November 2011 Blog Posts (41)

I have

lived up, down, in the middle and on both sides of the USA, but I was raised in

the West. I’m not a farmer or rancher, but as I was growing up I had a chance

to spend some time “learning the ropes” from my relatives who…

Private Equity and Restaurants Inventory, 2011 Update

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Face it, the odds are against us.  Whether we own, manage, or work in an independent restaurant, the odds are roughly 2:1 that the business will be closed within a few years.  Drive around …of the restaurants that you see, how many have been around for 10 or more years?  Now think about those that have come and gone during that same ten years.  Like it or not, probability is that you are going to go out of business and lose a bundle of money doing it. 

On the plus side, once you get…

Everybody knows there are some restaurant patrons who move the industry’s needle more than others. Last week…

Saving cash in the kitchen can impact your bottom line in countless ways. It can free-up funding to maintain staff, increase training or improve design. Perhaps you can finally hire that social media marketing company  you’ve had your eye on.

Here a few…

To suggest that restaurants are busy is like saying college football is loud. Whether they're serving delicious food at breakneck speed or struggling with random and unexpected dilemmas, restaurants shed new light to the term-busy. The phone rings in the background, with potential customers inquiring about the hours, or calling to reserve tables. In the perfect world, this…

By now, you have realized that your restaurant or brand needs to be active on social platforms, that you need to be monitoring conversations about your brand online and that you need to be building relationships with your guests on social sites. If you didn’t know any of these aspects, or understand the importance of them, let’s have a side conversation about the importance of social media.

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Last week I presented on DeMystifying Mobile for restaurants with the awesome founder of Talent Revolution, Amanda Hite at the People Report Best Practices Conference.  I thought I’d share some of the things we presented that the audience found interesting.

In researching the current state of Mobile use in the restaurant industry I came across something really interesting.  Larger restaurant…

Here is an interesting read from the Huffington Post’s food department. The article offers up what it considers to be some of the most contentious industry…

Everybody loves a good poll, right? Allfacebook.com has posted an “engagement ranking,” and here are the top pages listed in order of interactions. Total fans are listed in…

The magazine Entrepreneur published a nice post yesterday with ways to help get new employees started in right direction. The basic gist is that it is critical to create a detailed structure for what you expect of them as soon as they are on…

Recently Wal-Mart announced a partnership with Facebook in which it would create individual pages on the social networking site for each of its 3,500+ locations…

There may be no better example for the remarkable reputation of the late Steve Jobs than the iPad. The tablet seemingly went from “Why do we need that?” to “I can’t live without it” in a matter of minutes. It further cemented the feeling in some circles that Apple and Jobs knew what the consumer needed before…

By James Keil, Sr. VP of Sales

Stop us if you've heard this one before. A new server walks into a restaurant and the following hilarity (that's sarcasm, folks) ensues...

Last year, Georgetown Bagelry added online ordering to its website. Since then, many of you have ordered your bagels online. Whether it’s to avoid the lines or to plan ahead, online ordering is a great benefit to our customers. To make it easier for you to plan ahead for big orders, we’ve added online ordering…

There’s a reason why more people give up on their diet programs or workout regimens in December than any other time of the year…the holidays.  With office parties, family gatherings, last-minute shopping and other interferences, staying true to one’s self can be a burden. 

Mark Myers, fitness services manager of Spectrum Athletic Clubs in El Segundo, offers these 5 strategies for maintaining your diet and fitness goals during the hectic holiday…

A few years ago the National Restaurant Association reported that48% of the average American household food budget is spent dining out.  That’s pretty high for an average, but some of us eat out far more than the average person, in particular those of us on the road.  Those of you who I see around the restaurant trade show circuit know what I am talking about; eating three meals a day (at least, sometimes there are happy hours and parties) either in…