The Great Restaurant Potential

Food and restaurant seems a good topic to go back to. One cannot over stress the importance of the ambiance of the place. Once people come to appreciate the mood that your restaurant exudes, they will really keep on coming back to your place no matter how far it is. And if you offer great food with the great atmosphere, your restaurant will definitely have the potential of great hit.

Of course, you must really market your restaurant to the public. First, you must introduce your restaurant to everybody. You must make it be known that such a restaurant exists. If you have a theme for your restaurant then you have to introduce your restaurant as such.

But then you also have to consider which market segment you want to target. This would dictate how you would place your ads and other marketing efforts. On it also depends your positioning for your restaurant.

While this is not a comprehensive list for opening and running a restaurant, this hopefully provided some tips and reminders to all budding entrepreneurs and restaurateurs out there.

Kids Buy What They See

It’s really easy to catch the attention of the kids. Let’s say, you are selling toys. Just place some really nice and eye catching ads between their favorite shows and your toys will be a hit.

Of course, your products must also be good. It must look very nice and attractive. Another thing of course is that the toy must have a defining feature that’s unique or at least attractive to the kids. Boys, for example, love cars. You can start with this premise and think of something that will make the little boys want to buy what you are selling.

When kids start seeing them always and they get hooked to the toy, there will be no stopping them from asking their moms and dads for one. And more often than not, parents would oblige, if not right away, at least eventually.

Great Location! Great Attraction!

Everybody is almost always in the mood for a romantic dinner. Even when people are not with their boyfriends or girlfriends, they just love being in a nice restaurant. They love being in a very relaxing ambiance. That is why the location is always important.

If you are planning to build a restaurant, you should always pick your location carefully. From the moment they arrive the place, they should feel relaxed already. Here’s an example. The restaurant is located in the middle of the beach. As soon as people get to the place, they can immediately gaze to the waters and if their timing is right, the sunset too. The sea breeze is there to cool them from the hot day they just had. With a great location, people would always find going to your restaurant fun and relaxing.

This is not to say that location is everything though. You also have to serve delicious food. The delight of being served great food begins with a nice presentation so you should put great efforts in it too. What’s important is that you make dining in your restaurant as enjoyable as possible. So whether it is to impress their loved ones, to kindle romance in their relationship or just to enjoy good food and ambiance, they will always be back if they find what they are looking for in your place.

Reaching Out to Customers

Every business needs to reach out to customers. You as the owner or perhaps your staff should see to it that you have a way of reaching your clients. It should be standard procedure to take not only the names but also contact numbers and even email addresses of clients. You should get them from new customers so you can promote your business to them. And you have the more reason to collect contact info from repeat customers. Since you know that they already like your products or services it would be easier to sell them new products or services in the future.

You would also need to have such information to inform your clients when their orders are ready. There would be clients who forget about their orders. And there would be some that for whatever reasons need some reminding before they collect their orders. If you have their contact numbers, you can simply give them a call and tell them politely that their order is ready. This way the money of your business will roll faster. It won’t get stuck in uncollected orders and inventory.

As a business, you should be aggressive in getting to your customers. You should not wait for them to come to you. Instead you should give them a nudge so they will come to you quicker. And for promotions, you have to give them a reason to need your products and services. They will surely appreciate your business if you are constantly providing them with what they need.

Open It Right!!!

Starting out a business with a bang really gives it a very big leap right away. Although there would be greater risks in investing so much on a business right away, it really is worth it if this makes your market notice you and patronize you right from the start. You won’t have to wait long months and even years for the market to get to know you. Because you start big, they notice you and they get curious. They immediately check out what you have to offer. If they like it, then you are off to a very good start.

Some businesses also like to surprise the competition. They don’t announce that they will soon open their establishment until the day itself. This recently happened in my city. The competition was so surprised that I think they lost a lot of sales for a couple of days. It hit the market by a storm and its competitor definitely felt it. But this was only successful because it was a well known company. Had it been a very fresh name, I don’t think that strategy would have been successful.

