Thread: Help Me Save Parents' Restaurant - Opened, ZERO Customers

a little more info would help.

location of restaurant, type of restaurant, changes they made since the bought........

also if it is a franchise or not

Your parents done goofed. It's OK, people make mistakes.

No matter how you stack it, they're going to have to spend huge money on marketing. Restaurants are absolutely not Fastlane businesses and with those margins, scale is impossible. They are travelling a one-lane road to nowhere.

I'm not going to say that they can't make an income out of it. They might be able to salvage it, but with those numbers and with ZERO customers on opening day... eurgh. The situation doesn't look good. I'd say jump ship, but that's just me.

Good luck to you and your parents.

Okay

It's a small restaurant (about 33 seats), Asian fine dining. Located in an upscale neighbourhood in Paris, area around is pretty much filled with restaurants and their restaurant is on a side which is not very crowded - people usually come from the other side of the area so they stop by the other restaurants. Close to a subway station though (1 minute walk), but the walk is uphill so there's not that much "traffic" from what I've seen.

They spent more than 150k as far as I know to remodel it (paid one company, who ditched them so they had to hire another company to finish the job - obviously the second company charged as much as it could. All the while restaurant was closed, so that's opportunity cost)

I know they fucked up, that's why I need help on how to bring customers to salvage it

Originally Posted by Graves

Okay

It's a small restaurant (about 33 seats), Asian fine dining. Located in an upscale neighbourhood in Paris, area around is pretty much filled with restaurants and their restaurant is on a side which is not very crowded - people usually come from the other side of the area so they stop by the other restaurants. Close to a subway station though (1 minute walk).

They spent more than 150k as far as I know to remodel it (paid one company, who ditched them so they had to hire another company to finish the job - obviously the second company charged as much as it could. All the while restaurant was closed, so that's opportunity cost)

Asian fine dining? That's really odd that there were zero customers. But I guess Paris is different from NYC. In Manhattan, even though there's an Asian restaurant on every corner, when a new one opens up there are always people wanting to try it.

I think they probably messed up on the location.

ouch. sorry, do not know paris, asian fine dining or paris

good luck to your parents. marketing the reopening is your best bet.

Where in Paris? Is it a touristy area or more neighborhood like Suresnes? Located near La Defense? There may be an opportunity to target oil companies and their business associates on trips. Total, Saipem, Acergy, they're all there. If the restaurant is located somewhere convenient to taking clients to dinner I'd be happy to pass to word to some of my clients that live and work there.

How can you leverage the traffic from the subway station?

There are a million ways to make this work. Some easy, some not so easy. Some expensive, some not expensive.

Maybe signage is bad, maybe no one knows you are there, etc..

Here are just some cheap if not free, easy thoughts off my head.

1. Create a sample something and some flyers and go to every business in the immediate area and let them try the sample and say hey we just opened and if you get a chance could you please come down and try us out.

2. Get on the phone, Find a Charity, Ask them if you could have a charity week for them, anyone who comes in that week with a flyer from the charity, 25% goes to the charity. Ask if they will send out to their givers list for you, to get the word out.

3. Call the local news station and see if you can get on with your amazing food on a local morning show. Tell them you have a special something that their viewers would be interested in.

4. Go to your bank and say hey we bank here our account is at zero.. If you could tell the staff that we are open, going, and absolutely amazing. Then our account won't be at zero anymore. Explain how that is a win win for both of you.

5. If the charities say no to the week deal, ask if any golf outings are coming up and ask if you can give a $100 Gift card for the closest to the hole, or hole in one. etc. if not, ask if they have any auctions coming up, etc..

6. Pray.. that your biz catches on.

7. Run 3 miles in the morning.. won't help business but will give you time to think and not stress so much during the day.

8. Hook up with a local car dealer and tell them on their TV commercials if they can give away a free dinner to your restaurant for the first 20 people buying cars. Even though this will cost you money. Being on TV is the thing.. Try to have them film the commercial at your restaurant.

9. Jazzercise - I am really pulling straws at this point.

10. Call up the 100 biggest business men and politicians in town and say hey, we just opened I am trying to drum up some business will you come down and give us a try. Most will say yes. Why not.

If I had more than 5 minutes I could probably come up with more.

Buy some business cards.

