Managing Change & Supporting Mental Health for Bar Owners: Keys to Thriving in Hospitality

One thing that I will say that the bar business is absolutely done to me over the years is made nights like Halloween , new Year's Eve , st Patrick's Day and those sorts of whatI tend to call amateur nights nights . I don't tend to leave my house .

So if you had to leave your house for Halloween , hopefully it went well and hopefully you didn't have too many problems and too much random trouble , given all the craziness that we tend to see on Halloween , especially if you were in a college town or a place with a lot of college aids kids . This week we're going to do something a little bit different .

Rather than cover one topic the whole time . Actually , we're going to talk about two separate things .

One is change management and then we'll talk a little bit about having the right mindset and some pitfalls in mindset and some mental health things that affect a lot of bar owners , a lot of people in the industry and just how hard it can be sometimes and how we need to recognize that and deal with it in a positive fashion .

But before we get to that , we're going to start our conversation today talking about change management . So we've talked a lot about training , we've talked a lot about creating standards , we've talked a lot about standardizing procedures and policies as we've gone through this podcast . But one thing we haven't directly addressed is change management .

Change management is not something you frequently hear about in the hospitality business , but it is something that you hear a lot about in corporate businesses , large corporations , especially tech companies . They love to talk about change management and change management is essentially how you handle changes .

Now when we talk about changes in this case , we're not just talking about training changes , menu changes , things like that . Think more standard changes , policy changes .

If you're uniform , standard for your bar changes or your dress code , or say you change the day folks get paid or you're changing how people clock in and out , anything that's kind of that procedural part of the business . When you change it , you need to properly manage that change .

And one thing that I see all the time and I have to admit I have been more than guilty of this myself plenty of times is we think that a good way to no-transcript Change management in the bar business is to write it out and put it on the wall . Or , if there's a whiteboard , write it on the whiteboard . It communicates to everyone . It seems simple .

It seems like that's a great idea .

However , that really does not give our team the right chance to actually understand the change and to adapt to the change , because one thing that I'm sure all of you are aware of that are listening this podcast Folks in the bar business tend to be stubborn and like really stubborn , and so change is never something that is approached easily and in general Especially

if we're talking about changing the way people get paid , when they get paid things like that , things that affect people's money you will get a whole whole , whole lot of pushback Every time you try to introduce change . Because of that pushback , it is absolutely essential , key , that you go beyond just posting a note and saying this is what's happening .

You need to actually Set up that change in a way that's going to provide a positive experience For your team . That means anytime you're going to change something , it can't just be a quick thing , you actually need to plan for the change .

You need to determine the best way to roll this out to your employees , because , again , just posting a note , writing something on a whiteboard , pinning a note to a bulletin board , issuing a memo which Lord knows I put us did a lot of things on the wall called memos Rather than properly conducting change management for a long time in this business .

But you need to do better than that , and so part of that is , Before a change takes place , saying , hey , how is this going to impact people ? What questions do I think they're going to have , and then creating , yes , a memo . But also , if you have an employee handbook , if you have standards and those are affected , you need to update that handbook .

You need to create resources For your team to not only understand the change that's happening , but to memorialize what the new Procedure , what the new policy , what the new standard is .

So , for instance , let's use an example that you are changing payroll companies and because you're changing payroll companies , some of your clock-in , clock-out procedure is going to be different .

Now , if we're focused on clock-in clock-out procedure being different , the first thing you need to tell your team is why you're changing payroll companies Because they're going to be curious .

Anytime you change anything regarding payroll , people get worried , they get scared , they're afraid that they may not get their full check and , as we all know , many individuals in the hospitality industry are living paycheck to paycheck , so it's going to make them nervous , it's going to add stress to their lives and to properly manage that change , we have to get

rid of the stress in their lives and the first step to that is Determining why we're making the change and communicating that why to them . So , whatever , you're updating a memo and We'll get into how you should communicate these things , but however you are communicating it , it needs to include the why .

They need to understand the business need for the change going on . And it can be as simple as we're changing payroll companies because this payroll company is going to Save us overhead , which gives us more money to spend on our guests . Right , spin it a little bit .

