Business Marketing & Finance Resources

11. Reduce investment

As in any business, to open a restaurant, we always seek to reduce investment, but without thereby having to sacrifice quality.

In the case of restaurants we can reduce the investment in the local scenery, which consumers generally do not take into account, as long as they offer good food, there is a total health and good care.

Another way to reduce investment in a restaurant, is starting to rent the equipment and furniture, or seeking agreements with vendors that provide them, for example, in exchange for advertising.

12. Spare no expenses

By investing in the creation of the restaurant should not skimping when it comes to supplies or offers variety of concerns.

But even as regards design and furniture, for example, by purchasing second-hand furniture, and in a state not very good.

We must always remember the saying that says that “what it calls poor.”

13. Quality inputs

If we sell quality products, our raw materials must also be of good quality.

We always use fresh products, which in some foods such as fish should be purchased the same day that will be used.

We must also select either our suppliers. For restaurants, it is advisable to have several of them, that because some providers do not always count on fresh products.

14. While budget

In the case of restaurants, there are usually many hidden costs, causing it to start the investment is common that end I missing money.

As our budget to make investment, we must take our time and count our costs well and, if possible, try to book a small budget that it will help us if we end missing more investment.

15. Hygiene

Another key factor in the success of a restaurant is hygiene.

Maybe our restaurant is small and we do not have much decor, but offer a good product, good service and, above all, show a total hygiene, it is likely that the restaurant is successful.

Hygiene must be based on an obsessive quest, it must be present in the dining room floor, in bathrooms, in the cooked, the staff (do not forget the hair short or tied) in the uniform of the staff (not forget the beanie chef, etc.).

16. Select either the cook

Another important decision in building a restaurant is the selection of the chef, who not only must have a good flavor, but must be flexible enough to adjust the menu style you want to give to our restaurant.

If the cook says he has worked in fancy restaurants, and is not willing to change its flavor or style to match that we want to give our menu, then we must look for another cook.

17. Well defined functions

For our restaurant operate efficiently; we must clearly define in advance what the roles and responsibilities of our staff.

Some of the functions and responsibilities of a cook, be liable for any loss or damage to equipment, do not let in anyone other than the kitchen, make a list of formal inputs, etc.

Some features of the kitchen staff (kitchen help, cleaning): assist in the decoration of dishes, cleaning and maintenance, inventory daily, etc..

18. Create expectations

A good marketing strategy to start a restaurant, you create anticipation before opening, this can include designing posters, ads, or flyers in which he announced the early opening of the restaurant.

Or it may be to send invitations to friends and acquaintances for opening day.

This will create anticipation for the time to try a new restaurant.

19. Customer service

Customer service is another factor that will determine the success of a restaurant.

We train all our staff to offer a friendly, helpful and caring show, be quick on care, maintaining good personal hygiene and presentation, show a sincere smile, greet politely, saying “please” and “thank you”, etc . . . .

20. Patience and dedication

Assembling and managing a restaurant is not a simple task, it is estimated that approximately one third of new restaurants go bankrupt or closed.

It is also estimated that in the case of restaurants are just now beginning to profit from the sixth month.

Added to this, we must take into account the work in a restaurant started in the early hours of the morning, where they must buy the supplies, then continues with the preparation of the dishes, and preparing for lunch, then continues with the cleaning and preparation for lunch time or dinner, and ends late at night, cleaning and having to get everything ready for the next day.

And we must also take into account that a restaurant does not just work all day, but every day (including Saturday and Sunday), and in many cases, including holidays.

As we see, create and manage a restaurant is not an easy task, but if we are passionate about good food, and service to the people, then we should not hesitate to open one.

But yes, we must realize that to succeed we will need much patience and perseverance (to overcome problems or difficulties that may happen), and hard work, discipline and dedication (to overcome all the work involved in running a restaurant.)

Many entrepreneurs fall into the trap of not taking into account the views, comments, suggestions, criticisms or complaints from customers.

Do not know how to listen to their customers, and this often results in bad decisions, bad design strategies, inability to attract new customers and the loss of customers already own.

The importance of listening to our customers is that this will give us useful information to our business, allowing us to design more effective marketing strategies will enable us to provide personalized attention and will let us know how we can improve or what to delete from our company.

