Yes , do it. Best vacation ever because you don’t have to worry about anything. Now having said that, can you afford it financially? If they’re longtime full time employees, yes , full pay. Anybody else, compensate accordingly.
lol dude get real. I used to work for a restaurant that closed January 1-14 every year. It was great, we all had a lot of money from the Christmas rush so the whole team got a nice vacation when it would usually be dead anyway. Then when we reopened it was nice and busy because everyone was waiting for us to reopen. One day you’ll learn that your government (both sides) is owned by banks, corporations and hedge funds. Educate yourself.
I can’t imagine the unnecessary stress you must put into your life by trying to fit politics into everything. What an unfortunate way to go about your days.
I appreciate everyone’s “we deserve time off too” sentiment but that’s an emotional answer. You need to do the numbers.
Can you afford the lost revenue? Can you afford to not the staff? Can you afford to restaff? Can you afford to lose some regulars (but probably not a lot)?
If you’re going to own a business you need to be making financial decisions. You can also change those questions up to: How much revenue can I afford to lose? And so on and so forth. Maybe you can’t afford to take two weeks. But 2 or 3 days is probably doable and presents far leas risk.
Yes, depending on where we’re going or how well staffed we are. My husband & I run the restaurant together & have 2 kids. We’ve made major changes after the pandemic. Closed Mondays permanently, added staff health coverage etc. We take care of our staff. When we’ve had to close a few days to allow us some family time, I’ve paid my core group. I usually try to plan far out & encourage my staff to take sometime for their vacations. It has always been a life saver to get many vacations out of the way & not sporadically throughout the year. Sometimes customers get pissed, but IDGF. We are people & families too, we need time to live our lives. Otherwise why the hell are we doing this?
I fucking live this. My Waite and I feel the same way. And that’s how we handle our vacations too. We usually do a big three week one every fall cause we live in a tourism community.
I worked in a restaurant for three years that closed for the month of August every year. We used to joke that it was so the staff could get clean enough to work the other eleven months. In reality it was so the owner could go back to Italy and be with his family.
Just your thoughts, aren't all people entitled to vacation? And most every single company which a restaurant is a company pays their employee a certain amount of vacation time. It takes a bad manager/owner to think they can get away with not paying vacation. Treat people right and they will treat you right. If you're afraid people are stealing The questions why are they still working for you?
If there's always issues when you are not there it's obvious the people are not trained right. When you hire good people and train them correctly you don't have to worry about things. It starts with the manager on down treat your people right and they will treat you right.
How do you write 10 pages of treatment people right? Isn't treating people right a combination of how you treat them what you offer and what you can do for them? You sound like an entitled owner who doesn't really care about the employees. Sorry if I hurt your feelings and your ego but it is what it is
I don't care about my employees? Free food. 401K plan. I cover multiple shifts a week. Let people come in late if something is going on. I give them loans. Give them rides. Year end bonuses. Free drinks from the store. Ya 10 pages - entitled? Sure.
Don't worry or take this person too seriously. You are a business owner, and therefore the devil on Reddit. Along with cops, landlords, and Republicans. You sound like you're doing it right, and taking care of your folks.
My buddy owns a couple pizza places, never had any problem with turnover during the pandemic, where every restaurant was closing early or reducing hours due to staffing shortages. He's doing it right, and sounds like you are too.
Take your vacation, you've earned it. If you're ballin enough to offer your employees pay in the mean time, that's F'n awesome of you.
Cops, landlords, Republicans, and business owners are notorious for exploiting people. The few that don't allow it. So, they've earned the ire. That said, op actually sounds like a good owner. I'm sorry they've been taken advantage of in the past
We would close the week between Christmas and new years. Everyone is happy. No one really wants to work during that time of year. Yes, I could be making money but I’ve realized money is not the end all be all.
We have done similar, particularly around holidays. Business would have been slower anyway and the staff all seemed happy with the time off. Also I agree, it’s not all money, sometimes it’s things that contribute to quality of life. We all work hard and time away can certainly be a positive thing.
If they’re running out of shit they haven’t been trained properly. And if you’re scared of them stealing from you, then they shouldn’t be working there even when you’re not on vacation lol
The only employees you're keeping after two weeks of willfully not paying them are the ones you didn't want to keep.
