People volunteer for a wide variety of reasons, especially wanting to help others. But it’s also OK to want some benefit for yourself. You may wish to learn something new, build your resume, make new friends, or be part of a team. Instead of considering volunteering as something you just do for people who are not as fortunate as yourself, begin to think of it as an exchange.

Consider that most people find themselves in need at some point in their lives. So today, you may be the person with the ability to help, but tomorrow you may be the recipient of someone else’s volunteer effort.

In these tough times, pay it forward.

Whether it be time, friendship, experience, elbow grease or good old cash, you have something to offer to improve the world around you.

Makes me think of pudding! But, in the land of restaurants and hospitality and any business that has a customer (wait, that’s all of us!), consistency is key.

We can be consistently good or consistently bad — either way, we’ll have our share of customers. It’s the businesses that seem to get it right half of the time that flail and fail quickly. The customer never knows what to expect when you’re about to shell out your hard-earned cash.

Every business can have its moments — a chef leaves and the transition is rocky, a (usually outstanding) employee brings their bad day into work with their uniform. It can be the kiss of death these days.

How to survive such trouble? Own it. Apologize to a customer. Buy a dinner. Take the employee off the floor to allow them to take a breath (but, for goodness sake, do it privately!). Accept that mistakes happen, make it right, and move on. Customers that know you are putting forth the effort to get them to come back, are going to come back! It seems like a no-brainer, but too many places just don’t get it.