The Daily Rail: What rising interest rates mean to your restaurant

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Our three favorite Muhammad Ali Quotes of all time:

“If they can make penicillin out of moldy bread, they can sure make something out of you.”

“If you even dream of beating me, you’d better wake up and apologize.”

“Don’t count the days; make the days count.”


Today's Specials

Your restaurant: Where everybody wants to know your name [Hack #054]

Even in today's digital age, the human touch is needed. Perhaps more so now than ever. Make sure your guests know who you are and reap the rewards.

TRAINING DAY

Why it’s important to you: Training is the answer to many of your execution, retention and profitability problems.

Restaurants that are seeing the biggest boost in profits this year are the ones investing in training their staff. The good news is digital training doesn't have to be a pain or break your bank. Not if you do it right.

OOPS! (Sponsored by BevSpot)

Why it’s important to you: Don’t make these five common bar management mistakes

Running a bar is hard work. Being responsible for so many aspects of a business is a lot of pressure—overlook the smallest thing, and you could see the numbers come crashing down in front of you.


BANG ON THE DRUM ALL DAY - TODD RUNDGREN [Song]

Why it’s important to you: The economic factors affect consumer behavior

This past Friday, the Labor Department reported a dismal 38,000 jobs created in May. That is the smallest monthly job creation number in nearly five years and is made worse by downward adjustments to the two prior months as well. The White House tried to mitigate concerns by touting the 4.7% unemployment rate, but that ignores the significantly causal effect of people leaving the workforce because they abandoned a search for work.

This has prompted many to speculate that the Federal Reserve may hold off raising rates when they convene next week for the Federal Open Markets Committee meetings. Lower interest rates typically encourage more consumer spending. If money is less expensive to borrow, then consumers are more likely to have additional income to spend on goods and services.

Our industry has seen sustained growth for the past several years and any rise in interest rates puts that at risk. It isn’t a guarantee that rate increases will reduce our growth, but a distinct possibility.

POLITICS IS MORE DIFFICULT THAN PHYSICS - EINSTEIN

Why it’s important to you: Miss USA rose above the political question she was asked, can you?

“Is it appropriate to talk politics?” is a question that many of you are confronted with daily. Well, at the Miss USA Pageant, Miss Hawaii was asked to reveal what presidential candidate she favors and why. You may remember poor Miss Teen South Carolina giving the worst answer in beauty pageant history several years ago and think, this probably didn’t end well for Miss Hawaii either. As it turns out, she did very well and her answer was both coherent and astute.

The question was provided by the Miss USA Pageant organizers and was immediately booed and decried on social media. To her credit, Miss Hawaii simply said she wants our next president to represent those of us that don’t have a voice in politics. It was a brilliant answer and one available to you anytime you want to deflect an awkward conversation about politics. We live in the public domain and are forced to interact with people on a variety of levels. Finding a way to avoid confrontation with a guest, no matter what your political leanings, is probably a good idea. Thank you Miss Hawaii for showing us the way.

UNTIL DEATH IT IS ALL LIFE - CERVANTES

Why it’s important to you: Is digging in your heels in over what you believe always a good idea?

It’s getting late on the campaign trail for Bernie Sanders. On Tuesday, he will almost certainly hear a speech from Hillary Clinton declaring herself the presumptive nominee for the Democrats in November’s presidential election. He has vowed to keep fighting until the convention in Philadelphia this July. Question is: Why? His position is that Mrs. Clinton is a flawed candidate and that she can’t beat Trump the way he can. Whether that is true really isn’t relevant. What is relevant is whether he has any more fights he CAN win.

Recently, it was announced that he was being giving the right to choose a significant number of platform committee members to determine the party’s positions in advance of the convention. That is a spectacular win for a campaign that began a year ago 60 points down in the polls. Mr. Sanders, however, is unimpressed with his progress and is focused on continuing the fight right to the convention floor.

Understanding the line between passionate advocacy and pushing too hard is relevant to us as managers. If you work for a company with a policy you think needs adjustment, would you continue to push for change even if your boss made it clear that there was nothing left to fight for? Conversely, do you sit by quietly when you see a policy that isn’t working? Knowing the difference is tricky and it appears that Bernie is right in the middle of that struggle. We will learn much about his dedication to his causes after Tuesday night’s polling which includes two key states, California and New Jersey.

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