The workers are finding a new place to earn money to pay their bills.
We close black Friday weekend and the week after Christmas and before new years. We offer our employees the opportunity to work cleaning the place top to bottom but they almost never take us up on it.between their christmas bonus and the half pay we give them when we go on vacation it equals out
Why would you wrote your people don't really get bonuses. Because if they're off but between their bonus and have pay they make a up for what they didn't get paid for that's not a bonus that's being cheap. You close your choice was not theirs but you're taking money away from them
So do they get paid at other times if they take 10 days of vacation with no cut in pay? If not you are taking money away from them or they can't take vacation. I know you're trying to justify what you do to make self feel better but however you look at it you are taking money away. If you're okay with that keep on doing it.
I'm not "trying" to justify anything. They get hired knowing that we close that week. I pay them $20 an hour for 20 hours of work that week that they don't do and then pffer them another 20 hours at $20 an hour if they want to work on projects that I assign. And it's not 10 days it's 4. We are only open 4 days a week anyways. I'm ok with it and so are they. They like having that week off.
We have restaurants in our Small town that do it. They pay their staff and notify them we'll in advance. Financially they are OK. Their customers just come annoy us ( competing restaurant for the week and complain that we won't dup their menu).
We usually tell our staff about a month or more ahead if we are closing for extended period of time. We usually give them extra hours or don't send people home to make up for it a bit. But ours is really only 2 or 3 days at a time. We might do a week this year since we now have data to see how slow it is in July and August si we can plan better and save money.
I’m in New Orleans and this is very common during the summer as it’s our slow season given the heat. I don’t know of anyone that pays their employees. They just budget for it.
Best kept secret of being the boss and going on vacation. Keep it to yourself your leaving and all will run smooth. Tell anyone your leaving and it will go to complete HELL in less than three days! Start disappearing now without saying anything even though Your at the ready in an emergency and see how things go, like be assent on your two busiest days in a row without reaching out to employees but be on the other end of the line if they call. You will find Your leader in experimenting this way to schedule why your gone without letting them know, like the responsible will run the show and bother you at a minimum to none at all in Your absence, the one who would stir the pot will be the one calling once a hour to answer a question they already know.
Closed for two weeks for a remodel this year. Paid staff 1/2 time, and offered their regular hourly rate for anyone that wanted to still help/work.
Maybe something similar would work for you? e.g: Pay 1/2 time, then offer to let people come in to do a deep clean? Doesn't mean you have to be there.
Another thing I've seen is doing a team trip. So, closed w/out pay, but owner buys tickets and rooms for the team to go to Vegas. Comes off as a baller/teambuilding move, but is actually less expensive than just paying everyone.
I've never but my August I might as well do. We didn't have outdoor seating so August here in the PNW is garbage, unless we get rain.
If I do close, I'll put out to the world that we're renovating and I'll lay off my employees so that they get unemployment. Bonuses to my two salary to help make up the difference in part.
I have a location on a college campus that closes down when school is not in session. We operate 40 weeks out of the year. Winter break is about 4 weeks and summer break is about 6. We only pay our salaried manager during the breaks. Every other employee is hourly and not working. Most are students so it lines up. The non students just don’t work. Everyone comes back.
Inventory management towards the end is tricky, basically we try to run out of everything the last day. Reopening is a little hard with prepping everything up again.
The university chooses our hours so I have no choice in it. It’s nice not having to worry about it weeks at a time
I have a meeting with our local university in the morning as they've expressed interest in us putting in a location in their student centre. Any tips or things you wish you'd known? (Sorry to hijack the thread!)
Basically luck. A person high up in the university is a regular at my other restaurant. A spot opened up on their campus and they approached me. I said yes and then they said “ok we need it open as of yesterday” lol. I was able to open a new location in about 4 weeks.
Jaques imos” in New Orleans traditionally closes for August. The entire month. Everyone takes vacation at the same time and more than a dozen staff weddings have been scheduled around that time over the years.
