Happy New Year, Now Live Your Life…

One of the best things about this time of year is that we can take the opportunity to STOP, breathe, reflect, be grateful and look forward.  As someone who is involved with personal growth I have the opportunity to talk with positive, willing, and thoughtful people every day.  Today, New Year’s Eve 2011, three of us, discussed the following questions:

1. What was the best thing about 2011?
2. What did you learn this year and how?
3. Taking that/those lesson/s forward who and how will you be in 2012?

So speaking personally:

1. The best things for me about 2011 was my personal development in terms of my role in the business; moving from operator to owner/leader.  AND the quality time spent with my wife and daughter, particularly on our trip to Europe and our relationship since we returned.
2. What I learned in 2011:  Life is temporary and brief and time is too precious to be wasted on anything that isn’t fulfilling.  This year the death of a young man, a colleague, shook me up and reminded me how fragile my life is.  On reflecting upon his death and what it meant to me I decided from that point on I will only do what fulfils me. This includes not having miserable, pessimistic, negative or mean people in my life, also that I will do what I want to do while I have the opportunity.  I believe the biggest regrets in life come from what we didn’t do, not from what we did.
3. In 2012 I will further change my role in the business, further removing myself from day to day coaching and “hands on” work with/for clients.  Instead I will focus on developing the team within the business so that we can provide greater service and products for everyone we work with. I will become more involved with networks that serve our industry so that we can supply our services to more people.I will spend more quality time with my family and friends doing things and attending events that have nothing to do with my work.I will explore other interests and ways of being of service such as investing micro finance to support entrepreneurship in developing countries.

So the next step is to create a list of things to do this coming year; that might include some big things like holidays and investments, plus small things like taking vitamins each day.  This is a personal thing and we as a family have already done it.  It’s funny that all of us on the call this morning had already done it.

There is a definite link between planning (goal setting) and achievement and it’s no accident that those who take time out to do this kind of exercise achieve so much.  It comes down to the motivation to dream, plan and implement.

As a business owner you are a leader – whether you accept that title or not.  You lead your staff by example. You can only effectively lead if you know where you are going, so it is imperative that you take time out to plan and when better than at this time of year?  Yes its only an arbitrary line in the sand but it does have relevance as a measure.

So my advice is to spend some time with other positive, proactive, growth orientated people and use the 3 questions above to have a meaningful New Years Conversation.

Then take time to write out how you want 2012 to be for you based on what you learned from 2011.  My list includes items on the following; Family, Business, Finance, Fun, Health, Home, Education and Growth.  Of course it makes sense to share this list with other important people in your life including family members and to share business related goals with business partners.  Some negotiation might have to take place too and that’s fine.  Better to get this conversation out in the open that to spend 2012 frustrated and regretful!

Happy New Year!

Here are the worst marketing myths that harm restaurant businesses in order:

1. If I build it they will come – Sorry folks but there are 40,000 other eating places in Australia all competing for your customer’s attention

2. If I win an award they will come… This one is a killer – see the video –  Want to see who has awards but no profits! Click here and here

3. If I get a cheap website that will be enough – No, no, no, again there are thousands of websites competing for your customer’s attention you have to have a good one!

4. If I do what my competitors do that will work – except it’s not working for them so you are wasting your money most ads and marketing pieces WASTE MONEY

5. If I do what they ad rep says that will work – except the ad rep works for the media company not you!  They make money from your folly and they don’t care.

Stop being a victim to these marketing myths, watch this video to learn how to fill your restaurant – no matter what the economy or the weather….

On Monday 3rd October the restaurant profits Seminar is in Brisbane – You will see exactly how to make your profits surge click here for more details

Howard

One look at the testimonials from our clients and you’ll see that what we teach and do works. What is very interesting is what stops other restaurateurs from following the same strategies that have proven so successful for others.

The most popular ‘reason” (read excuse) is “I’m too busy” and boy is it a popular one across Australia and the globe.

If we take all judgements out of this and ask the question, “Are the things you are busy doing getting you the results you want?” the honest answer is no.

However in most cases the person engaged in those activities is too frightened to stop for a minute unless everything else falls down around their ears. This is like swimming the 100 metres freestyle, not lifting your head out of the water to breathe for fear of slowing down – only to collapse 2/3 of the way across the pool because you have run out of energy – or worse you die striving to do your “personal best”.

