Starting, Owning and Marketing A Restaurant Blog|Starting and Owning a Restaurant - Construction, Planning, Marketing, Opening and Managing a New Restaurant

The lack of quick fire posts to the blog doesn’t mean we haven’t continued with our long term objectives. Now that patterns are emerging there are assumptions that can be made about business trends. The first week of July will approach our 6 month anniversary coming on July 9,2009. There have been many surprises, which are normal in the restaurant business.

A few of the variations in our business plan that must be addressed include;

• As a breakfast and lunch restaurant, we had thought the breakfast segment would be much stronger than it has been. About 60% of our sales come between the hours of 9:30 AM and 12:30 PM. The early AM business has been sluggish.
• Sales have settled in between $11,000 to $14,000 per week, which translates into about $675,000 annually in restaurant sales. Typical wall to wall business on the weekends and moderate week days are the normal pattern we have seen. This matches similar restaurant segment chain results for places like Denny’s, IHOP and Perkins. While revenues, in general, are within our goals in the first months, we had hoped to break the pattern of similar restaurants and make the weekdays stronger.
• The recession has caused us to question consumer habits. Is the early morning coffee, pastry and quick breakfast sandwich segment being lost to the steep discounting of the quick service chains? Once the economy improves will more consumers discard the bargains for quality, service and a friendly smile?
• While we have chosen to stay away from price cutting, big offer coupons and other forms of price cutting, is this a good long term strategy?

While these nagging questions linger, we have to take pleasure in the operating results to date. Our sales are less volatile to our similar restaurant a few miles away. Tourist business causes big swings in the other location. Our ability to develop strong customer relationships in a less transient market may be somewhat more difficult, but rewarding over a long period of time.

It is time to look at other changes to keep the trends moving higher. We want to capture bigger market share. We have plenty of competition with a few blocks of us. Independents and chains like Panera Bread, McDonalds, Subway and others keep steady streams of guests coming to their highly advertised doors. We will keep finding ways to pluck a few customers each week from there lines into our seats - one customer at a time!

If I were taking a report card home to my parents a few decades ago, the grade for this new venture would be a B-. Starting a new restaurant is a subject I am glad was never a requisite in high school or college. Somehow I am sure the teachers and professors would be difficult to find for such a course!

A new restaurant operation is like bringing a puppy home from the dog pound. Everybody loves it, but you are the one who is up all night with the crying and yelping, cleaning up the messes until trained, picking up the chewed new pair of shoes and tripping over the ball of fur with every step.

From the outside, the puppy is cute and cuddly - just like a new restaurant. No one sees that you are scrambling to train staff, get the food out of the kitchen perfect, adjusting schedules, paying unforeseen invoices and hoping there is enough cash flow to make at least your break-even point. It’s a nightmare.

The first 30 days of any restaurant operation cannot be evaluated. Sales are driven in many cases by the curious who just visit because you are new. Costs are escalated due to extra staff, over ordering of product and the usual smallwares you need that were not in the plans. Throw the first thirty days out. Don’t try to judge your future based on your first month.

The days that count are the 100 days that follow the opening month. These are the days when reliable and predictable trends begin to develop. The “Big 100″ (100 days following your first month) are the days that can tell you what you need to do and set the tone for further growth and profitable enhancement. Here are some things that should emerge with your analysis;

• You should be able to accurately discover what your exact daily break-even number is.
• You should see a trend of lower operating costs that should be going down due to tweaks you make as you age. Food costs should be concise as compared to sales.
• There should be a clear picture of what your marketing has done and the demographic draw of existing business.
• The Big 100 should have produced the numbers that allow you to go back and compare to your plan. Are there adjustments necessary to the plan or your operation? What were the biggest surprises? What were the biggest disappointments? What new goals do you need to establish? Is your menu where it should be?

