  is the profit? Or, you know, how much money do you want to make?
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  Yeah, yeah,
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  Bradley Lum: you're just really trying to figure out, you know,
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  what, what do they want? And a lot of times, you know, like I
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  said, they're going to, a lot of people are just gonna say money
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  at first, but really, that's not really the goal. So I mean, if
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  you've, if you really think about it, it's not really the
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  money, it's really the feeling that the money will give you.
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  Right? Or, or, you know, because having things is just, you know,
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  it's just a thing, but it will make you feel a certain way,
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  when you have it right. So. So yeah, getting the goal out of
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  out of them is, is is pretty, pretty difficult some time
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  unless they really know. So anyhow, you know, it could be a
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  smaller vision where, you know, I want my restaurant to be
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  operated this way, or you know, what I mean, or a little more
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  casual, or I wanted to kind of be like a Chipotle where they
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  all line up and kind of order down the line. Right? So it
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  could be something as simple as that.
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  Melinda Lee: Right? But I love that, that idea of the feeling.
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  Because if nobody knows where we're going, then everything
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  seems more ambiguous. But if you paint a picture, even if it's a
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  small up level of something, whether it's a Chipotle, or
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  whether it's a beautiful formal gathering, but it's like the
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  feeling that, hey, we're all working towards something.
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  Right? Right. It's like, everybody's like, okay, we're
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  working toward a feeling of inspiring and making something
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  happen, that wasn't there.
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  Bradley Lum: Right, right. And getting, I mean, it could be
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  something really vague, you know, it's just like getting in
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  the car and driving somewhere. It's like, I know, I want to get
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  to New York, right. And so there's a lot of ways to get to
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  New York. But after you figure out where you want to go, then
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  you can kind of like put the little steps in the play. Right
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  on what you think
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  Melinda Lee: are the challenges with communicating things like
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  this.
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  Bradley Lum: Just that you know, not not worrying, knowing where
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  you want to go. And then also, there could be other smaller
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  vision. So after you get that that end goal, you know, it
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  could be upper management to their goals, you know, I want to
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  get out of here at 930. You know, and so, knowing that you
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  want to get out there 930 These things, maybe this thing takes
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  15 minutes, this thing takes 30 minutes, so then you can kind of
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  structure it and put everything into play.
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  Melinda Lee: Right, right, right. And then know if
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  something is off track. Least we see you know, has some
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  documentation or some data of what happened or if we veered
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  off track,
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  Bradley Lum: things that happened. Exactly.
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  Melinda Lee: So a lot of these restaurant owners don't even
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  have the vision. That's actually the first huge, huge block. And
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  then once they do, there could be some potential challenges
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  with communicating it. But at least we're more aware. Can you
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  give any tips of what then once they have it, what are some key
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  tips on executing or painting that vision getting everybody in
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  alignment,
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  Bradley Lum: right? Documentation. Documenting and
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  recording your progress. Just knowing where you're at at all
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  times, is very important. That way you can make adjustments,
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  right? Just like if you're on a, an aeroplane, you know, it could
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  be just off like two degrees and you know, you're trying to go to
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  Hawaii but all of a sudden you end up in the north pole or
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  whatever it is right. But knowing where you are, you can
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  kind of oh, I'm a little off course I just need to keep
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  adjusting. Right Um, so documenting your progress is
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  very important. And a lot of restaurant owners don't even
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  don't even do that they, you know, they just remember stuff,
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  you know, it could be even, it's something as simple as you know
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  what time that I pulled that out of the oven. Right? If
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  something's cooling down, and this is very important for the,
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  for the health department to, because they want to see, I
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  mean, if you do have a violation, they, you know, a
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  good way is to have documentation of of things. So
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  then that way they they know that you're on top of, you know,
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  your food safety. So, yeah, it could be something, something as
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  simple as that just, you know, documenting what time you pulled
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  something out of the oven, what time you clean the bathroom, you
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  know, if you go to a restaurant, a bathroom in the restaurant,
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  right? They always, most times they'll have a schedule, and
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  they'll have somebody whose initial what time they kind of
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  just documentation is is key.
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  Melinda Lee: Yeah, right. And then I mean, because that's
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  because like you said, a lot of times are so challenge was
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  trying to just make money. And so all this documentation
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  doesn't seem very important. Right? And, and then looking
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  back, you're like, What just happened in that year? We don't
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  even know, where did things fail? We don't know. And so
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  having at least a documentation, even if you did not get the
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  outcome that you wanted, but at least you can have some
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  information about where where maybe things have failed, or
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  where maybe maybe things can have better process improvement.
