We've added a new section to our web site to share our story. The story of why we created an online scheduling and communication tool for restaurants, the types of restaurants that love Schedulefly (and why) and where we are headed as a company. Check it out!
Restaurants run really well when the right team of people are in place to take care of the customers - as well as each other. Team is the key word here. When the staff operate as a team and help each other when it gets hectic, the customers do what they came to do - they have a great time. I know this because I am a customer and I notice this when I dine out. When the staff are smiling and helping each other serve us - we have a blast. It goes smoothly when people work well together. Customers are confident in the service and glad to be there. I also used to be responsible for building a team of wait staff that worked well together each week - hopefully providing our customers with that same experience. I've been on both sides and I know when the right team shows up - customers enjoy themselves. It's that simple and also that difficult.
So - my point is it's really tough to schedule people. It is not something that software and inputs like availability and seniority can solve alone. People have personalities - some that gel and some that do not. They have relationships with each other that can cause issues at work, they have events that happen in their lives that can temporarily effect their ability to perform. Throw in unexpected changes in the weather and things like last minute reservations and scheduling becomes very tough to master. Software can certainly help build a schedule faster - but in the end - a person does the scheduling and a person decides which available staff members will make the best team....and they only know that from getting to know the different personalities on staff and having worked with the team themselves.
I saw this message below posted tonight on the message wall of one of our customers. It was a scheduling manager posting a message to all staff. I could not agree more and it inspired me to write this blog post...
"Please be advised that not all swaps will be approved, because not all combination's of people work well together."
What a great message to share with staff - because it is so true.
This is a quick introduction to a new feature we've added for our customers that lets them post job openings online. We've given them a simple way to create a page with the jobs details and a built in "Apply" button. When people apply, the application details are stored inside Schedulefly for easy viewing at any time. The hiring managers also get an email alert when the application comes in - with the resume attached.
I recently wrote about following your heart vs. your head, with some help from a scene from the movie "Braveheart" to make my point. Some more thoughts on this topic, with help from the movie "Jerry McGuire."
On a sleepless night, Jerry McGuire, über agent with a premier sports agency, has a "breakthrough." His heart takes over for his head, and enables him to pour out a vision for the future of his company. He calls it "The Things We Think and Do Not Say." He fills it with stuff like, "With so many clients, we had forgotten what was important," and "The answer is fewer clients." A quote from the scene is a nice summary for his epiphany: "I had lost the ability to bullshit. It was the me I had always wanted to be."
Soon after Jerry sends his mission statement to his entire firm, he is fired. The firm doesn't need a maverick. They don't want people to follow their hearts. They need guys and gals that fall in line and focus on the bottom line. So Jerry had to make the painful walk out of the office one afternoon, and notice what happens when he asks his colleagues to follow their hearts.
At least one person was "crazy" enough to go with him, to follow her heart. But otherwise, Jerry was on his own. He had followed his heart and it had lead him down a risky path that seemingly would lead to failure. But if you've seen the movie, you know that's not the case. This is a man who has found his freedom. A man who is led by his heart.
Ten years ago I left a "safe" job with Bank of America to help build a startup business. I ignored my head and followed my heart. Coincidentally, my wife was really the only person who "came with me," just like the scene above. While she always believed in me, most of my family and friends thought I was crazy to leave my "good, safe job" at the bank. It didn't make sense. It was too risky. I had no experience building a business. Blah blah.
But I didn't care. My heart was begging me to come with it and I wanted to follow it. And you know what I have learned, and what Jerry McGuire learned, and what many other people who've taken the same "risky" path have learned? We learned that while listening to our heads seems like the smart, logical, safe thing to do, following our hearts has led us to happiness, and, ironically, more financial success than we would have ever had if we had listened our heads. And we all view the financial rewards not as the objective, but as the byproduct. Following our hearts was and will always be the objective.
Your heart is trying to lead you right now. Follow it. Be the "you" you've always wanted to be.
I thought we could accelerate our infiltration of franchised brands that we already serve, and quickly start helping lots more of them with easy restaurant staff scheduling and communication. I was sure I had a great idea of how to make it happen. I was wrong....
Hey folks, I decided to start filming and discussing the stuff that is on my white board. I thought it would be cool to show you ideas we are brainstorming (for our app, our web site, our marketing, etc.), and talk about what's behind the ideas and why we are considering them. Any time we move forward with one of them, I'll keep you updated in future posts on how things progress.
So these whiteboard posts will more or less be a real time documentary of what's happening inside Schedulefly. Come on in and see what's happening...
