Restaurant Masterminds

In case you have not noticed the “Big Chains” have finally figured it out…Marketing 101. For years I have had a huge advantage by being able to market to my guests on a one on one level. While the “Chains” were so busy building their brand through image advertising, I was building my data base of loyal guests. I was building relationships with my guests and staying in constant contact with my guests on a weekly basis. Now all that has changed.  Take a look around and you’ll see the chain restaurants doing what I have been doing for years….the chain restaurants are now creating loyalty programs, creating fan clubs on facebook, email marketing, text messaging, gift card sales, scratch card contests, giveaways, direct mail marketing (they still fail miserably in this aspect, but at least they are moving forward) and much more to create foot traffic through their restaurants.

The scary part of being an Independent Restaurant of today is, chain restaurants are actually starting to execute some of their marketing ideas. Just the other day we stopped in our local TGI Fridays for some late night snacks and low and behold our server actually executed to perfection the explanation of their loyalty program, word for word she sounded like one of my managers training, a new employee, her pitch was absolutely perfect, noting every benefit and reason of why we should sign up for their loyalty program. Now keep in mind TGI Friday’s rolled out their loyalty program over a year and a half ago and this is the first time I have ever had a server pitch it like ours did that evening.

Ok, so they figured out that getting guest information was crucial, they understand and maybe they have developed systems to insure their staff is collecting guests information. That’s the easy part!  Now, what are the chains going to do with all this information? A great example of collecting guests information goes out to Kentucky Fried Chicken and Chick-fil-a restaurants. Each restaurant has given away tens of thousands of chicken dinners and chicken sandwiches over the course of the last year…all you had to do in exchange for the free meal was give them your personal information (mailing address, email address, date of birth). Of course I did right away, and proceeded to collect my free meal…one year later, same address, and not one direct contact from either company! So, what was the point of collecting all my information if you’re not going to do anything with it?  Wasted marketing dollars at its best! Plus, they gave me a FREE meal and I have not returned.

As Independents we have a HUGE advantage when it comes to DIRECT RESPONSE MARKETING. We can change on a dime and contact our guests immediately. We don’t have all the “corporate red tape” that the big chains are required to follow. Independent restaurant owners see something that’s not working or could be improved on, and can change within days if not within hours. So fear not my compadres of the big chain restaurants and all their creative marketing ideas, instead of focusing on what all the chains are doing, I hope you’re concentrating on what you are doing within your four walls, because the chains are making a push and it’s only a matter of time before someone in corporate finally realizes the value the independent restaurant owners are marketing.  (Well, maybe not, but you better make sure you’re doing what your supposed to do!)

Are you:

• Training your staff to collect guests information?
• Measure and recording your progress?
• Setting up systems to automate your marketing?
• Building systems to provide a great dining experience?
• Rewarding your top guests?
• Staying in contact with your guests?
• Educating yourself to stay ahead of the competition?
• Planning on attending our next Seminar in Minneapolis?

Take a look at all the marketing that your guests have to filter through on a daily basis, is your restaurant standing out? If not, you better take a long look at what you’re doing and figure out how you are going to stay ahead of the competition…if you need help, Restaurant Masterminds is headed to downtown Minnesota for our next two day event to help Independent Restaurants beat the competition! Sign up today and see you on August 23rd &24th!

Ben Martinez
Restaurant Masterminds

As a restaurateur, we are programmed and conditioned to always try and find the best price when we are purchasing for our restaurants. This is a tried and true formula, one that has been passed on for generations. The less we pay for an item, the more we save and the more we bring to the bottom line. It makes sense, it sounds very simple, even an amateur could execute this. The problem is that the formula is flawed. There are times that different variables come in to play that can skew the results and end up costing you money.

At my prime steakhouse, we cut our own beef. It is important that our Chef shops around with our preferred vendors in search of the best price each week. These are vendors that we have specked out and chosen, based on consistent quality and pricing, along with reliable deliveries. Once our Chef receives his bids for our different cuts of meats, he then decides who to place his orders with. It actually seems very straightforward. Here’s where it gets a little tricky. We have a special broiler that heats up to sixteen hundred and fifty degrees. If you throw a steak under our broiler and it’s cut too thin, it will curl and end up looking very unappealing on the plate. We speck our rib-eyes or NY strips around ten to twelve pounds. The reason for this, is that at this weight, the steaks we cut will be at least an inch thick. Currently, most of the meat coming to the market are trending fourteen to seventeen pounds. Now the eye is large and the steaks are too thin. The price is right, the product is wrong.