Or this is going to lower our overhead , which will help us provide better bonuses for the team at the end of the year . However , you want to spin that , spin it , but to spin it in a way that's truthful , right ?

I'm not saying spin by making things up , I'm saying legitimately , if you're switching payroll companies because one is cheaper than the other , just say that and then talk about the benefits that happen for the business .

Now , one thing you don't want to do and of course this is true anytime as an owner , you find a place to save money , you are putting more money in your pocket . But if you don't want to focus on your own money a that seems greedy . B that's not being very humble . See , that's not showing a great amount of respect to your team .

So frame it in a way of how it affects them , the why . That is the benefit for them of making the change .

Now , when it comes to communicating the change , we don't want to do memos . Well , we can do memos memos are a piece of this , but we also need to communicate these changes in other ways as well .

So consider , yes , you're gonna write a memo , but also we're gonna talk about it in every pre-shift meeting this week where , if we have a monthly whole team meeting where everybody comes in , and we have one meeting where everyone's there and involved , maybe we announce it in that monthly meeting .

Now , obviously , some aspect of how you do the change , how you Announce the change to your team , will depend upon when the change is taking place . If we're making a change three days from now , we don't have time to get everybody in the same room to talk about it . But if we're gonna do it next month , we do have time and we should do that .

The other thing to consider here is Frequently , when we're thinking about how we communicate as bar owners , we kind of exist back in the Stone Age . What I mean by that is relying on paper Employee manuals , relying on paper memos those sorts of things to communicate change or just to communicate and give our Employees the standards , the policies and all of that .

Now you can do some amazing things today with technology that will Help you to communicate change and just communicate with your team in general , that are more durable than a piece of paper , a piece of paper you handed to somebody .

They get behind the bar , their bartending , they spill a drink on the paper , the paper goes in the trash , they forget all about it . So there are ways to do things digitally that are going to provide a better benefit . For instance , you could use Google Docs and Keep your change management Information in Google Docs , keep your employee manual in Google Docs .

You can keep all your policies and procedures there , and then your team always has the most up-to-date version Possible at their fingertips . It's on their phone . You could also use something like Slack . Slack can be a great tool .

You know there are other messaging services out there that work Well too , but slack can be a great tool not just for policies , procedures , change management , but also just for team communication , understanding what's going on , leaving notes from one day to the next .

So , depending upon what you decide to use in your tech stack , your tech stack can be very Influential and help with change management , team management , policies and procedure changes . So for communications , things like your employee manual as a whole , definitely consider your tech stack and then consider how you can use that in change management .

One other thing about change management is that Absolutely Consider making an FAQ anytime you have a change , so you can already anticipate generally . Hey , I know these servers tend to complain about this or this . These bartenders tend to always ask a bunch of questions about this .

So if you're going to make a change that's going to impact them , that's going to Modify the way they work and all those sorts of things , and you can guess at some of the questions they will have right , an FAQ up front , and especially for using something like Google Docs or some other cloud-based document management .

It gives you the ability to , as people ask questions , add more to your FAQ , and that just makes for a much , much better team experience . It makes everything more cohesive . It gives everyone on your team the opportunity to read this stuff at their leisure . Maybe you mentioned in a meeting .

They go out , they're working hard all night , they don't even remember it , and then the next day they say oh shit , something about my paycheck was going to change . I forget what it is . Well , now they can just log into these documents , read it at home from their phone , and you have fully communicated with them . You've already answered their questions .

Everything is covered .

Now , as we're talking about change management , let's talk a little bit about what happens when you buy an existing bar , because a lot of change happens when you buy an existing bar and that change can be very , very hard to manage . For one thing and I'm pretty sure I've said this before when you buy a bar , the old owner will have done everything better .

And when you inevitably have to do things like change payroll companies , change how often people get paid , change the actual roles and responsibilities people have , you're going to get a lot of pushback .

So change management is absolutely essential and especially when it comes to a switchover and ownership , a lot of the employees are going to be very sensitive to change and they're going to be worried a lot about where they stand in the future of their job .

So , in order to alleviate that stress , change management in that sort of a situation is absolutely crucial .

