Help! I've been Yelped!

When you get that notice that someone has written a yelp review about your restaurant, you can't help but to swallow, take a long breath, close one eye, and open your yelp account to see if it is a good or bad review. Most people don't write about their good experiences. Some folks write a bad review on just about anything. Sometimes a reviewer will only give you a couple of stars and refuse to explain the reasoning behind it -- in fact those very same patrons rave about your establishment but only give you 3 or 4 stars. What can you do?

Well in September of 2014, the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco ruled that Yelp can revise, edit and prioritize business reviews based on advertising money it receives from that business. Basically, now Yelp can delete your reviews based on advertising money you give them. While they did not admit doing it previously, the Court ruled that they can moving forward. 

So now -- there is something you can do about a false yelp review or an unreasonably difficult patron (the one that no matter what you do, they are not happy). 

Restaurant 101

The 101 to operating a restaurant, especially if you are in the venture with partners and/investors, is ... drumroll ... have a contract! Not rocket science I know. But I am still surprised how many of you out there that have restaurants went into it without a viable (and enforceable) contract. That said, most of you have been operating without one for years. It's easy to say that when there are no problems... Well, then there are no problems. 'We trust each other.'  Yes of course you do -- money and fame haven't sunk in yet and an issue hasn't arose. But when there is a problem, small or large, the contract - that operating agreement, partnership agreement, joint venture agreement, or what have you - will almost always solve that problem before it gets any more sticky. When there is equality in the initial capital contributions and each member/partner has injected the equal amount of money into the restaurant, a contract is equally important than say if one partner invested and the other handled operations. The reasoning is simple -- when a partner wants out, or wants to be a part of another competing business, or wants to get paid back on his investment by a certain date, or a partner wants to restructure (whether it's the menu, the look, or the delegation of power to employees) -- the contract will solve those issues and serve as the handbook, or the bible of the business. Your restaurant will not only run smoother, but you and your partners will have a peace of mind. Trust will only grow, and so will respect for each other's roles and liabilities. It's a lot more expensive and messy to litigate a divorce between partners without a contract or worse, with a contract drafted and negotiated poorly.