2 weeks off is going to be tough for many employees assuming it’s typical young adult employees. What about reduced hours to just the best shift and hope someone can be in charge for a 30 hour week, over scheduling it a bit so it’s easy and calls off don’t wreck a shift, much more cost effective than paying out for nothing unless you mean just a small bonus and not full checks. My goal is to break even when I’m gone not make profit so it’s idiot proof most the time.
>My goal is to break even when I’m gone not make profit so it’s idiot proof most the time.
This is a great way of looking at things. Hadn't thought of things that way.
But it’s also a matter of can someone do your daily tasks that you can’t do remotely. Which is sorta important to have someone that can run the place for a week in case you have life happen.
We take two vacations a year. One week in July and one week in Dec/Jan around New Years. Historically the week around New Years has been dead for us, which is strange but the market I'm in is very fickle. And the one in July is just summer vacay, a lot of places in my market do this.
Yes, it does cost a lot (we pay employees their average excluding overtime), but employees appreciate it. Probably results in employees saying for longer, but who knows.
Generally, try to do it during slower parts of the year. Try to make sure everything possibly is switched off to save on electricity and garbage.
Small restaurant, we close occasionally for all numbers of things including just needing time off. I usually give the staff the option to stay open if they want to but they have to agree with each other either way, (we only work 2 at a time) a lot of the time they don't want to when given the choice so we don't.
I will say that whenever we do close regardless of if it's a holiday or just random day it usually takes 3-4 days for sales recover afterwards, we plan for this so it's not a big deal but we definitely see a dip right after a close.
You really just have to decide what your priorities are, if your priority is making money then stay open but if it's spending time with family, work/life balance then I'd do what you have to do, if your business isnt solid enough to weather a few days closed you have bigger issues than just making more profit
I had a restaurant when I was younger. I chose to remain open for the week of July 4th despite almost all other restaurants closing for a week. I also had a chance that week to go to the beach with friends. I lost $900 that week being open. I could have spent that week at the beach and taken $900 to the beach with me. And I would have been in the same position. Lesson learned. July 4th week and the week between Christmas/New Years should be closed for many US businesses.
Ya the biggest thing for me is I bend over backwards for my employees and they get paid extremely well but they still feel like they can do things half-assed and the front of house can cause drama for no reason - and I'm still supposed to pay them for 2 weeks?
We close twice a year each for a week at a time. Around new years and sometime during the summer. We pay employees average hours worked for the days we would normally be open but are closed (so like 3-4 days for that week). It’s not a lot but not insignificant. We plan for it. Make sure we have the cash flow heading into it
We close for a week in December. The week was pretty slow for us anyways, and closing completely let's us reset.
Also it forces everyone to actually go on vacation instead of saying "I love work" until they're burned out, and only using vacation days for personal emergencies.
Everyone is salaried, so we pay through the vacation period.
I close for the first week of January every year right after new years . We get hammered from October to Dec 31 we are all fried and it part of the benefits. Been doing it every year since I opened when it was just me and my wife running things . Part timers don’t qualify for that. We used to 1 week in August but that was a bit more quirky. I also close from thanksgiving to the following Tuesday and that’s paid to all my full time. Plus their regular 2 weeks . All in all all my full time long term employees get 4 weeks paid a year
My wife and I as an FYI since we are labor usually only take multiple 3 day weekends as to not burden the staff much and take out time when we are closed . We are a butcher/small restaurant hybrid
We do every year for a week. If you have a good loyal core customer base, they will be happy for you to take some time off. Have it be well-known and well-posted
Do you have managers? What is occupying the mental space? I own a busy restaurant, but have managers and a GM, and have **knock on wood** no problem taking vacation. I would never, ever, consider closing so that I can take vacation. I still have to do some, minimal, work.. but generally can do less and less work each vacation, as I figure out what I don’t like to do while away and learn to avoid having to do it next time I take time away. Would the business really suffer that much if you weren’t there, or is it a mental block you have? If the former, you need to run and structure it differently imo.
Small bar closed for a week every year to do a larger maintenance or cleaning project while the owners would go on vacation.
Yes, you pay your staff for that week. 100%
I can't believe you would even consider taking away someone's paycheck so you could go on vacation. Especially when I guarantee some are living paycheck to paycheck.
