December 2011 Blog Posts (50)

1) Thou shalt invest more heavily in online marketing than traditional media (print, radio and TV).

This is like renting vs buying your building. What will you have to show for your investment long term? What happens after a radio ad or a newspaper ad runs? What…

One obvious, popular, and overwhelmingly effective marketing/operational technique that we've seen blossom over the past few years is simply putting a face/name to the business. Does this mean hiring a celebrity chef or entrepreneur to represent your company? I dont think so... I think it means giving the customers someone to connect with a deeper level than just the server (although the server may be doing an excellent job of being that face).

I personally really enjoy seeing the…

In our original blog titled “Google Analytics: Analyzing Mobile Website Performance”, we reviewed a number of reporting metrics provided by Google and possible interpretations of the data. In addition, we discussed best practices for setting up a Google Analytics account for your main and mobile websites. In this most recent blog, we will take a look back at mobile website…

so this is my first post here. i just had  a delicious set of PEI mussels in a coconut curry with a set of toast points. mmmm...DELICIOUS!!! good food is defineately one of the perks to working in a fine dining restaurant! oh and i want to give a shout out to the wine i first sell in love with. thanks to my friend angela, i was forced (the typical non-wine drinker used to crappy 2 buck chuck (aka boones farm lol) and so did not like wine) try a 1999 bernardus marinus. It was truley…

Marie Miller-Rodriguez's day starts at 6 a.m. and stays fast-paced all day.  As the social Media Specialist for Phoenix-area's The Melting Pot restaurants, her day is the same every day, but different, too. 

With its headquarters in Florida and three restaurants in the Phoenix area, Miller-Rodriguez’s day is packed. “You have to go where the technology is - go…

Everyone has a system of values that they live by — and in business, those values come into play just as they do in everyday life. Constant decisions define each individual, as well as how a company is seen by the world. Principles, ideals and ethics guide and shape priorities and reactions.

For me, the values I choose to run my business by also serve as markers that show the progress we achieve. They are beacons guiding us in the right direction, leading us to provide the type of…

Restaurant Owners’ New Year’s Resolution

1. 1.   Every day in 2012, make one small improvement
2. 2.   Every day, keep a focus on doing the right thing – right thing for the customer, the enterprise, the employee  
3. 3.   Commit to securing one new customer each week – a customer that will come back regularly
4. 4.   Ask for staff feedback on improving plate…

Lisa Jennings at NRN posted last week on trends in 2012 and I swear, it looked like she'd been reading from our playbook and been briefed on our product roadmap.

Here are the highlights from her…

It’s almost Christmas.  For restaurant owners in many parts of North America, this means that next week there might be a few good days, then for the next three to four months, there will be gloom.  There will be too many bills and not enough customers.  You’re getting bummed-out just thinking about it. 

This discouragement …it’s part of the ballgame.  It happens.  At this time of year, it’s especially…

We wanted to make sure everybody was aware of recent updates Facebook has made to its hub for analysis. Page Insights, which helps Facebook users to track information…

Guest Post by Chuck Deibel, Senior Partner at BEVINCO 

Often Bar operators will calculate what their costs should be by dividing their purchases by their sales. This is a flawed method. This paper provides the actual…

On route to Kauai last week I spent the majority of my flight reading the best selling novel "E-Myth Revisited" by Michael Gerber. The way the book was presented was unique & captivating and sprouted some very interesting thoughts about franchising from an independent operators point of view. I am not an operator, anymore, but I do work as an advisor for many of them now and I feel like Mr. Gerber…

‘Twas three nights before Christmas, a time to prepare

For the mad rush of diners -- a hope we all share

We’ve menus all hung by the entry with care

In hopes that…

It's good to keep track of what is created over time with hard work, passion and dedication. We at FohBoh have always advocated for the restaurant industry, working hard to deliver on our promise and this will only continue as we move in to 2012.

The FohBoh Milestone Timeline: 2007-2011…

We wish you all a happy holiday season.  This year, we had a fantastic staff event in our own community.  Hope you enjoy the video.

Luckily, it’s a busy time of the year for many restaurants.  Trying to keep up with increased demand may have created an operational squeeze on your time.  Now here you are--in the midst of the holidays-- to find that you didn’t get to all of the marketing tasks you intended.  It is a little late in the game but there is still time for a few efforts that are pretty easy to tackle and inexpensive as well.

Gift Cards

Stay in the mind of your customers and shoppers…

You are so much fun to be around.  You know how to host and how to serve; how to cook and how to present. Everyone hits you up for recipes and tips from table settings to the length of oven time their holiday roast requires for perfect medium rare.

What non-hospitality folks don’t understand is how hard it is to work around food all day long!

We asked hospitality professionals around the country what habits to make or break in order to stay healthy and we received a ton of…