The biggest problem people come up against when they have to make a major change is FEAR. What if it fails, what if I lose money, what if people reject what I am doing and me, what if the people whose opinion I value don’t like it, what if things get worse… and on and on. The funny thing is if you handle any of these fear based objections another one appears like magic.

This only ends when someone is committed to achieving an outcome. The two important words in that sentence are “Committed” and “Outcome”.

So many people in the restaurant industry came into it because they love food, they are passionate about hospitality and they are enthusiastic about sharing their passion, in effect by having a restaurant they have achieved their “Outcome”.

The problem is that what should be a pleasant life experience turns into a nightmare for many when they encounter the business side of things; keeping costs under control, managing staff, getting people through the door, meeting and exceeding customers expectations and working long hours without much (any) free or family time. To paraphrase the band Talking Heads “This ain’t my beautiful life!”

One of the first things we do in coaching is to determine a new Oucome for the restaurateur, we go through a detailed questionnaire with them and help them to set a new course to a much more fulfilling Outcome (for many this is just to be more profitable and to work less, they don’t want to change the world or even leave the place they have built). With that Outcome in place together we decide actions that will take them to the new destination, the new Outcome. Sounds good so far right?

The next issue is getting restaurateurs to change their behaviours – to get them “to stop swimming with their head down” and to start doing what needs to be done to make theirs a profitable business that doesn’t need them to work 90 hours a week as a jack of all trades so the place doesn’t fall apart.

As I said it’s an issue – because old habits are hard to break. This is where the Commitment comes in. It’s easy to say “I will do something”, it’s another thing to do it. The negative self talk will jump back in, evidence to the contrary will appear out of nowhere, illness and accidents occur anything and everything will test you. So the question is, are you committed?

What does commitment look like? Last week whilst on a coaching call I recommended a book to a client, 5 minutes after the call ended I got an email from him, he had ordered 2 copies of the book, one for him and one for someone else that will support him to grow his business. The same client went away on holiday for 2 weeks leaving my team a marketing strategy to prepare for his return. That week he hit the road running with 2,000 marketing pieces being mailed to his target market. He has twice the calls of most of my clients – never misses a call and updates me with progress and results between calls via email and SMS. Do you think he is successful? – I don’t need to answer that – you know he is.

Contrast that with a group of restaurateurs who need new websites, their current ones are shockingly bad, several engaged us to create new websites for them but “cannot find the time” to choose colours or designs etc for their sites. Their old sites keep putting customers off their restaurants, they are nowhere to be seen in the search engines and their sites reflect very badly on the business itself. Do you think these people are living the dream? Do you think they are successful businesspeople? – I don’t need to answer that question either do I.

So where do you sit in all this? Do you have your Outcomes firm in your mind, written down do you have someone keeping you focused on them? Are you committed to achieving them (no matter what that self defeating little voice says)?

If you are the slightest bit interested in achieving your dreams, of escaping the rat race and having the restaurant you dreamed of call the office on 02 4362 2468 we will not try to sell you anything – we will listen to you and do our best to understand what you need, and only then, if appropriate, we might suggest a few things you might want to try.

Amazing how a phrase, headline or subject line gets your attention isn’t it!

This is a perfect segue into talking about why and how good marketing strategies go bad. The one below is a lulu, one that every restaurant owner can learn from and most will agree they are guilty of too – read on…

As you know the most profitable thing you can do in restaurant marketing is cause a current customer to come back and dine again.  Its the cheapest, most targeted form of advertising.  It’s the most effective and it endears your customers to you because it also acts as a reminder that you care about them as individuals.

It is essential that you collect your customers data so that you can communicate with them.  So when I was dining yesterday I was impressed and saddened when I saw what one restaurant was doing with a perfectly good repeat business strategy.  I was impressed because the owner had gone to the effort of creating a data collection system, he/she even had some plastic membership cards (with key fob) created for the purpose.   The cards even had the restaurant’s details on them BUT my sadness came when I watched how the whole thing was very poorly executed, condemning the thing to failure.  And guaranteeing that the owner would waste money on the exercise.