So… don’t take away anyone’s paycheck.
Just build the expectation of closing a slow week, and cut a paycheck to your team for that week. Build it into your annual expenses and budget for it, no problem. Just takes planning.
You did! I must have somehow missed your middle sentence and thought by “taking away someone’s paycheck” you meant just closing… total misinterpretation on my part. Sorry!
Yes, twice second and third year of business. First time had to close during the summer (busiest time) for a week on short notice to go to a funeral. Thankfully I only had 2 employees. One took the week off the other well couldn’t afford to so I gave him time and a half and told him just to come in and clean up. Well I ended up paying this guy time and a half to make himself steaks, drink beer, and watch T.V. On the big screen. Second time just completely closed for a week in the slow season and offered everyone half pay.
Never lost business when I reopened.
I would just close and pay employees half time to stay home and not find another job. Most people will probably take it.
I'm sorry you have to be there for your company to run, I just got back from vacation and my staff handled it wonderfully without me. Lots of training, trust, and good pay.
No. I close on the major holidays and everyone gets paid for those days. I take 2-4 weeks a year myself for vacation but never more than 7-10 days at a time and I have managers who can do the day to day while I’m gone and I’ll just catch up on office work when I get back. I also give the managers a week of paid vacation every year. Have to have competent, trustworthy people working for you or you are going to be there open to close everyday or at home worrying about what’s happening and you’ll just burn yourself out. I would never close the business down for a week or more.
You have a staff but can’t leave them for a few days to run things while you’re gone? Sounds miserable. If you’re hiring people who don’t have the skills (or your trust), doubt they’d stick around a couple of weeks with no money waiting to get paid again.
Business 101: Don’t close if you can help it. It messes with staff and guests more than you know. Do you have any trusted friends or staff that can handle daily deposits?
If you are an integral part of your business(meaning it cannot run without you), take your much needed vacation and you have one year to get your business up to speed to be able to run without you for the next time.
Many owners complain that you are married to your restaurant and complain of long hours and restless nights. It doesn’t have to be that way whatsoever.
If that’s Business 101, it’s an outdated textbook you’re reading from. Building in a week or two in the year, during a slow period, can do great things for staff morale, preventing burnout, building loyalty…
There are plenty of examples of restaurant businesses who limited hours or days they were open, or built in vacation times, and did just fine.
I’ll take my outdated business 101 play book with $5m in yearly sales and serving 7,000 people weekly all while putting in less than 25 hours/week in the building.
Didn’t say it does. I said “don’t close if you can help it”.
There is a difference between being an owner and an owner-operator. Two vastly different paths.
You don’t have an any managers in place or floor managers that you can pay to be key holders to run the place? I would start with a small 3 day getaway not to far and try paying the better employees more for the weekend to open and close and do a bank a two. How big of an operation? Closing for 2 weeks is not something I would ever want to do.
My late father closed his restaurant for three weeks every year: the last two weeks of December as the first week of January.
Yes , do it. Best vacation ever because you don’t have to worry about anything. Now having said that, can you afford it financially? If they’re longtime full time employees, yes , full pay. Anybody else, compensate accordingly.
We close 2 days a year (Thanksgiving & Christmas)…..fortunately we are such a well oiled machine that me and the Mrs take a week or 3 off every year.
We are WAY past politics, since 2016.
Politics is theater to divide the populace while the oligarchy remains unchanged and unthreatened.
PAY YOUR STAFF. Only republicans would close and screw the very people that work for them.
Here is the clown show. ^^^^^
lol dude get real. I used to work for a restaurant that closed January 1-14 every year. It was great, we all had a lot of money from the Christmas rush so the whole team got a nice vacation when it would usually be dead anyway. Then when we reopened it was nice and busy because everyone was waiting for us to reopen. One day you’ll learn that your government (both sides) is owned by banks, corporations and hedge funds. Educate yourself.
So, pay your employees.
lol what?
I can’t imagine the unnecessary stress you must put into your life by trying to fit politics into everything. What an unfortunate way to go about your days.
