What others are saying about the Home Remedies newsletter:

"Bill Marvin always provides a unique perspective, always something to think about - a different way to look at yourself, your business, or your problems."
-- Jack Welch, President, Growth Restaurants

"Home Remedies is right on target for a wide audience of food service professionals. Bill's insight . . . makes this one of the great hands-on streams of information available today."
-- Ed Manley, CFE, President and Chief Operating Officer, International Food Service Executives Association

"Bill Marvin's insights are as relevant as they are relentless. He truly is the"'doctor" - a master at diagnosing whatever ails our business, then formulating the right cure. Just be sure you're smart enough to swallow it."
-- Barry M. Cohen, CEO, Old San Francisco Steakhouse Corporation

"Bill's observations on the human condition are most refreshing. He has a flair for projecting his message with an air of friendliness and "I've been there" without being arrogant. The result is very readable."
-- Robert Arnold, CCM, General Manager, The Harvard Club of New York

HOME REMEDIES
A House Call from The Restaurant Doctor

CONTENTS

Introduction

01. Job One ... and Job Two
02. Doing What is Right
03. Do the Best You Can ... and You're Dead!
04. A Point to Ponder

05. Of Course We Can!
06. How About a Job With Real Meaning?
07. Greed
08. Who Cares?

09. Don't Confuse Hard Work With Results
10. Happy New Year
11. Get Out of Survival
12. ... and the Truth Shall Set You Free

13. Turning the Tables
14. More Basics
15. All I Needed to Know I Learned on a Saturday Night
16. How Rules are Really Made

17. It's In the Cards
18. Don't Compete - EXCEL!
19. Reducing Overtime
20. Is THAT All That's Wrong?

21. A Shining Example of Service
22. Who ARE You?
23. Start a Mentor Program
24. Notions

25. Have Your Cake and Eat it Too
26. Just Say Charge It!
27. Improve Your Tableside Manner
28. Everybody Needs a Hero

29. Customer in Crisis
30. State of the Union
31. What's Your Problem?
32. Coaching Skills

33. Inclusion
34. Raising Menu Prices in a Competitive Market
35. Training: It's Not Just for Rookies Anymore!
36. Recycling Restaurants

37. TCB or TCM?
38. Secrets of Consulting - Part 1
39. Beware of Research
40. A Message of Hope from the Field

41. Watch Yourself
42. The Making of a Workaholic
43. The Problem with Higher Checks
44. Better than You Have to Be

45. Do You Have a Martian?
46. Who Dat?
47. Killing Enthusiasm
48. Want to Build Sales?

49. What is Your Job?
50. Managing Costs vs. Cutting Costs
51. Your Restaurant is Boring
52. Staff Benefits Revisited

53. More Tips for Tips
54. What's Your Occupancy?
55. Don't Wash Dishes During the Rush
56. Sound Familiar?

57. Got a Lemon? Make Lemonade!
58. Get the Kids Involved
59. What Did You Learn From Your Staff Today?
60. Life Goes On in Many Languages

61. Old Ideas Revisited
62. The Terrible Twos
63. Stop Training!
64. Build Your Network

65. Build Your Database
66. Dollars and Sense
67. Expand Your Thinking
68. I Don't Know

APPENDIX
About the Author
Reading and Resources

EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK:

INTRODUCTION

This is some of my best material.

The articles in this book are taken from the first several years of my "Home Remedies" newsletter. What makes it my best stuff is not so much in what each article says -- although there are some very powerful ideas in here -- but in how the article came to be in the first place.

If you have ever produced a newsletter, you know that the demand to have a flow of fresh ideas can be a debilitating experience. I started the newsletter in January of 1995 and filled it primarily with excerpts from my first books. It was a fairly easy process, but I quickly used up most of the material I had written. Now what?

Richard Bach said, "You teach best what you most need to learn." I teach that when your mind quiets down, you tap into a flow of wisdom that is far deeper than anything you access consciously. My bimonthly "brain drain" had the effect of quieting my mind down -- the newsletter would be due and I wouldn't have a clue as to what I was going to write!

Perhaps it is because nature abhors a vacuum, but I found that I was suddenly tapping into fresh insights and was seeing the hospitality business in new ways. It was very exciting!

As I became more comfortable with the process, I started to see fresh possibilities everywhere. Each time I went out to eat, anywhere in the world, I would notice something would trigger a whole new train of thought. Or someone would ask a question which would start me looking at what I "knew" from an entirely fresh perspective.

That is really the way most of this came together and why it is more a reflection of the process than of the author. This source is available to anyone who is willing to quiet their mind and simply listen for insights.

Some of the items here have made it into one or another of my previous books. Some may yet find a home in another application. If you have a "Marvin library," please forgive any repetition. If you don't, perhaps a tidbit in here will encourage you to pick up another of my books and explore an idea in more detail. Good ideas are good ideas, wherever you find them.

I hope you will enjoy and profit from the notions in this book. Some will make you smile, some may irritate you, but all should make you rethink what you "know" ... and that will make all the difference.