Although many people choose to refer to their profession as little more than bean counters, the success or failure of many large companies lies very heavily with the finance managers.  Let me assure you that the finance manager job description entails quite a bit more work than simply ‘counting beans’.

Few decisions are made by large corporations without the decision makers having an in depth consultation with their finance managers, so that they can fully understand the current financial impact and future financial ramifications their choice may have for the company.

Finance managers are also responsible for seeking out areas where a company can make cutbacks and save money without hurting productivity.  It might be something simple like a company is wasting money through buying too expensive brands of pens and paper.  In other cases, it might be a more complex issue.  A restaurant chain may find that one of its most popular sellers in most markets, does not sell as well in other markets.  Their inventory process though might look at the broad picture of what they are selling and result in some locations storing inventory of products that are not selling well in their market and simply going to waste.

Without the right restaurant manager, even the best food and location will not help an establishment to overcome this handicap.  Any restaurant is likely to fail if they do not find the proper manager to run the place.

In the best run dining establishments, you will probably never even know who the manager is.  However, they will be gracefully juggling all the responsibilities that fall on the manager’s shoulders.  They will be constantly evaluating the staff.  They will coach those who have potential but need a little extra training.  They will also quickly remove anyone who is a problem.  Bad attitudes can spread rapidly in a workplace, and in a restaurant they can bring the whole place down.

The manager will be making sure that the staffing is correct each and every shift of each and every day.  When are the peak times?  Are there enough people to cover those times?  When is the place slow?  Are there too many servers on the clock during those slow times?  Too many servers working when the business is slow can result in unhappy servers making little to no money.  This is something many managers fail to grasp.  They will overstaff, and then cut servers as they are not needed, not even thinking that they just made an employee go through the time and effort needed to get ready and show up for work to only be there a couple of hours and not make enough money for it to have been worth their while.

The restaurant manager needs to maintain a tight leash on the inventory as well.  Ordering too much food that does not get consumed, not only results in food being wasted, but it also wastes lots of money for the business, grossly cutting into profits.

On the flip side of that, not ordering enough food to keep the kitchen stocked will result in shortages and potentially unhappy customers that will never return.

There is a lot to juggle for a restaurant manager, which is why the good ones are worth every penny.

For someone brand new to the world of meat smoking, a charcoal smoker grill might be the best way to go.  Charcoal smokers are the least expensive way to enter into the world of BBQ smoking.  Many also believe that the flavor you get from cooking over charcoal cannot be matched.

Cooking over charcoal will require a little bit of experimenting in order to get the temperature control just right.  Each smoker will act a little differently.  The type of charcoal used will also have an impact on your temperature, burn times, and smoking times.

Most people find a vertical smoker the simplest design to use.  They are designed with a charcoal pan or ring in the bottom.  The container is vented, allowing the charcoal to get some air and burn better.  You will find that the larger the capacity of the pan or ring is, the better.  Look for something with around a ten pound capacity or more.

Located somewhere above the charcoal pan you will find a water pan.  This is filled with water.  It will prevent the smoker from overheating and keep the meat from drying out.  If a “dry smoke” is desired, the pan can be filled with sand instead of water.  For a hotter smoke, the pan can be left empty, but this is not usually recommended.

Vertical BBQ Smokers will usually have two racks or grates.  One you find directly over the water pan, while the other will be near the top of the smoker.  One thing people often fail to realize is that the temperature on the top grate will be higher than the temperature on the grate just above the water pan.  In a vertical smoker, the heat rises.  You will want to put your larger cuts of meat at the top, while the smaller cuts are placed down below.  By doing this, you will find that your food will be done at about the same time.