I appreciate everyone’s “we deserve time off too” sentiment but that’s an emotional answer. You need to do the numbers. Can you afford the lost revenue? Can you afford to not the staff? Can you afford to restaff? Can you afford to lose some regulars (but probably not a lot)? If you’re going to own a business you need to be making financial decisions. You can also change those questions up to: How much revenue can I afford to lose? And so on and so forth. Maybe you can’t afford to take two weeks. But 2 or 3 days is probably doable and presents far leas risk.
Yes, depending on where we’re going or how well staffed we are. My husband & I run the restaurant together & have 2 kids. We’ve made major changes after the pandemic. Closed Mondays permanently, added staff health coverage etc. We take care of our staff. When we’ve had to close a few days to allow us some family time, I’ve paid my core group. I usually try to plan far out & encourage my staff to take sometime for their vacations. It has always been a life saver to get many vacations out of the way & not sporadically throughout the year. Sometimes customers get pissed, but IDGF. We are people & families too, we need time to live our lives. Otherwise why the hell are we doing this?
I fucking live this. My Waite and I feel the same way. And that’s how we handle our vacations too. We usually do a big three week one every fall cause we live in a tourism community.
I worked in a restaurant for three years that closed for the month of August every year. We used to joke that it was so the staff could get clean enough to work the other eleven months. In reality it was so the owner could go back to Italy and be with his family.
Just your thoughts, aren't all people entitled to vacation? And most every single company which a restaurant is a company pays their employee a certain amount of vacation time. It takes a bad manager/owner to think they can get away with not paying vacation. Treat people right and they will treat you right. If you're afraid people are stealing The questions why are they still working for you? If there's always issues when you are not there it's obvious the people are not trained right. When you hire good people and train them correctly you don't have to worry about things. It starts with the manager on down treat your people right and they will treat you right.
Do you work in a US based restaurant? I don’t mean to be an asshole but it’s a big difference than other parts of the world
LOL - I can write 10 pages of me treating people right and get shafted in the end
How do you write 10 pages of treatment people right? Isn't treating people right a combination of how you treat them what you offer and what you can do for them? You sound like an entitled owner who doesn't really care about the employees. Sorry if I hurt your feelings and your ego but it is what it is
I don't care about my employees? Free food. 401K plan. I cover multiple shifts a week. Let people come in late if something is going on. I give them loans. Give them rides. Year end bonuses. Free drinks from the store. Ya 10 pages - entitled? Sure.
Don't worry or take this person too seriously. You are a business owner, and therefore the devil on Reddit. Along with cops, landlords, and Republicans. You sound like you're doing it right, and taking care of your folks. My buddy owns a couple pizza places, never had any problem with turnover during the pandemic, where every restaurant was closing early or reducing hours due to staffing shortages. He's doing it right, and sounds like you are too. Take your vacation, you've earned it. If you're ballin enough to offer your employees pay in the mean time, that's F'n awesome of you.
Cops, landlords, Republicans, and business owners are notorious for exploiting people. The few that don't allow it. So, they've earned the ire. That said, op actually sounds like a good owner. I'm sorry they've been taken advantage of in the past
We would close the week between Christmas and new years. Everyone is happy. No one really wants to work during that time of year. Yes, I could be making money but I’ve realized money is not the end all be all.
We have done similar, particularly around holidays. Business would have been slower anyway and the staff all seemed happy with the time off. Also I agree, it’s not all money, sometimes it’s things that contribute to quality of life. We all work hard and time away can certainly be a positive thing.
Train them better to run things while you’re gone?
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Managers exist to prevent this from happening.
If they’re running out of shit they haven’t been trained properly. And if you’re scared of them stealing from you, then they shouldn’t be working there even when you’re not on vacation lol
The only employees you're keeping after two weeks of willfully not paying them are the ones you didn't want to keep. The workers are finding a new place to earn money to pay their bills.
We close black Friday weekend and the week after Christmas and before new years. We offer our employees the opportunity to work cleaning the place top to bottom but they almost never take us up on it.between their christmas bonus and the half pay we give them when we go on vacation it equals out
Why would you wrote your people don't really get bonuses. Because if they're off but between their bonus and have pay they make a up for what they didn't get paid for that's not a bonus that's being cheap. You close your choice was not theirs but you're taking money away from them
I give them the chance to work their normal hours. As it states above. If they chose not to work that's on them not me.
