Top 7 Steps For Strengthening Sales and Profits In The Restaurant Industry….Actually Applies To Most Businesses:

Top 7 Steps For Strengthen Sales and Profit In The Restaurant Industry….Actually Applies To Most Businesses:

1. Know your customer!  People coming thought the door and buying should be acknowledged with an email or card and possibly more. How do you do this?  You need to have their contact information and specifically an email address and now ideally their cell phone number.

Here is an idea on how you do that: Buy them a drink or a dessert in exchange for their information.  Here is the key: when you identify a particularly important person, the owner comes to the table, welcomes them and offers to buy their dinner in exchange for the cell phone number so they can be alerted for a very special event. Now before you say this ticket could be $200 or more I ask you how worth it is to have the cell phone number for key text messages with VIP’s and I mean people whose net worth is in 8 figures. This is huge

2. Have a plan. Your financial plan should be an annual target that can then be detailed to a weekly plan.

3. Know your numbers. Traffic and sales by time of day. Track your trends. Use this information to market to your list. Invite them to slower times using incentives.

4. Use all proven marketing tools to help grow your business. These include direct mail to targeted zip codes and ads with a “hook” in publications your target customer reads and other venues like radio, participation at key charitable events, local/regional festivals that are for your target audience, on line promotions and more.

5. Have your on line credibility in place meaning a website and social media presence

6. Use a referral marketing system. Reward people for inviting their friends and colleagues.

7. Monitor the variances from plan in all areas of your business. Nothing is excluded: payroll, food costs, utilities….the gold is in the detailed analysis of the variances.

Now You Know…Success Is In The Details.  Failure is almost always a result of not consistently following the steps that have been proven to lead to success.

Steve Pohlit

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About: Steve Pohlit CPA,MBA has been the CFO and COO of  major domestic and international companies.  Steve has extensive business ownership experience having purchased and started off line and on line businesses.  Steve offers his  business building experience to companies and entrepreneurs with business coaching and business consulting.  His  focus is on building business  profits and net asset value at above average rates.   All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.

Part 3 (Final For Now) Steve Pohlit's Response To Patsi Krakoff's (The Blog Squad) Question: Is Social Networking A Wast of Time?

In Part 1 the size of the social networking market today was introduced with specific reference to the rapid rise of Facebook in just over three years. Successful social networking includes opening the doors to your life. This seemed natural for the early adopters of social networking, but for many others today,it is not and is still not natural. I pointed out the leadership role John Reese has taken to introducing Facebook to his huge list and beginning to share parts of his previously well guarded life. John’s posture as well as others has a ripple effect on the business community.

In Part 2 I disclosed that relationships are the primary reason I feel social networking is a valuable use of time. I remind myself and share this view with you that in any relationship, you have to do your part. I accept total responsibility for those relationships that have fallen by the wayside in my life. I am not repeating those mistakes including ones developed in my world of social networking. People active on the social networking sites are giving and giving and giving more. That is real positive energy circulating. I have chosen to be with that energy flow.

In the last of this series I am opening the door to the more notable of my experiences in just three weeks of being active on Facebook. I am not holding anything back. There have been many wonderful experiences. I didn’t maintain a list and will probably remember others after this is published. These will provide you a good view of my experience in a short time. Sequentially:

1. I posted pictures of an event in Orlando and immediately a person who I have tremendous respect for messaged me and asked “Steve where is the car?” I then knew that John Reese was following certain information I was posting. The car was John’s Lamborghini. I have a picture of me and John with his car from that event. I found the picture and posted it. That brief communication reinforced for me that I wanted to make sure that everything I was posting would be viewed in a positive light by whomever decided to read it.

2. Travis Greenlee published a series of videos on growing your network on Facebook. He did a terrific job and I spent 30 minutes watching his series and taking notes. I developed an action plan tracker from those videos that I posted to the Action Plan Tracker site. I began working those action steps. Travis liked it – I am not sure that many of the 2,000 people in his network paid that close attention to his work . Welcome to the world of social networking. You can put the value out there but most people will not pay attention to it. We still live in a “give me the magic pill” society. I digress.

3. I developed the site Prosperity Tip. This is the front end for The Prosperity Now Program under development and the associated Prosperity Tool Chest which is the most powerful tool for transforming your life if that is something you want to do. That background is important because right about the time I was becoming active on Facebook I was finishing the book The Moses Code by James Twyman. There are no coincidences and one of my new friends was talking about Facebook Groups. So I thought I would look up The Moses Code group and it wasn’t formed. I formed it immediately. The next morning there were maybe 6 members with me and my daughter representing 2 out the 6. One of the other members is the author – how cool is that? You can join a group on Facebook reflecting your interests and start one of your own. I notice that there are a huge number of groups. Many are started and few are that active and stay on topic. If you start one, stick to the original purpose.

