Brandon O’Dell

Profile

Motivated and knowledgeable business professional experienced in various business settings. Managed extensively and served as a consultant to managers and owners in the food service industry, which by its complex nature, translates into many different business industries. Expertise includes creating advanced sales, cost control and financial analysis tools and implementing effective employee training programs, which has consistently led to increasing profitability.

Notable Career Highlights:

• Author a popular food service management blog and electronic download store selling business analysis tools and training materials to restaurant owners, food service operators, managers and chefs.

• Experience controlling up to $2.5 million in revenue in food service settings including retail, private club, hotel, higher education, concessions, banquets and off-site catering.

• Outside B2P and B2B sales experience.

• Experience consulting for multi-unit restaurant chains and single units with up to $4 million in revenue.

• Proven track record in achieving profitability in food service settings not commonly regarded as profitable; for example, streamlining processes and revamping services to accomplish a sizable yearly net profit in the country club setting which normally sees an operating loss supplemented by membership dollars.

• Restored profitability to 8 consecutive unprofitable college food service operations.

• Designed 4 new quick service concepts and complete reporting system for local university food court and helped many other full and quick service independent restaurants build their concept strategy.

• Managed kitchen, service, maintenance, housekeeping and management in settings with up to 80 staff members.

• Provided interviews and articles to magazine and book authors based on food service expertise resulting in published materials.

Skills & Education

High School Diploma: Derby High School, Derby, Kansas, Graduated 1992

Web Design Certificate (In Progress): Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, Kansas

• HTML and CSS Basics (completed)

• Fireworks Basics and Advanced (completed)

• Flash Fundementals (enrolled)

Century 21 Accounting Course Certification: Completed in 1992

Applications: MS Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher

Adobe Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Acrobat Pro, Fireworks, some Illustrator and Flash

Wordpress Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Linked In

Quicken, Versacheck, AutoCAD

Memberships: Mensa

Professional Experience

Owner, Friend That Cooks Home Chef Service, Shawnee, KS, 2007 – present

• Owner of a personal chef service operating in Kansas City and Wichita that offers meal preparation and parties in the homes of customers.

• Manage up to two certified chef employees and up to three temporary chef contractors.

• Create exciting and delicious menu selections and recipes on demand, made from scratch.

• Prepare food meeting special diets including vegan, vegetarian, raw, gluten free, diabetic, Adkins.

• Manage website, blog, and social media marketing efforts, in addition to traditional marketing efforts.

Independent Business Consultant, O’Dell Restaurant Consulting, Shawnee, KS, 1999 – present

• Provide consultative services to restaurants and food service operations on the topics of: business analysis, marketing, personnel management and operations, as well as concept design, graphic design and basic CAD drawings.

• Serve as a paid contributor to food service forum on Restaurantowner.com offering advice to restaurant owners.

• Create and sell Microsoft Excel and Word organizational, reporting and training tools and templates for food service professionals to download from web store.

• Logged thousands of hours of research communicating with successful and unsuccessful restaurant owners and food service operators, managers and chefs.

Food & Beverage Director, Holiday Inn Coco Key Water Resort, Kansas City, MO, 2011 – 2011

• Oversee kitchen, restaurant, retail outlet, quick service outlet and catering operations with $2.5M in collective revenue

• Took over department with net operating loss and turned profitable in three months time

• Raised guest service scores for department

• Developed local product focus in retail outlet

• Revised and updated coffee shop menu, restaurant menu and catering menu to increase profitability

Food &Beverage Manager, Wichita Greyhound Park, Park City, KS, 2004 – 2005

• Provided leadership to ala carte, concession and banquet operations. Managed personnel and provided staff training. Managed cash handling.

• Assisted in planning capital improvement projects in anticipation of the passing of gambling legislation and increased business.

Food & Beverage Manager, Wichita Country Club, Wichita, KS, 2001 – 2004

• Coordinated food and beverage services for a large country club which included 8 banquet and dining rooms, as well as 3 snack bars.

• Headed the marketing of special events including designing marketing materials.

• Oversaw and participated in event planning.

• Achieved a net profit in an industry where F&B departments average a loss.

• Maintained responsibility for hiring, coaching and termination of staff of up to 80 during peak periods.

• Controlled all operational aspects of the food and beverage department.

• Implemented management plan to oversee continuity of service during major kitchen and dining rooms remodels.

• Implemented multiple systems for loss prevention in following areas: hiring, unemployment, emergencies, workers compensation, drug prevention, reprimanding, use of FMLA, ERISA and EO compliance.

• Expanded wine list and wine sales.

General Manager/Executive Chef, Compass Group, Chartwells Higher Education Division, Various locations throughout Kansas, 1999 – 2001

• Performed financial turnarounds for transitional food service accounts at various college food service settings throughout Kansas. Duties included: modifying operations, adjusting staffing as needs and redefining concepts.

• In charge of inventory procedures, purchasing, contract negotiation with vendors and financial reporting, including the weekly preparation of preliminary profit and loss statements.

• Planned menus and maintained relations with client contacts.

• Managed extensive campus-wide catering at a high level of quality.

Dining Room Manager, Crestview Country Club, Wichita, KS, 1992 – 1999

• Started as bus person, quickly progressed to server, bartender, trainer then manager within 3 years.

• Managed ala carte, banquet events, bar services, off-site catering events.

• Provided direct leadership to up to 30 servers, hosts, bus persons and bartenders per shift.

• Managed bar inventory and purchasing.

• Organized room resets.

References

Damien Lehman, Executive Chef, Wichita Country Club, 316-***-****

• Worked with Damien at Wichita Country Club

Jerry Comstock, Food and Beverage Manager, Oklahoma Wesleyan University, 620-***-****

• Provided consultative services for Jerry at Washburn University

Sean Smith, Co-owner, Express Courier 316-***-****

• Previous co-worker at Crestview Country Club, managed Sean at Wichita Country Club, worked for Sean at Express Courier

Interviews and Publications

Invited to provide interviews for Convenience Store Decisions Magazine articles:

• What do your restrooms say about you? – March 1, 2010 http://www.csdecisions.com/article/8950

• Ethnic fare adds foodservice flair – July 1, 2010 http://www.csdecisions.com/article/10098/ethnic-fare-adds-foodservice-flair.html

• Vying for customers with value meals – July 1, 2010 http://www.csdecisions.com/article/10099/vying-for-customers-with-value-meals.html

Invited to provide interviews for the following blogs, web-articles and print publications:

• This Week In Small Business blog - http://thisweekinsmallbusiness.com/?p=35

• Next Course Magazine, Gordon Foodservice, Understanding plate costs – print, Summer 2010

• Sysco Food Service News letter

• The Chef’s Commandments, Pineapple Publishing - http://www.amazon.com/Chefs-Commandments-Profitability-Maintaining-Profit-Driven/dp/098*******/

• Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It), Hill & Wang Publishers, by William Poundstone

• National Restaurant Association article interview by Paul Moomaw

• New York Magazine - December 6th, 2009 - http://nymag.com/restaurants/features/62498/

• Evancarmichael.com - http://www.evancarmichael.com/Franchises/2748/summary.php

• Foodservice.com - http://www.foodservice.com/articles/results.cfm?CTID=1&AuthorID=147323

• RestaurantReport.com - http://restaurantreport.com/departments/biz_restaurant-food-menu-pricing.html

• RestaurantRevolution.com - http://www.restaurantrevolution.com/food-pricing-for-your-restaurant/

• OwnRestaurantBusiness.com - http://www.ownrestaurantbusiness.com/2008/12/who-is-target-market-for-your.html

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