It's tough to be working "in" the business as well as working "on" the business. As most restaurant owners have an active role in the day to day operations of their restaurant, planning for the future is mainly forgotten about.

But decisions you make today may help or haunt you in the future, so you need to look ahead.

Marketing is essential to be doing now so that you can reap the rewards of a strong marketing strategy as your restaurant goes through the seasons.  Not spring summer fall winter seasons, but the peaks and valleys in business cycle.

Marketing, while you are busy, will help you in the future flatten out the peaks and valleys and allow your business to be more consistent and predictable.

Good food used to only be available at nice restaurants; now you can get amazing gourmet food in dive bars, quick service, and food trucks.

So what is keeping people coming to your full-service restaurant? It is the experience—the service. The way you make people feel welcome and show them hospitality.

Although food plays a big part in it, if your food isn't fantastic, you need to step up that game first. But if you have great food and want to be able to charge a premium for it, you need to make sure your service achieves a high standard of hospitality.

A marketing strategy needs to incorporate three things. Attracting new guests, having repeat guests return more often, and having current guests spend more money.

Having guests return more often can be as simple as a parting salutation to include an invite to return.

"Please Come Again" is three words that you don't always hear as you finish your dining experience. You hear "goodbye" and "thank you," but the invite to return is commonly missed.

Make your guest feel like you want them to come back, and they might come back sooner than later.

By keeping your legs in sync

Most restaurants focus on operations, take care of basic accounting and maybe do some marketing.

But you need all three business functions to be in sync.

Marketing - brings in the guest.
Operations - takes care of the guest.
Accounting - makes sure you are making money from all your hard work.

When these are out of sync, it makes running your restaurant harder than it needs to be.