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  Right? Having someone come like you, like a consultant come on
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  board to be a part of the team. Do you find people resisting to
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  the changes? And what are some of the things that? Yeah, yeah,
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  Bradley Lum: I do. You know, and as a consultant, I can only tell
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  you what would be, you know, the best, your best practices are,
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  you know, the best use of, of whatever it is. And many times,
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  you know, people don't like change, you know, people, they
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  Yeah, they just don't like change. And it's just hard to
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  get somebody to, to change, how they think, how they, how they
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  operate. So yeah, that's, that's, that's pretty
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  challenging. And a lot of times, I have to just kind of wait
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  until it fails. Before they were like, oh, okay, yeah, we would
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  have done It
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  Melinda Lee: That's true. That's so yeah.
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  Bradley Lum: So just being able to, and then, you know, I to
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  kind of remedy that I just go back and talk story about
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  whatever, my past clients or even my experiences, or you
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  know, what happened to me and, you know, trying to try to go
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  that route. And most times that helps. But yeah, a lot of times
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  they they, they don't change until something happens. Like
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  you're, you know, just kind of like people's diet, right? If
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  they don't stop eating sugar until they get diabetes in.
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  Melinda Lee: Right. Right. Right. Yeah, something needs to
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  happen. And then they say, Okay, I want to try to change
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  something, and, but you also share some experiences, I mean,
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  this at least your due diligence, as a, as a
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  consultant, or as a manager, to share your personal experiences,
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  and what could happen if things don't change, right? Here are
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  some, yeah, personal experiences, and we're just
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  wandering and just really being authentic and genuine in terms
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  of these experiences. And then at the end of the day, yeah,
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  they're going to decide on their own whether they want to change
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  or not, and hurt themselves too bad or to cost too much. To the
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  business or to the right.
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  Bradley Lum: Yeah, yeah, sometimes. Yeah. I mean, you
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  don't want to get to the point where, you know, your reputation
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  is so bad that you ended up having to change your name or,
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  or, that's kind of the worst case scenario. Right? It was,
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  you know, the worst case scenario with kind of getting it
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  taken away from you. If it got to that point, but there's a lot
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  of things that could happen but but yeah, you know, I tried to
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  just prevent that you know, by by helping them and giving them
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  advice and doing what they needed to do.
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  Melinda Lee: I mean, I really admire what you do I get cuz I
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  think back to the restaurants now. And it's not just a Russia,
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  it's a community, especially with AI and the pandemic and a
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  lot of these restaurants have shut down and it's just so sad
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  and he's night when I see restaurants that are a small mom
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  and pop and they're empty. There's always breaks my heart.
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  I'll just like So glad you're doing this. Um, I mean, what
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  lights you up when you do these things?
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  Bradley Lum: Really, when when they succeed, you know, their
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  success stories? You know, they're just them winning, you
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  know?
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  Melinda Lee: Yeah, can you give an example of one of your
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  clients?
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  Bradley Lum: Sure, there's a client in South San Francisco
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  that, you know, when I first started with them, they were
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  losing anywhere from 20 to $40,000 a month. And, and today,
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  they're, they're on track to probably do a little under the
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  last check was probably about maybe like, four months ago, but
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  they were on track to do about 1.5. Yeah, so it's,
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  Melinda Lee: and we did things that you did, like some high
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  level things that you did to help them.
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  Bradley Lum: Number one was getting them to communicate
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  better. You know, because of the way that the restaurant was set
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  up, they'd have to go back and forth a lot. So you know,
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  something as simple as just getting headsets, right, you
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  know, so they can communicate back and forth. There, and then
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  the arrangement of the, well, the first thing I did was, was
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  really to rearrange their kitchen, because they, they were
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  doing pizza in there, and they have this, this dough prep
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  machine that kind of presses it and pre in part cooks the dough,
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  and then from there, you would take it, and then kind of put
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  all your toppings on, it's kind of how what are those, like blue
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  line pizza, you know, those, those fast, quick serve pizza
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  places are, is that kind of that same machine that they use, when
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  it was they used it at this place, but the thing was, is
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  like on one side of the room was was that and on the other side
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  of the room was the oven. So number one is like, you know,
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  you got to walk, you know, 100 steps over to get the dough to
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  the oven, it just didn't make sense. So just rearranging the
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  kitchen, so it flowed better. And then getting the the kitchen
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  to kind of communicate with each other. So they all kind of know
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  where they're at. Like, if you'd be just a ticket, that could be
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  like 10, nine, it was on the ticket. And you know, you have
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  four different stations. So you have to kind of you have to
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  communicate to all these stations to get the food out at
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  the same time. Nobody likes to, you know, if your party of six,
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  and you're sitting there, and then one guy gets his food, and
• 17:30
  everybody else is sitting there waiting, you know, it's kind of,
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  it's not a good thing, food gets cold, you know, and last thing
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  you want to do is have the food gets sent back. So getting that
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  line of communication going, getting them to talk to each
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  other. You know, knowing where each other is that is going to
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  help you execute and get that ticket out on time. So, you
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  know, putting printers where they needed to be putting
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  expediters where they needed to be having a lead Cook, to
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  communicate to the expediter you know, things like that. It's all
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  Yeah, it's just a lot of the communication just needed to be
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  done, because nobody was talking to each other. And yeah, yeah.