I would go to Vistaprint.fr, have them make 250 free regular business cards and then 250 free cards with advertising on it. Just put like "Bring this card in for 10% off of your first meal!" and put your location's address on it. I don't even try to make it look like a business card, since I don't have to.

I've done this like 3 times now, so I know that it works. You just have to create a new account each time. Vistaprint doesn't care because they still break even after shipping. That would probably cost you like 10 euros for shipping and the cards are free.

Then I would go to the entrance of the subway station and I would hand them out to people exiting the station and point them towards your restaurant. It might not be the most effective way, but for 10 euros and an hour's worth of your time (if that), I think it would be worth it.

The big question is... is the food any good? If the food is good, they can get traction, but if the food sucks all the customers you bring in will be one time customers and that will ultimately fail.

-Are you near a c_sino? If so, then head out to the c_sino. Target the b_ccarat tables. Also focus on r_ulette, p_ker, p_w gai (can't spell it) and some of the other asian games.

-Again, if you are by a c_sino then try to strike up a partnership with the c_sino.

-Are you by hotels? Get your menus in the hotels. This type of restaurant may attract business people who are on trips.

-Are you by an airport or sub-way? Can you get adspace that directs people to the restaurant.

-Can't you use 4 square and other social network applications? Give away coupons?

-Read "Start With Why" - also target white people.

-The high-end Asian restaurant by me runs promotions for things like "The Year of the Dragon" - not even sure what that is.

-Worse comes to worse turn it into a Ninja themed restaurant. There is a Ninja place up in NY. They throw things at you as you walk in and they have guys jumping from the ceiling. Crazy


Goodluck I hope that everything works out for your parents!

The c@sino idea is brilliant. Target hotels, too, if you can.

Originally Posted by The-J

The c@sino idea is brilliant. Target hotels, too, if you can.

Just for conversation, why do you think the C@sino idea is Brilliant?


Personally I think both the hotel and c_sino Idea are horrible. No Disrespect to the poster..

In the restaurant biz, the money is made by the regulars. if you have great food and you want to grow a business.

If you are mucking around for the tourist trade, then you always have to keep advertising, keep promoting, keep running specials. Always.

This is a 33 seat place. If the food is great, should not be to hard to pack the place everyday.

BTW: Do not offer any discount. Ever.. Only as a last of the last resort. AT 33 seats.. no need to.

Personally I think both the hotel and c_sino Idea are horrible. No Disrespect to the poster..

none taken. Although the c@asinos often provide 'regulars'. The majority of b@ccarat players are Asian, and few are tourists. Just an idea, I don't know a thing abut the restaurant business, or how to promote it.

However, if it were my business - I would look to get profitable fast and work on the brand as the profits roll in. It's a business. No time for bullshitting around.

I am not an expert but like biophase said it is very very very important that the restaurant has GREAT food and also maybe some kind of remarkable branding like johnp said. All the marketing in the word will be kinda worthless of your customers won't be coming back and talking about your restaurant with friends! Getting mouth to mouth promotion is the KEY!

I would also read all the books about local marketing you can find if you have the time!

edit: I also want to add that networking could help a lot in the long run. Nothing to important right now but if you parents will start networking and making a lot of contacts in paris it should be also worth a lot imo.

look at your restaurant as a profit center, NOT 33 dine-in seats. Offer corporate lunches, catering for parties etc....You will grab some of those customers as regular dine-ins as well. Get out and promote for all types of functions. Make an easy ordering app for lunches for offices etc...good old paper order form over the fax machine still works well for offices. Workers pass it around and recruit others for a group order. You could easily get one day a week rotation in most offices. or have them put in an order ahead of time for take-out for on the way home. Don't limit yourself to drawing 33 butts in your seats only.

Originally Posted by biophase

is the food any good?

Probably the most important question in the entire thread and it took multiple posts for someone to finally say it.

The best marketing is a great product.

Think about it...

For those of you here who read my book ... how many read it because of my marketing ability? You found it via a paid advertisement? Or, did you find it by word-of-mouth? Or a positive review posted on Amazon or some other source? Or because you read a "free sample" and liked what you read?

These are product oriented approaches.

While marketing is required, the ultimate driver of success needs to be the product as it holds the key to creating and building momentum.

If the food is no good, you're essentially sailing on leaky boat that is taking on water and trying to drain it with an 8 oz cup.