Free General Manager Job Description Templates
Free general manager job description templates for small business: restaurant, retail, hotel, operations, and assistant GM. Download as DOCX.
General Manager Job Description Templates
6 free templates by industry. Download as DOCX or copy-paste.
A general manager (GM) runs your business day to day: owning operations, the budget, and the team, and answering for the results. Below are six job description templates for the role. Before you fill one in, I would settle what the GM will own outright and what still comes back to you, because that decision shapes every other line.
For a small business, hiring a GM is often the moment the owner finally steps back from doing everything, which makes it one of the most important hires you will make. The job description you write sets what the GM owns, who they report to, and how success is measured, and it becomes the foundation for the offer and onboarding.
At FirstHR, we build for small businesses where the owner makes the key hires directly. The templates cover the most common versions of the role: general small business, restaurant, retail, hotel/hospitality, operations, and assistant GM. Fill in the bracketed fields, adjust to match your business, and post.
Which Template Should You Use?
Pick the template that matches your business and the role you are hiring for. The core structure is the same across all six, but each one emphasizes the operations, metrics, and language that fit a specific kind of GM role. Use this guide to choose.
6 Free General Manager Job Description Templates
Download all six as separate Word files in one ZIP, or copy individual templates. Each one covers the job summary, key responsibilities and essential functions, qualifications, compensation, and an acknowledgment line. The General template also adds a company overview. Fill in the brackets before you post.
Template 1: General Manager (Small Business)
The all-purpose version for a small business hiring its first or main GM. Owns operations, budget, and the team, reporting to the owner, with essential functions and an acknowledgment line. Start here for a standard GM role.
Template 2: Restaurant General Manager
For restaurants and cafes. Adds front and back of house, food and labor cost control, guest experience, scheduling, and food safety compliance. Use this for a restaurant GM role.
Template 3: Retail / Store General Manager
For retail locations. Adds sales targets, inventory and shrink control, visual merchandising, cash management, and customer service. Use this for a store GM role.
Template 4: Hotel / Hospitality General Manager
For small hotels and properties. Adds property operations, revenue and budget, department heads, guest satisfaction, and food and beverage. Use this for a hospitality GM role.
Template 5: Operations General Manager
For service or multi-department businesses. Adds operational strategy, cross-department coordination, process improvement, and vendor management. Use this for an operations-focused GM.
Template 6: Assistant General Manager
For a deputy to the GM. Adds support duties, staff supervision, scheduling, and authority to lead in the GM's absence. Use this for a number-two role and GM stepping stone.
What Does a General Manager Do?
A general manager runs the day-to-day operations of a business or location and owns its results. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) describes general and operations managers as planning, directing, or coordinating the operations of organizations, overseeing multiple departments or locations. In practice, a GM oversees operations, owns the budget and profit and loss, hires and leads staff, sets and tracks goals, ensures quality and compliance, and reports to ownership.
The role varies sharply by industry. A restaurant GM controls food and labor cost; a store GM drives sales and manages shrink; a hotel GM runs departments and guest satisfaction. That is why the job description should describe the role for your specific business.
General Manager Duties and Responsibilities
General manager duties fall into four broad areas. A strong job description selects the specific responsibilities from each area that apply to your business rather than listing every possible task. These are the responsibilities most often expected of the role.
The balance between the four areas shifts with the business. A restaurant role leans on cost control and guest experience, while an operations role leans on cross-department coordination and process improvement.
What to Include in a General Manager Job Description
Every strong general manager job description includes the same core sections: a job summary, who the role reports to, key responsibilities framed as essential functions, qualifications, physical demands where relevant, compensation, and an equal opportunity statement. The templates above are built around them. The duty lines need the most care, as the weak and strong examples below show.
| Weak bullet | Strong bullet |
|---|---|
| Run the business | Oversee daily operations across the business |
| Handle money | Own the budget, costs, and profit and loss |
| Manage people | Hire, train, schedule, and lead staff |
| Hit goals | Set and track goals and key metrics |
| Keep things compliant | Ensure quality, service, and compliance standards |
Specific, outcome-focused duties attract candidates who can deliver and show you are a serious employer. Frame the core duties as essential functions, meaning the fundamental tasks of the job. Keep the language neutral as well, since the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) prohibits job advertisements that show a preference based on protected characteristics such as race, religion, sex, or disability.
A Filled-In Example You Can Copy
The templates ship with brackets so you can adapt them, but it helps to see one completed. Below are the general template's summary and duty lines written out for a fictional landscaping company with a crew of eight, at the level of detail that makes a posting worth reading.
Two things make that version work. The duties name what the GM controls rather than what they loosely oversee, and the reporting line and its cadence are both stated. Copy that structure, swap in your own business, and the rest of the template stays as written.
General Manager by Industry
The general manager role changes a lot from one industry to the next. Picking the right template keeps your posting accurate and helps the right candidates recognize themselves in it.
| Industry | Focus | Distinct metrics |
|---|---|---|
| Restaurant | Front and back of house | Food cost, labor cost, guest experience |
| Retail / Store | Sales and store operations | Sales targets, shrink, inventory |
| Hotel / Hospitality | Property and departments | Revenue, guest satisfaction, occupancy |
| Operations | Cross-department efficiency | Budgets, process, vendor management |
A small business usually starts with one GM who owns everything, then may add an assistant GM or specialized managers as it grows. Match the template to your industry and stage rather than to a larger structure you do not yet have.
GM vs Assistant GM vs Operations Manager
These titles overlap and are easy to confuse, but the difference comes down to scope and reporting line. Knowing it helps you write the right job description and hire for the actual need.
| Role | Scope | Reports to |
|---|---|---|
| General Manager | Whole business or location | Owner or ownership |
| Assistant GM | Supports GM, leads in absence | General Manager |
| Operations Manager | Operations and processes | GM, owner, or COO |
If the role owns the entire business or location, use a general manager template. If it supports the GM, use the assistant GM version. If it focuses on running operations within the business, an operations-focused template fits best.