We have a vendor that carries an all natural product that is currently weighing in at ten to twelve pounds. The cost is a dollar and fifty cents a pound more than what we typically pay. Here’s where you have to do the math. The waste on a strip or rib-eye in the ten to twelve pound range can be up to sixty percent less than the waste on a heavier piece of meat. The cost of your cut steak might be fifty or sixty cents more per portion. The key here is that some times you have to pay a little more to keep your quality consistent. If a regular customer comes in and purchases a steak dinner with a large eye, and the steak is a half inch thick and it’s all curled on the plate. He’s probably going to send it back. You now have to cook another steak and try and appease him. The lost steak just cost you your savings over the natural beef. You factor in the waste and cutting loss, add in an unhappy customer or two and you see how it actually costs the same to buy the natural beef in this instance.

It’s the exact same philosophy if you buy portion control eight ounce tenderloins. It can be a pricey proposition. If you cut your own whole tenderloins, you have to have an outlet for the scraps and small pieces. If you don’t have this outlet, and all you do is through the scraps into a stockpot, or grind it up for hamburg. You’re better off paying more for the cut steaks and saving money in the long run.

There are times, when it pays to pay a little more, and save your hard earned money. The key is to know the difference on when you need to pay more and save on cost and labor as well.

Think about it, I’m sure everyone has at least one situation in their restaurant where pride or ego is preventing you from analyzing your particular situation. Take a good look and you’ll be surprised at what you find.

Long hours of working nights and weekends, hiring and firing staff, training and motivating staff, dealing with salesman, taking inventory, keeping up to date on rules and regulations, health department, fire department, liquor codes, city and county codes, repairs and maintenance, taxes, insurance, food cost, labor cost, advertising and marketing, working with family, and even after we think we have ALL of these items figured out, now we have to worry about getting guests to walk through our doors and hope they LOVE us! Ahhh….The joy of being a restaurant owner.

You know what I’m talking about, we’ve all been there, long days, weeks and months away from family and friends. Sometimes after a long day of work we drive home and ask ourselves, why? Why do we put ourselves and our family through the agony of owning a restaurant?…But every once in awhile a day comes along that makes everything worth while…Now, before I continue on, let me preface everything I’m saying by stating I LOVE being a restaurant owner, however, there once was a time that loving my restaurant was furthest from the truth. I struggled like many of you do today with all or some of the items that I listed above. It took many years for me to figure out what was going to make my restaurant successful and more importantly what was going to give me passion and motivation to love what I was doing. After changing my mind set, and making a personal commitment to succeed and then developing systems and most importantly learning how to market my restaurant was the turning point in the first step of LOVING what I do.

Now back to the thought that every once in a while something happens in your restaurant that truly makes you feel proud of doing what you do and makes you understand why you are a restaurant owner. A few weeks ago one of my long time cooks who has been with us for nearly 9 years, had his oldest son apply for a busboy position. Not really knowing who the new young employee was, I observed him from afar and noticed he was a quality young man with great work ethic (just like his dad)….Two weeks later, this fine young man asked if he could speak to me personally and we set a time to speak the next day. Not knowing what the conversation would be I began to wonder if he was having issues with one of our managers or something else was really wrong.

My new employee of nearly one month met with me the next day and proceeded to shake my hand and THANK me for giving him the opportunity to work at such a wonderful establishment. He showed true appreciation and maturity for his age…He also thanked me for letting his dad work in my restaurant, stating how important my restaurant was to his family for income. He ended our conversation by saying, “I want to be just like you when I grow older, someday I to will own my own restaurant and have the passion to help other families like you have helped mine, you are a true inspiration to lots of people”! WOW, this young man helped me realize, I am not only responsible for the well being of my family, but also the well being of the 43 other employees who work for me and their families.

Sometimes as restaurant owners we forget the fact that not only are we responsible for our families, but the families of our employees as well and what your restaurant means to them. So the “Joy of being a restaurant owner” took on a whole new meaning to me late Friday night. The next time you are struggling with one of the items listed at the top of the page, take a moment and find the JOY of being a restaurant owner, and quickly dealing with that item will become much easier. Take the time to write down at least 10 reasons why you LOVE being a restaurant owner, and then everyday read them aloud to yourself and watch positive energy take hold in your restaurant.

