How to Grow Your Hospitality Business Launch

This week's launch of my book, How to grow your hospitality business: A guide for owners and managers was both a personal celebration as well as an opportunity to acknowledge the dynamic world of hospitality and how it retains an aura and mystique which keeps attracting new people to set up their own businesses. In my book, I have called this The Dream. However, like any business, the dream can also turn into a nightmare if people fail to pay attention to some key strategies. Two areas where new owners often fall short is paying insufficient attention to defining the relationship with business partners (if any) and the fine print and onerous responsibilities of signing a commercial lease.

In getting this book from concept and out into the community, I would like to thank the Hospitality Training Trust for their support and Donna Hoyle for her design and careful attention to detail.

In 2018, I will be running some workshops around the country in conjunction with the New Zealand Restaurant Association. Please email us if you would like more information about these seminars. The Auckland series will start on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 February. Click here to find out more.

The launch included close friends and colleagues as well as our students who prepared a delicious array of canapes as well as planning and managing the event. I made a short presentation on certain themes are making the rounds in our hospitality world.

Competition for hospitality businesses has never been tougher. There are lots more businesses out there and every month there are new openings. I have just been in Christchurch for the Symposium of Food and there seems as many new openings...

The casualisation of food has meant the growth of platters and shared plates which seems to me has served two purposes - the reduction in cost in kitchen by combining meals on to one plate and hopefully reducing the cost so that we have more budget to eat our more regularly. There is a down side however, the rush for the plate when you don't have your own exclusive offering and the fact the so often the food is just dumped on a plate with little attention to the art and creativity of how to place the food to make it look beautiful. With shared plates I find that food is consumed much faster.

My tribe at the book launch. Daniel (21) is working through his engineering degree while in truth is more focused on the statistical analysis of cricket and predicting game outcomes and player performance. As a sideline Dan is recording the first album of his progressive rock band, The Dark Third. Alice (14) has just finished Year 9 and has her holiday job lined-up working at our café on Customs Street West. Last weekend she completed 40k of the Lake Taupo cycle challenge. Oliver (23) works in the geotech division of Tonkin and Taylor Engineers and recently completed the WSET Level 2. For Christmas, we will head to Queenstown for our annual tramp and then off to Pigeon Bay.

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