Why did you open your Cafe or Restaurant?
What's Your Why?
This is your most important question because everything else hinges on your WHY?
What are your motivations & passions for getting up every day to work in your kitchen?
- For most, it's because they love cooking delicious food...
- Some simply enjoy the challenge of delivering amazing food...
- For others, it's creating the mouth-watering food that just looks stunning; & some just love & feeding people...
- Then there are those who just want to make money...
Whatever your reason it's needs to fire you up.
So what's your passion?
In your restaurant, what is the one thing you do...
That gives you the greatest joy while simultaneously providing the biggest value to your customers?
Is your business fueled by passion or is it running on hope?
“You only go through life once so you might as well be the world's best.”
Marty Edelston- founder Boardroom Inc
You need a biggest enough WHY to help you get through when things aren't going so well.
Come on we all have those days, where we feel the life is being squeezed out of us.
You know what I mean. When these conversations start swirling around in our head.
- “My margins are shrinking”...
- “Why I'm working longer hours?...Only to get the same result or a lesser return...”
- “How do I get more customers into my restaurant?”...
- “More and more competitors are trying "All you can eat" & other menus to get customers in the door, by working at cost or below. Hoping they survive by selling extra desserts or entrees, till the business turns around (a death wish)”...
- “The bigger players (Think McDonald's) are hurting, so they're moving into your space, trying to steal your business away from you”...
- “There's just no loyalty. Customers vote with their wallets and are going for the cheapest price”...
- “How I'm going to pay my bills?”...
- ...“I wish I had time for my family...or me”...
I know I'm not the only one to have these feeling. I sure you can relate to some of these.
As I drive around Sydney I noticed more Restaurants opening, replacing restaurants that just ran out of steam.
You see these restaurants had been serving our communities for years. It's life had ebbed away because the area had changed and the people stopped coming.
Their passion started to wane.
Each day the struggles of opening to an unappreciated market wore them down.
The people stopped coming to these once booming restaurants. The money dried up.
These once proud business had been clinging to life, till they switched off the life support. It ran out money because they could not get enough people to come eat at their restaurant. So with much sadness, the broken restaurant owners closed their business.
I'd like to say this does not happen often in my neighbourhood, yet sadly it occurs far too often.
It's tragic watching a business survive the hard times, only to go broke because they don't have any profitable customers left.
Why is this so? You started out with passion, drive and fresh ideas only to get battered by an indifferent market.
As loud as you yell, no one hears you because you're competing with all the noise.
If only people could see, or hear your message, it would make all the difference. Your message is lost in the crowd.
Why is this so? You started out with passion, drive and fresh ideas only to get battered by an indifferent market.
Stay passionate about what drives you the most...
It's important to have passion in your business. This what drives you. But if don't have customers coming to your restaurant then your business is going to struggle.
Just having passion & good food is not enough. You to get dinners to come to your restaurant & keep coming back.
So if you want more customers it's time to look at your marketing.
Josh McGinn //flic.kr/p/4HQfPQ
Ok I know for some know some business owners they believe marketing, is just a strange voodoo, to trick. They don't see or understand how this get them more customers.
“...Because it purpose is to create a customer, the business has two - and only two functions... Marketing and Innovation. Marketing and Innovation produce results, all the rest are costs...”
Peter Drucker (regarded as the father of modern business management)
It's not a choice. Either, you get marketing or you'll be closing your doors.
But how do you pick the right marketing method, when there are so many possibilities.
As a business owner, I'm sure you get bombarded with the latest marketing Silver Bullet.
You probably seem them all, like...
- There's a new Adwords gimmick...
- Retargeting...
- Blogging...
- Pinterest...
- LinkedIn & more...
- Facebook...
All these marketing tactics can help you get more customers but only if you understand your marketing objectives.
What outcomes do you want with your marketing?
Rather than getting confused trying to guess how all this Marketing works.
It's time to stop trying to copy the other businesses around because most of them have no clue when it comes to marketing.
Let me share with you the guarded marketing secret the top 5% of use.
The No 1 rule of marketing know your customersIf you get this right. You will have customers surging through your doors with Credit card in hand wanting a table.
So let's get serious & dive in.
Do you know who your ideal customer is?
Do you the demographics of your Restaurant diners
- At 30 June 2010, Australia has had more females than male. There're 100 women for every 99.1 men...
- The average age is 36.9 years in 2010...
- In 2011, our first Baby Boomers (born between 1946-1965) turned 65 year old making up 14% of Australia's population increasing to 20% of the population in 2030...
- Children aged 0-14 years decreased by 19%...
- People aged 15-64 years increased to 68%...
- People aged 85 years & over increased more than 4 times from 1960 levels to 1.8% - ABS...
- Females Make 14% More Booking than Males...
Getting a grasp of customers demographic is good start.
It's time to ratchet up your marketing.
For the businesses that actually make the effort to get to know their customers better, most stop here.
Few take this to the next level.
It's time to look deeper into your customers.
Why do your customer buy?
How do they think and feel? (Crawl inside their head and see the world from their perspective.)
What do they Want? What are the prospects deeper, unspoken desires?
Before & After Grid
Vincent Diamante - Eating //flic.kr/p/ryn6b - Cari McGee - // www.carimcgee.com
- WANTS: What does your prospect deeply want or need?...
- EMOTIONS: How does your prospect feel right now? What's the Point of angst? How do they want to feel?...
- BELIEFS: What are the closely-held concepts your prospect lives by? (This is not a blank slate.)...
What are there Desires & Aspirations?
- People want to gain...
- People want to be...
- People want to do...
- People want to save...
- People want to avoid...
Have you either noticed when you fly that the pointy end of plane it's not empty.
Even in tough times people still want to fly First Class.
That's why restaurants, there are Restaurant like the Fat Duck
Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck restaurant, Bray in the village of Berkshire.
So why people choice to eat at the Fat Duck?
Let's assume they will get a sensational feed.
What are the deep desires why they want to eat at the Fat Duck.
- People want to belong...
- Join an elite club...
- Admiration of others...
- Appeal to opposite gender...
- Esteem, ego, pride...
- One Upmanship who doesn't get one up on the brother in law or the guy at the office...
- To make statement...
- In keeping with their self-image...
- Identifying with...
- To boost self-confidence...
- Revenge...
You can see why the elite businesses take the effort to get this right.
Knowing your how your customers thinks & feels is your biggest leverage point for getting more customers.
Stay passionate about what drives you the most...
It's important to have passion in your business. This what drives you.
What outcomes do you want?
So your goal should be...to help your customers to overcome these roadblocks & obstacles so they can reach their dreams & desires with ease...
Stay passionate about what drives you the most... Just learn how to get more customers.
Skip all the hard work and get the right equipment Restaurant or Commercial Kitchen
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