I LOVE what I do! Do you? Email me at Ben@restaurantmasterminds.com and tell me your dreams, passions and desires about having a successful restaurant.

Ben Martinez

Restaurant Masterminds

There are times when I speak to our staff,  I feel like I’m in a Charlie Brown Cartoon. I look around the room and servers are talking to the person next to them. It feels like all they are hearing is blah, blah, blah, bah blah. I sometimes wonder if this is a waste of time. The truth is, communication is the lifeblood of your business. It’s so important, the President of the United States has a Press Secretary and anyone famous has someone who handles their communication.

The key to communication is to be concise, stay current and keep everyone in the loop. Our monthly meetings are mandatory, we have a full agenda, servers are required to sign-in, these are paid meetings and we expect you in work mode. Preparation is key, our managers spend the entire month documenting issues to discuss for our meeting, tallying up winners for our server contests and assembling short videos to stimulate the staff and make it fun.

It always amazes me when I’m in a restaurant and I ask a question and the server is completely clueless. The sad part is, it’s not even his or her fault. Management has failed, it’s our job to train and communicate with our employees. Typical restaurant communication is to tell one server and have them pass it on. We’ve all done this exercise and the results are staggering, the last person told, has a version that isn’t even remotely similar to the original message.

Today, we communicate differently, texting is the best way to get in touch with someone. Everyone has an I-phone or some sort of a phone that has their e-mail on it. We’re currently assembling an employee website, it will be pass-coded and include server schedules and current market prices for lobsters, current promotions and a hot list for servers. We are even including a forum for servers to communicate with us. I know a lot of chains utilize an employee website, it’s time we evolve and utilize technology better. The issue here is to communicate better, make sure our staff is properly outfitted with all the information they need to do their job.

Information is power, don’t employ a bunch of powerless people, arm them properly and put them to task. A well trained employee, who is completely in the loop is probably worth ten to twenty thousand dollars a year in sales. They take pride in their job and are proud of their place of employment. Lastly,  having a staff of well communicated employees will eliminate a lot of internal strife, the he said, she said, stuff will go away. Keep your staff in the loop and you’ll have a much happier staff who appreciate their job.

Dick Varano

Yes, you read that right! We just signed up member number 25,000 in our El Jardin RepeatRewards® loyalty program. Every time I work with new Independent restaurant owners across the country I always ask them one question before we start our initial coaching call, “What is your number one asset in your restaurant”? Never, as a new member, has anyone ever answered correctly.  Some responses I hear are, “my employees”, “location”,”bank account”, while others wander off and really don’t know their number one asset. I’m here to tell you all the answer! IT’S YOUR DATA BASE!

Your data base is by far your number one asset! We teach our members how to obtain guest information and most importantly, what do with it once they’ve obtained it. What happens when your data base begins to grow in the tens of thousands? How do you manage that data base?

During coaching calls and talking to prospective new members, Independent restaurant owners often ask me the size of my database, and with a grin I tell them, “I have 25,000 members in my data base.” Each time I mention that, I get the same overwhelming response, “WOW!  I wish I had that number of guests listed in my database, because if I did then running my restaurant would be easy!”

I won’t kid you, it’s great having that many members in my database, in fact it’s one heck of a number to brag about! However, the reality is, the more members you have means the more segmentation you must do…in other words, the more work you must do to manage your list. After all, does it make sense to mail 25,000 post cards to your members at a cost of over $12,000? It does if it brings you twice the amount of sales, however, I know not all 25,000 members are loyal to my restaurant, so I cleverly segment my list according to the guest and am able to create mailings that produce the most return on my investment.

It doesn’t matter if you have 25,000 members or 25 members in your database, here are a few tips that I have always practiced, and advise my members to adopt the same rules.

Scrub your lists regularly:

Scrubbing your list is simply making sure that you are keeping it as clean as possible. RepeatRewards® does this on a regular basis. They run a “Duplicate Elimination” to help find customers that may be possible duplicates of one another. They also run a “NCOA” – National Change of Address to help my database update customers who have moved, and I am able to update to their current address.

Mail First Class when you can:

Mailing first class birthday cards and post cards allows the post office to return any mail back to your place of business for guests who have moved or did not correctly register a forwarding address. Once you’ve received the return you can try and contact guest, and update their new mailing information. If you are unsuccessful contacting the guests, you can now put them on a “mail hold” and save yourself the money from future mailings.