General Manager Salary
General managers are well-compensated, with pay varying widely by industry, business size, location, and responsibility. Set your range using government data as a baseline, then adjust for your business.
Anchor the range to your own industry and size rather than to the national median alone, and consider a performance bonus tied to results. Most GM positions are salaried and exempt from federal minimum wage and overtime requirements. Review the Department of Labor fact sheet on the executive exemption when you classify the role.
Always publish a range. In 2023 research by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), 66 percent of organizations that list pay ranges on job postings said the quality of their applicants had improved. A growing number of states now require the range in the posting itself.
How to Write a General Manager Job Description
A strong general manager job description is quick to write if you follow a clear structure. Here is the process the templates are built around.
Hiring a General Manager for a Small Business
A large company hires a GM through a recruiting team into a defined structure. A small business does not. The owner writes the posting, interviews, and onboards the new GM, often while still running parts of the business themselves. Here is how to write the posting for that reality.
From Hiring to Onboarding
The job description is step one. Once a candidate accepts, the same document becomes the basis for the offer and onboarding. Because a GM takes on real authority quickly, the work you put into defining the role now pays off in how fast and how well they take the reins.
A clear mandate and structured onboarding get a new GM owning the business quickly, which matters because they will be making decisions that move the whole company. In FirstHR, the new GM e-signs the offer letter and the job description acknowledgment, their documents go into their employee profile, and the onboarding workflow runs in the same system.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a general manager do?
A general manager is the person who runs a business or location day to day and is accountable for its results. In the Bureau of Labor Statistics definition, general and operations managers plan, direct, or coordinate the operations of an organization and oversee multiple departments or locations. In practical terms, the GM runs daily operations, controls the budget and the profit and loss, hires the staff and leads them, sets goals and tracks progress against them, holds the business to its quality and compliance standards, and reports to the owners. What gets the most attention depends on the industry: a restaurant GM watches food and labor costs, a store GM pushes sales and keeps inventory in check, and a hotel GM is responsible for the departments and for guest satisfaction.
What are the duties and responsibilities of a general manager?
A general manager's responsibilities fall into four areas. Operations: overseeing daily operations, maintaining standards, and managing inventory and vendors. Financial: owning the budget and profit and loss, controlling costs, and hitting targets. People: hiring, training, scheduling, and leading the team. Strategy: setting goals and metrics, improving processes, and planning for growth. The exact mix depends on the business. A restaurant GM weights food and labor cost and guest experience, a retail GM weights sales and shrink, and an operations GM weights cross-department coordination and process improvement. A good job description selects the duties that fit your business and leaves out the ones that do not.
What should a general manager job description include?
A general manager job description should include a short summary of the role, the person it reports to, the key duties written as essential functions, the qualifications you require, physical demands where relevant, the pay, and an equal opportunity statement. For a GM, be precise about what the person will own: operations, the budget and the profit and loss, staffing, and the metrics they will be measured on. Spelling out the essential functions gives you a fair, consistent basis for both hiring and accommodation decisions. Plenty of employers also close with an acknowledgment and signature line, so the new GM confirms in writing that they understand the role. Tailor the duties to your industry, whether you run a restaurant, a store, or a hotel, or need an operations-focused GM.
What is the difference between a general manager and an assistant general manager?
A general manager has overall responsibility for a business or location, owning operations, the budget, staffing, and results, and usually reports to the owner or ownership group. An assistant general manager supports the GM, supervises staff, manages schedules, and steps in to lead in the GM's absence, reporting to the GM rather than directly to ownership. The assistant GM role is often a stepping stone to a full GM position. In a small business, you might hire just a GM, or add an assistant GM as you grow. Use the assistant GM template when you need a deputy who can run things when the GM is away.
What is the difference between a general manager and an operations manager?
The two roles overlap, and companies use the titles loosely, but the usual dividing line is scope. A general manager answers for a whole business or location, which covers operations, the budget, staffing, sales, and the overall results. An operations manager concentrates on how the work gets done: processes, efficiency, resources, and coordination between departments, often without owning the full profit and loss. In a small business, one person frequently does both jobs, and that is the reason the operations GM template exists. To choose, look at what the hire will be accountable for. Responsibility for everything at the business or location calls for a general manager template, while a role centered on running day-to-day operations inside it suits the operations-focused version.
How much does a general manager make?
General and operations managers are well paid: as of May 2025, Bureau of Labor Statistics data put their national median at $105,770 a year. The range is wide, with the bottom tenth of earners below $50,090 and the top tenth above $253,390. Industry matters a great deal. Retail trade, one of the biggest employers of general managers, paid a median of $75,860, compared with $151,040 for professional, scientific, and technical services. Business size, location, and the scope of the job move pay as well, so build your range from figures for your own industry and size, and think about adding a bonus linked to performance. Put the range in the posting, too: most employers who publish pay ranges say they get stronger applicants, and a rising number of states make it mandatory.
What happens after I hire a general manager?
After a general manager says yes, the job description turns into the starting point for both the offer and the onboarding plan. A GM gets real authority early, and in a small company one who grasps the business and the mandate quickly makes an outsized difference. So give the first weeks a structure: hand over the background, access, and decision-making authority the role needs, and agree on what a good first 90 days looks like. Then get the offer and the job description acknowledgment signed, gather the new-hire paperwork, and walk the GM through your operations, finances, people, and goals. FirstHR keeps that handoff in one system: e-signature for the offer letter and the acknowledgment, document storage in the employee profile, and an onboarding workflow with tasks and deadlines.