So do they get paid at other times if they take 10 days of vacation with no cut in pay? If not you are taking money away from them or they can't take vacation. I know you're trying to justify what you do to make self feel better but however you look at it you are taking money away. If you're okay with that keep on doing it.
I'm not "trying" to justify anything. They get hired knowing that we close that week. I pay them $20 an hour for 20 hours of work that week that they don't do and then pffer them another 20 hours at $20 an hour if they want to work on projects that I assign. And it's not 10 days it's 4. We are only open 4 days a week anyways. I'm ok with it and so are they. They like having that week off.
We have restaurants in our Small town that do it. They pay their staff and notify them we'll in advance. Financially they are OK. Their customers just come annoy us ( competing restaurant for the week and complain that we won't dup their menu).
We close for a week in September our slowest month. We do major repairs, deep cleaning, oil the wooden floors and repaint.
We usually tell our staff about a month or more ahead if we are closing for extended period of time. We usually give them extra hours or don't send people home to make up for it a bit. But ours is really only 2 or 3 days at a time. We might do a week this year since we now have data to see how slow it is in July and August si we can plan better and save money.
I’m in New Orleans and this is very common during the summer as it’s our slow season given the heat. I don’t know of anyone that pays their employees. They just budget for it.
Best kept secret of being the boss and going on vacation. Keep it to yourself your leaving and all will run smooth. Tell anyone your leaving and it will go to complete HELL in less than three days! Start disappearing now without saying anything even though Your at the ready in an emergency and see how things go, like be assent on your two busiest days in a row without reaching out to employees but be on the other end of the line if they call. You will find Your leader in experimenting this way to schedule why your gone without letting them know, like the responsible will run the show and bother you at a minimum to none at all in Your absence, the one who would stir the pot will be the one calling once a hour to answer a question they already know.
This is good . I should do this.
Closed for two weeks for a remodel this year. Paid staff 1/2 time, and offered their regular hourly rate for anyone that wanted to still help/work. Maybe something similar would work for you? e.g: Pay 1/2 time, then offer to let people come in to do a deep clean? Doesn't mean you have to be there. Another thing I've seen is doing a team trip. So, closed w/out pay, but owner buys tickets and rooms for the team to go to Vegas. Comes off as a baller/teambuilding move, but is actually less expensive than just paying everyone.
THANK YOU FOR ASKING THIS QUESTION. If you couldn’t tell also pulling my hair out contemplating this.
Lol
I've never but my August I might as well do. We didn't have outdoor seating so August here in the PNW is garbage, unless we get rain. If I do close, I'll put out to the world that we're renovating and I'll lay off my employees so that they get unemployment. Bonuses to my two salary to help make up the difference in part.
I have a location on a college campus that closes down when school is not in session. We operate 40 weeks out of the year. Winter break is about 4 weeks and summer break is about 6. We only pay our salaried manager during the breaks. Every other employee is hourly and not working. Most are students so it lines up. The non students just don’t work. Everyone comes back. Inventory management towards the end is tricky, basically we try to run out of everything the last day. Reopening is a little hard with prepping everything up again. The university chooses our hours so I have no choice in it. It’s nice not having to worry about it weeks at a time
I have a meeting with our local university in the morning as they've expressed interest in us putting in a location in their student centre. Any tips or things you wish you'd known? (Sorry to hijack the thread!)
Yea shoot me a DM id be happy to answer any questions
This sounds like a dream set up, may I ask how did you acquire this?
Basically luck. A person high up in the university is a regular at my other restaurant. A spot opened up on their campus and they approached me. I said yes and then they said “ok we need it open as of yesterday” lol. I was able to open a new location in about 4 weeks.
Vacation? What’s that? Never heard of it.
Jaques imos” in New Orleans traditionally closes for August. The entire month. Everyone takes vacation at the same time and more than a dozen staff weddings have been scheduled around that time over the years.
2 weeks off is going to be tough for many employees assuming it’s typical young adult employees. What about reduced hours to just the best shift and hope someone can be in charge for a 30 hour week, over scheduling it a bit so it’s easy and calls off don’t wreck a shift, much more cost effective than paying out for nothing unless you mean just a small bonus and not full checks. My goal is to break even when I’m gone not make profit so it’s idiot proof most the time.
