Photo taken in 2012 in BangPop

A Modern Thai Restaurant

Southwharf Promenade Melb.

Chocolate Buddha

Akachochin

BangPop

Firechief Pizzeria

Transport Hotel

Taxi_Dining Room,

Transit Lounge

A Super modern Pub in the heart of Melbourne - This venue spawned a chic restaurant which was awarded the prestigious Restaurant of the Year 2006

Delivino Concept

Consultancy Job

For Accolade Wines

Rebuilding Brands, Creating New Concepts Such as this for 3rd party Customers

And General Hospitality Consultancy

Products such as

SPLID a spoon with a Lid

Self contained spooning and container product that had never before existed - designed developed and bought to market

• KITCHEN STAFF
• MENU ADVICE
• CONCEPT & DIRECTION
• STAFF & VENUE PROBE
• INTERIOR UPGRA DE
• BRAND & LOGO RESTYLE
• COSTS & OVERHEADS
• LEASE ISSUES & ADVICE
• ATMOSPHERE & AMBIENCE
• WEBSITE DESIGN

Expanded

Services

Content

in no specific order

Paul Mathis

Consulting

Kitchen Consultation

A good kitchen team is a vital part of any hospitality venue.

I have variously been a chef in my own venues. This experience along with my significant number of owned venues, has provided me with the experience to hire the right team and then work closely with them to get the results.

I have not always struck gold with my choices, especially with chefs - But as is my life story - hiring the wrong people gave me the experience of what to look for next time.

The food quality and kitchen efficacy can be a make or break situation on any hospitality business.

I believe there is some real sense in getting a second opinion, or devising a plan to improve or elevate the customer and owner experience by improving food and service even if the food you serve is good

Food is one of those areas that can always be improved or renewed, but what really damages a business is complacency.

The quality of your kitchen team can make up at least 50% of the success of your venue - some might argue - even more!

I can meet your team, or watch from afar by trying the food or service and report my findings to you privately and confidentially

Paul Mathis

Consulting

Menu Development

A menu in a restaurant, cafe, pub or any kind of hospitality venue is a reflection of where that venue positions itself in the market - Just as a premium car dealer needs a fine showroom, and glossy brochures, so too do you need to be correctly presented, correctly priced, correctly positioned with the right food and beverage list. Every aspect of your business should line up with with your offer.

So what are you selling? Are you on the money with prices? Too cheap? Too cheap isn’t good.

Too expensive? Probably worse!

Are you doing current or trend setting food?

Or has your menu changed in a while?

And what customer numbers? Have they remained steady? Growing? Or have they started to dwindle from the best times?

Let’s do a free 15 minute chat, and see if I can help.

Even with your bar menu and wine list.

People respond well to a great wine list

almost as much as they do to a great menu

Paul Mathis

Consulting

Concept & Direction

The single most important thing to get right from the start when creating a new business is to determine if there’s a market for your offer.

If your offer is new even then it may not be enough. Being new, as i found out many times the hard way, isn’t always best. What is way way way better is if there’s demand for what you offer.

But as I stumbled through life I often asked myslef, how can demand be there for something that hasn’t been done? And since I am the one who will do this new thing, then perhaps I will be the one who starts the cycle of demand - A fair assessment - but risky - as I found out

So, what to do? This may be the most difficult thing to answer because if I knew I would be doing it right now and so would you - we need to take occasional risks in business - business is speculating on outcomes

If you do not try you will never know, but try with the best chance of success. Speak to many people, get lots of opinions

And finally take advice from professionals like me who’ve been around.

Someone like me, who isn’t your best friend or family (who do not want to hurt your feelings) I will give you the cold hard truth about your business or your idea. I may be wrong I may be right, but what is certain is I want to be accurate - I want you to succeed and I want my reputation as a consultant to grow by being good at it. In turn my thoughts will only help you to decide. You would have done your due diligence, better.

Paul Mathis

Consulting

Staff & Venue Evaluation

(Mystery Diner Service)

Well trained and conscientious staff will give your business the best chance for success and make your life so much easier day to day.

