Beelow's Steakhouse: A Family Business Internship - Essay Sample

Introduction

Beelow's Steakhouse is a high-end Steakhouse with two locations. The First Beelow's opened in 2008 in Lake Zurich, Illinois. There is another location found in Highland Park, Illinois. Beelow's NorthShore was opened in 2015, off central st, in downtown Highland Park. Now my internship might be a little a different than some internships because my father is the owner, but I do not have it easy. My father does not let me off easy because I am his son; I think he is harder on me than most of his employees. I work mostly alongside my father Dan, but when I do floor shadowing, it is mainly with Robbie, who is the general manager at Beelow's Steakhouse. Beelow's Steakhouse employees roughly 88 people, with one general manager and two-floor managers. Robbie is usually the one who creates a schedule that has around 47 employees working each day. With annual revenue of 3.7 million. I am thrilled I was able to take this course because my father is a closed book when it comes to his businesses. Before I had my internship, he wouldn't tell me much about Beelow's, but now that I am involved in the restaurant he has opened up and taught me many things I would have never know.

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I have learned about a lot of small things that Make the restaurant operate efficiently. For the first couple of days, I would spend the whole time reading and understanding how the POS systems (Toast) works. I was also doing a weekly inventory on the meat. The reason I am doing this is because Dan thought we were using a lot more meat then we were selling. So I created an excel sheet from scratch that calculates the total amount of meat used, that takes into account for a percentage of waste. From there, I would use Toast to see the quantities of beef sold for that week. After a lot of hard work, I was able to complete the excel sheet, and we found out that there was way more meat being used then bought. It took about a month for us to find where the problem was at and fix it. While working on that, I would also start to do ordering for not just one restaurant but two. That consists of collecting the orders from the main chefs Antonio and Martin, then sending the orders to the venders. From there we would get prices, and Dan would pick what vender he wanted to buy them from for each of the items. Then I would make a new excel sheet for each of the venders with the products we need and them email them out. One of the other things I learned was how to read the P/L statement and be able to insert the correct information into the right places. Most importantly, I was able to shadow Robbie, the general manager and Ashely one of the floor managers. This was a fantastic experience because I truly felt like a manager at the time. I was able to do everything from creating a floor plan to settling an issue with an upset customer. It was hard to not talk back to the customers when they have an unreasonable request. I thought I solved the problems well because Ashely gave me some useful tips to help resolve the issue.

Application

Throughout my internship program, I was able to acquire significant knowledge from my experience. This knowledge helped me connect the theory perspective I have learned at school with the practical application from my work experience. Every day at my workplace introduced me to a new and exciting aspect of my intended career, which further motivates me to pursue this line of work. The internship has also been a growing experience for me since I have learned the value of every task performed behind the closed managerial doors that further help the Steakhouse run smoothly.

During my internship, I learned how to take inventory of the stock that was in the restaurant. According to my class notes, inventory is an essential aspect of identifying product cost that is within Beelow Steakhouse. This aspect of managerial accounting helped me to understand the use of inventory cost through a practical application as compared to the idealized version I learned at school. Furthermore, I was able to use my inventory after three days of taking inventory costs. To make accurate inventory, I was given a paper with the meat types on it, and I was to weigh everything that was not cut or was cut and put in a box. I also took the weight off the boxes if they were full. This experience has greatly helped me to familiarize with inventory stock taking. Moreover, I also learned that consistency in inventory taking is essential as prices fluctuate on a daily basis. According to Author (2016), most restaurants prefer to take inventory at the end of the month or on a slow night which can be detrimental as it siphons money from the bottom line without the managers realizing it.

My internship experience has also helped me to set goals that will motivate my performance. At Beelow Steakhouse, targets and goals are set to be accomplished daily, at the end of every month as well as yearly. These targets help to motivate the staff to improve their performance as well as achieve the objectives. Drawing from my class notes on Business Organization and Management, I was able to set personal goals that would motivate me to perform better to accomplish them. I also noticed that, in line with the motivational goal-setting theory, the managers at the Steakhouse set specific challenging goals for each department and made the staff accept the goals that they have set. Then, the staff is required to provide performance-related feedback to the managers for the assessment of their performance. This helped both the managers and the employees to monitor their performance and ensure that top-notch services are provided to the customers. Similarly, I also set personal goals that when achieved, would motivate me to perform better as I experienced a satisfaction. In turn, this experience helped me to understand the connection between efforts and comfort at the workplace in regards to intrinsic and extrinsic motivating factors. My personal goals, as intrinsic motivators help to boost my performance, which in turn, accomplish my external goals and result in satisfaction with the work that I was doing. Aside from that, I also learned how to make adjustments that would ensure both customer and employee satisfaction. This knowledge was acquired through my second lesson, which taught managers how to void items, add options to food, changes food options, or corrects someone clock in time. It shows how to fix problems that an employee has. As a result, I feel more confident that I can tackle some of the managerial responsibilities at a restaurant.