Whenever we can, we must pay attention or try to figure out or know of our clients:

* Their real needs.
* Consumer preferences.
* Tastes.
* Their customs and habits of consumption.
* What they dislike about our products or services.
* What they would like to improve.
* Why we prefer to us instead of competition, etc…

And then with this information, we can design more effective marketing strategies, including:

* Design or modify products or services in such a way that best suits your needs or tastes.
* Set prices more in line with the economy or financial situation.
* Establish sales channels that are more accessible to them.
* Design and advertising media more effectively with them.

On the other hand, we know how we can improve, change or remove in our business.

And finally, knowing the needs and particular tastes of a particular consumer, we have the possibility of designing a unique product or service for him, that is, provide personalized service.

To intentionally to obtain this information from our customers, we can:

* Do small surveys.
* Create a suggestion box.
* Make small interviews as a conversation, for example, at the time of sale or provide the service.
* Invite them to lunch or a meeting or activity.
* Call after completing the purchase, to know your impression of the use of the product.
* Take a database or statistics.

In short, we must always be attentive to the views, comments, suggestions or complaints from our customers and on the other hand, we should always try to decipher or gather information about them such as their needs, preferences, habits, etc. (E.g. through small surveys or interviews), this information will design more effective marketing strategies, we know what we need to improve or change in our business, and, finally, we will provide certain customers with personalized attention according to their tastes or preferences.

I recently tried the issue of e-newsletter, saw its definition, some of its key features and benefits, and we saw how we could use in our business, whether it were a virtual business or a business with physical location.

Now let’s see some tips that will allow us to have an effective electronic newsletter to allow us to meet our objectives:

A regular newsletter

A newsletter should be sent regularly and preferably have a fixed regularly, e.g. every week, every fortnight, every month. If we are not able to be consistent and regularly publish a newsletter, be preferable not to offer an alternative.

Do not post that often, but not spend much time left

If we publish very often, we end up disturbing the subscriber, or even considering getting it done for our newsletter as spam. But on the other hand, if we spend too much time between each publication, the Subscriber may terminate forgetting us. It is recommended to publish more than once a week, and at least once a month.

Create expectation

Our newsletter must create an expectation in the reader, i.e. it must wait with anticipation each new publication. This in addition to achieving an attractive newsletter, we must ensure that our newsletter always meet with regularly, preferably always arrives at the same hour, preferably, it is in the morning.

Reliable Program

Usually, to manage an electronic newsletter is to make use of any software specially designed for this function. When choosing one, we should seek one that is reliable, providing guarantees, which have good references, which provides statistics, tracking options, etc. A good alternative is the program phpList.

Good Design

We must ensure that our newsletter submit a professionally designed and appealing, not only based on the use of text, but also present colors, images, links to other sites of interest, etc..

Title and attractive proposition

The title and subject of the newsletter should be clear and attractive. We should note that in most cases, that a publication of our newsletter is read or sent directly to the trash, depend heavily on the title and the issue you have.

Clear content

The contents of a bulletin should be based in clear and understandable to the reader. It is not necessary that the writing style is a formal style, but we must not allow the wording of the bulletin is not understandable or that is full of spelling errors.

Stay on topic

If our newsletter is about a particular topic, we try not to deviate much from that theme. We know that our readers have subscribed to the newsletter just to find out about a particular topic, and most likely are not interested in others.

Custom newsletter

Whenever we can, we must strive to customize our newsletter, i.e. ensure that the reader feel that behind the newsletter is a person interested in communicating with him, and not a machine that sends the same bulletin to all people. For example, we put the name of the person receiving the newsletter, tell them personally, and ask for their advice or suggestions.

To promote the newsletter

If we consider that our newsletter can be a good marketing strategy for our business, we strive to offer a good promotion. For example, we have a striking subscription option which should be in a visible area on our website, we must state clearly the main features and advantages of our newsletter, we offer privacy, easy activation and cancellation of subscription, we promise not spam, etc.

No advertising abuse

Readers subscribe to a newsletter to be informed, to learn or to entertain, not to be told what to buy. The publicity that we send through our newsletter should not be excessive and should not be forced. For example, we advertise to announce the launch of new products or promotions by suggesting that they are really relevant to the reader.