Now one thing to remember , though , and I can't emphasize this enough but if you go , you buy a bar , or say you're a manager and you just start managing a different bar , the first thing you should do the first week or two you're there is change very little , because that change is not going to be well received .

You need to establish some credibility , establish some trust , establish a rapport with folks before you turn their lives upside down , because , more likely than not , if you buy a bar , you're kind of turning their lives upside down for the folks that have worked there the whole time .

So always be mindful of the impact of what you are doing on your team and always make sure you're communicating any change .

Whether you're buying a bar it's your bar , you've owned it for 20 years always make sure you're communicating every change fully and that you're providing your team the tools , the information you did , not only to understand the change and how it affects them , but to understand why you are making that change .

Now , as I mentioned in the beginning , change manager was the first thing I wanted to talk about , but I also want to spend some time talking about mindset and mental health , and this is a little bit of a heavier topic than we discuss a lot of the time , but it's one that's really important and I think too often people , especially bar owners , push their own

feelings to the side and they don't necessarily address their own mental health and their own mindset .

And we all know inflation is still going on , the economy is not doing great , we're coming off of COVID this is probably one of the hardest periods of time to be in the bar business that has existed for decades and so because of that , we really need to work on taking care of ourselves .

And if you look at entrepreneurs as a whole , there's all sorts of stuff that has come out recently , given the economy and all that , about how entrepreneurs in general are having a hard go of it and how the stress and weight of the world is really starting to squeeze some entrepreneurs , and it's really important . You have to manage your stress .

You have to manage your physical and mental health and you also have to remember your team , because there's no way for you , as an owner , to have great mental health and to maintain a positive mindset and be optimistic day in and day out when your team isn't so we need to not only take care of ourselves .

It's a responsibility in management and ownership to make sure we're taking care of our team as well .

And there is a sad fact about the hospitality industry and frankly , you see it in restaurants , but you see it worse in bars there's a lot of mental health issues . There's a lot of substance abuse . There are a lot of problems that we face in this industry , and some of it goes back .

I'm sure my parents were not the only ones that told me this growing up . Nothing good happens after 12 o'clock , nothing good happens after midnight , and there's some truth to that . But let's be honest . A lot of us live most of our life , or a good chunk of our life , after midnight because we're running the bar , where the good things aren't happening .

We're kicking the people out who are not doing the good things we're dealing with going to the gas station at 3.30 .

And we have a lot more exposure to some of the darker sides of humanity than a lot of people , and so it's really important to maintain a positive mindset and good mental health , and really that all starts by taking care of yourself both mentally and physically , building healthy routines and habits , making sure that you have physical and mental exercise .

Now , obviously , mental exercise could be doing forecasting , like we talked about last week . It could be making a new menu . All those things are fun and they make your brain work and that's really important .

But the thing that we also have to remember because I know I've fallen into this trap at times in the industry and a lot of people have it's not just about your mental health , it's also about your physical health , and when you're in an environment where there's a lot of alcohol , where there's a lot of drugs , where almost everyone smokes , where you really don't

go to the gym you just kind of walk around the bar and call that working out for the day you have to remember to take care of yourself physically and , like I said , I am plenty guilty of this as anyone . But taking care of yourself physically helps you mentally .

It helps feel stronger and better and it helps you deal with the day to day and just give you a release and some time to think .

I've talked about it before , but one of the most important things to maintaining a positive mindset , to being optimistic , to being able to go fight those battles with all your energy every day , is to give yourself some time to think . There's almost nothing more important in this or any business than giving yourself time to think every day .

Now , another aspect of mental health is we get towards the holiday season .

As many of you guys are aware , I'm sure , hospitality is not known for people that are in necessarily long-term relationships , and so the holidays can be particularly difficult for folks in our industry , especially if they're from out of town , they don't have family in town , they work at a bar or restaurant and that's just kind of who they are always around .

The holidays can be difficult . So look for ways to celebrate with your staff over the holidays , regardless of which holidays you're celebrating . Look for ways to build a team atmosphere and to really push everyone to be optimistic At the end of the day . Yes , right , we're in an industry that has mental health problems , that has substance abuse problems .