My internship experience has provided me with sufficient knowledge in regards to the optimal order quantity of the Steakhouse. Optimal quantity, as explained in my Agricultural Economics class notes, can be identified as quantity at which marginal benefits is equal to marginal cost. This concept was continuously defined at my workplace due to the nature of the business. As part of the managerial team, I had to identify the most cost-effective amount which a product can be purchased or sold at a time to ensure a continuous flow of stock. Rae (2019) also explains that holding too much inventory is expensive and may result in unnecessary costs in terms of administrative, storage, insurance, and finance. Therefore, it was my duty to ensure that the inventories of the Steakhouse were continuously flowing. Furthermore, I also learned how to identify and correct minor mistakes that may present themselves in the inventory sheet with the help of my colleagues. For instance, Dan and helped me to go over the inventory sheet and correct all errors before we could use the worksheet. Also, Michelle taught me how to make orders for produces for both beelow's steak house and Beelow's Northshore to avoid too much stock and to always ensure that the produce used at both businesses were fresh to attract customers. Thus, the combination of the theoretical approach from my class notes and the practical application from my experience has helped me to understand the connection between agriculture economics and the daily operations of restaurants such as Below's steak house and Beelow's Northshore.

My work experience has been eye-opening for me. There is a stark difference between what I have learned at school and what my internship has taught me. My class notes on Statistical Reasoning introduced me to the concepts of statistical tendency and consistency. I learned that statistical tendency enables us to explain the center of distribution of a variable as well as comparing one variable to another while statistical consistency is the variability, or spread, of a distribution. On the other hand, my experience has broadened these two concepts regarding the flow of stock and order. While working with the managerial staff, I learned how to observe using statistical consistency the distribution of individuals who preferred a specific type of dish as compared to the rest. In return, the management can use this information to facilitate the tendency in preparing the most popular meal in the restaurant. As a result, the Steakhouse ensures that the most popular dish is always present in an adequate amount to prevent the restaurant from running out of stock in the middle of the day. Furthermore, the two concepts have also been used when analyzing the amount of produce that is to be bought as well as determining the best distributor who will provide fresh products at the most cost-efficient price. For example, I had to do the second half of ordering when Michelle was not around. Therefore, I took the prices that I received back from the vendors, and I printed them, and Dan chose what he wanted, and I had to separate them and send them out to be ordered.

My work experience has given me a glimpse of working life. Throughout my internship experience, I have gained an insight into what will be expected of me as a manager as well as the roles I will be expected to perform. For example, I was given responsibilities such as inventory taking and making orders for the restaurant as part of my training to equip me with the knowledge and skills that are necessary for the specific tasks. During my experience, I had to put into practice the theoretical subject of communication that I learned while at school. Practical application of communication has helped me to communicate with various individuals such as my supervisors as well as colleagues while at work. Furthermore, this experience has helped me to polish up my capabilities in terms of written communication. As a result of this experience, I can write reports, formal letters, and my oral communication styles and methods have also significantly improved. When I was shadowing the managerial officers at the office, I gained a significant advantage as I was able to learn how to create and correct any errors in the inventory sheet, make orders for produce, as well as assist in creating the floor plan for the night. Moreover, this internship has provided me with the opportunity to identify the areas that I would like to pursue in future and those that I did not like. For instance, even though I generally enjoy being in a managerial position, I would not want to be a customer relations manager like Ashley since it is difficult for me to apologize to people who might not deserve it.

Reflection

My internship opportunity has provided me with a great experience of working life. My experience has dramatically changed my outlook on the managerial profession as compared to my perspective before this internship experience. In addition, I have also realized that numerous differences are present between school life and work-life since everyone is much more serious at work for them to receive sufficient salaries. Also, my confidence levels and communication have improved tremendously throughout my internship expe...