4. Authors I highly respect are in my network: Joe Vitale, Deepak Chopra, Joe Sugarman, John Assarof, James Twyman to name a few. Of course there are experts who are not on Facebook but many are. Do not hesitate to approach anyone to network with you. Sending them a note that you enjoy their work goes a long way to receiving a reply.

5. Nikhil Satija and I became Facebook friends. One day I noticed a short post from Nikhil and checked out what he was doing. That led to a unique joint venture for promoting a high ticket product. There is more information at his group Million Dollar Business on Facebook and at the page I webpage I set up to introduce people to this idea. ( Click Here ) Today we are working together on developing traffic flow and that is fun.

6. Another post led me to Bubble Ply . Now imagine the likelihood of paying attention to a name like that. Well this post from a FB friend led me to that site and all I can say is wow. I posted an article about this or should I say I demonstrated this technology in a post Titled “Nobody Is Talking About This …Is This off The Charts or What? ”

(Remember I am writing about things that have happened in just the last three weeks of being active on Facebook)

7. I learned about Twitter and can follow some of the activity of interesting people. Just this week I learned how to sync Twitter with Facebook using an application on Facebook called twittersync. Guess where I learned that? Correct a Facebook friend led me to that solution. Candidly I am sure about Twitter but I am active with it and I will likely write about Twitter at some future date.

8. My friends introduce me to games and applications that I never would have given any thought to. Realistically I decline many of those invitations. While they may be interesting, like many other people I make choices as to how I will use my time. However, several of those recommendations I am experimenting with and one of them looks to be very powerful and is in the category of “I can’t believe more people are not in a buzz about this!” What is it? See the next item on the list.

9. One of my newest friends is Michael Wolf. He is CEO of a UK based company that has developed a very fascinating application that assists people in 1.) Promoting their expertise 2.) Finding people for projects and 3.) Researching a question or issue. Currently this is a Facebook application. It appears to be very new as there are some technical challenges still being worked out. I am in touch with Michael and have given him details that may help his company work out the remaining issues. I will be writing an Action Plan Tracker on this application when the technical issues are worked out and I have more experience with it. What is interesting to me is that this application falls within the scope of another business model idea I had developed within 24 hours of Michael contacting me to be his friend. A great example of the Law of Attraction working.

10. I wrote about this in Part 2 and clearly this last item is the number one reason I am active with Facebook. I have 400+ more direct connections around the world than I had three weeks ago. I feel that I know a number of them quite well and our relationships are growing closer. This connection feels real good to me. One of the key principles I have taught in The Prosperity Now Program is that to me our main goal is being at peace. Yes we deserve all this world has to offer but I we are not at peace with who we are and what we have, all the money and what that can buy means nothing. At some point all of us leave all the stuff behind and what remains is our footprint on the soul of others.

Patsi, you are a wonderful lady and thank you for asking the question. I had no idea my answer would lead to a three part series, but I loved sharing this with everyone.

The close of this series is one that I use for my Prosperity Tip readers:

May you experience your pure potentiality and live the life of your dreams.

Steve Pohlit, Business Development Consultant and Coach
http://www.stevereports.com

Part 3 (Final For Now) Steve Pohlit’s Response To Patsi Krakoff’s (The Blog Squad) Question: Is Social Networking A Wast of Time?

In Part 1 the size of the social networking market today was introduced with specific reference to the rapid rise of Facebook in just over three years. Successful social networking includes opening the doors to your life. This seemed natural for the early adopters of social networking, but for many others today,it is not and is still not natural. I pointed out the leadership role John Reese has taken to introducing Facebook to his huge list and beginning to share parts of his previously well guarded life. John’s posture as well as others has a ripple effect on the business community.

In Part 2 I disclosed that relationships are the primary reason I feel social networking is a valuable use of time. I remind myself and share this view with you that in any relationship, you have to do your part. I accept total responsibility for those relationships that have fallen by the wayside in my life. I am not repeating those mistakes including ones developed in my world of social networking. People active on the social networking sites are giving and giving and giving more. That is real positive energy circulating. I have chosen to be with that energy flow.

In the last of this series I am opening the door to the more notable of my experiences in just three weeks of being active on Facebook. I am not holding anything back. There have been many wonderful experiences. I didn’t maintain a list and will probably remember others after this is published. These will provide you a good view of my experience in a short time. Sequentially:

1. I posted pictures of an event in Orlando and immediately a person who I have tremendous respect for messaged me and asked “Steve where is the car?” I then knew that John Reese was following certain information I was posting. The car was John’s Lamborghini. I have a picture of me and John with his car from that event. I found the picture and posted it. That brief communication reinforced for me that I wanted to make sure that everything I was posting would be viewed in a positive light by whomever decided to read it.

