If you follow the restaurant scene at all, you know that over the past two years restaurants have been closing all over Polk County, and all over the country for that matter. Quiznos, Fazoli's, Shells, Lone Star Steakhouse, Bennigan's, Steak n' Ale, Sam Seltzer's, and Road House Grill are just a few of the restaurants that we've seen extinguished by this unforgiving economic climate. The truth is that this is a tough time for restaurants and we'll see more close their doors before we pull through this recession.
The restaurant business is competitive and start-ups are prone to failure. Let me put this in perspective. I recently met with a banker to discuss my options with regard to financing a second location. Our first location was started with no debt so this was a new arena for me. The loan officer explained to me that there were two industries that bank tended to avoid when lending to small businesses: restaurants and porn. It's just plain risky business.
Over the next few years you should expect to see some major changes in your favorite eateries. We all have to change to adapt, but we will all use different strategies. Some restaurants will drop prices significantly to re-position themselves as value brands. People are strapped for cash and are looking for value. With that drop in price you should expect to see a significant drop in the quality of the ingredients or the size of the portion in your favorite menu items. Other restaurants will cut staff to run leaner. If you think it's tough to find good service now, just wait. Still some restaurants will pass on the rising cost of doing business directly to the customer. I visit Crisper's frequently to check up on the competition. A sign posted in the entry to the restaurant advertised their new menu, "Now with 20 items under $5" ... or something along those lines. I thought, "Wow. How can they manage that?" Here's how- they dropped their "Pick a Pair" option and made everything al a carte in half size portions. I bought a small salad, a half flatbread, and a small drink and spent just under $14!
Realistically, most restaurants will use a combination of these strategies and others to ensure they can stay in the game.
So what, you might ask, is Black & Brew doing to evolve with the industry? It is my belief that there is one element in building a successful restaurant that is more important than any other. That element is consistency- consistency in the quality of our products and consistency in service. I've found that if your customers can count on you to provide the same great experience every time, they will reward you with their loyalty. Our approach is simple: We work diligently to be as efficient as possible, but never at the cost of our customer's experience. We negotiate continually with our suppliers to bring down our food costs, but we refuse to cut the quality of our offering or reduce labor in order to boost the bottom line. Black & Brew is thriving, but if we have to take a hit during this tough time we will because we are stubbornly unwilling to sacrifice those guiding principles. We believe we have the best customers in the world, and we believe that's how they should be treated.
At some point we will pull out of this recession. I think you'll find that the restaurants that are left standing will be the ones that remembered that the customer is the only reason they exist.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Monday, March 2, 2009
Serving
In my last post I wrote about the importance of taking the time to evaluate what your purpose is, and continually checking yourself to make sure you're on track. Navigating through this crazy journey we call life can be a little like running home from work, with your eyes closed. Now I now there's a time and a place for burying your head in the sand and working your tail off. Sometimes that's what it takes to ensure you stay afloat. You just have to remember to open your eyes every once and while, and reorient yourself- remember why it is you do what you do.
Recently I expressed to my assistant manager, Ben Arnold, that I felt like even though we were supporting various organizations in the community through sponsorships and small donations of food or money, we weren't creating the sort of impact I had hoped for. It was a crucial part of our initial planning that our business model included efforts to enrich our community in tangible and practical ways. Three years in, and I was less than satisfied with our efforts.
We decided to take action. There are plenty of charitable organizations in our community that do a lot of good. We new that it wouldn't make sense for us to start something from scratch. We also new that it takes a lot of volunteer power to keep these organizations running. We decided to form the Black & Brew "Community Dream Team," a group of our employees that would volunteer to serve in monthly community service projects. The goal was to enrich our community and the lives our employees in the process. Ben took the ball and ran with it.
I was a little worried about the response we would get from the employees. I mean we were asking them to take time out of their busy schedules to go work somewhere else.... for free! Shame on me for underestimating their spirit. We had so many volunteers, I had to turn a few down for our first project: a Habitat for Humanity house.