But take this café restaurant for example. Its business owners put out a sign even before the place is fully furnished. They fixed up the frontage. They made it visible to attract customers and to get them excited about their impending opening. In short, they are announcing it loud and clear that a new place is going to open. It is an open invitation to everyone to try their place once it’s opened.

These are just a few examples of the different approaches one can take. But you shouldn’t just choose one randomly. You have to make sure that the strategy you are taking is best suited to your business based on its strengths and weaknesses.

Good Location, Good Business!!!

Location is very much important in every business. It’s important that you are near or at least accessible to your customers. Convenience really matters to every customer. If going to your store, office or establishment is easy you will automatically be the choice of your potential customers.

Location has a very big impact on the business. It is important that people can see your place so they will know that you exist. I was going around the city one night when I discovered this small bar.

It was located in the city stadium. And it was in the part where it was facing away from the main street. You will not see it unless you go inside the stadium’s premises and go around. It’s not really the main downtown area. In fact, it’s more of a residential district which consists of below middle class citizens. The stadium doesn’t have so much going on so not a lot people go there.

RESULT: Only one table was occupied.

Perhaps if more shows, concerts and ball games are held and more people will discover the place, it may become crowded. As for now, it’s a pity that people don’t even know of this bar. It’s simple but it has a potential. It could be a nice hangout for friends. Of course, one solution for them could be advertisement. For now, this is just to illustrate the impact of location on your business.

After The Holidays

Well, the Christmas Season is now over. But this should not be a reason for our sales to go down. If we offer products that customers need and customers love, they will definitely keep coming back to us. That is a sure thing. On our part, we should not stop giving them reasons to keep coming to us either.

If you have a restaurant, perhaps you should come up with a new dish or even an array of diet for those who want to shed those extra pounds they have gained during the holidays. So even if they wanted to be on the watch of what they eat, they will still come in. They will even be encouraged to come to you more. Not only are you enticing them to come so you would earn more but you are actually helping them go back in shape.

During Christmas people are bound to spend more than usual. It would not be a surprise if some would be on a tight budget after the holidays. Offering sale discounts will surely be highly appreciated. It doesn’t matter what you sell, it will be a good come on to everyone.

It would also be good to stock up new items. People are always excited to see what is new. The “New Arrival” sign is really a good sign for shoppers. Since it is a start of a new year many people would also like to start it with new things. Also, it helps keep your store thrilling. Customers would always look forward to going to it because you always have new things to offer them.

There are many different tactics you can apply. But always remember to suit to your customer base and to the season. You should always take into consideration the situation of the market and the circumstances of your customers.

Reaping Great Rewards

Introducing a new concept is a good idea. But it takes a lot of work. You have to market the idea. You have to introduce your brand. And you have to take your customers to your location.

Before you even open your establishment, you have to talk to many people and slowly introduce the concept. You have to make everybody understand how this works and how each and every one will benefit from it.

Not only that, you have to introduce yourself. Meaning, you have to show your potential customers the service they will get. They have to realize their need for your product or the service you will render them.

Once they have assimilated this information, it is time to tell them where your establishment is located. It’s quite important that you are accessible to them. Since it will be something new to them, you have to go to them instead of them coming to you. This will make you appealing to them. Not only will they benefit from your service, taking of advantage of it is also easy to do.

Yes, it takes a lot of effort. But if you become successful in this endeavor, you will also reap so much reward from it. Being the innovator, your brand will be synonymous to your product or your service. This will mean more customers and more repeat customers. And naturally, this will be mean greater earnings later on.

Christmas Commercialism

This entry may be a bit late. But anyway, here’s the tip for the season. Well, had you started planning earlier it would have been profitable to sell Christmas decors. Many people like to upgrade and improve or provide a different flavor to their decorations year after year. Christmas decors are truly a hit during Christmas.