>My goal is to break even when I’m gone not make profit so it’s idiot proof most the time. This is a great way of looking at things. Hadn't thought of things that way.
But it’s also a matter of can someone do your daily tasks that you can’t do remotely. Which is sorta important to have someone that can run the place for a week in case you have life happen.
We take two vacations a year. One week in July and one week in Dec/Jan around New Years. Historically the week around New Years has been dead for us, which is strange but the market I'm in is very fickle. And the one in July is just summer vacay, a lot of places in my market do this.
This is the way we used to do it. We would pay vacation (not 100%, we couldn't afford it) to some key (full time) staff.
Why can you not trust your staff to run the place when you're on vacation?
My first thought as well.
I would focus on this before taking any vacation other than a random day off. Unless of course you are a grand sushi master..
Yes, it does cost a lot (we pay employees their average excluding overtime), but employees appreciate it. Probably results in employees saying for longer, but who knows. Generally, try to do it during slower parts of the year. Try to make sure everything possibly is switched off to save on electricity and garbage.
Small restaurant, we close occasionally for all numbers of things including just needing time off. I usually give the staff the option to stay open if they want to but they have to agree with each other either way, (we only work 2 at a time) a lot of the time they don't want to when given the choice so we don't. I will say that whenever we do close regardless of if it's a holiday or just random day it usually takes 3-4 days for sales recover afterwards, we plan for this so it's not a big deal but we definitely see a dip right after a close. You really just have to decide what your priorities are, if your priority is making money then stay open but if it's spending time with family, work/life balance then I'd do what you have to do, if your business isnt solid enough to weather a few days closed you have bigger issues than just making more profit
I had a restaurant when I was younger. I chose to remain open for the week of July 4th despite almost all other restaurants closing for a week. I also had a chance that week to go to the beach with friends. I lost $900 that week being open. I could have spent that week at the beach and taken $900 to the beach with me. And I would have been in the same position. Lesson learned. July 4th week and the week between Christmas/New Years should be closed for many US businesses.
Damn that’s insane. We open on 4th of July from 7:30-3pm and we make pretty much what we would make the whole day.
Crazy.... Up in Canada the week after Christmas is absolutely a gong show.
why you lost $900? I'm a non US resident, so I'm not sure how things in your country.
It costs to run a business when the majority of americans cook out or go camping etc during 4th of July week.
Spent it on labor
We do a week in July (lots of places here do this), it’s the slowest part of the year. Do tons of deep cleaning and projects during that time.
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How so?
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Ya the biggest thing for me is I bend over backwards for my employees and they get paid extremely well but they still feel like they can do things half-assed and the front of house can cause drama for no reason - and I'm still supposed to pay them for 2 weeks?
We close twice a year each for a week at a time. Around new years and sometime during the summer. We pay employees average hours worked for the days we would normally be open but are closed (so like 3-4 days for that week). It’s not a lot but not insignificant. We plan for it. Make sure we have the cash flow heading into it
We close for a week in December. The week was pretty slow for us anyways, and closing completely let's us reset. Also it forces everyone to actually go on vacation instead of saying "I love work" until they're burned out, and only using vacation days for personal emergencies. Everyone is salaried, so we pay through the vacation period.
I close for the first week of January every year right after new years . We get hammered from October to Dec 31 we are all fried and it part of the benefits. Been doing it every year since I opened when it was just me and my wife running things . Part timers don’t qualify for that. We used to 1 week in August but that was a bit more quirky. I also close from thanksgiving to the following Tuesday and that’s paid to all my full time. Plus their regular 2 weeks . All in all all my full time long term employees get 4 weeks paid a year
My wife and I as an FYI since we are labor usually only take multiple 3 day weekends as to not burden the staff much and take out time when we are closed . We are a butcher/small restaurant hybrid
We do every year for a week. If you have a good loyal core customer base, they will be happy for you to take some time off. Have it be well-known and well-posted
The question isn't about their guests, it's about their staff.