Here's a video I put together from our first project:
I'm so proud of our group. We've got a couple of projects coming up in March. We'll keep you posted!
Recently I expressed to my assistant manager, Ben Arnold, that I felt like even though we were supporting various organizations in the community through sponsorships and small donations of food or money, we weren't creating the sort of impact I had hoped for. It was a crucial part of our initial planning that our business model included efforts to enrich our community in tangible and practical ways. Three years in, and I was less than satisfied with our efforts.
We decided to take action. There are plenty of charitable organizations in our community that do a lot of good. We new that it wouldn't make sense for us to start something from scratch. We also new that it takes a lot of volunteer power to keep these organizations running. We decided to form the Black & Brew "Community Dream Team," a group of our employees that would volunteer to serve in monthly community service projects. The goal was to enrich our community and the lives our employees in the process. Ben took the ball and ran with it.
I was a little worried about the response we would get from the employees. I mean we were asking them to take time out of their busy schedules to go work somewhere else.... for free! Shame on me for underestimating their spirit. We had so many volunteers, I had to turn a few down for our first project: a Habitat for Humanity house.
Here's a video I put together from our first project:
I'm so proud of our group. We've got a couple of projects coming up in March. We'll keep you posted!
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Why?
"What made you want to open a restaurant?" It's a question that I get a lot and one I never grow tired of. It forces me to answer the question "why"? In answering the question I'm reminded of what's important. I'm reminded that my business has a purpose and I'm forced to evaluate how well we've stuck to the guiding principles we laid out in those first weeks.
The truth is, I wanted to start my own business for a lot of reasons- many of them selfish. I couldn't sit in an office. I hated being told what to do. I wanted to make lots of money. I wanted to be respected and admired. Before long though, I realized that these reasons would not fuel a passion. I knew that true passion comes from purpose, and when your purpose is as shallow as money or prestige, you're bound to get burned out. I had to do some real soul searching to find out what would give me that unquenchable flame.
If you asked me at age 16 if I could see myself ever owning and managing my own restaurant, my answer would have been a resounding "no way." My very first job was at KFC, and as far as I could tell, running a restaurant was miserable work. But as I grew up some, and worked other jobs in the hospitality business, I came to realize that serving others could be very fulfilling. I began to see that there was something truly special about our sacred dining rituals that brought family, friends, and lovers together in a way that nothing else did.
A hundred people must have spouted off the statistics to me. "Eighty percent of restaurants fail within their first three years," they would say. I was too reckless to care. I liked my odds, and the challenge. In fact, the more naysayers, the better. I was 23 years old with a giant chip on my shoulder, and no one was going to tell me what I could or couldn't do. Ah, to be young and dumb. Though this approach gave me plenty of resolve, it also got me into plenty of trouble. More on that in another post.
Back to "why?" After recruiting my brother Mike as my partner in crime, and deciding that a restaurant would best suit our skill sets, we settled on a purpose that would drive us. In the end it came down to some very fundamental, but important concepts: community and relationships. We based our business model around the belief that the world we were living in was becoming increasingly impersonal and cold, and that people were created to be in fellowship with one another. It was our belief that our livelihood depended on those personal connections. Our goal was to create a place that would bring people together, a place that would allow people to slow down and re-connect to reality, and a place that could easily inject itself into the community and create a positive impact. We reasoned that our gathering place would need to be warm, un-intimidating, inviting, friendly, clean, organic and comfortable. Our goal was to create a place of enrichment for our employees and a home away from home for our customers. Ultimately, we hoped to see the community take ownership and make it their own.
Recently, I received a note from someone who had just moved to Polk County from Denver, Colorado. She described how out of place she felt in her new home, and how after a quick online search of the area, she decided to visit Black & Brew. She gave us plenty of flattering compliments, but one of them meant more to me than she'll ever know. She said "Black & Brew felt like a warm hug from an old friend." I knew at that moment that we had accomplished what we had set out to do.
