I have been working with a small market and restaurant recently and I'm excited about the progress we are making through all the Covid craziness. Yes, they were closed except for curbside for a few weeks- which set them back a bit. But, they have come back with a vengeance!
The company has been in business only 3 years, so it was time for them to take a step back and look at what processes were in place, and where processes were lacking. As business owners, its important to re-think what we are doing if we aren't getting the results we want. (shoot, just as people we should do this!) They found that they needed more structure and standard operating procedures. So we got to work creating and implementing them. Remember to implement - follow up to ensure the new procedures are being put into practice, and see how they are working. Tweak what you need to. There is always room for improvement.
We looked at their marketing plan. Often, companies will stop marketing when profits are thin, but that is exactly when you need to market! Be smart with your marketing and advertising dollars and fill in with social media. This company didn't send out a newsletter, so we created an e-newsletter and started sending it out to restaurant patrons and folks who had placed on-line orders for the market. We have an open rate of more than 30% on every one! That is pretty great.
We are using the e-newsletter to engage our customers and inform them of coming events, sales and new products. We also offer incentives or discounts just to these folks. This gives them a reason to WANT to open those newsletters. Our customers are now helping us to get new customers through some of the promotions we are running. Its a very fun thing to watch grow!
We also took a look at scheduling, amount of inventory they carry and other ways to cut costs. Efficiency was our focus. We wanted to maintain the quality service the company was used to offering, so we were very careful with how we scheduled. We changed in times so we have the majority of crew on during the busy times, and fewer on when it is slow, instead of having everyone come in at the same time.
Watching inventory and setting pars according to lead times has also been an important change. Instead of carrying several weeks of product, we carry what we anticipate we will need until the next order can arrive. Why keep all that money on the shelf? It can do much more good elsewhere.
We have been watching the numbers and are happy to see we are quickly catching up to pre-covid revenues. The company hopes to actually exceed last year, and I think they can!
It is important to take the time to stop, take a deep breath and look at your business with new eyes. Imagine you are an outsider, and look at your processes. Are there places that could use a little tweaking? A lot of tweaking?
I know it sounds a bit painful, but it is worth it. And I'm here to help if you like!
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