“"If you're in the F&B business and don't know how to optimize your workforce, you're doomed."”

I heard this from a clip of some "teacher"... I was sitting eating rice rolls and suddenly felt a lump in my throat, not because it was wrong, but because it was true... but true in a different world. The world of large chains, where HR departments recruit people, there are pre-established processes, and data is used to calculate each time slot. But out there, small restaurant owners like us have to run out of staff ourselves if we're short, we have to cook ourselves if an employee is off, sometimes even bringing our children to the restaurant to eat and sleep there. Recruiting one person can take a whole month and still not be guaranteed, retaining staff is even harder, so honestly, those "optimizing human resources" statements are just wishful thinking.

I'm not denying the knowledge, but sometimes it's funny how those people, who have run a business and managed it for a day, talk as if they're teaching others how to operate it. Have you ever experienced the feeling of customers crowding the shop, the kitchen struggling to keep up, Grab drivers yelling outside for late orders, staff quitting without notice, and the owner having to rush out and do everything? Or like last night, when a woman I was assisting called, her voice almost breaking because the police and city officials were coming to clear the place, it was too crowded, she was panicking and didn't know how to handle it. Those things aren't in slides, they're not in textbooks, but they're things we have to face every day.

Even our team, which we call the "rapid response team," sounds professional, but in reality, we just rush out to handle any emergency, from cars being stopped, police, neighbors... That's the real life of the F&B industry. So sometimes, talking about "optimizing staffing" during that period is like telling a drowning person to swim better. It's not that we don't want to be efficient, but we don't have enough resources to be efficient; it's not that we don't want to optimize, but we don't have enough people to optimize.

Last week, I met a younger colleague at a training course. She told me that after studying at a certain company, she completely adopted the entire corporate process and procedures for her small shop. The result was insufficient staff, chaotic operations, and exhaustion. And during the Lunar New Year, she even had to bring her young child to the shop to sell food. That's when I realized that not everything that works for you is right for you at this point. For F&B business owners, especially in the early stages, the most important thing isn't optimization, but survival. Are you selling well today? Will you have enough staff tomorrow? Will you survive next week? Do it well first, and only optimize after you're able to survive.

So if you're going through a tough phase, don't put pressure on yourself with the idea of "perfection." Learning is still important, but you need to be selective and consider your own resources before applying what you learn. Don't blindly follow everything your teacher says, only to end up losing not just because you haven't optimized your strategy, but because you'll be shut down. The F&B business isn't about slides; it's about those exhausting days when you can barely eat, those times when you're running around breathlessly, and those situations only those involved truly understand. Getting through those phases is already a form of "optimization," not in terms of cost, but in terms of resilience. I wish you continued perseverance on your business journey.