Include mailing information on email blasts:

When sending email blasts to your guests, ask your guests to update their current mailing addresses if they moved. Again, this will save you money on future mailings, plus it will help increase your return on investment percentage.

When are your guests dining out:

RepeatRewards® sends me a list of what guests have not used their membership card during a 12 month consecutive time frame…when this happens, we mail them a “Lost customer” postcard  trying to entice them to come back and see us. This is a  three step process and if you fail to get them back to your restaurant, then place the guest on a “mail hold”, again, helping keep our list clean.

Back it up!

The wonderful computer world has provided us with the best technology to help maintain our records, exciting promotions and creating databases, but one bad computer glitch and all can be lost! Take the time to purchase an external hard drive that automatically backs up the information on your computer and date base. Just one computer virus or glitch in your system, can crumble your entire list. Take the time to BACK UP your computer!

Do you have a system in place that tracks what offers your guests respond to?

Do your managers manage your staff to make sure they are following all the guidelines to insure that proper promo codes and membership numbers are being entered correctly?  It may not matter or cost you much money when you have 100, 1000 or even 10,000 members in your database, but I guarantee that once you get in the 20,000 member mark you’ll want to make sure someone is managing your database!  Managing 25,000 members does take a little effort, but since this is my #1 asset in my restaurant, I’ll do whatever it takes to protect my database and make sure it stays squeaky clean.

Ben Martinez

Restaurant Masterminds

We are all watching our economy and wondering how it could possibly be effected by the problems with Greece or the European Union. It’s hard to imagine the impact of the world’s financial situation is directly related to our current financial crisis. How is my restaurant effected by events taking place half way around the world. The truth is, we are all connected with our new global economy. The price of the Euro effects what I pay for Italian Wine in my restaurant, or how many Europeans visit the area this summer. The Canadian exchange rate  can drastically alter my season’s sales. Thinking about this is mind boggling.

The Domino Effect is something that occurs everyday in our restaurants. We recently had a cook, who I consider a rising star in our company, have an awful night in the kitchen. The results were disastrous. When he was  a prep cook, or a dishwasher, his impact wasn’t as noticeable. As the expediter on our line, the impact is magnified and can be costly. A typical young man, working in a restaurant gets out of work late and goes out drinking with his buddies. This happens on a nightly basis, no big deal. The problem arises when he stays up till four am. drinking and has to work a double shift on a holiday weekend.

What our young cook didn’t understand, was, how many people were effected by his immature and poor decision. When the dinner rush came, he was tired and ineffective, he got in the weeds and the whole restaurant suffered. He let his entire kitchen crew down, his “friends” at work were upset with him for screwing up their night, and the servers were pissed at how long it took to get food out of the kitchen. Our manager spent her night in damage control, and finally, let’s not forget about our customers. To say we had some upset customers is an understatement.

The net effect of one poor decision by one of our cooks, was devastating. I don’t think anyone anticipated the outcome of one lousy decision. One person matters. We don’t realize the effect we have on our staff. If the owner or manager comes to work in a lousy mood, the entire staff is on eggshells. It’s like throwing gasoline on a fire, it runs rampant throughout the entire restaurant in seconds. Every employee knows you’re in “One of your moods,” the effect will mushroom out into the dining room and customers will notice that something’s off and your ambiance will be affected. This trickles all the way down to your servers and hostesses as well. Cause and effect, the results hurt.

We sat down our young cook and explained the ramifications of his poor decision. He didn’t realize just how great the impact was to the entire restaurant. To say he apologized is an understatement. I think he now realizes how intricate his role is in our company and the effect he has in our operation. Most people think of themselves as inconsequential, that they don’t matter. This is as far from the truth as possible. The key is to make sure everyone on your staff understands the ramifications of their actions and their importance to your team. Your team depends on you every shift, every day. Actions speak louder than words, lead by example and be the employee that everyone can depend on.

Ahhh…..sunshine.  What a glorious day it was late last week….until all ‘HAIL’ broke loose!

I was at my restaurant on the El Jardin Patio enjoying the beautiful sunshine and talking with some of our guests.  It was moments later when my cell phone buzzed and my son texted, “Get home, your new flowers are ruined!”…It was at that point I was SURE they used my new flower pots as hockey goals.  I spent all weekend planting these beauties.

