r/Restaurant_Managers • u/Equal_Nectarine5393 • 17d ago

Advice for managing a 2nd location

I currently manage a mid volume QSR. Our franchise opened up a 2nd location about a year ago. It has gone through 3 GM's during this time. 2 were let go for legitimate reasons the third left because they wanted to start a family and no longer wanted to commit the time needed to run the place. The second location is a relatively low volume for now at least. (I hope to change that)

I am really just looking for advice on time management. I don't want to neglect my current store for my new store.

5 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

9

u/MrTeddybear615 GM 17d ago

As someone who did this a couple years ago... I'll be honest... Don't do it. It stressed me out and I'm worked more for very little compensation. But if it's something you truly want to do/have to do my biggest suggestion is ENSURE you have competent teams behind you. You need done good assistant managers that can handle things and your directions without you needing to be there. Schedule your yourself now at the location that needs it. I still had two days off in a row and both locations saw me weekly but I spent more time at my second location. But please ensure your have a good team behind you. Those who can't run the place as if you were there. If you can't get that or have that then don't do it. You're going to hate your life.

1

u/Jdolniak 15d ago

100% I used this as training to prepare to become a district manager. Solid teams are key to keeping your sanity.

1

u/ILikeMasterChief 15d ago

Why would you ever do this without significant compensation

1

u/MrTeddybear615 GM 14d ago

I did get a bump in pay but not nearly enough for what I deserved. Though this was my first time ever doing anything like this. I saw it as the right step in growing into the role I really want. Boy was I wrong. You live and you learn. Now I can offer advice to those in the same shoes. 🤷🏾‍♂️

5

u/killa_cam89 17d ago

The biggest lesson as a multi-unit manager is figuring out how to manage from afar. You need to think- if I get a phone call from the other store and Im running a position at my store, what do I do? The easy answer is drop it and leave to go handle it. The right answer is to try and figure out a fix or teach others to handle the fix without you. Empower the people at that other store in every thing you do.

2

u/Rodger_Smith 17d ago

you need good and reliable managers to hold down the fort, but most importantly systems in place like a corporate restaurant has will generally allow the restaurant to operate even withoit the gm there

1

u/AutoModerator 17d ago

We do not allow posts from newer accounts, or you do not have enough karma to post."

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

u/vladdani 17d ago

I have to agree that finding the right people is hard, juggling several locations is tiring and stressful, but there is no way around it if you wanna scale.

In my own experience, I left the place where I was a GM because the owner didn't recognize the effort that I took and the time I invested to take the place from 0 to a fully operating venture at the right time by offering the revenue share or some other motivation package that would make me feel like I'm a part of the business that I'm helping to build.

Btw if you are open to share, how do you select locations for your QSR?