The Big 100 is the platform for you next 6 months of planning. What marketing changes do you need to make? What food trends do you want to expand? What internal changes need to be made to reduce costs or waste? Staffing changes? Hours of operations? Does the seating, lighting, decor and customer areas need adjustment? All of these questions and many more become the basis for your new business plan.

In the last couple of posts we have discussed the relatively new impetus for restaurants to involve themselves in sites like Twitter, MySpace, Facebook and several other networking type sites. The positives and negatives have been outlined.

For our new restaurant we decided to take an approach that:

• Involves a greater percentage of our customer base.
• Takes less time that to maintain, although a much greater initial time commitment.
• Allows community wide involvement.
• Brings together many different elements of the area.
• Eliminates competition for the same audience. (Chains cannot compete.)

We decided to develop a blog that will offer local (neighborhood), news, events, information, feedback and networking with all the various social groups. You can visit this blog as it is built. The name is Maggie’s City Center.

The real bonus is that most of our customers can participate, not just the ones who happen to subscribe to one of the social networking sites that have become prime media for the chains to distribute their coupons and build their brands.

After much of the content has been set up and we are ready to publicly  unveil it, a marketing plan fr the blog will be detailed to get the word out to the community. Visit the site and let us know your thoughts and comments.

For those reading the blog for the first time, this has been an eight month process of opening a new restaurant. I have shared the pains, pleasures, trials and tribulations that all restaurateurs go through after deciding to become restaurant owners. My only advantage is that this is the fourth time I have done it.

This post installment is after about seven weeks of operating history and in response to the previous post below with respect to trends that can be discerned from the results so far. The reliability of making assumptions this early is questionable. However, nothing can be lost by addressing those potential trends now. Waiting is the new restaurateur’s way of doing nothing. It would be the easiest thing to do, particularly when, overall, we have met our expectations in the early stages. The goal is to put butts in seats all day every day!

Below is the trend we are addressing and the marketing plan adjustment;

• Lower Than Expected Early Breakfast Sales - We will create an “Early Riser” short group of specials for people dining between 6:30 AM to 8:30 AM. These items will be palced on the tables in a POS format each day and removed at 8:30 AM.
• Less Take Out Sales Than Expected - We will concentrate our personal visits to local offices that are more likely to order take out food than others. Examples include doctors’ offices, retail shops, banks and other medical facilities who have a difficult time getting away from their offices due to the demands of their customers. Each of these groups will be given take out menu’s and full laminated copy of both the breakfast and lunch menu’s in addition to the small take out reprints.
• Early Morning and Take Out Sales Program - We will develop a flyer (handout) or promotional device that promotes “call ahead” program for people on their way to work. Features will include no lines, no drive thru’s and value ideas for there morning coffee, juice or food. The promotional flyer and/or tool will be given to the huge weekend crowd and lunch guests.
• Targeted Sales Effort for All Market Segments - Not necessarily connected to any specific trend, we will target beauty shops, barbers, cleaners, hardware stores and similar non-competing entities that deal with the local general population that have high traffic. We will offer the owner/manager of the establishment a free breakfast or lunch if they allow us to put our takeout menu’s in their retail facility.
• General Media Advertising -We will find a different source for broad distribution of our message other than the two local publications we used in the first thirty days. Possibilities include direct mail, small postal bulk mail booklets or fliers. The content of the media ad will feature some of the programs developed above.

Marketing is not a knee jerk response to low sales used as an occasional tool. It is an ongoing part of operating a successful and growing restaurant. As usual, staff will be involved with the process by asking for their input and educating them on the plan.

All of these tools are spelled out and come from the book called The Restaurant Ebook, A Guide to Keeping Your Restaurant Off the Chopping Block.

With a soft opening behind us and confidence in the kitchen and service staff, it is time to extend our marketing to our radius of influence to get new guests into the new restaurant. As we implement the plan, our focus will be on all the elements of marketing - not just advertising.

