Business Survival

Good food and good service are important, but that's FAR from a complete picture of what you'd need. Restaurant success depends on so many variables. That's why food & beverage establishments have high failure rates.

Some other things you'll need (and this is still an oversimplification):

--> Location, location, location (cliché, but true)

--> A simplified menu, allowing for a variety of dishes from few ingredients. (This will help you manage costs and keep your prices down.)

--> Consumer friendly interior and menu design. (The natural flow of traffic within the premises, and the ability to quickly scan a menu need to be accommodated, or the experience will create confusion and drive customers away. This is *not* the same as good or bad service.)

--> Differentiation. (If your restaurant is just the same as everyone's else's, it's only a matter of time before your customer base erodes. You must be different, and reaffirm that difference with your consumers, or you'll fall out of top-of-mind recall, and then you'll really be on thin ice.)

Again, a "comprehensive" list of what restaurant needs to survive would have to be much longer, but these are some points to consider at least.

2008-08-26 22:14:37 by Nazirah

Councilman Robert Jackson organizes rally @ City Hall to pass new law the Crisis New York Citys Small Businesses face by at a public hearing on ...

the year is the most critical year for business survival

what are you asking? please re-post and maybe someone can help you.

2009-04-28 08:48:38 by marions

Why are we bailing out the losers? It obviously isn't working and it going to kill this country.

We aren't giving money to unions, we are giving it to employers, and to financial institutions so they won't hurt the people who trusted them.
The 'losers' are some of the biggest companies, who obviously used little business sense and who should be firing their leaders instead of giving them bonuses with our money.
Since the are Republicans in the main, who loved the lack of oversight under Bush, and are still, unbelievably angry at the idea of accountability demanded by Obama, and want the government to 'get out of the way', when they have already proved that they can't be trusted any more than a junkie who needs a fix is really insulting.
Next time around we need to look at near monopolies like AIG.
Maybe we shouldn't let any one firm become too big to let fail.

2009-03-03 06:12:38 by Pale Rider

Price: $6.99 $4.00

Includes a heavy-duty nylon sheath. Stretched 9 7/8" long.
military style handle is impact resistant and equipped with removable butt cap.
Includes Compass in Cap

If the food sucks and the customer can't get anyone to refill their drink, odds are they won't be back and will spread the word.

2008-09-01 17:44:42 by hesham2307

You’re the owner of a cab company, the market leader for the region. You’ve been in business for 20 years, longer than any of your 3 competitors. Fare prices are relatively standard, so you differentiate and compete on quality. You spend a good portion of your budget on advertising, so you’re well known for having the youngest, cleanest, largest fleet in the region with friendly drivers and consistently quick pickups and drop-offs. Your passengers are well-satisfied and loyal. Your company's service is loved by the city and its socialites.

A competitor has suddenly moved into your territory in the past 2 weeks. He’s operating a fleet as large as yours but of substantially more fuel-efficient vehicles, allowing him to compete heavily on price, which is radically below yours and consequently shrivels his profit margin to just above 0% (i.e. he's making almost no money doing this now in hopes of building the dominant, committed client base of the region, after which he'll increase prices gradually to avoid public outcry--profits to become healthy after 10 years).

These “green” vehicles are in extremely short supply on the streets and on the lots, in fact, all customers are currently on a 6 month waiting list, nation-wide.

You have failed to foresee changes in industry technology. You’re already losing market share, and your accountant tells you you’ll be out of business in 6 months if you do not act.

What is your strategic plan of action?

*indicate your assumptions, if any (i.e. details I haven't provided necessary for your strategy, etc.)
R: This is not homework--I'm a grown man interested in each gender's choice of survival moves. If you spent more time in GWS you'd realize who I am.
CA: so basically your first instincts are to 1) lose ownership stake by selling junk bonds just to possibly stay afloat and 2) downsize and increase the hours of or decrease the pay of your drivers (which are probably your biggest if not only intangible).
JMC: what are the effects of your purchasing the company? In other words, what good does it do now AND later?
All: I can see this is gonna be a popular Q b/c it requires a brain, but I got the idea from a female friend who had considerably different instincts than me about what to do in this scenario.
am1432: that's first one's an interesting strategy--might work for a while, but would take a lot of work.

Second one is prolly a dud--they'd just come over the top with their hardball and advertise that you're severely polluting the environment, etc. etc.

Third one--nah, I don't think so. When have the advantaged and aggressive ever wanted to be merciful to the obsolete and dying (except for Microsoft with Apple, which was possibly just so MS could avoid another anti-trust scandal)?
charitar: at 20 years in the biz, you might as well retire if you're planning on making 0% profit for the next 10 years--not a small loss. And what about the social lives of your 5 kids in college--think of what a drag "the best years of their lives" will be without daddy's money.

I'm not sure any losses are deferrable, but ultimately it doesn't matter b/c you're profusely bleeding cash revenue, which is more important.

Wouldn't you be better off just selling you're own biz, walking away, and saying "f*ck it" than to go down in flames by escalating the financial commitment to your dying company?
Layla: I dunno--sounds kinda "status quo"
Harley: I'm getting a little suspicious of your answer. I think it's "your" use of
1) complex sentence structure
2) dashes
3) semi-colons
4) "likely"
5) parentheses
6) quotations
7) enumeration (?)

...yes, I definitely think some funny stuffs is going on here....

First, I’d hire a PI to investigate the owner(s) looking for dirty little secrets from the past or present I can use as blackmail for either a substantial partnership in the new cab company or a “get the hell outta town” ultimatum; probably the latter since the new cab company has already established ultra-low prices and wouldn’t really have consumer appeal (other than “green”) once prices were raised to normal profit level. <-- omg all one sentence ;D

Next, if the PI report came back clean, I’d still use its info to find out my competitor’s pressure points and squeeze—perhaps talk to my socialite buddy at the bank and have him arbitrarily increase the interest rate on any loans he has, falsely repo his cabs as “all one big funny mix-up in the paperwork,” or falsely deposit funds which he didn’t make monthly tax payments on and soon come the auditors hot on that trail. <-- omg another, I'm on a roll :D

Next, I’d trade a favor for a favor and have some of my socialite cronies give him hell with a bunch of bureaucratic small business red tape, which likely would’ve happened before he formed his little business—always good to keep an ear to the ground. But on the fly and after the fact, a nice few hundred city boots on his cabs work nicely, perhaps a few impounds for multiple infractions. Maybe shut down his power for “delayed payment,” if the cars charge electrically.

Next, I’d hire a tech guru to intermittently scramble, interfere, or intercept with his dispatch equipment, so 1) his drivers won’t receive dispatch info, 2) his drivers will receive misinformation from our “dispatcher”, 3) many of the calls from patrons are never received by his dispatch or 4) his calls are redirected to our dispatch system and when we arrive the customer will eventually tire of waiting on the “green” cab no-show and agree to pay our prices.

I might try vandalizing or destroying his car inventory either by 1) hiring professional wreckers, 2) telling my drivers their livelihoods are being threatened by “that man” hoping one or more of them will over-react and do some “harm” to the owner(s), or 3) sneaking a bunch of my drivers into his company as drivers (plants/sleepers) just for the purpose of wrecking his cars, which if it happens enough with enough passengers, he’s faced with innumerable lawsuits, ultra-high insurance rates, and a bad reputation for hiring unsafe drivers.

I rock. Look at all this :D

2009-07-13 13:01:02 by Savvy Bulge