Who needs a consultant? FAQ's to show how SQ² provides value to your business.

by: Chef Steven Queen

Sometimes we get the question in our personal or professional lives "how do we help businesses and what do we sell?". Well, truthfully, we sell ourselves and our expertise but

we believe there is a lot more behind what we do than that. The truth is, most businesses could benefit from a consultant. Think back to a time you hired someone new or a new individual joined a team you were a part of and soon afterward offered up a suggestion or solution to a longstanding problem or challenge.

Sometimes an organization or a department just needs a fresh set of eyes and a different perspective to be able to see a solution. That is why we say most businesses would benefit from a consultant. Much like a mentor or a partner, we aren't here to tell you that something is wrong or your team has done a bad job, we are here to listen and provide advice and solutions. On the topic of a mentor, did you know most business owners who never had a mentor, wish they did. Now we aren't suggesting to look up to us in this manner but we are saying all people need help, even business owners. Businesses are complex, restaurnats are fast paced with what seems like infinite variables, and people need help. Think of us a partner who can provide valuable insights and bandwidth to your business.

We do this in many ways and much like a restaurant, those almost infinite variables exist in our business as well. Most of what we do is custom designed consulting packages aimed at specific client needs.

We determine those needs through our free consultation then get to work providing our clients with a scope of work and price quote that only includes what they need.

What makes consulting so expensive and how can a business with restaurant profit margins afford your services?

Well consulting appears expensive at the outset because our hourly rate is higher than the rates we pay our employees and because we quote package pricing that typically includes large amounts of work. We think our pricing is quite reasonable and fair for the services we provide. In fact, we are so confident in the value we provide that we are one of the very few consultanting companies who include pricing on thier website. Our services are often much cheaper than they appear because we often make expense related suggestions or improvements and sometimes have saved our clients more than twice the cost to hire us within the same year.

Now that answering the first part of this compound question provided some insight into the second part.. let's go a little deeper. We started this company to help business owners, especially restaurants since thats our jam. We approach every job with your profitability and expenses in mind, including the expense of hiring us. That is why we do everything in our power to be efficient, effective, and affordable as a partner to you.

We will even make reccomendations of things you can do for certain jobs that can save us time and therefore, you money. That said, sometimes you don't have extra time and that is part of what we provide... so it's your choice.

Our goal and mindset is to provide multiples of our cost in savings over time.

Ok, so how do you add value to a business?

There are almost too many examples of services and areas to cover without boring the reader or compiling a big impressive list of fancy sounding services that don't actually explain much.

Our company mission is "To form lasting partnerships with our clients while greatly improving their businesses financials, operations, and products" so adding value is the purpose of our existence and what we strive for in all we do. In order to save the "big impressive list" from needing to exist... just set up a free consultation if you want to learn more.

Do you consult for more than restaurants and the hospitality industry?

Not only do we offer some pretty cool services outside of the hospitality industry but we love getting to see your unique challenges and bringing our expertise to other industries. Working with us you will quickly realize how some influence from hospitality leaders will benefit your organization. After-all the concept of business remains in tact across industries and so many problems an organization can face aren't industry specific.

Keep in mind the restaurant industry was reported to average only a 6.5% profit margin in 2019, which is of course prior to the pandemic and recent inflation. This type of profitablity makes the restaruant industry one of the lower profit margin businesses while simultaneously being one of the most difficult to run. Having over 40 years of experience in hospitality has given us a unique perspective of the business landscape and a knack for problem solving and operations.

Outside of the hospitality industry we largely focus on consulting related to operations efficiency, expenses, and general business consulting. While this list sounds vague, our offerings are extensive... We can help with most things from business plan and pro forma to making your meetings effective and cost cutting.

Why do I need menu consulting if I have a chef?

You may not... There are some great chefs out there who juggle the various tasks and responsibilities of being a chef well. Their food and labor costs are consistently good, the food quality at or above standards, their kitchen is clean, they write and execute well balanced menus, and the staff respects them and enjoys working with them in spite of the chef holding them accountable to their job responsibilities. Honestly speaking though, for most people, being great in all of these areas is a big ask and a difficult task. It is difficult to switch from running a successful service to holding an accountability converstaion and then focus on developing a new recipe in just an hours time but realistically that is what chefs are expected to do. Not to mention we didn't cover the rest of this chefs day which consisted of receiving orders, prepping food, expediting the kitchen, and making business decisions in the form of ordering food, disposable supplies, and chemicals for the weekend and then writing next weeks schedule before going home for the day.

Being a chef is a hard job with a lot of responsibilities and tasks to master. When you start taking an in depth look at these tasks and responsibilities there may be an area your chef would appreciate help.

We offer many services that can be beneficial to your business even if you do have a chef. We can come in with some fresh menu ideas or put together specialized training programs to help in specific areas. Say you have a very talented chef that needs help on the business side or an excellent kitchen manager who runs the business and costs well but could use a hand coming up with new dishes or recipes... we can help with either scenario.

Why would it be beneficial to work with you on a concept or restaurant opening when I will still need a chef and GM to run my business?

There are some big reasons our clients choose to work with us in these capacities while knowing they will still often need a chef or kitchen manager and a GM to run the business. Often times our work allows owners to save a significant amount of cost in the opening process by allowing them to hire their GM and Chef or Kitchen Manager later in the pre opening process and sometimes owners have saved significant amounts in the salaries of their managers as well by hiring great but less experienced individuals and having us train them on our systems to run the business.

We have even had owners hire kitchen managers or chef de cuisines instead of an executive chef since we completely built out all of the systems and recipes in a way that they only needed to be managed well.

Above all of this however, is with us you know what are getting. Our scope of work is delivered on time and we provide training on how to use the systems we build for your establishment. You don't have to rely on hitting multiple bullseyes in the management hiring pool to build out what you already have us working on.

On top of that with us you get the work of proven professionals who have not only held the positions you are hiring for but have been promoted by organizations into director roles to help GMs and Chefs run thier properties. With our expertise, proven track record, and references you can breathe easy knowing you have a trustworthy team interested in your success.

We would love to discuss what we offer and more ways we have heard our services save money in the long run, if you are interested in learning more please reach out to us to schedule a free consultation.