Marketing has three components:

1. Getting your message to the prospective guest.
2. Selling your product once your customer responds by coming in the restaurant.
3. Delivering the product in a manner that meets or exceeds the guest’s expectations.

The first step in creating our plan was to evaluate our demographics. Our two mile radius is heavily populated with residences and businesses along the main street. During the week we want to develop the lunch trade and take out business from local offices. Weekends will be busy with residents who eat out on Saturdays and Sundays, but may skip breakfast during the week.

A small part of the business development will include the traffic zipping by on the way to work.

Each segment of the plan is designed to meet the demographic parts listed above.

1. Getting Our Message to the Prospective Guest

The message during the first initial contact will be that a) we are open and b) we serve a country/southern style cuisine like our childhood memories. This theme will be carried in our advertising and customer communications. Below are the plans.

Steps Used to Communicate our Message:

1. Select print media to advertise for the next 30 days. We chose two local weekly newspapers that cover residences and some businesses within our 3 mile radius.
2. Send an email message to a database from our other restaurants to let those customers know of our new location. That list has over 1300 names on it, but may not include our entire radius and very few businesses. Two weeks after the first communication, a second email will highlight a “Grand Opening Weekend” or feature some of our unique menu selections for breakfast and lunch.
3. Prepare and distribute a small flyer to businesses that we have developed a relationship with during construction. Ask them to place on their counter (sample in earlier post).
4. Make personal visits to area businesses with take out menu’s and food samples on a daily basis. Our goal will be to see 5 businesses a day during the week.
5. Purchase an advertising contract with a company that supplies direct communication to every new household in the radius of the restaurant.
6. Added the new location announcement and menu to the existing website for the restaurants.

2. Selling Our Product

Our product is different than competitors in the area. We need to distinguish ourselves because we are slightly more expensive and the concept is a little more upscale.

The steps to selling our differences started with server training before we opened and continue with ongoing reminders of quality. Ingredients we use are exceptional in the breakfast business and we highlight brand names.

Steps to Selling:

1. Server training, server testing and daily reminders explain our food, ingredients and cooking methods. Bulletin board notes and Manager working with servers on weaknesses is a continuous process
2. Table POS stating the differences.
3. Menu’s reflect individual items highlighted by our original creations and special brands and/or products that our competitors can’t duplicate.
4. When possible, samples of various items are sent to tables that may have questions about our menu selections.
5. Our product is more than food. We take a slightly light-hearted approach to the atmosphere of the restaurant. We want it to be fun and funky kind of neighborhood place. The servers, décor and surroundings need to emulate our concept.

3. Delivering Our Product

The marketing process is not complete unless you deliver what you are selling. Many restaurants are experts at advertising and get many customers through their doors, but fail to deliver what they promise. The last step is the way you get customers to return.

Guests become loyal repeat customers one at a time. That means every facet of the delivery process must achieve the overall goal of meeting or exceeding the customer’s expectations. To accomplish the goal;

Steps to Delivering Our Product to Meet the Guest’s Expectations;

1. When the guest walks in the door, they must be greeted by a cheerful staff and a bright dining room with other satisfied guests.
2. The guest must be sat and offered a beverage and menu immediately.
3. Servers must have the knowledge and confidence to explain each menu item, the preparation and ingredients.
4. Little time is spent waiting between server contacts from beverage service to ordering.
5. Food is prepared in a reasonable amount of time and delivered hot and fresh.
6. Each plate must be neat, garnished properly and colorful.
7. Each order is checked as it leaves the kitchen and the server must check the order before delivery to insure accuracy.
8. After delivery of the guest’s order, the server must re-visit the table within two minutes to see if there are condiments or other needs the guest may have.
9. A Manager should visit each table to inquire about their satisfaction.
10. Checks are always in the server’s possession and ready to be delivered to the guest as soon as they seem ready. Tables are never left for the customer to stare at dirty plates.

