After publishing my last newsletter, I got two kind messages from my readers.
If you enjoy a creator’s content, please let them know and tell others about it.
It’s free. It’s quick. And it lets them know their work matters and makes things better.
In this tough economy, I’ve found a hack to eating out.
Tell me if you try this, and if it’s successful, okay?
Just don’t do it at any of my stores.
Okay, no more jokes (for at least 2 minutes). Let’s go.
Few reminders on hiring
• Always be hiring. Don’t be delusional, in denial, and over-confident. Get ahead of natural turnover. Keep finding future leaders to replace those who aren't a fit, and work alongside other high-performers.
Build your roof when it’s still sunny out.
• Hire slow, fire fast. This goes hand-in-hand with the above.
Don't hire someone because you're short-staffed and desperate; hire because they are the right ones, and will attract the sales to pay for them.
• People don't leave their jobs; they leave their bosses. They also follow good leaders into new jobs.
• People want to work with a company that appreciates them, gives them the tools for success, and continually gives them opportunities to get better and grow.
This week is slow.
Our sales this week dropped by about $1,000 a day.
Whereas our sales were normalizing at $5K-$6K each weekday, it was now hovering around $4K-$5K a day.
And where Fridays are usually met with $8K-$9K in sales, it dropped down to about $7,500.
The slow week hurt our labor, too (but you’ll see above that we recalibrated and are thankful for a busier Friday)
It scared me and made me depressed.
Ask my family - I was not a fun person to be around all week.
But this week, I went to our family’s favorite Korean BBQ restaurant - Mo Ran Gak - which is always met with 45-75 minute wait times…
And there was no wait.
In fact, it was never full for the duration of our dinner - which was odd.
I also asked a few restaurant owners in a group chat I’m in, and they expressed the same.
Although I don’t wish low sales on anyone, being in this together was kind of comforting.
We won’t just sit there and take it for long, though. We’re recalibrating labor (we’re still good at 18%, though) and putting together a few marketing strategies to bring folks back into the store.
April sales
Okay - I need to feel better, so let’s backpedal and find how we did in April.
Whew!
Here’s the count:
February = $160K (but it was a short month, February is usually slow for the restaurant business, we opened on the 7th so we don’t even have a complete month, and we gave away so much free food via the BOGO - it’s not normal).
March = $222K (it was a longer month)
April = $211K.
I’m hoping Mothers Day, warmer months, increasing third-party delivery, marketing initiatives, increased Yelp reviews, and natural growth will be our tailwinds.
Our neighbor franchisee saved me AGAIN
I took that opportunity to write about it, here.
Have a great weekend, All! Tell me what you think about this issue, and if you have any questions!