That's not Andy Murray's philosophy, but rather it's his favorite line from "Caddyshack," the movie written by his brother Brian, and starring Brian and one of his other brothers, Bill Murray. Brian had an idea for a restaurant based on that famous movie, and he and his five brothers got together and made it happen with Murray Brothers Caddyshack in the World Gold Village in St. Augustine, FL. And in an incredible Cinderella story, this unknown interviewer comes out of nowhere to capture the story. Enjoy...
Kevin Horne spent fifteen years in corporate America. Now he owns a very successful Great Harvest Bread location in Lincoln, NE. Kevin talks about having fun, being generous, and other nuggets of wisdom that have helped him quickly build a successful location, even after having been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. This is awesome! Enjoy...
Dave Kornbluth went from working for Verozon in New York to buying Dairy Inn in St. Petersburg, FL. Having attended culinary school in NY, he's doing all sorts of cool things with Dairy Inn's food menu, knowing that ice cream alone will not drive successful growth. He's also adding a tiki bar in the back of his parking lot, and is looking into delivery and catering. Dave has a lot of cool ideas and great advice. Tune in and enjoy....
Richard Gordon spent fifteen years as a criminal prosecutor, and now he owns South End Buttery, one of the most popular coffee shops in Boston. He talks about the need for a solid business plan, being ready for a rainy day, his plans to expand, and how South End Buttery was one of the only coffee shops still making coffee during a recent water pipe emergency outside of Boston. Richard runs a great business and you'll learn a lot from him. Enjoy...
Like many people, I learned a lot of valuable life lessons - in kindergarten. Share stuff, don't hit people, clean up your own mess, put things back where you found them etc. But I think, well I actually believe, that everyone (in addition to going to kindergarten) should be encouraged to serve food and/or drinks to strangers at some point in their life. Serving people teaches you lessons that are hard to learn as a young kid in college. Here are a few things I learned...
- I learned to smile more. People are paying for a fun and happy experience. - I learned that asking for help is not only OK - it is often necessary. - I learned to be prompt. - I learned to look at people in the eye when they were ordering. - I learned how to look presentable every day. Shave, tuck in shirt, iron clothes etc. - I learned to listen better and write stuff down so I would not forget. - I learned a lot about wine and how to open a bottle and serve it. - I learned how to gauge people and their mood and react appropriately. Sometimes people want you near, sometimes not. - I learned how to multi-task. One trip out to the floor - take order at one table, bring check to another, drop off ketchup to another, tell specials, refill water etc. - I learned how to speak to groups of people.
I'm thankful for those days. Even though I was kind of a lousy student that went surfing more than I went to class - I still came away a better person after those years. If nothing else - I know what it's like to be a server and I'll always tip people well for giving good service.
Seems like every week I find myself talking to someone about Schedulefly...what it is, why we created it, who uses it etc. It's fun to talk about it because nearly everyone has had to check a work schedule somewhere at some point in their life....so they get it right away. It is easy to describe what we do. After a quick description they usually say "Oh man, that would have been so nice to have back when I was a bartender in college". They next thing they say, almost every time, is "I bet you could sell that to anyone with hourly employees - right? Why is it just for restaurants? My sister is a nurse and she has huge headaches scheduling 50 other nurses. Seems like it would be great for hospitals."
Yes it would be great and someone will definitely create a simple product one day to help those industries too. Since we enjoy being a small company without a bunch of managers, staff and offices - we have to keep a sharp focus. Spinning off multiple versions of our product would dilute our focus and spread us too thin. It would make us and our software more ordinary. Every month we keep getting better. We are creating an extraordinary product that keeps getting more valuable for customers with very similar traits. The more restaurants that use it - the better it gets. Since we attract customers with very similar needs - they actually help us help others by making suggestions for themselves.
The happy restaurateurs on our website would not be there if we were spending time developing scheduling software for 2 or 3 different industries. They are happy because we focus on them and we keep it simple. We spend 100% of our time on their product - talking about it with them and making it better. Diversifying would require more people, more distractions, more meetings, more rules and more policies. The balance we've created for our business and our personal lives by having our focus and keeping things simple would vanish. Our business would become bigger, more corporate and less fun. And ultimately our service would become more mediocre and overtime...less valuable.
Recently we started talking to restaurant owners about, well, owning restaurants. How they got started, what makes them tick, their secrets for success, and generally whatever is on their minds. We have had conversations with ten successful restaurant owners so far, and at least one clear trend has emerged. They genuinely care about their employees.
