Everyone wants to grow their restaurant business.
It’s a tale as old as time.
And my story was no different.
The pressure to grow was constant.
What I didn’t realize was that some of the decisions we were making in those early days would either set us up for long-term success or quietly sabotage everything we’d built.
Recently, I had the chance to sit down with Jeff Brock, founding and managing partner of Hargett Hunter, a private investment firm focused exclusively on the restaurant industry.
Over 25 years in finance and investing, Jeff has seen hundreds of restaurant concepts attempt to scale—and he’s watched the same critical mistakes destroy otherwise promising brands over and over again.
Read on to figure out what not to do.
The Restaurant Investment Expert Who’s Seen It All
Jeff Brock isn’t just another investor who dabbles in restaurants. After 25 years in finance and investing, he launched Hargett Hunter in 2015 with a singular focus that makes his firm unique in the investment world: they do nothing but invest in restaurant concepts.
This laser focus gives Jeff and his team an unusual perspective on restaurant growth. While other investors diversify across industries, Hargett Hunter has watched the same patterns repeat across hundreds of restaurant deals. They’ve seen concepts that looked unstoppable flame out spectacularly, and they’ve watched seemingly modest brands build sustainable, valuable businesses.
That commitment to the restaurant industry, combined with Jeff’s investment experience, gives him a rare vantage point on what actually drives long-term value in restaurant businesses versus what just looks impressive in the short term.
The Three Fatal Restaurant Growth Blind Spots You’ll Want To Avoid
When I asked Jeff about the biggest obstacles he sees emerging restaurant brands face, his answer surprised me. It wasn’t about food costs or labor challenges—the operational issues most restaurant owners obsess over.
Instead, Jeff identified three functional areas that are consistently underdeveloped in small emerging brands:
“It’s almost always finance and accounting… It’s almost always technology… And then lastly, it’s real estate.”
What makes these blind spots so dangerous is that they’re exactly the areas where restaurant operators have the least natural expertise. You got into restaurants because you’re great at hospitality, food, and operations. Nobody starts a restaurant because they’re passionate about financial reporting systems.
But these three areas have a disproportionate impact on your ability to scale successfully. And the decisions you make (or avoid making) in these areas during your first few locations will either accelerate your growth or quietly undermine everything you’re building.
Mistake #1: Treating Finance and Accounting as Just Compliance
For years, I thought “good accounting” meant clean books, filed taxes, and monthly financial statements. What I didn’t realize was that compliance-focused accounting, even when done well, doesn’t give you the strategic financial foundation you need to scale successfully.
Jeff sees this pattern constantly in emerging restaurant brands: owners who’ve mastered operations but struggle with the financial infrastructure needed for growth.
Here’s what I wish someone had told me: there’s a massive difference between accounting that keeps you compliant and accounting that positions you for growth.
Standard accounting firms produce financial statements that satisfy tax obligations and basic reporting needs. But when you’re ready to scale, you need financial analysis that demonstrates sophisticated understanding of unit economics, provides actionable insights for expansion decisions, and speaks the language that restaurant investors actually use.
Is your accounting firm doing this? Take our quiz and find out.
Consider what happens when you’re ready to raise capital or bring in partners. Investors don’t just want to see that your restaurants are profitable—they want to see financial reporting that proves you understand your business at a granular level.
They want to see:
- Food cost analysis by location
- Labor efficiency metrics that benchmark against industry standards
- Forecasting models that account for restaurant-specific variables
Most importantly, they want to see that your financial systems can support multi-unit management before you actually have multiple units.
The opportunity cost of generic accounting, even good generic accounting, is enormous.
Mistake #2: Underestimating Technology’s Role in Scaling
“Hell, it’s almost next to impossible to just keep up with,” Jeff says about the technology landscape in restaurants.
This resonates because technology decisions in restaurants feel overwhelming and never-ending.
Every month, there’s a new POS system, a new app, a new integration that promises to solve all your problems. The natural response is often to stick with what works and avoid the complexity.
But Jeff’s perspective on technology mistakes goes deeper than just choosing the wrong systems. The real mistake is not recognizing how technology enablement affects your ability to scale operations effectively.
When you have one or two locations, you can manage most functions manually or with basic systems.
That personal involvement becomes impossible as you scale. Technology isn’t just about efficiency—it’s about maintaining control and visibility across multiple locations when you can’t be everywhere at once.
