Nestled between a defunct wine tasting bar (remnants of better times before the fall of the economy) and an empty building sits my favorite Chinese restaurant.
Tonight I had Peking chicken and fried rice cooked to order, served piping hot, bursting with the savory smells of the orient.
Upon beggining my feast with plastic fork in hand, I slowly craned my neck to and fro and took notice of the empty chairs around me. It was dinner time, and sadly, I was the dinner rush. The place was empty except for me, the two Chinese men who cook the food and a sixteen year old who operated the cash register.
This is the experience I normally have when dining there: delicious food, cooked fresh in a wok with nobody around. It’s as if they wait all day for me to show up to order. Each meal I eat there I think might be my last because I know they can’t go on buying fresh food, pay expensive rents and wages and stay in business.
I wonder how it is that Panda Express, just a mile away, can do loads of business, and this place is like a Chinese ghost town? Surely there is something these good people can do to turn their lackluster sales around?
I have seen the owners erect signs on the freeway overpass, sprawled on empty building with each banner growing bigger and bigger to the point that it looks like they are totally desperate.
I can’t help but to think of ways to help promote my beloved restaurant. In my little suburban neighborhood unless you are part of a well known chain (Chilis, Fridays,etc) you need to build relationships with the community to become a success.
With that in mind, here are a few suggestions I would offer to the well meaning owners:
• Go face to face around the neighborhood offering a coupon with an appetizer. The cooks should dress in their best chef garb, preferably one with a dragon on it, and introduce themselves to the neighbors.
• Participate in community events like carnivals and parades
• Go to schools and offer free kids meals for students who make their reading goals
• Go to nearby apartments and offer welcome to the neighborhood coupons
• Network with the people that come in and ask them to spread the word
As I was pondering the strategies of how to pack the restaurant full of people, I realized the similarities my ideas were to getting network marketing and MLM leads. So many people spend money on more and more advertising (bigger signs), getting more desperate as the days go by, without ever building their name in the network marketing community.
Building a good name for yourself has never been so necessary and easy (inexpensive too). It’s about attracting the right prospect to your business. You can do this by networking with fellow marketers via the social networks, learn PPC skills and create videos, write entertaining blog posts, and write informative articles just to name a few.
To that end, here is my free apitizer: The Attraction Marketers Manifesto.
Enjoy! – Rich