Then as Christmas Day nears, people are getting busy finding gifts for their loved ones. There are many things to sell for this purpose. You just choose which income bracket you want to cater and there’s definitely a bunch of ideas out there. Electronic stores are even offering 0% interest on expensive gadgets these days. Expensive gifts are available and payable in 12 installments. It entices people to buy because these electronic items are certainly made affordable to them. They become good gifts for their husbands and for their kids. Appliance stores follow the same gimmick. Not only are customers buying appliances as gifts, many also get new ones to beautify their homes for this coming Christmas.

There are also affordable novelty items you can sell to everyone. During this season, everyone is buying gifts. So it is also good to provide the lower income level the goods they will enjoy and they can afford. Many go for cheaper items to stretch their budget and make sure every one of the relatives and friends get gifts from them. Some companies and people need give away items too.

For some people who want to earn a little with their small capital, you can even stick to making wrapping materials. Some simply sell gift wrappers and cards. Others make bags made of wrappers so they become ready to use. Others sell boxes as well. There are many other small items one can sell during this season. You don’t have to have a large capital. If you want to earn, just squeeze in whatever goods your capital can get. If you are selling what people need and want, you’d be surprised at how much you’ll earn this season.

You Are Your Own Advertisement

You are your business’ first and foremost advertisement. You should always remember that. As the proprietor of a business, people who know you would always associate your business to you. Your customers will also judge the quality of your product or your ability to perform a service by looking at you.

Let’s say for example you have a bakeshop. It is important that you always look clean and tidy. You should never look so dirty in public or else they would also think that the bread, pastries and cakes you are selling are dirty.

If you own a beauty salon, you should always look well groomed and polished all the time. In short, you must always look good. Your market would think you will not be capable of making them beautiful if you cannot even take care of yourself and cannot make yourself look good.

You should always project an image you want for your company. And always remember to have good PR because there’s nothing better than being a credible advertisement and endorser of your product or service.

Pricing and Promoting for Success

Pricing is another way of promotion. As I’ve mentioned before, offering 50% discount is a good way to get your customers coming. But what do you do about pricing? Or, how do you want your pricing to be when you are just starting out your business?

One way is to offer your products or services at low prices in order to penetrate the market you want to enter in. This strategy is commonly used in mass products since customers in this market are usually price sensitive. We are talking of products that people use daily like sugar, milk, coffee, soap and the like. A slight different in price can make them change from one brand to another or buy an item from another store rather their usual outlet.

But if you want to recover your cost quickly, you can price your products as high as possible. Costs are rapidly recouped after selling only a few items. This is usually done when selling luxury goods like cars and jewelry.

Another strategy is when you price your goods high at the start and then slash it down later. This way you also recover your cost almost instantly. Then you get more clients as your price goes down. This strategy is utilized in technology items like computers and cell phones.

Again, you have to suit your strategy with your target market and with the type of products or services you are providing. These two should always match your strategy to be effective and to be successful.

Promotions Raise Your Sales

What comes to most people’s minds when they say marketing is promotions. The truth is promotions are just a part of marketing. However, it is also important that businessmen know how to do promotions properly.

The first thing to remember is that although it is a must that you have to invest in promotions and money would be spent on it, it is also important to balance it with the additional sales the company or the business is going to get because of this initiative.

The most common way of doing promotions is offering 50% discounts. It is actually usually an effective way of attracting customers. Most customers cannot resist big discounts. But you also have to be conscious of the signals that you want to give out. Another important thing to bear in mind also is your target market.

If you are selling goods that draw sales based on the brand, you have to invest more on PR so much so that your brand remains top of mind on the brand conscious people. You can accomplish this through media ads on the radio, magazines, television and now also the internet. Another good way to do that is to give out promotional items to your customers and even retailers.

If you are just about to introduce your product, joining trade fairs is a good option. Through these events, you will meet potential clients and even suppliers from whom you can get your raw materials from. You can also learn from other providers in your industry and be updated on the industry trends.

There is no one answer to your needs, you just have to adapt to your market, budget and purpose. You don’t have to follow traditional ways of promoting your product and it need not be so expensive. You can be a creative as you can be as long as you achieve your goals for doing your promotions.