We had the hail storm of the century at our suburban home, golf ball sized hail pounded our neighborhood, causing millions of dollars in damage. Luckily no one was hurt, except the vegetation and lots of broken glass from cars parked outside.

My wife and I had just spend the prior weekend planting over $600 in flowers throughout our yard, only to see them ALL destroyed in an instance with the hail. As bummed as we were, we thought we would just turn all our receipts into our insurance adjuster and they’ll replace the flowers for us….NO WAY…our policy does not cover any landscaping or flowers…now we’re really bummed when our agent says “no coverage for landscaping”.

Now most people would begin to feel sorry for themselves for their loss…but not me! Instead of putting my head down and sobbing to myself “why me”? I put my marketing hat on and began to think how could I turn this unfortunate situation into a positive marketing sensation?  I like to call it, “turning lemons into Margaritas“.

How can I connect with my neighbors and guests and let them know I feel their pain? It only took a few minutes and the ideas were coming from every direction. I’ve always talked to Restaurant Masterminds members about riding the coattails of the media. The media creates the story and it’s up to you to create the marketing. Live feeds from all the major news stations were broadcasting from my neighborhood, it was the lead story on every local channel. Now was the perfect time to capture my guests undivided attention. How many times has a major story broke out in your hometown? It happens at least 12-14 times per year, it’s up to you to be prepared when it happens….THINK… “create the marketing”.

One simple email blast to my guests had them coming to my restaurant in droves. The email was headlined “What the ‘hail’ happened?….my poor house!” Immediately people knew what I was talking about because it was all over the news. It was my highest open email rate EVER! I connected with my guests not at a business level, but at a human level. They felt my same pain, and wanted to share their stories with me at my restaurant. The email was “real”, I told them my story of the damage that was created by the hailstorm, earned their sympathy vote because it has either happened to them or someone they know and love. The email created a buzz in the community, and someone always feels your pain.

I kept the momentum going to include all of my neighbors and guests, offering to pay their “deductible” on their insurance (up to $10 off their food bill of $25 or more). We were packed for two straight days, it wasn’t about the $10 deductible, it was about the story, instead it was about the people. They drove out to the restaurant to share with me their story. Likewise for me, it was a great two days talking to my guests and really letting them get to know me as a person. Guests love to know AND be a part of your life.

Now I’ve done these kind of emails many times (turning lemons into Margaritas) and each time the feedback has been phenomenal. The next time something unfortunate happens to you or your restaurant, think of how you can turn it into a positive marketing idea and remember, you must be “real”, in the hospitality industry, people know when you’re it isn’t realistic, be passionate and own what you do!

Cheers,
Ben Martinez

Traveling to Chicago for the National Restaurant Show is a major undertaking. Travel arrangements must be made, along with dinner reservations and show plans. In order to maximize your trip and take full advantage of what’s available to you, it takes considerable research on your behalf to figure out what booths you definitely need to visit, and what booths you’d like to visit. If you approach the show without a plan, it could turn into an exercise in futility. The resources available to the restaurant business is endless. The key is to approach the show as a pure business proposition and not an excuse to get out of town and party.

When you register on line to an event like the National Restaurant Show, you are asked to fill in an inordinate amount of information about your company. The reason behind this, is to match you up with vendors that might be of interest to you. It will depend upon your concept and where you are located to properly pair you with vendors of interest. Be prepared to receive numerous e-mails from vendors for at least a month leading up to the show. It sounds overwhelming, the truth is, it will definitely help you figure out a game plan for the show. Just jotting down a number of vendors and where their booths are located will reduce the amount of time you have to back track and zig zag back and forth between the two buildings. Bring your walking shoes, you are walking on concrete with thin carpet rolled over it, by the end of each day, your feet will feel it.

I like to attend shows of this magnitude every couple of years, because our industry is changing so rapidly, technology advances seem like a daily event. New concepts are opening constantly and if you don’t keep abreast of what’s out there, your business can get passed right over by your guests. It’s always easy to go with status quo, ( if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. ) The reality is, if you don’t keep up with the changes and you wait to do it all at once, it might be too late. Publications and News Letters are a great way to keep up with our industry, local Food Shows are extremely helpful. Put them all together in one building and your starting to understand the magnitude of the National Show. This is the same for any industry, if you want to succeed, you have to keep up. Nothing is worse than a business that is perceived to be tired, or even worse, a has been or tired.

