As a recruiting agency that specializes in the hospitality industry for 20 years, Patrice & Associates has lived through the good, the bad and the ugly.  We’ve lived through 911, through gas lines, and through record unemployment.  Through it all, there has always been a constant thread – the restaurant industry always bounces back. People still eat out! There may be more items on the $1 menu or the Happy Hour menu, but people still eat out. Independent resaurants have been struggling and the chains may have closed some locations and opened others, but America loves to eat out!

Nations Restaurant News reports today that our industry is definitely on the rise. Two recent surveys forecast a slightly sunnier picture for the year ahead among both consumers and franchise business leaders, providing a glimpse of clearer skies for the restaurant industry. 

Click here for in-depth analysis.

This Nation has just gone through a tough economic time, only surpassed by 1929. I found myself jobless for the first time in 25 years. The people at Patrice and Associates, specifically Stella Hernandez and Bernice Gregorieff, pushed me to remain positive because they knew they’d find me a great job with a wonderful company. They stayed diligent with communication and perseverance and met their goal. Only later did I find out that I was Stella’s First Placement as a recruiter with Patrice & Associates.  I want to thank them now and know that if I have any needs in the future or have any friends looking for a job I will tell them “stop worrying and call Stella and Bernice at P&A.”

Thank You again…..

With Gratitude,

Stefan Cytanovic

The most powerful tools a recruiter can have—even before he or she masters tactics—is immediacy and proactivity. To do a thing immediately, acting in anticipation of future problems, needs or changes.  

A few Examples:

You have a new job order? If it’s workable, recruit for it—make a submission happen—market someone in NOW!

 Your client expresses interest in a candidate you present? He wants to phone interview at the end of the week? Influence him to do it NOW! Tonight, not tomorrow or the end of the week! Once a client expresses an interest in a candidate—even at the beginning of the process—you have an obligation to protect your client’s interest—time is your enemy!

You have a hot, marketable candidate identified and he/she has agreed to send a resume in a few days or next week? Type it yourself and submit it NOW!

 Your client wants to make an offer? Your candidate receives the offer and wants to “think about it for a week or two”, or even a few days? The candidate should be prepped to accept NOW. All questions should be answered and he should just be waiting for the offer to be extened.

A note about the quest for immediacy: Don’t allow it to harm the closure of a deal either. There may be times when some people, when pressed for decisions, would rather make the wrong decision rather than a timely one. A candidate may decide not to interview or to decline an offer because they feel pressured for time. It’s amazing how many candidates would rather not take action at all if they feel uncomfortable with the timing of that action. 

 The place to start in developing the Instinct of Immediacy is to force yourself to ask one question regarding every action and activity you have on your desk right now—whether it’s how you’re planning and executing or how your deals are running—”How can I make this happen NOW?” Examine how you can bring proactivity to every element of your business.

It’s easy to be lulled into a trance by a challenging marketplace. You stare out there at all the objections and your eyes glaze over. And that’s exactly what your competition wants you to do. They want your blood to run nice and slowwwww, they want you to put off what you could do today. They want you to sit at your desk listening to the ocean waves. WRONG!! This is one of those instincts that can be developed that, over the long haul in our business, will bring more and more benefit as time goes on. It will save you deals, it will give you business, it will separate you from the mediocres. And the best thing about it is that you can start doing it NOW!!

In dozens of states, Gary couldn’t light up before tucking into his meat-lover’s pizza, as he did at this Restaurant & Bar this week. But in North Carolina, the nation’s leading tobacco producer, limits on indoor smoking have lagged behind those in much of the country.

That changes Saturday, when smoking in restaurants and bars is banned in the state that is home to two major tobacco companies and where the golden leaf helped build Duke and Wake Forest universities. 

“There’s smokers and there’s nonsmokers. We’ve gotten along in the past,” Richards, 52, said this week during a pre-meal smoke at the restaurant inside a former tobacco warehouse. “Why can’t I come in here and have my beer and a couple of slices of pizza and a cigarette?”

The dangers of secondhand smoke to employee health and complaints from patrons about the smell finally won out when the Legislature approved the ban in 2009 after years of failures.

“This law doesn’t tell anybody they shouldn’t smoke,” said state Rep. Hugh Holliman, a lung cancer survivor whose sister died of lung cancer. He led the charge for the legislation. “It’s saying nonsmokers should have the same right to breathe clean air.”

North Carolina is a relative latecomer to tobacco prohibitions in public places. North Carolina is at least the 29th state to ban smoking in restaurants and 24th for bars, according to the American Lung Association.

The new prohibitions represent a dramatic turn for a state that produces nearly half of the nation’s tobacco.