The articles I have included in the past several Comp Editions have related to how to make yourself more resistent to ups and downs in the economy. That seemed to be the concern of the moment.

Of course, this also presented an opportunity to tell you about the upcoming March Madness event in case you want to take more positive action to protect your sales volume ... but I think the the information in the article is valuable in and of itself.

I apologize if this lends a more commercial flavor than usual to the EHC, but the recession is too real a real threat to ignore.

 

Have you seen your sales start to slide? Are your guests spending less than they used to? OK, so things are getting tight. So what? Is the economy running your business?

All it means is that you can't do business today the same way you did a year ago ... or five years ago ... or ten years ago ... but you can't be successful by doing that anyway. You just have to adjust to a new reality and formulate a plan to prosper in tougher times.

There are still people out there and they are still eating. There may not be as many of them and they may not be spending as much ... the question is are they eating with you? Granted, there may not be enough business to keep everyone's sales up, but you only need to worry about capturing enough business to keep your own sales up.

If you allow sales to drop, morale will suffer and you will start losing your best people. The feeling on the job will become more depressing and the downward spiral will continue. As your guests sense that something is wrong, they will get uncomfortable and take their business elsewhere.

When sales are slow, most operators, large and small, will immediately cut spending ... and one of the first line items to get the axe is usually advertising and promotion. They figure they will wait until things turn around, then spend the money to get their message out. (Be happy you aren't in the business of selling advertising!)

This head-in-the-sand mentality means that there are a lot fewer marketing messages out there to compete with. When everyone else pulls in their horns, that is precisely the time to increase your promotional budgets and exploit the vaccuum. The chances of your message getting through to your target market improve exponentially.

The second item that most operators will cut is training, so this is the time when you must invest in your staff and intensify your training activities. Teach the staff salesmanship and "people skills." Show them how to turn a casual diner into a raving fan. Give them the latitude to make memories. While you are at it, invest in improving the coaching skills of your managers and supervisors.

Do you think its an accident that empty restaurants have lousy service? Slow times are when you most need to assure that every guest has a marvelous time and leaves saying wonderful things about you. [Positive] word-of-mouth is the best advertising, but there's no word-of-mouth without something to talk about. Make it happen.

On March 9-10, Joel Cohen and I will coach 56 savvy independent operators on how to effectively promote themselves, generate positive word-of-mouth and generally make themselves recession-proof. Will you be one of them? Click here to find out more ... or go to www.MarchMarketingMadness.com.

Yes, there's likely to be a recession for some operators ... but you don't have to participate. In fact, with a little coaching you could be on the brink of the most productive sales-building period of your life.

PS #1: We have structured this event so you can try before you buy. Find out how.

PS #2: Our discounted room block expires this weekend. Act now and sleep cheap!

PS#3: Next week I will tell you the secret of keeping your guests loyal to you regardless of the economy or the competition.

 

Here is the weekly report on my personal project to lighten up:

Goal: -50  Last Week: -2  Total: -25

A number of folks have joined me in this audacious venture. I applaud their courage in "going public." Do you have a goal regarding your weight? Do you have the courage to put yourself on record? We all seem to get better results when we are held accountable.

Mary Jo Beniger -- Goal: -25  Last Week: +.5  Total: -13
Tom Combs -- Goal: -65  Last Week: -3  Total: -20
Trice Micheals -- Goal: -50   Last Week: +2  Total: -11
Steve Ulrey --  Goal: -12  Last Week: -4  Total: -3
Bill Breslo -- Goal: +5   Last Week: ?  To Date: +3.5 (no report)

If you are interested in how it's going for us, scroll down to the bottom of the EHC each week and check out the progress. If you could care less, don't!