Several years ago, my wife and I opened our Prime Steak House, we spent seventeen months planning and researching for our Steak House. Our research included visiting Steak Houses in multiple cities across the country and attending the Boston Food Show, The National Hotel and Restaurant Show in New York, and The National Restaurant Show in Chicago. Between the three shows, we pulled hundreds and hundreds of samples, of china, silverware, glassware, menu covers etc. The key to our restaurants’ final look was that we planned and executed our entire menu beforehand and served it utilizing all our samples. This enabled us to visualize it and touch it. Items we loved at the various shows, weren’t ultimately the items we picked out for our restaurant, once we ate and drank from them.

With energy costs spiraling out of control, you need to start planning your equipment replacement, we spent an entire day looking at new technology for ice makers, dishwashers, induction burners, radiant heaters for our outdoor dining that run for twenty cents an hour. Our goal was to plan a budget over the next several years and allocate the monies needed to upgrade our restaurant and make it more affordable to run. This at least gave us an idea of what it would cost over the next few years to accomplish this and what is in the pipeline for new technology.

Finally, the classes available at the show are limitless. The speakers, the networking events, and the resources go on and on. It all depends on your specific needs in any particular year. Utilize your local Food Vendors Show annually, go to a major show like Boston, New York or and major city that’s close to you if you can. Every two or three years, do yourself a favor, go to the National Show and see it all under one roof. Imagine forty or fifty thousand restauranteurs all together at one time, what an incredible opportunity to network and gain some great insight to what’s happening all over the world. This alone makes the trip worth it. Stay ahead of your competition and get out of your restaurant and see what’s out there.

Dick Varano

Every once in awhile you come across a business that just plain “gets it’ when it comes to knowing how to successfully run and market a business. There are thousands of businesses in my hometown, but only a few really “get it” when it comes to marketing. This past weekend I had the great pleasure to come across what I like to call a business that “gets it”.

Let me give you a quick run down of how all this came to play. Every year my neighbor hangs the most beautiful hanging flower baskets from her patio, and this year I told my wife I was going to ask (via text messaging) where she buys her flowers and how much she pays for them. I texted her the question and within minutes she responded with the name of the flower shop in Arvada, CO. (Echter’s Nursery) In the text she also included the email newsletter link that they emailed to her, along with an email coupon that was included in the email (www.echters.com) . Now how’s that for marketing! The nursery not only had my neighbor on their mailing list, but she was able to forward it to me immediately. But wait, it gets better.

The very next day we went to Echter’s Nursery to see if we would find anything that we liked, plus the coupon was emailed to me which provided an immediate call to action with an offer. (Great Marketing point #1, get guests to respond immediately). Upon our arrival at the nursery, the marketing began, the parking lot was full of cars and well maintained, beautiful flowers and trees were in full bloom throughout the outside property. (Is your restaurant parking and entrance in great shape? Again, marketing starts the moment your guests arrives at your property, great marketing point #2).

Once inside the large nursery, we were greeted by an older lady asking us if we needed any help, and she pointed us in the right direction, (Marketing point #3 – Someone with a warm smile welcoming us as guests in their nursery). Do you know how many businesses, let alone restaurants, fail at welcoming their guests?

Now the fun part starts. WOW! What a selection of great looking hanging baskets, flowered pots, annuals and perennials. The aisles were wide, the flowers were all marked with exact descriptions of flowers and their “mates” in the garden. There was plenty of staff on hand to answer any questions we may have had. (Marketing point # 4 – Enough staff to provide a great shopping experience. Does your restaurant have enough staff during busy periods?)

As we walked down aisle after aisle, filling our shopping cart with beautiful flowers, we would notice, on certain flowers descriptions, large green flyers with discounted prices. The flyers stated, “For Green Card Members Only”, (Marketing point #5, member only prices) of course my curiosity quickly arose of how I can become a member so that I would receive the discounted prices…I asked one of the staff members and she quickly explained the program to me, and best of all, it was FREE, just sign up with the cashier when you exit.