Here’s what happened…

1. The wait staff  didn’t mention the membership program at any point.

2. At the counter where I paid there was no marketing material about it whatsoever.

3. The guy who took my money didn’t mention it (it was only that I saw the plastic membership cards sat in a glass and asked, “what are these?” that he talked about the program at all).

4. His answer would have put most people off going any further – he told me “they are business cards and a key ring” – no reason to join, no enthusiasm, no WIIFM, no passion NO CLUE!

5. When I asked if I could have one – he replied – “you have to fill one of these in”, (he pushed a slip of paper at me with “Register Here” typed across the top of it) then continued… “and we’ll send you a text every now and again telling you what’s going on”.  Not only was that piece of information a turn off it was incorrect because the data collection form had no space for mobile numbers.

6. Next there wasn’t a pen for me to fill in the form, we both searched around until I found one hidden under the coffee machine, of course it was so dried out by the heat that it didn’t work, eventually the guy handed me another pen and I filled in my details.

7. Finally he thanked me and wished me a nice day.

Please don’t get me wrong – there was nothing wrong with the guy, he wasn’t hostile or moody he was just doing his job, preparing coffees and taking money.  He obviously had no idea about marketing or why people should be encouraged to fill in their details.  IT WASN’T HIS FAUL!

Once again it was a case of an owner who had seen a strategy elsewhere and then implemented it half assed.  Another “good marketing strategy gone bad”.

As an owner you have to realise that most people turn up to work to “do my job” they don’t think about your business, they don’t think about what they can do more or better, they turn up to do their job and that’s all.  If you don’t educate them that its their job to implement this new fangled marketing system 100% or that its their job to bring in more money so that you all get paid then they’ll go back to “making coffee and taking money” and it’s madness to think otherwise.

By the way I live in hope that the marketing piece this place will send me will blow me away – but I doubt it.

Now this same strategy implemented well can cause a database to grow at a phenomenal rate, sometimes 1,000s of names every week!  I am about to start working with a client that has a venue attracting over 2,000 people a week.  With the right offer, card and staff training we will pick up 50% of them like clockwork.  This same owner has added just shy of $500,000 extra profit to another venue and business this year – using this same strategy.

So lets look at who is responsible and why this kind of thing happens. Well fortunately its the owner who is responsible.  I say fortunately because with the right training and support the owner can put this right and into action in no time.  Also because he/she has their nuts (or home) on the line you’d hope they’d be motivated to do so – right?  Well here comes the difficult part, “why this kind of thing happens”, it happens because the owner does not understand or believe that marketing is valuable or that it actually works.  So even though he/she starts something they do it half hearted.  They subconsciously expect it to fail (which of course it does).  Their lack of attention, lack of passion and drive to make the strategy a winner is communicated to their staff and consequently to the customer.  My experience from yesterday (discussed above) is a prime example of this.  Sadly I have watched this happen time and time again, business owners condemning their marketing and business to fail in order that the “real world” matches up with their subconscious beliefs and expectations.

I know that this isn’t the intention of the owner, I know they would love their strategy to work but it’s like putting 3 wheels on a car and hoping it will drive like a sports car, its not going to happen.

How to make sure your marketing strategies cause your profits to surge:  Next Monday and Tuesday (18th & 19th July) at The William Angliss Institute in Melbourne you will get the best restaurant marketing training in the country.  You will also get motivation, support and passion from our speakers and a chance to speak to our very happy clients who will also be there.

I suspect that the restaurant discussed above has no such training and support so they are unknowingly sabotaging a thoroughly good strategy.  But they are not alone 99% of other restaurant owners are doing exactly the same thing  - don’t let this be you.  Join us at the seminar in one weeks time and you too will see your profits surge.  Click here for more information

Whilst on my recent trip to Europe I was stunned to find that I could eat out in the heart of London, Paris and Rome for at least HALF of what I would expect to pay in equivalent restaurants in Sydney.  A 3 course meal with wine by the Eiffel Tower for 3 people came to half what I paid in Sydney for a 3 course meal for two just weeks before.

We have come to accept astronomical prices in Australia as the norm – like frogs in boiling water we have sat here whilst prices rise and rise without any reference to what’s going on outside of our shores.  Add to this the power of the Aussie dollar and you end up with tourists refusing to pay what we take for granted for a decent meal in a good location.