It is amazing how simple it is to train staff, yet how easily it is missed.

I can train staff in key objectives which we can cover in a meeting.

Another more impactful service is I come in for lunch or dinner

This is probably the best way to learn about your venue and see what your customers are seeing from an experienced yet impartial observer

Someone who can closely asses the food, the menu, the drinks list, the venue itself, and of course the staff and service. Of course this visit is just a snap of one moment in time - but often that’s all it takes to get a clear impression of what it might be like all the time.

The process begins at the website, then a phone call to book a

table (for 1 or 2) depending on which option you choose.

The food is my cost, my expense, no need to reimburse me.

The resulting experience is then tabled in a document along with the advice I give and what I recommend might be needed if any.

COST: $450 for me alone

COST: $550 with a companion

(companion opinion contributes to the assessment)

Paul Mathis

Consulting

Interior Design Consult

The interior of your venue is your face to world

If your interior is amazing, chances are the business is good too

This is of course not a given, but most likely, especially if you have invested in a good design outcome, with an interior designer or architect

Hopsitality is a trend driven industry and what is popular today is not

so cool a few short years later. Can we see if there’s something we can do?

Would you like to ensure the interior design of your venue stands the test of time ? If you are not sure or feel you may be thinking of a revamp. I have contacts in the building industry as well as ideas of how to make small changes with big impact here in this module too

Brand & Logo Consult

In the my website, I tabled my skill sets into 3 main areas, Hospitality,Consultancy and Product Design. This was for good reason.

At my core I believe I am a pretty decent designer. I have either designed some of my original interiors, or created the brands or logos from scratch. 2 of interiors were twice shortlisted for design awards.

This is because I love design and LOVE seeing them come to life!

Let’s also look at your logo/branding. This is design too and another area I absolutely love and for the same reasons. Let me chat to you about Branding & Logo and see if it is communicating to your audience too

Paul Mathis

Consulting

Costs & Overheads

When all is said and done if your costs or overheads exceed your

income by any percentage more than zero, you are likely losing money.

I have had plenty of businesses that lost money. Sometimes we operate at a loss knowing, or hoping, we will soon break into profit.

However during a period of losses you are TRADING WHILE INSOLVENT - this is a thing and it is an offence in the eyes of the law. I know first hand

In my case, as I opened new business often, they routinely needed time to bed in, and most of the time they did reasonably quickly. If you have been in a situation like me with multiple venues this is not uncommon.

It happens and it happens to everyone at least once. Is this you?

Can I help? I have plenty of experiences here too.

Lease Advice

If you happen to have started 35 new ventures as I did, you may

know how much you have learned about commercial law

Signing a lease is a serious undertaking and can never be taken lightly.

I once signed a lease for building in Williamstown, but later I couldn’t proceed (with that lease) The landlord sued me and won. The cost was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. So I can definitely give some advice - mostly anecdotal but still good solid experienced based advice

Paul Mathis

Consulting

Atmosphere & Ambience

Atmosphere and ambience have been covered in previous modules here.

But, what hasn’t been covered is how my services can be utilised in a very particular way to improve the thing called atmosphere or ambience.

Background noises like roaring kitchen exhausts, unregulated heating or

cooling, and of course loud obtrusive music played more for staff entertainment at the expense of customers is just one way how ambience affects your venue

Boomy rooms with horrible acoustics give customers a headache!

Lighting, so harsh or misdirected that my bald spots look worse than my dinner dates heavy makeup or both our regrowth grey hairs!

I’m a stickler on “Bad atmospheric conditions” people do not enjoy themselves and often can’t put their finger on what they didn’t like even if the food was ok.

Let me help, let me go over this with you - we may find an easy fix

Website & Social Media

I built this website myself using Canva. I loaded it and I upkeep it.

For my product SPLID, I built an ecommerce site on shopify which is still operating today. I also did all the social media for SPLID

But this is NOT a strength but rather something I can do.

If you need this kind of service I can certainly help out, to the point of getting you up and running. But if your organisation is more sizeable I can refer you to contacts in dedicated Web Design and Social Media disciplines

Paul Mathis

Consulting