Most restaurants will tell you they care about their employees. And you can be certain the employees know if that’s true, or just lip service. The owners we have spoken to really mean it - you can tell when you speak to them. They tend to think like Richard Taubin, co-owner of Friends Coastal Restaurant in Madisonville, LA, who says “We are very family oriented. Our employees come first, even before our customers.” Or they think like Kiersten Traina of Liberty Market who thinks about and accounts for her employees' personal schedules as much as her restaurant's needs when creating the weekly staff schedule. Or they go out of their way to help their employees, like Chester Kroeger of Fudpucker's: "We are a family. When times are tough for employees, we go out of our way to help them. Whether it's with a loan for them to buy that car to get to work or whatever we need to do within reason."
Richard, Kiersten, and Chester run highly successful restaurants. Our guess is if we spoke to a bunch of owners whose restaurants have not been successful, or have had to close down, not many would spend so much time talking about how much they care for their employees. Just a hunch.
John Silvey owns a Zaxby's in Marietta, GA. He has the highest employee retention rate of all 500 Zaxby's locations. John treats his employees with respect and like family members. His employees love working at his location. Not surprisingly, he has grown sales each of the five years he has owned it. John has some awesome things to say. Listen in....
Tom Martin has owned Taco Box for forty years. From telling about cleaning a grease trap while hungover on New Year's Day, to being involved in his community, to loving his business, Tom has some wonderful wisdom and humor to share about those years. Tom told me he probably only had "17 seconds" of value to add in a podcast. Well, it turns out he had about 22 minutes of tremendous value. This interview is just fantastic. I just conducted it and I've already listened to it again myself!
This commercial is one of the most memorable and inspirational commercials I have ever seen. It gave me chills the first time I saw it.
And while it was created to inspire us all to get off our butts and stop making excuses and go do some form of exercise - for which you might just need new Nike gear - its message is relevant in many other ways, including how we make many decisions at Schedulefly. When we have an idea and our guts tell us we're onto something, we just do it, often without knowing what will happen. Like the folks in the commercial, we lace up our shoes and go at it.
One of the great things about having a small team and not too many cooks in the kitchen is you can "just do it" when you have a great idea. You don't have to over-analyze it. You don't have let people who don't share your vision get in your way. And you don't have to water down your idea with groupthink. No committees. No analysis. No meetings. Just do it.
For instance, we recently thought it would be cool to record conversations with customers on why they like Schedulefly, and turn them into podcasts. We didn't know exactly what we'd do with them, but we knew they would be good to have, so we just started creating them. Not only do we now house them in our blog, we also have a few on our Home page, our Pricing page, our Buzz page, and within our customer success pages. We also knew it would be great to have short customer video testimonials, so we bought a Flip cam and started mailing it to customers. We weren't sure where we'd display the videos or how we'd use them. We just knew they would be fun and valuable customer videos, and now we have inserted them in several places on our site, and people love them.
The best part is we keep coming up with additional byproducts. The customer podcasts led us to realize that we should talk to indie owners about what it's like to own a restaurant, their secrets to success, and generally what makes them tick and what's on their minds. Now we have a cool podcast series that we're going to run with - we'll have hundreds of these before long.
Like the people in the Nike commercial, when you own a business and have a small team you can just do it every day. No excuses. No hurdles. Nothing stopping you. Just get out there and do it.
Wil
P.S. This summer Wes and I are going to rent an RV and drive around to a few states and visit a bunch of customers. We'll take our Flip cam and film customers and us talking about Schedulefly while on the road. We think we're going to create a documentary with it, but the plan is still blurry. But we're definitely going to just do it and see what happens.
I wanted an easy to way to create a reminder while on the go - one that would be emailed back to me on a date I set. I didn't really care what time of day it came. I just cared that it reminded me sometime in the early morning - so I would have it in my inbox when I woke up. Seems like I'm always getting things via email that I do not want to forget and I needed a way to just fwd them to a program that would send them back later. I did not want to have to go to a website or open an app on my phone to add the reminder - I just wanted a way to email it in. So I created a program to do this and Wil and I started using it like crazy. We decided it would be cool to add to our app - made sense for it be there and it couldn't be easier to use. Here is a quick demo on how it works...
Kevin Horne spent fifteen years in corporate America. Now he owns a very successful 
Dave Kornbluth went from working for Verozon in New York to buying 
Richard Gordon spent fifteen years as a criminal prosecutor, and now he owns 
John Silvey owns a 
Tom Martin has owned 