Upon our departure, this is the BEST part of all, before the cashier began to ring up my purchases, she asked me if I was a member of their “Green Card” club, (marketing point #6 – Great training with employees to sell the program) in which I said “no”. At that point, she filled me in on all the details and informed me of how much I would save today if I enrolled… within 2 minutes I was now a new member of their club. The nursery now has all my personal data to continue to contact and market to me in the future (Marketing Point #7, collecting guests information). Now here’s the clincher; once I cashed out, the cashier gave me “Echter Greenbucks”, for every $20 you spend you receive $2 in greenbucks that you can now spend like real dollars, but only from July 16-31, 2010. (Marketing point #8, bounce back offer during a slow part of the year, I absolutely LOVED this part!) this promotion is just one part of what makes this nursery such a successful business.

In conclusion, to my great shopping experience, here’s the part where most small businesses fail. The Life time value of a guest! For years I purchased all of our gardening needs at a particular nursery close to my restaurant. I would spend nearly a $1,000 every year for the restaurant outdoor garden and decor, along with my personal needs. Not one time did they ever collect my personal information, send me a thank you card, offer me an incentive to come back and spend more money with them, or build a long lasting customer relationship….Basically, they took me for granted! They may not miss my $1,000 of annual spending, but if they lose 10-20 customers to Echter’s, do you think they will start to miss $10,000 – $20,000? If 100 guests moved away from them and multiply that number by a lifetime value of a guest of five years, you might say that business may end up with not much of a “fuchsia”….you get the point! I may only spend $1,000 a year with my new nursery, but I sure will be telling my neighbors, my friends, and even bigger than that, my 500 guests a day who walk through my doors about Echter’s Nursery! Do you think I’m worth more than a $1,000 a year now? ABSOLUTELY!

Tell me now, can you compare your restaurant to Echter’s Nursery? Can you compare the eight marketing points that they excelled in and does your restaurant excel in those same eight marketing points? If not, you are probably throwing away thousands of dollars in sales away from customers like me.

Finally another business that “gets it!” Is your business on my list that “gets it”?

Ben Martinez

Every small business has a sign out in front of their building, it’s how people know where they are. Most people assume that this is enough for customers to remember who they are and where they are located. The facts don’t really play out that way. If you were to focus on a particular side of the street during your next drive to work, I bet you’d see a number of businesses that you’ve never noticed before. Imagine driving to work every day for years and never even noticing a particular business. The sad reality is that this occurs every day. I can recall commenting to my wife about a new business that I noticed on my way to work one day, and her telling me the business had been there for over a year.

Branding is something the big corporations have down to a tee. It could be the Nike swoosh, or the Golden Arches, when you see these symbols, you know immediately who they are. This is accomplished through repetitiveness. You are bombarded by these symbols in magazines, TV, billboards, flyers etc. The idea is to surround you with their product. So, when you are hungry, thirsty or in need of sporting goods, you always think of these brands first. This is a tried and true process, one that is difficult for small businesses to duplicate. This is due to the limited resources and funds available to us with which to market our business.

It starts with the name of your business and your logo. Make sure your logo tells your story, who you are and what you do. Make sure your sign is as big as legally allowed and is legible to people driving by. It’s amazing to me, how many signs I see that aren’t readable. It’s key to keep your sign fresh, trim bushes that grow up around it, and replace it when necessary. Your sign is your calling card to any passerby. It doesn’t end here. You need your name multiple times throughout your business. Above your door, on the rug leading into your business, on your take-out bags, cocktail napkins, all over your wall of fame in articles and on plaques. In pictures of your restaurant, make sure the sign is included in the picture.

We can’t compete with the big Chains when it comes to branding, we don’t have the money behind us or the budgets. This is not an excuse to ignore our brand and work on building it. The difference is, it will take more time for small businesses to get their name out and have people identify their logo on a drive by. With the use of the internet, it’s a level playing field. We have the ability to have a great website with our name plastered all over it. We can use Constant Contact and have our logo in all of our business correspondence. Facebook allows us to connect to the world and showcase our brand and who we are. It’s about strategically getting your name out, it starts in your business and moves outward from there. The key is to keep building on your progress, hand out business cards every day, sell logo wear for your business, utilize give-aways with your name on it. Private label your famous sauce or marinade. Get your name in people’s homes and watch your brand become a household name.

Finally, don’t forget the media, they love local “feel good” news. Send out press releases and entice the media to use your business whenever they need a last minute story. It’s amazing how some things that you think are nothing are some one else’s news. You don’t need a big budget to get your name out there, you just need a little ingenuity and a plan. Execute your plan and make it happen.

Dick Varano