Tourists don’t think in Aussie dollars they think in Pounds, Euros, Yuan, Yen and so on.  They look at our prices and then convert that back to their own currency and compare it to what they could purchase for that back home.  And in the case of Europe they can often buy two or three times more at home than they can buy here!

So the Chinese reported above  who want to pay $25 for a three course meal are being realistic by their own standards.  We can whinge about it but it isn’t going to change that fact.  And complaining that the customer is wrong and they should dance to our tune is not only unrealistic it defies the nature of commerce (unless you own a monopoly telco of course).

Our problems are two fold: one, we have a government that is oblivious to the realities of life for small business owners, it keeps increasing the cost of doing business whilst incurring debt that Australians have to pay back therefore reducing customer’s discretionary spending – not much we can do about that for another two years.

And two, we become complacent in how we market our businesses – we rely on the easy dollar from customers that drift through our doors just because we happen to be in the right location.  This is a recipe for disaster. You are dependant on the whims of the market place, that no one else opens near you and that the economic realities for your customers do not decline.

To survive and thrive in a restaurant you must have strategies and tactics in place that ensure that people come back to you rather than your competition – and if you think good food and service is good enough you are living in La La land.  Every restaurant owner tells me they have good food and service, so it can’t be enough can it – or restaurants would not close down!

You must get real and focus on growing your business through customer retention strategies, consistent and effective marketing strategies plus training that ensures that your staff do everything to make your customers feel that they have had an experience worth talking about and returning for.

As for landlords - they have to get real too – they will crucify restaurants if they put up rents too high – then their properties will remain empty.  We recommend a great cost saving group that will re-negotiate rents for our clients.  Its obvious that the other way to increase you profits is to reduce your costs.  If you don’t have the time to shop around for suppliers, energy companies, telephone providers, web design companies etc etc then you will get ripped off.

To see how our clients do all of this and consistently grow their profits month on month – join us at the restaurant profits seminar in Melbourne on the 18th and 19th July. Click here for more details

Howard

Last month I visited Jamie Oliver’s restaurant in Covent Garden, London in the UK. Of course the food and atmosphere were great but what I want to tell you are the things that I learned by being there with my “Restaurant profits hat” on as well as being a guest.

1. Firstly it’s an experience. This is not going down to the restaurant for a meal, this is theatre, fun, excitement and lots of action.  As you walk through the door there is a providore’s counter where staff are carving ham off the bone and preparing ingredients for the kitchen and for the guests too.  There are cans of tomatoes piled up, salami hanging, cheeses displayed – and yes we are still in the restaurant – just inside the door… This is a way of having something “going on” in there, it adds to the atmosphere and gives guests a talking point.

2. We arrived just before 7.00 pm without a booking (no reservations needed according to the website) but when we got there there was a 45 min wait.  To handle this they handed us a pager that had a massive radius so we went back out to Covent Garden and went shopping. When the pager went off we ambled back to the restaurant and were seated right away.

3. We were seated at a bare table, no linen table cloths or napkins. This is another “feature” of the restaurant – a leaning towards sustainability, no excessive laundry and impact on the environment.  High speed (and effective) hand driers in the bathrooms so no paper towels are used and because the hand driers almost blow the skin off your bones – the time spent using them (and electricity) is reduced.

4. Napkins… Now this is VERY smart: The napkins we did receive were “tea towel” material with the “Jamie Oliver” name big and bold branding them.  Again a nod towardssustainability – no paper napkins… But there’s a couple of other things to think about – what would the cost be of say 1,000 tea towel napkins as compared to linen ones? about a quarter?  Secondly what do you think the temptation is for many people when they finish their meal – (to accidental slip one of those suckers in their pocket as a souvenir?)  So lets play that scenario out… Someone goes home with a Jamie Oliver napkin and later shows their souvenir to friends… What will be the next question that the friend asks after, “you nicked that?”.  Yes that’s right the next question will be…  ”What was it like”.  And because the experience is fabulous the answer will be very positive. The humble nicked napkin becomes a marketing piece in the home (apparently hundreds of these get stolen every week).  By the way you can also buy a set of those napkins too for the humble price of 10 Pounds or $15 Aussie Dollars.  These are sold via the menu, which brings me on to the menu...

