“In 2005, we set a goal to get the restaurant side of our business profitable. As a combination casino/restaurant, Big Dog’s Brewing Company was doing great on the gaming side, but our restaurant left a lot to be desired in the profit margin.

To help us reach our goal, we needed to first know where we stood. We started a top to bottom review of major operation expenses — particularly product costs and labor. I bought a lot of books, read a lot of articles, and I attended a top-notch seminar that just happened to be in Las Vegas — David Scott Peters’ SMART Systems workshop.

In one year’s time, I saw extreme results. For example, in labor, we lowered our full-time employee count an average of five employees per week, saving us more than $90,000 per year. This is despite an increase in business by 5 percent to 10 percent companywide during the same time period.

We did this by implementing David’s ideas regarding labor: sales forecasting based on sales history and recent trends, a labor budget based on forecasted sales and schedules developed within parameters of the new labor budget.

In addition to the savings, we were able to offer higher wages to attract better employees, a necessity because of a tight market. And we were still able to cut labor costs by almost 1 percent despite these higher wages.

I recommend David Scott Peters to anyone running a restaurant. Getting to know him and his SMART Systems is one of the best business decisions I have made."