We have a higher substance abuse rate than any other industry in the world . We have alcoholism rates higher than any other industry in the world .

The thing is that the best thing you can do as an owner is to support your team and to help them through those issues and to go out of your way to make sure that you're taking care of your people and really show that you care , because if they're going through problems , you helping them will be more impactful than anything .

Now I will say don't loan them money . Please don't loan your employees money . That never goes well and that allows resentment to build and it's just a bad idea .

But you need to help them , you need to support them , you need to be there for them and you need to make sure , as I said , especially going through the holidays , that your folks feel taken care of and feel good about where they're working .

Obviously , that starts with having a great culture , but your mindset is ridiculously important in being a positive influence on your team and their mindset . So really take some time this week , next week , when you have a chance .

Think about how you can help your team and what you can do to provide a really cool culture , a really cool environment that makes them feel better about everything going on around them .

We did mention this a few weeks ago when we were talking about cool employee benefits , but there are programs that you can get that are not expensive they're like 7 , 8 , 10 , 12 dollars a month when you can get your team unlimited mental health visits virtual visits , but unlimited mental health visits and that is ridiculously important in this business .

It really is sad to see how much drug abuse we have , how much suicide we have , how many people die too young in our industry , and so if you're not taking care of your employees , you should start .

It's going to build a better culture , it's going to attract better employees to your establishment , but also it's just something you should do for yourself and for them , and always remember you can't take care of someone else unless you take care of yourself first .

So make sure you're in the right mindset , make sure you have the ability to be optimistic and to go out there and to really help your team and promote them and make them the best they can be , because if you're not in the right spot in your head , you don't stand a chance . With all that being said , though , always remember we are an amazing industry .

We have great teams . We can help each other , we can promote each other . And , yes , business is difficult . Yes , things can be hard .

Yes , in a lot of ways , times are not great right now , but if you own a business , you have an amazing opportunity to influence your team , your community , the world around you and to build something that people love to enjoy , that drives business into your establishment , that gives you the ability to be a facilitator of wonderful things around you .

So , if you're listening to this and times are tough and things are hard , think of all the good that you do . Focus there , keep your own mindset positive , focus on the wonderful things you can do , care about other people and amazing things will happen .

Now , before we wrap up this week , I want to take another minute and talk about the Bar Business Nation Meetups . If you were not able to join us last month , we have another Bar Business Nation Meetup coming up on the 13th , and these Meetups are just a way to get a bunch of us together to communicate and learn from one another .

And I've said it before , I'll say it again , as much as I would love to think that I can help everyone with everything and I have every idea in the world . That's not true . None of us have every idea . None of us have tried everything .

So by coming together , we have a wonderful opportunity to all talk to each other and learn and grow and really help each other develop our businesses into something amazing . So , again , that'll be a week from next Monday , so November 13th , 8pm Eastern time and the only thing you need to do to be involved in this is to join Bar Business Nation on Facebook .

It's a Facebook group we have that is growing . We have new bar owners joining every day . And to join that group , go down in the show notes . There's a link right there . Click it . We're going to ask you three questions to join Really basic . What kind of bar do you have ? What are you looking to learn Things like that and answer those three questions .

You'll get it automatically . Unfortunately , if you don't answer those questions , the way the programming set up it won't let you join , and we're just doing that to weed out spam folks . So join . It's a great group and there's more and more going on there every day .

So it's a really wonderful opportunity , not only to interact with me but to learn from each other and to really throw out ideas and have some great conversations about what's going on In our different bars .

Along those lines , if you would like to have a conversation with me and to see if there's a way we can work together and I can help you improve your business , go look in the show notes . There is a link there to schedule a strategy session . Click that link . You can schedule a time to meet with me and we can have a phone

call . It's completely free to you to discuss where you are , where you're going , what's going on and then see if there's a way for us to work together , moving forward , to really help you optimize your business , optimize your bottom line and make top shelf profits and really be successful .

So if you want to work together , check that out in the show notes , click where it says schedule a strategy session and let's find a time to talk to each other . With that , I will let you guys go for the week . Have a awesome week and we will talk again later .