The start of a new year creates a rare pause. Before the calendar fills up and old habits take hold, there is a chance to decide how your business will actually run. The difference between a steady year and a stressful one is rarely effort. It is preparation. Early 2026 is the moment to put clear systems, standards, and expectations in place so fewer decisions have to be made under pressure later.
Across dozens of MAJC✨ interviews on Restaurant Ready, operators describe the same pattern. The problems that derail a year are usually visible months earlier. Without structure, they get postponed until they turn urgent. What feels manageable in the moment compounds quietly, until one busy week or one staffing change exposes everything at once.
As Boston restaurateur Demetri Tsolakis shared during his conversation with Matt Jennings and Carolyn Grillo, “Most stress in this business comes from things we could have decided sooner.”
1. Build Financial Systems That Surface Problems Early
The operators who feel calm in March are not guessing in January. They review a short list of numbers often enough to spot problems while they are still manageable. Weekly labor. Weekly food cost. Contribution margin. Cash flow. These are not vanity metrics. They are early warning signals.
Founder and CEO of Heritage Restaurant Group, Nick Schorsch, put it plainly, “If you wait until the P&L tells you something is wrong, you are already too late.” Early visibility changes how the year unfolds. Instead of reacting to bad months, operators adjust schedules, menus, or purchasing before patterns harden and morale takes a hit.
2026 setup move: Decide which three to five numbers you will review weekly and schedule those reviews now.
2. Design Operations That Do Not Depend on You Being There
If the restaurant only works when you are present, the year will be exhausting. Strong leaders design operations so good decisions happen without constant approval. That means documented scheduling rules, clear ordering processes, and defined ownership across roles.
Multi-unit owner Paul Donahue emphasized that consistency is what allows his teams to succeed across very different concepts. “When people know what good looks like,” he said, “they do not need someone watching them.” This matters most at the start of the year, when teams shift, routines reset, and expectations need to be reinforced.
2026 setup move: Identify one operational area that still runs through you and document it before Q1 accelerates.
3. Simplify Tools and Use Them Consistently
January often brings the urge to add new tools. Most businesses need the opposite. Breakdowns happen when information lives in too many places. Scheduling in one system. Inventory in another. Notes in texts. Numbers held by one person.
Founder of The Oberon Group, Henry Moynahan Rich, underscored a simple reality, “If you do not have shared data, you do not have a system.” Consistency matters more than sophistication. One scheduling platform. One inventory process. One source of truth.
2026 setup move: Decide where information lives and retire anything that creates duplication or confusion.
4. Define Standards Before You Are Busy
Standards are easiest to set when pressure is low. When expectations are unclear, teams improvise. That improvisation becomes inconsistent once the year gets busy. Clear standards for food quality, service boundaries, sourcing decisions, and guest requests give teams confidence and speed.
Tsolakis framed it this way, “You cannot expect people to read your mind when things get busy.” Standards protect both the guest experience and the margin by reducing one-off decisions.
2026 setup move: Write down what “good” looks like in three areas that caused friction last year.
5. Set Leadership Standards People Can Rely On
Teams do not just listen to what leaders say. They watch how leaders act under pressure. Operators with strong cultures are explicit about leadership behavior. How feedback is delivered. How mistakes are handled. How decisions are communicated.
Restaurant owner Krista Cole has spoken directly to this point, “People will follow you,” she said, “when they know what to expect from you.” January is when the leadership tone gets reset, whether intentionally or not.
2026 setup move: Align your leadership team on how decisions will be made and communicated before stress tests those agreements.
6. Build Culture Through Systems, Not Slogans
Culture does not start with a mission statement. It starts with how work actually functions. Promotion paths. Training structure. Scheduling fairness. Transparency around how the business works. These systems shape whether people stay.
Chef-owner Evan Hennessey described it simply, “People commit when they understand the why and see a future.” At the start of the year, teams are deciding whether this is a place they want to invest in again.
2026 setup move: Make growth paths and expectations visible early, not once people are already burned out.
7. Design for Sustainability, Not Perfection
The goal for 2026 is not flawless execution. It is fewer emergencies. Chef-owner Kevin Gillespie has been clear about this reality. “If the system only works when people sacrifice themselves,” he said, “it will break.”
Clear systems prevent small issues from becoming crises. Defined standards reduce emotional reactions. Intentional culture gives teams confidence to solve problems together. That combination is what allows a business to feel steadier as the year unfolds.
2026 setup move: Identify one recurring crisis from last year and design it out of the system now.
Conclusion: What You Set Now Carries the Year
January is the moment to decide how the rest of the year feels. The operators who enter 2026 with clarity are not doing more. They are relying less on heroics and more on structure. Systems create visibility. Standards remove guesswork. Culture sustains people. That is what holds up all year.
The start of the year is when structure matters most. Inside MAJC✨, operators use shared tools, real conversations, and lived experience to build businesses that are easier to run and harder to break. Join Office Hours, Expert Sessions, and the MAJC✨ Community to pressure-test your 2026 playbook with people who understand the work.
At MAJC, AI helps us organize thoughts and speed up workflows, but every article is shaped, refined, and approved by real people who live and breathe this industry. Honesty, like hospitality, works best when it is real.
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