This week we hit the ever important three year mark, and as I take a look back at all that we've endured, I can not begin to describe how blessed I feel to be a part of this journey. As tempting as it might be to take the credit for Black & Brew's success, the truth is that the credit belongs to the community that has embraced us and the employees (my extended family) that have worked so hard day in and day out to keep us moving forward. You are the reason we exist, and I will never lose sight of that.
Green Beans- We've come a long way and hurdled many obstacles, but we have the opportunity to make a greater impact. This is only the beginning. We're still a sack of green coffee beans- ready for roasting, grinding, brewing and enjoying! I hope you'll find hope, encouragement or maybe even some inspiration in the reflections on our journey.
The truth is, I wanted to start my own business for a lot of reasons- many of them selfish. I couldn't sit in an office. I hated being told what to do. I wanted to make lots of money. I wanted to be respected and admired. Before long though, I realized that these reasons would not fuel a passion. I knew that true passion comes from purpose, and when your purpose is as shallow as money or prestige, you're bound to get burned out. I had to do some real soul searching to find out what would give me that unquenchable flame.
If you asked me at age 16 if I could see myself ever owning and managing my own restaurant, my answer would have been a resounding "no way." My very first job was at KFC, and as far as I could tell, running a restaurant was miserable work. But as I grew up some, and worked other jobs in the hospitality business, I came to realize that serving others could be very fulfilling. I began to see that there was something truly special about our sacred dining rituals that brought family, friends, and lovers together in a way that nothing else did.
A hundred people must have spouted off the statistics to me. "Eighty percent of restaurants fail within their first three years," they would say. I was too reckless to care. I liked my odds, and the challenge. In fact, the more naysayers, the better. I was 23 years old with a giant chip on my shoulder, and no one was going to tell me what I could or couldn't do. Ah, to be young and dumb. Though this approach gave me plenty of resolve, it also got me into plenty of trouble. More on that in another post.
Back to "why?" After recruiting my brother Mike as my partner in crime, and deciding that a restaurant would best suit our skill sets, we settled on a purpose that would drive us. In the end it came down to some very fundamental, but important concepts: community and relationships. We based our business model around the belief that the world we were living in was becoming increasingly impersonal and cold, and that people were created to be in fellowship with one another. It was our belief that our livelihood depended on those personal connections. Our goal was to create a place that would bring people together, a place that would allow people to slow down and re-connect to reality, and a place that could easily inject itself into the community and create a positive impact. We reasoned that our gathering place would need to be warm, un-intimidating, inviting, friendly, clean, organic and comfortable. Our goal was to create a place of enrichment for our employees and a home away from home for our customers. Ultimately, we hoped to see the community take ownership and make it their own.
Recently, I received a note from someone who had just moved to Polk County from Denver, Colorado. She described how out of place she felt in her new home, and how after a quick online search of the area, she decided to visit Black & Brew. She gave us plenty of flattering compliments, but one of them meant more to me than she'll ever know. She said "Black & Brew felt like a warm hug from an old friend." I knew at that moment that we had accomplished what we had set out to do.
This week we hit the ever important three year mark, and as I take a look back at all that we've endured, I can not begin to describe how blessed I feel to be a part of this journey. As tempting as it might be to take the credit for Black & Brew's success, the truth is that the credit belongs to the community that has embraced us and the employees (my extended family) that have worked so hard day in and day out to keep us moving forward. You are the reason we exist, and I will never lose sight of that.
Green Beans- We've come a long way and hurdled many obstacles, but we have the opportunity to make a greater impact. This is only the beginning. We're still a sack of green coffee beans- ready for roasting, grinding, brewing and enjoying! I hope you'll find hope, encouragement or maybe even some inspiration in the reflections on our journey.
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