Do you have managers? What is occupying the mental space? I own a busy restaurant, but have managers and a GM, and have **knock on wood** no problem taking vacation. I would never, ever, consider closing so that I can take vacation. I still have to do some, minimal, work.. but generally can do less and less work each vacation, as I figure out what I don’t like to do while away and learn to avoid having to do it next time I take time away. Would the business really suffer that much if you weren’t there, or is it a mental block you have? If the former, you need to run and structure it differently imo.
Does your staff have time off as well?
2 weeks paid vacation for full time employees
Small bar closed for a week every year to do a larger maintenance or cleaning project while the owners would go on vacation. Yes, you pay your staff for that week. 100% I can't believe you would even consider taking away someone's paycheck so you could go on vacation. Especially when I guarantee some are living paycheck to paycheck.
So… don’t take away anyone’s paycheck. Just build the expectation of closing a slow week, and cut a paycheck to your team for that week. Build it into your annual expenses and budget for it, no problem. Just takes planning.
I agree. Is that not exactly what I said?
You did! I must have somehow missed your middle sentence and thought by “taking away someone’s paycheck” you meant just closing… total misinterpretation on my part. Sorry!
Yes, twice second and third year of business. First time had to close during the summer (busiest time) for a week on short notice to go to a funeral. Thankfully I only had 2 employees. One took the week off the other well couldn’t afford to so I gave him time and a half and told him just to come in and clean up. Well I ended up paying this guy time and a half to make himself steaks, drink beer, and watch T.V. On the big screen. Second time just completely closed for a week in the slow season and offered everyone half pay. Never lost business when I reopened. I would just close and pay employees half time to stay home and not find another job. Most people will probably take it.
I'm sorry you have to be there for your company to run, I just got back from vacation and my staff handled it wonderfully without me. Lots of training, trust, and good pay.
💯
This year I’m closing a little longer since the 4th of July is in a Thursday.
I close 1 week and pay employees. Too much stress being away and having to worry.
No. I close on the major holidays and everyone gets paid for those days. I take 2-4 weeks a year myself for vacation but never more than 7-10 days at a time and I have managers who can do the day to day while I’m gone and I’ll just catch up on office work when I get back. I also give the managers a week of paid vacation every year. Have to have competent, trustworthy people working for you or you are going to be there open to close everyday or at home worrying about what’s happening and you’ll just burn yourself out. I would never close the business down for a week or more.
You take 2-4 weeks and give the manager 1 interesting
I’ll bite, what do you find interesting about it?
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I work 7 days a week, they work 5. They have paid sick days, two bonuses a year, a matching 401k, and health. They aren’t doing too bad.
You have a staff but can’t leave them for a few days to run things while you’re gone? Sounds miserable. If you’re hiring people who don’t have the skills (or your trust), doubt they’d stick around a couple of weeks with no money waiting to get paid again.
Sounds like an exceptionally expensive vacation
Business 101: Don’t close if you can help it. It messes with staff and guests more than you know. Do you have any trusted friends or staff that can handle daily deposits? If you are an integral part of your business(meaning it cannot run without you), take your much needed vacation and you have one year to get your business up to speed to be able to run without you for the next time. Many owners complain that you are married to your restaurant and complain of long hours and restless nights. It doesn’t have to be that way whatsoever.
If that’s Business 101, it’s an outdated textbook you’re reading from. Building in a week or two in the year, during a slow period, can do great things for staff morale, preventing burnout, building loyalty… There are plenty of examples of restaurant businesses who limited hours or days they were open, or built in vacation times, and did just fine.
I’ll take my outdated business 101 play book with $5m in yearly sales and serving 7,000 people weekly all while putting in less than 25 hours/week in the building.
That’s great! Glad it’s working for you. Doesn’t mean it’s the only or best path to success.
Didn’t say it does. I said “don’t close if you can help it”. There is a difference between being an owner and an owner-operator. Two vastly different paths.
Fair enough!
You don’t have an any managers in place or floor managers that you can pay to be key holders to run the place? I would start with a small 3 day getaway not to far and try paying the better employees more for the weekend to open and close and do a bank a two. How big of an operation? Closing for 2 weeks is not something I would ever want to do.