The subscriber must know that the newsletter will be sent

The person who subscribes to our newsletter must be clearly aware that it will receive a newsletter. We must not fall in deceptive practices such as including pre-selected subscription options on our forms, send the newsletter to our customers without them know it, much less get mailing lists and send our newsletter to people from these lists.

Given the option to unsubscribe

To avoid having our newsletter being considered as spam, if we include the option to unsubscribe, which should be clearly specified in each issue of the newsletter and, once used, you should be able to unsubscribe from one way quick and easy.

Privacy

Subscriber data should be kept private and it must be aware and be sure that we will meet it. Pair it in our newsletter we include our privacy policy, which he should inform and reassure the subscriber that their data will remain confidential and not shared with third parties.

Measure results

A newsletter is a good tool to track and measure results. We must exploit this advantage and, for example, measure the increase in our subscriptions, measure the results of a change in design or content of the newsletter, measure the results of the launch of an advertising campaign, etc..

Subscribe to other newsletters

Finally, a way to achieve an effective newsletter is with reference to other bulletins of success. We must seek to subscribe to other newsletters that address the same issues that we deal, or that are targeted the same audience to which we address, to analyze its contents, their writing styles, their frequency of publication, the management software they use, etc ., and based on that analysis to create our newsletter or make decisions.

If your company is not getting the level of sales expected, probably due to a mistake you’re making in marketing.

Making a mistake in marketing can mean a stagnation or decline in sales and might even come to mean the failure of the company.

As always we must identify and be aware of these marketing mistakes and avoid them by any means.

And for this, let us then what are the six most common mistakes made by marketing companies, entrepreneurs or employers:

1. Do not segment the market

A common mistake companies often make is not to segment the market and target their products or services to all consumers who make it up.

Make the mistake of thinking that all audiences are similar or that their products or services might be successful with any of them.

But the truth is that the total market for a product there is so wide and varied that address all types of consumers that shape it, is not profitable.

It is reasonable to segment the market, select one of the resulting market segments, and go and specialize only in that market segment selected.

2. Assume that if one likes something, he also liked the other

Another common mistake that entrepreneurs often make or employers is to assume that what one likes, would also have to like others.

They do not take into account that people are different, and the fact that a person has certain tastes or preferences, does not mean that other people also have the same tastes and preferences.

So before making a decision based on our tastes and preferences, we analyze the preferences of our target audience, and design products or making decisions based on those tastes and preferences.

3. Assume that if a strategy worked well once, always work well

Another common mistakes companies often make is to assume that if a successful marketing strategy once, you will always succeed no matter the time or the market where it is made.

Do not take into account that markets are different, and the fact that a strategy has been successful in a given market, does not mean it will also have success in any other.

And do not take into account the needs, tastes and consumer preferences are constantly changing, and the fact that a strategy has succeeded a year ago, does not mean you also have success now.

4. To think that customers will come by just opening the door

Another common mistake entrepreneurs often make or employers is to assume that people will enter their business or they will buy their products with the simple act of opening the doors or taking the product to market.

They do not take into account that if consumers are unaware of the existence of a business or product, and do not have enough reasons to buy, it is unlikely to do so.

Not enough to offer the best product or best service, if you do not have sufficient publicity, consumers will become difficult to visit us or our products.

Investment in effective advertising that allows us to let us know and persuade consumers to buy from us will always be necessary.

5. Forgetting to competition

Another common marketing mistakes that companies often make is to stop to analyze, to be alert, to underestimate or ignore the competition.

Companies often end up focusing only on its own operations, and eventually forget about the competition, until it finally ends to overcome them, and when they want to react it’s too late.

Maybe we get to forget about the competition, but it is likely that it will never forget us, and we always are considering and seeking ways to improve ourselves.

And if you are waiting for it and we are not prepared, you probably cannot cope and it will eventually meet its target.

6. No user comments

Another common marketing mistake that entrepreneurs often make is to assume that they know everything, and ignore the views, comments, advice, criticism or customer complaints.

Employers tend not to pay due attention to what the client says, and this often results in the lack of new tastes and preferences, to continue with the same errors and the inability to obtain further improvements.

The needs, tastes and consumer preferences are always changing, and if not listen to our customers, we left behind with these changes, react appropriately and allow our clients end up going to the competition.

Furthermore, by not listening to the customer could lose valuable information to let us know our mistakes, or allows us to find ways to improve our products and services; errors and improvements on our own we would probably never own.