Restaurant operators who successfully scale aren’t necessarily early adopters or tech experts. They’re strategic about building technology infrastructure that supports their specific growth plan, rather than trying to solve every problem with the latest app.
Mistake #3: Casual Approach to Real Estate and Site Selection
So you built a successful restaurant concept in your local area and now you want to bring it to a new market.
That’ll be tougher than you think.
As Jeff pointed out, “When you jump to new markets, you’re trying to prove predictability, replicability, portability.”
This is where I made one of my costliest mistakes. Our third location was not the right fit geographically, and it almost took us down when we had the least amount of capital available to recover from the mistake.
When you’re successful in your home market, it’s easy to assume your concept will work anywhere. But your success might be due to factors that don’t exist in other markets—local demographics, competition landscape, or even just your personal relationships in the community.
Smart restaurant groups approach new market expansion with the same rigor they’d apply to launching an entirely new concept. They research demographics, analyze competition, and often partner with local experts who understand the market dynamics.
Additional Growth Mistakes To Avoid
While those three were the most important mistakes to avoid for restaurant leaders with their eyes set on growth, Jeff also dropped some other nuggets of wisdom that were super fascinating.
Over-Emphasizing Your Restaurant “Culture”
When I brought up the importance of culture and brand in early growth, Jeff’s response caught me off guard:
“I actually would probably take the other side of the coin. I think culture and brand are often crutches for incompetence or lack of commitment to building more systems and processes.”
This was a hard lesson to absorb. Culture matters enormously in restaurants, but it can’t become an excuse for avoiding the structural decisions that enable sustainable growth. The most successful restaurant groups don’t choose between strong culture and professional systems—they use professional systems to protect and scale their culture.
Putting On “Deal” Blinders
One of the most valuable insights Jeff shared was about the psychology of growth capital:
“I think one of the things that I’d add there is to kind of be careful not to be tempted and fall in love with the idea of a deal and the idea of a partner.”
This hits on something I’ve seen repeatedly in the restaurant industry. There’s enormous ego validation in announcing a major investment round or partnership. It feels like external proof that your concept is special and you’re a serious player in the industry.
But Jeff’s warning is crucial: “I’ve seen a million concepts who were the prettiest girl or guy at the dance. And today they’re worth, you know, 20% of what they were five, six years ago, because they were more concerned about just being validated than they necessarily were about finding the right partner to go continue the journey.”
The right time to explore growth capital is when your unit economics are proven, your systems can support expansion, and you’ve identified the right strategic partner—not when you need external validation or when everyone’s telling you to “strike while you’re hot.”
What Successful Restaurant Growth Actually Looks Like
After talking with Jeff about mistakes, I asked him what successful restaurant growth looks like from his perspective. His answer focused on two fundamental principles:
- Stay Authentic: “I really press to stay authentic. You have to figure out who you are and that may take some time.”
This resonated because authenticity is both the hardest and most important aspect of restaurant growth. It’s easy to see what’s working for other concepts and try to incorporate those elements into your brand. But successful scaling requires knowing exactly what makes your concept special and protecting that essence as you grow.
- Invest in Great People: “Hire the best possible people that you possibly can from day one.”
Jeff’s point about talent is particularly important for smaller restaurant groups: “Sometimes you might have to share a little bit more of the pie earlier than you thought with the right people. But I think having great people… will help you attract more talent over time.”
And scale quicker.
- Build for the Consumer: “When you’re concerned about the consumer, the consumer’s not going anywhere.”
This long-term thinking influences how Jeff and his team evaluate potential investments and how they advise the restaurant groups in their portfolio. Growth is important, but sustainable unit economics and strong operational foundations matter more.
The restaurant operators who build lasting value aren’t necessarily the ones who grow fastest. They’re the ones who take time to build proper systems, make thoughtful expansion decisions, and resist the temptation to prioritize headlines over fundamentals.
The Path Forward
The operators who scale successfully aren’t necessarily better at making food or managing staff. They’re better at recognizing what they don’t know and building the right infrastructure before they need it.
Jeff’s insights confirmed what I learned the hard way: the decisions you make about finance and accounting, technology systems, and real estate strategy in your first few locations will determine whether your growth creates value or just creates complexity.
The good news is that none of these challenges are insurmountable. They’re just different from the operational challenges you’re naturally equipped to handle. With the right advisors, systems, and approach, restaurant growth can be both sustainable and profitable.
We’re here to help you build that team.
Reach out to connect with restaurant accounting specialists who can help you build the financial systems and strategic insights you need for sustainable growth.