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  So there was that. And then, you know, she was the owner of this,
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  this restaurant, she was very meticulous about her accounting,
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  I mean, she would do everything on Excel. So she knew exactly,
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  all her numbers, right. So, you know, just taking that mentality
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  and applying it to the other parts of the restaurant. You
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  know, I just I just kind of, because that's the way that she
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  communicating was through through data and things like
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  that. So just getting data and documentation of other parts of
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  the restaurant, you know,
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  Melinda Lee: be more meticulous about the communication. So
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  she's meticulous about the finances. And I think sometimes
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  when we think about soft skills, we don't measure we don't track
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  right. And so being just as you can be just as meticulous with
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  in terms of the process with communication, and having some
• 19:27
  data around that, like how long does it take to communicate from
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  like you said, you close the gap and communicating from the front
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  end to the back end or between in the in the kitchen as well.
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  Right? Awesome,
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  Bradley Lum: right? And all that is all that it's it's money
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  right? So if it takes you 20 minutes to fire to get this this
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  food out. If you could get it down to eight, you know, you'll
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  be able to turn tables faster, you'll be able to have more
• 19:54
  people come in and your girl sales would just be higher.
• 19:59
  Yeah. In theory
• 20:04
  Melinda Lee: Thank you, Bradley. Well, congratulations on that
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  success and helping these restaurants. And I hope that
• 20:11
  more people go out and enjoy your local restaurant and and do
• 20:15
  you have any one last like tip or key tips for leaders for
• 20:20
  restaurant owners when it comes to their businesses? And
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  Bradley Lum: yeah, leaders should really, you know, I'd
• 20:31
  say, Listen, you know, you were born with two ears and one
• 20:37
  mouth, so kind of use them to proportion. Listen to what your
• 20:42
  your team is telling you, obviously, listen to listen to
• 20:46
  their upper leaders as well. And yeah, I would say, you know, you
• 20:54
  listen, a lot of people don't, don't listen. There's, there's
• 21:00
  these three words that are very dangerous in a lot of business,
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  for entrepreneurs and people in the in the in the businesses is
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  I already know, right? There's always something to learn, I
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  think in every situation and just listening and being patient
• 21:20
  and, you know, you'd be able to solve a lot of problems.
• 21:26
  Melinda Lee: Yeah, yeah. If someone is has the courage to
• 21:29
  say something to you, then at least open up both ears to try
• 21:33
  to listen. Absolutely. I love that. It's so true. So true.
• 21:39
  Thank you so much, Bradley, that was so helpful. So empowering. I
• 21:44
  think there's a lot of similarities between restaurant
• 21:47
  owners, with their teams and also corporate teams, and how to
• 21:50
  communicate more effectively together. And once you do that,
• 21:54
  you can accomplish so much more, right? Having that vision, and
• 21:58
  then knowing who's going to be part of that vision and what
• 22:01
  role they play in implementing that vision and having the
• 22:04
  communication to make that happen. When breakdowns happen,
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  who's going to support each other and who's going to help
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  each other out and just having that all dialled in, like you
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  said, can can help these restaurants? Hopefully not have
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  such a high fail rate? Yeah, yeah. And so any restaurant
• 22:25
  owners or people that know restaurant owners that are out
• 22:28
  there that are struggling? How can they find you?
• 22:30
  Bradley Lum: Um, the best way would probably be to email me
• 22:35
  or, or just call me. My email is pretty simple. Just
• 22:39
  Bradleylum@gmail.com. And that's probably the easiest way to get
• 22:44
  to me. Yeah,
• 22:47
  Melinda Lee: Bradleylum@gmail.com. Yep. Hope you all enjoyed. Thank
• 22:51
  you, Bradley, and really appreciate your time today.
• 22:54
  Bradley Lum: Absolutely. Thank you for having me. It wasn't
• 22:56
  fun.
• 22:57
  Melinda Lee: Thank you.
• 22:58
  Bradley Lum: All right.