If for ANY reason a guest appears to be unsatisfied, a Manager must visit the table and see what is necessary to turn a bad experience to a good experience.

Plan Summary

Will the steps we have chosen to take in the initial weeks be enough? Only time can answer that question. Certainly the plan must be managed, modified and expanded as we look for measurable results in the coming days and weeks. The key, for now, is execution. A daily recap of sales, glitches and customer comments will keep us focused.

The entire staff must be involved to make this Marketing Plan a success. Prospective customers become loyal guests one at a time. If we can give each customer the experience they bargained for when they walked in the door, we can win our share of the breakfast and lunch dining crowd in our radius of potential guests.

If you have followed the blog, you know we have been slowed to a creeping halt by the county while waiting on the restaurant construction permits to be issued. Our last hang-up was with a plan reviewer who was relatively new on the job, but had undertaken his bureaucratic responsibilities a little too seriously when he started to “interpret” the codes rather than just enforce the codes. This has been a five and a half week battle.

In any event, there was a meeting scheculed with the architect and general contractor with the mechanical plan reviewer for yesterday morning. The reviewer didn’t show up. Both the architect and contractor were livid and apparently expressed themselves loud enough for the Director of the department to overhear. The Director took it upon himself to disappear with the plans for about twenty minutes and reappear with them fully approved! All the items that the architect and contracter were there to argue were OK’d!

Luck or perseverance won the battle - we are not sure which. Construction in earnest started yesterday afternoon. In the next post pictures will be posted to show progress as we go along.

This morning the contractor and I will be developing a schedule to make sure all the sub-contractors, suppliers and tradesmen know we must make up time on this project. It will be a seven day a week plan.

Here is a list of accomplishments in the last few days:

• In a meeting with the electrical contractor, general contractor and architect, we have finalized all the plans for submission to the county to issue permits
• On Friday, September 5th, we passed our first inspection for the demolition of the space.
• We have had workers prepping walls by filling holes and sanding rough spots.
• We committed to a company for booths to be delivered in about 6 weeks.
• Quotes for table tops were received.
• A privacy fence was built Friday around the rear of the space to encompass items like the walk-in, ice machine, grease recepter and an area where we can store seasonal items. Bottom line is it covers a lot of our mess. We want to be neighborhood friendly.
• Committed to the hood contractor for a four week delivery and installation of the hood and fire suppression system.
• Signed for permit to bring natural gas into location.

The goals for the coming week include:

• Getting preliminary work done and materials purchsed for the electrical contractor.
• Push for permits with the county (normaly a four week process).
• Develop a six week marketing plan covering the period two weeks prior to opening and the 30 days after.
• Determine decorating and finishing look and fixtures.
• Getting equipment bought and held for delivery.
• Getting quotes on tile and carpet needs.

Currently we are waiting on a permit to be issued for fire separation between the units. That will be the first major construction project that will be followed by ceiling replacement and framing.

While each state has their own requirements, there are some common elements they look for. Generally, as soon as you have your plans fairly well completed, you should apply for any state and local licenses needed.

In this case, we have solidified the major components of the formal plans. A few things may change, but from this point it is a matter of getting the construction moving. Next week we apply for a state restaurant license and include the general drawing. The state is not looking for construction issues, but safety and sanitary concerns will be reviewed. Here are a few things they look for:

• Hand sinks. If you look at the drawing linked above, we have a hand sink at almost every work area. When the state comes in to inspect us prior to opening, we will have hand sanitizing dispensers in each location also.
• They want to make certain you have enough bathrooms for the seating.
• Some will want to know what is on the floor and ceiling. A washable surface on the kitchen walls may be required on new construction.
• In some cases they will make certain there are two exits and non-obstructed paths with ailses at least 42 inches wide.
• Many times the number of seats will determine certain required components. In this case we are showing a total of 64. Outside seating is not shown.

Most states have their requirements online. You should review those before submitting a plan.