For the Market Savvy People

MGuy · Post by **MGuy** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 11:37 pm

Alright you smart sexy business men and women, my girlfriend sayz she gets points with the higher ups for coming up with business ideas at her job. She works as a waitress at some local chain and they are looking for idea people who can produce ideas to generate some more income. When asked I was devoid of any ideas so now I am askin' all of you out there if you have any ideas that would breathe new life into an old restaurant chain?

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 12:00 am

Shirt-free days.

Post by **fbmf** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 12:16 am

Type of food? Atmosphere?

Game On,
fbmf

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 12:40 am

Reasons for business slowdown?

Josh_Kablack · Post by **Josh_Kablack** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 12:50 am

This is a fool's errand.

Waitress is a non-promotion position with the majority of earnings coming from tips -- "points with the higher ups" are therefore useless and her time would be more profitably spent elsewhere - I would highly recommend using it to seek a job outside of foodservice.

MGuy · Post by **MGuy** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 1:36 am

@fbmf: I don't know. Gourmet food she says. Pizza, lasagna, pastas, etc. She also says that they are trying to make it "family oriented" so no going shirtless.

@Maj: She says some bad hires and the resultant terrible service drove off a bunch of business. They've been replacing staff members as they go along trying to recover.

@josh: That's what I told her but apparently they are looking to promote from in the ranks and if she's at least good with the management she can get away with more shit.

The Vigilante · Post by **The Vigilante** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 3:07 am

MGuy wrote:@josh: That's what I told her but apparently they are looking to promote from in the ranks and if she's at least good with the management she can get away with more shit.

I'm really not sure getting promoted from waitress to assistant manager in a restaurant is really such a good deal, depending on the tips she is getting.

It's also very hard (impossible ?) to give suggestions to improve a business when we barely have any idea what the restaurant is about. You kind of have to be on site to have an idea of what's working and what is not. Also, family-oriented italian restaurant ? That market's kind of flooded, you pretty much GOT to have great food at reasonable price or have a good buzz going if you want to stay afloat.

Good luck to your girlfriend though

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 3:13 am

Okay, so if Tits-Out Tuesday is off the menu, here's a more serious idea:

Watch some Gordon Fucking Ramsay. There's actually a fair bit to learn about "winning back the good will you've* pissed away". This will include trying to get people's attention. People handing out flyers and telling parents "If you buy a meal, your kids eat free" and stuff.

For a family restaurant, you probably want big serves for relatively cheap. Depending where you're located, you can probably get plenty of fresh something cheap enough that it won't cost you much, so you can still turn a profit on decent sized serves of fresh X at not-ridiculous prices. I'm aware that neither of you two owns the place, so can't make that kind of call, but it's at least worth thinking about. You need to give your average family a reason to want to go there and try it out.

*Even though other people who are no longer there are the ones who pissed it away. In fact, that will probably help.

The Vigilante · Post by **The Vigilante** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 3:28 am

Koumei wrote:Okay, so if Tits-Out Tuesday is off the menu, here's a more serious idea:

Tits-Out Thursdays would probably work better, it being payday and all.

Josh_Kablack · Post by **Josh_Kablack** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 4:59 am

What Gordan Foulmouthed Ramsey will say in every episode:

Take a *bleeping* walk around the *bleeping* neighborhood and scope out the competition. Do something that none of them are doing.
Simplify the menu. You have too many *bleeping* items and they render your kitchen inefficient and confuse your customers
Serving frozen or canned is utter *bleep*, you gotta go fresh

He will then identify one or more problems in the management / ownership and either get a manager fired or force a least one owner to face that they are part of the problem.

From the above posts, it is abundantly clear that the hiring process is too lax and new hires are not given clear expectations nor adequate training. You say they have made new hires - but unless they have changed the way in which they decide who to hire and train them, they will repeat the same problems, and it will be the new assistant manager's job to cover for the next group of fuckups they bring onboard.

K · Post by K » Fri Oct 12, 2012 8:09 am

Yeh, GR's advice tends to boil down to "management is fucking incompetent and not making business-critical decisions like menu, staffing, processes, and business-model. Also, they are probably treating the business like their personal empire and piggy bank and are lazy fucks who expect money to just jump into their pocket."

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 7:24 pm

Josh_Kablack wrote:What Gordan Foulmouthed Ramsey will say in every episode...

You forgot the new paint/makeover part - which is surprisingly important. Doing something obvious and different with the place tells customers, "Hey. We made some changes here. Come see what they are."

The key is to go to the restaurant in customer mode. Take off the work hat and pretend to be a customer. What do people see? How's the food? Don't err in favor of the business.