5. The menu - now whoever is behind marketing this place really understands the power of a menu.  It is the No1 marketing piece in your business and yet most restaurateurs use the bloody things as a list of ingredients and a price list!  This is where you get to sell your most profitable dishes to your audience and this is where Jamie Oliver’s menu excelled.  I cant tell you everything I saw or I would be writing for hours but needless to say it sold sold sold in ways that made us want to buy buy buy! I didn’t feel marketed to, I was intrigued by names of dishes and descriptions, I was wooed by suggestions and I was interested in so much that we ended up with what looked like mains with a tapas assortment of sides and salads.  Although this is NOT a tapas place “the menu made us do it guv” the menu sold us on so much that we wanted to try it all!  Does your menu do that?

I have so much more to share with you on how this restaurant increases dollar spend and word of mouth marketing with EVERY customer so I will feature this in the seminar in Melbourne on the 18th July.  I have lots of pictures – especially of the menu and explanations of how Jamie gets people talking about his restaurant in their droves – beyond his four walls…. And the Staff – wow that’s another thing – I have to tell you how they work the room and make people want to come back and spend more.  Come see us in Melbourne at the William Angliss Institute and I will tell you that whole story too. Click here for all of the details by the way do it now as there is a big price reduction at the moment.

I can probably give you another 5 great points to learn on another blog post but thats for another day.

All in all Jamie Oliver’s Covent Garden restaurant works – and the place is “wicked” too

And this is where the story gets ugly… I didn’t mean to snoop, I’d actually taken some work with me to review whilst I waited but I couldn’t help myself getting more and more wound up as the staff diligently repelled sales from this place.

It wasn’t so much that the staff didn’t take and fulfil orders just that the term “service” wasn’t understood one jot. The young woman in charge of sales reduction (I mean at the counter) snapped at most people as they asked about the cafe’s goods, she stared into space whilst these hard won customers were left to make up their own mind whether to order a pastry, muffin or slice.  As time ticked on she began greeting people with “we’re only doin’ takeaway cos we’re closin’ soon”, yes we were fast approaching 3.00pm!!!

Now I know for a fact that this place struggles because it is in a poor position – one that doesn’t have a lot of foot traffic but yesterday there was a slew of adults and kids attracted to the area because the shopping mall had put on bouncy castles and the like.  I watched in horror as tens or even hundreds of dollars were shunted out of the door so that this lovely lady could begin stacking chairs on tables.  Those same customers walked across the square to give their loot to the cafe there.

I am pretty sure that this wasn’t the owner of the cafe.  So some poor business owner will look at his or her takings for yesterday and shake their head – no doubt blaming the economy, the GFC and the weather.

But the fault / blame lies closer to home, and its not just with the young lady on the counter – it lies fairly and squarely with the person who employs her.  The one who obviously isn’t monitoring what their staff are doing, not sending in secret shoppers and not taking responsibility for managing the quality of “service” his/her customers receive.

Tough – maybe, but the bottom line is that this is a business and if you the owner aren’t willing to make sure it works in the most effective and profitable way then why should your staff?  The buck stops with you – right?

The question that arose in my mind was how well drilled and skilled are people that work in “our restaurants”?  Would they know where to get procedures if an incident occurred?  Would they know how to keep staff and guests safe?  I know that most small business restaurants don’t have processes for running the place on a day to day basis so what would occur when problems occur (and when dealing with people, they always do).  The most important reason you should have processes in place though is so that your business becomes a system that doesn’t need you there “hands on” for everything.  Sad but true, most restaurateurs are hands on 95% of the time and so their business becomes a job which they no longer enjoy and one where the pay isn’t commensurate with the hours or the investment made.

On Monday 28th February Scott Gallon will be presenting on how to systematise your restaurant at out Restaurant Profits workshop.  If you want to know how to create, integrate or improve your systems then Scott is a expert with years of experience that can help you (more details here).  If you are one of our coaching members then this workshop is free of charge.  If you are not yet a members please call the office on 02 4362 2468 for more details about attending the event or becoming a member.