William Nassikas: What You Need to Know About Restaurant Management

William Nassikas is a successful resort developer and operator who started his career more than forty years ago. As a student at Cornell University, he spent his summer and winter breaks working at the Hyatt San Francisco, where he spent time as a cook, assistant beverage manager, and restaurant assistant manager. After graduation, “I went to Switzerland enrolling in the Swiss Hotel School. My focus was to learn the European way of hotel keeping and high-end restaurant management,” he explains. This early experience and education, set him up to become the President and Chief Operating Officer for Westroc Hospitality. During his time at the Hyatt San Francisco, he learned what it takes to be a successful restaurant manager.

1. Restaurant managers must have exceptional customer service skills. Not only do you have to know how to deal with customers, but how to deal with staff as well. You will need to be able to deal with staff conflicts, as well as customer complaints.
2. The Point of Sale (POS) system provides you with numerous benefits including having the ability to easily track cash flow, sales, inventory, and food. POS systems help to simplify the day-to-day tasks of managing a restaurant.
3. You need to be approachable and accepting of the constant change that occurs in restaurants. As a manager, you must be able to adjust to the constant changes in policy and procedure and be able to clearly communicate these changes to your staff.

It is important, as a restaurant manager, to make sure that all the responsibilities and concerns of the restaurant are covered to ensure the staff is happy and the restaurant operations run smoothly. William Nassikas has extensive experience in all aspect of restaurant management, having worked in the hospitality industry for more than four decades.

Also can read: William Nassikas: Resort Development: Eight Steps for New Developers

William Nassikas: Resort Development: Eight Steps for New Developers

William Nassikas is the President and Chief Operating Officer of Westroc Hospitality, a company that redevelops and operates several boutique resorts throughout Arizona. He has extensive experience in the industry; “I grew up within the hospitality industry with my hotelier father, James A. Nassikas, founder and past President of the Stanford Court Hotel in San Francisco,” he explains. He has led the development for many of the resorts he and his team now manage. When it comes to hotel development, there are several steps that should be followed if they want to avoid ending up with a non-performing asset.

1. Identify the market segment your resort will cater too and understand why you want to enter that market.
2. Find the site that best fits the type of resort you plan to develop. Make sure the site location and development density are in line with the expectations of the market.
3. Talk to a hotel management company if you aren’t already experienced in hotel operations.
4. Look at similar resorts and determine their operating performance. This will help you determine the annual average room rate, operating expense, and occupancy of similar resorts in the area.
5. Determine the project’s financial status by going through the process of establishing the cost of capital.
6. Prepare a financial feasibility study to determine cash flow over the first ten years of ownership. Hotel management companies can help you with these figures.
7. Establish the development budget based on the discounted cash flow from the financial feasibility study.
8. Execute and manage the development budget. This needs to be handled throughout the entire planning, design, and construction process.

Completing these eight steps will put you well on your way to developing a resort. William Nassikas and his team at Westroc Hospitality are currently developing the Mountain Shadows resort in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Also can read: William Nassikas: Three Skills Spa Managers Must Possess

William Nassikas: Three Skills Spa Managers Must Possess

William Nassikas is a successful hotel and resort owner based in Arizona. He is the President and COO of Westroc Resorts in Scottsdale, Arizona. His job has enabled him to redevelop and design several new resorts, spas, and hotels in the area, including Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain, a spa and boutique resort. Nassikas has managed spas, restaurants, and lodging during his career in the hospitality industry. Here are three skills all spa managers must possess to be successful:

• Strategic planning abilities. A spa manager has to look ahead to anticipate changes in the market. The changing of seasons throughout the year, for example, could have a heavy impact on the spa and how many customers it can expect to bring in. William Nassikas has learned how to head off possible crises by adjusting to market trends and other foreseeable changes before they occur.
• IT skills. Information Technology skills are becoming more useful in all industries. Spa manager now have to be able to do basic website work, manage online systems for customers such as reservations, and enable their employees to do their jobs more efficiently and with more accuracy using network computing and databases if necessary.
• Public relations and promotional skills. Spa managers have to be the face of their spa. They have to be able to promote their spa to the public and be a competent, reassuring public face. Spa managers today have to develop their own promotional strategies and implement them through their teams to stay ahead.
• William Nassikas has managed hotels and spas for many years in the hospitality industry.

Also can read: William Nassikas: Three Common Social Media Marketing Mistakes

William Nassikas: Three Common Social Media Marketing Mistakes

William Nassikas, as a business owner in 2016, has to take social media content seriously. Nassikas is the President and Chief Operating Officer of Westroc Resorts, a company based in Scottsdale, Arizona that has renovated several resorts and hotels to provide excellent accommodations for their customers. Nassikas ensures that the operation of these properties in Arizona are top-notch and as smooth as possible to keep the business thriving. He is also at work designing new developments for new resorts and hotels in the area. He has watched the rise of social media as a business owner and has used it to his advantage by avoiding these three common social media marketing mistakes:

• Not forming content to each channel. As a business manager, like William Nassikas, you have to choose which social media platforms and channels to use as your primary points of contact with customers and marketing tools. Some businesses need to be on Instagram and Twitter while others would be better posting to Facebook. Each of these platforms have post stylings and formats that work better than others.
• Not posting regularly. No matter which channel or platform you choose, you have to make sure that your business is regularly represented to your followers. Posting too infrequently will cause customers to lose sight of your business. You have to post regularly to stay top-of-mind.
• Promoting the right things. You have to know your audience. If your audience usually only wants more information about your business, keep posting about your company facts and new products and services. If they respond to discounts and sales, promote them loud and clear on social media.
• William Nassikas has seen success by avoiding these mistakes.

Also can read: William Nassikas: Keys for Starting a New Resort