2. Travis Greenlee published a series of videos on growing your network on Facebook. He did a terrific job and I spent 30 minutes watching his series and taking notes. I developed an action plan tracker from those videos that I posted to the Action Plan Tracker site. I began working those action steps. Travis liked it – I am not sure that many of the 2,000 people in his network paid that close attention to his work . Welcome to the world of social networking. You can put the value out there but most people will not pay attention to it. We still live in a “give me the magic pill” society. I digress.

3. I developed the site Prosperity Tip. This is the front end for The Prosperity Now Program under development and the associated Prosperity Tool Chest which is the most powerful tool for transforming your life if that is something you want to do. That background is important because right about the time I was becoming active on Facebook I was finishing the book The Moses Code by James Twyman. There are no coincidences and one of my new friends was talking about Facebook Groups. So I thought I would look up The Moses Code group and it wasn’t formed. I formed it immediately. The next morning there were maybe 6 members with me and my daughter representing 2 out the 6. One of the other members is the author – how cool is that? You can join a group on Facebook reflecting your interests and start one of your own. I notice that there are a huge number of groups. Many are started and few are that active and stay on topic. If you start one, stick to the original purpose.

4. Authors I highly respect are in my network: Joe Vitale, Deepak Chopra, Joe Sugarman, John Assarof, James Twyman to name a few. Of course there are experts who are not on Facebook but many are. Do not hesitate to approach anyone to network with you. Sending them a note that you enjoy their work goes a long way to receiving a reply.

5. Nikhil Satija and I became Facebook friends. One day I noticed a short post from Nikhil and checked out what he was doing. That led to a unique joint venture for promoting a high ticket product. There is more information at his group Million Dollar Business on Facebook and at the page I webpage I set up to introduce people to this idea. ( Click Here ) Today we are working together on developing traffic flow and that is fun.

6. Another post led me to Bubble Ply . Now imagine the likelihood of paying attention to a name like that. Well this post from a FB friend led me to that site and all I can say is wow. I posted an article about this or should I say I demonstrated this technology in a post Titled “Nobody Is Talking About This …Is This off The Charts or What? ”

(Remember I am writing about things that have happened in just the last three weeks of being active on Facebook)

7. I learned about Twitter and can follow some of the activity of interesting people. Just this week I learned how to sync Twitter with Facebook using an application on Facebook called twittersync. Guess where I learned that? Correct a Facebook friend led me to that solution. Candidly I am sure about Twitter but I am active with it and I will likely write about Twitter at some future date.

8. My friends introduce me to games and applications that I never would have given any thought to. Realistically I decline many of those invitations. While they may be interesting, like many other people I make choices as to how I will use my time. However, several of those recommendations I am experimenting with and one of them looks to be very powerful and is in the category of “I can’t believe more people are not in a buzz about this!” What is it? See the next item on the list.

9. One of my newest friends is Michael Wolf. He is CEO of a UK based company that has developed a very fascinating application that assists people in 1.) Promoting their expertise 2.) Finding people for projects and 3.) Researching a question or issue. Currently this is a Facebook application. It appears to be very new as there are some technical challenges still being worked out. I am in touch with Michael and have given him details that may help his company work out the remaining issues. I will be writing an Action Plan Tracker on this application when the technical issues are worked out and I have more experience with it. What is interesting to me is that this application falls within the scope of another business model idea I had developed within 24 hours of Michael contacting me to be his friend. A great example of the Law of Attraction working.

10. I wrote about this in Part 2 and clearly this last item is the number one reason I am active with Facebook. I have 400+ more direct connections around the world than I had three weeks ago. I feel that I know a number of them quite well and our relationships are growing closer. This connection feels real good to me. One of the key principles I have taught in The Prosperity Now Program is that to me our main goal is being at peace. Yes we deserve all this world has to offer but I we are not at peace with who we are and what we have, all the money and what that can buy means nothing. At some point all of us leave all the stuff behind and what remains is our footprint on the soul of others.

Patsi, you are a wonderful lady and thank you for asking the question. I had no idea my answer would lead to a three part series, but I loved sharing this with everyone.

The close of this series is one that I use for my Prosperity Tip readers:

May you experience your pure potentiality and live the life of your dreams.

Steve Pohlit, Business Development Consultant and Coach
http://www.stevereports.com