Set the example. Every once in a while something will pop up and you’ll tell them to do it, and it just doesn’t get done or it does get done and it’s just not right. It could be a simple thing like hanging a sign or banner. Sometimes it’s the easiest thing in the world and people just do it, and because it’s so simple they don’t take the pride in it of making sure it’s leveled or straight or centered. I’ll say, ‘Can you put that banner up for me?’ and they’ll do it crooked or it’s not centered. I’ll just do it myself and I’ll show you how you should have done it. Then they look at you like, ‘OK, why is it that important?’ Well, because it is. It’s important that it’s straight and that it’s centered and that it looks right. You’ve got to have pride in what you’re doing and have passion in what you’re doing. If you’re working, you should have a passion for it. Take pride in your work and have a passion for it.
Set goals. We visualize where we want to be three months, six months, nine months, 12 months down the road, and we identify everything we’re going to do and try to reach them — it’s like an onion, and keep peeling back the onion.
All of our goals are set monetarily, so our budgets are pretty much our goals. We don’t make an unrealistic budget — we look at last year, we look at the economy, and we study it. A [former] partner of mine tells me that all of these restaurants are complaining that they’re down 15, 20, 30 percent. I’m very upset. We’re flat. We’re doing the same amount of business as we did last year — we haven’t increased any. He’s telling me I should be thrilled, but I’m not — I’m not thrilled with mediocrity. Our food is good enough and our service is good enough, so we should be up, but everyone tells me I should be happy. I guess in this economy flat is the new up. Flat is not in my vocabulary — even for this year we set our goal for 10 percent higher than what we did last year.
You just need to talk about it and open up your eyes and say, ‘What will help you be better, and what will help us all be better and reach those goals? What does it take? Does it take more advertising? Do we need to spend more advertising dollars? Do we need to look inside our walls or outside our walls? Is there something that we can do? Maybe your signs are wrong? Maybe your front entrance is wrong?’
How to reach: Rockin’ Baja Coastal Cantina, (619) 234-6333 or www.rockinbaja.com