This expert is using Microsoft Project to help restaurants succeed. Milestone’s training made all the difference.
Even after taking multiple online classes, Nathan knew he wasn’t using MS Project to its full potential—and he was losing time on frustrating glitches. Once he found Milestone’s training, that all changed.
“This training made me feel like I can actually use Microsoft Project well, for the benefit of my business and my clients.”
Nathan Rostance, The Ops Group
Nathan Rostance is revolutionizing how restaurants get launched.
“New restaurants are notorious for schedule delays and budget overruns,” says Nathan, founder of The Ops Group, and a certified project manager. “The people behind them are often talented chefs and operators, but they rarely have project management expertise—so they end up just kind of winging it.”
After spending years in the restaurant industry, Nathan founded The Ops Group to help bring order to this typically chaotic process—so chefs and investors can open their doors, and start making money, faster than ever.
“I knew Microsoft Project scheduling software could be a real game changer in helping restaurants get open efficiently,” he says.
Something was missing.
From the start, Nathan, who is certified through the Project Management Institute, was using Microsoft Project with all of his clients—but even after taking multiple online classes and doing extensive reading, he knew he wasn’t using Project to its full potential.
For Nathan, using Microsoft Project was requiring a lot of wasted time. “I was just fumbling through it,” he says.
“I knew there was so much more to Microsoft Project. I also knew I wasn’t being efficient in using it—which was going against the whole concept of making the restaurant launch process efficient.”
Finally—he found an expert to help.
One day, while (once again) googling for answers to a Microsoft Project issue, Nathan stumbled across Dan Renier, a world-renowned Microsoft Project expert and a partner at Milestone Consulting Group. Dan was talking about MS Project in a way Nathan hadn’t heard elsewhere. He was saying he could transform how project managers use Microsoft Project—helping them unleash its full potential, with a lot less frustration.
It was clear Dan’s approach to Project was different from what Nathan had heard so far, and it seemed to be exactly what he was needing, so he decided to invest in Microsoft Project training with Milestone.
It paid off.
“Instead of trying to figure this thing out on my own—or through Google searches—I was able to learn Microsoft Project from a guy who’s worked with the Microsoft Project team for years,” says Nathan.
“And Dan was not only teaching me the best way to use it, he was helping me understand how Microsoft Project works.”
From frustration to control
Before taking Milestone’s Microsoft Project training, Nathan was constantly frustrated with Microsoft Project. “You build a project the way it seems to make sense, and then you add one status change and a bunch of other things change, and you can’t figure out exactly what changed or why,” he says.
To avoid losing his work, Nathan had resorted to saving a fresh copy of his projects every day. ”I wanted to be able to go back if I accidentally messed everything up.”
Now, after Milestone’s training, Nathan says he understands how to structure projects properly from the beginning.
“Dan helped me learn how my changes to a project would impact all the other tasks—and how to make the right changes so Microsoft Project would respond the way I expect.”
“Instead of trying to figure this thing out on my own—or through Google searches—I was able to learn Microsoft Project from a guy who’s worked with the Microsoft Project team for years.”
Setting his business—and his clients—up for success
For Nathan, the investment in training was pivotal.”This training made me feel like I can actually use Microsoft Project well, for the benefit of my business and my clients,” he says.
As for what he thinks of Milestone’s trainer director, Dan Renier?
“Dan Renier is as passionate about Microsoft Project as any chef I know is about food,” says Nathan. “He loves it. He believes in it. And working and learning from somebody like that—with that kind of enthusiasm and real passion for what he does—makes it a lot easier. It kind of rubs off on you. You really start to understand and believe in what this thing can do.”
