Sales off a little this week.
Sales are off to a slow start this week. Rain+snow+mud=contractors not working. Supposed to get sunny & in the mid 50's in the next few days, which means first of next week. Looks like this week could be off by about $1,500.00 or so. We'll see.........
What is this Blog???
You ever been sitting around cooking for your family and friends and been told the following: "Hoss, this is the best I've ever had in my dadgum life.....you have got to open up a place of your own". The thought crosses your mind to do just that, but for whatever reason you dont. Well I'm "that" guy that actually went through with it and did it. I had absolutely ZERO restaurant experience! I decided to start this blog about my own experience hoping that it may be of some use and help to others who might be interested in opening their own place.
I learned this craft almost 20 years ago cooking whole hogs on brick & cinder block pits at a couple of little BBQ Joints in Henderson, TN. I learned from old, lifelong career Pit-Masters, working with them as an apprentice during school off and on for four years. Over the course of that time I learned the old, time-honored craft of REAL pit barbecue. At Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint I am trying as hard as I can everyday to bring that time-honored authenticity to my customers.
As you read you'll see I've made some stupid decisions, and I've made some good decisions. If you are thinking of opening a restaurant, especially a BBQ Joint, read this blog! Maybe some of this info can be of use to you. At the very least you will be entertained because I pull no punches.
Now listen, this is my blog to not only help with information but my blog to freely rant about my day to day experiences. There is no real "bad language" on this blog but there might be some things said that are very "tongue in cheek". If you are easily offended and/or cant see the satire in my posts then please just leave the blog. It will save both of us the annoyance of each other. For those of you who do like satire and are looking for good information about this experience, then by all means enjoy!
7 comments:
Martin,
I love the blog! Just found it recently and I'm enjoying reading the old posts.
Do you do mailings to your customers? I help out a friend who has a BBQ joint here on Long Island. He has weekly emailings to customers where he gives away a free lunch to one recipient and has coupons and recipes and such.
It seems to help.
Eric Devlin
www.homeofbbq.com
eric....thx for the post. we do have a firm do that for us (sudden values). it has not worked well at all and we probably will let our contract expire. marketing is a funny/weird thing.....what works for one guy is a disaster for another. there is a guy down the road from me that loves sudden values, but it just doesnt work for me? go figure?
Can I ask why you use an outside source? He has a list of about 400 customers and I send them a weekly 'newsletter' via Outlook.
It takes about 10 minutes. Pretty easy. Even if your return rate is low on whatever metrics you are using to gauge success, it's so easy I would think it would still be worth it.
Let me know if you would like to see a copy or two or have any questions.
Eric Devlin
www.homeofbbq.com
we do plan on doing it ourselves when the contract expires. when it expires we get all of the emails they built up over time. id love to look at a copy of what you do.
Shoot me an email at saberinc@verizon.net and I'll send you a few of the most recent mailings.
I'm enjoying the blog! Let me know if you have any suggestions for mine.
Eric
What equipment do you use?
Ole Hickory EL-EW
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