What can we do to boost our familys restaurant business? -

We ve owned a family diner and lounge business in a small town for 11 years, and recently business has been way down.There s a very similar restaurant directly across the street, but that hasn t been a problem before and right now their business is booming and ours is dead.A Subway opened a few weeks ago, which was a big deal but it hasn t been incredibly busy. There s also a Chinese restaurant, Burger Baron, and gas station diner, but none of that has affected our business before.What could we possibly do to gain customers? We ve tried specials and senior-sized portions of everything since the town has a lot of seniors in it.

Make sure your spoons aren t greasy.

Visit your most successful competitors and see what they may be doing better or different than you that attracts the people who go there. Or, ask some of their customers why they go there. Look for obvious differences between the different choices in your town. If Subway is killing you, find a few $5.00 options for the customers so they have a decision to make about where to go with their $5.00 lunch money. After you find out what the people like about the competition make some changes to your business which will attract those customers to your place. Then try to do it even a little better.Good luck.

The current economic conditions can be a major reason as to why a lot of people are not choosing to spend money outside. As for the restaurant across the street, maybe they have better prices? more variety of dishes?Maybe try asking your customers, what dishes they liked and didn t like.Hope this helps, Good luck with your restaurant.

Try a couple of promotions-- like a free appetizer or desert on a certain night of the week that is traditionally slow-- or a buy 1 get one free dinner or something similar.Put in a comment box-- or offer a coupon for people who fill out a comment card to find out if there are things you need to improve.Maybe get the word out in a newspaper or mail circular.

Advertise! You won t get customers unless they know about you. Work with your local radio station.

try some different menu items and then advertise those new items so people will come in and try it.

come up with a few recipies that are very unique and can t be found anywhere else! if people like them they will keep coming back for more! :oP

Give free food everynow and then , make sure it delicious, and people will come back , We love to eat out ............Good Luck

The best thing to do is, advertise! nothing beats it

People go to restaurants for 3 basic reasons, good food, good service, and a good experience. (Note, prices are not a reason. People are willing to pay for those 3 things)People stopped coming for a reason, find out what that reason is. Walk around and ask people Have you ever heard of This Restaurant ? If they say no, tell them about it, if they say yes, ask them if they have ever eaten there, when the last time they ate there, and why they have not been back recently. Don t tell them that its your restaurant unless they ask, or you ve asked all these questions all ready. Invite them back!Get out of your restaurant and bring people in. Take your most profitable dish, make it bite-sized and give away free samples. Dont just give them free samples, but tell them what it is, where its from, and how they can get more. Talk to your customers, have your waiters talk to them, ask them what they like and what they don t like. Not in the middle of their meal, but as they re leaving. If the hostess is not busy, tell her to make sure the customers had a good time, good food, and good service, and if there is anything that could be improved for their next visit. Invite them back!Its also possible that your menu is out of date, look through your sales numbers for each item (if you have them), it might be time to take the lowest-selling item off the menu and replace it with something new (This is a good way to motivate your cooks into coming up with new ideas, and making them feel more like a part of the restaurant).Specials only work when you have customers already, they re not going to bring many in the door, everyone always has some kind of special, its almost expected when you go to a restaurant. Go eat at the restaurant across the street, taste their food, analyze their service, look around,is it clean? are you happy to eat there?what don t you like about it? what do you like about it? Eat at your other competition, answer those same questions. Then, eat at your restaurant, compare it to everywhere else you ve been, see what you think needs improving. (Its helpful if you bring one of your staff/co-workers with you because they might pick up on something you didnt. (Plus thie cost of the meals are tax-deductible as a business expense if the business pays for them, since you re doing research for your business)Good Luck, hope this helps.

How much money would i need to put in to hold my own event at a nightclub? -

It depends on how many people you invite and what food/drink you want to have but it could cost anywhere from $80 to $300 per person depending on the club, food, drink and other services you intend to have.

Nail Salon Business - Where can I Complete a Course to Start a Nail Salon in my City? -

I m looking for an online course in nail art.

Try the Nail Technician School s career course.It covers the whole course in 10 modules (90 lessons 12 practical exercises) including advice on how to start your own nail salon business.

Is there any way to open up a free bank account for selling things on eBay? -

I don t know a thing really about ebay, so if someone could explain how to sell for me would be great, but what I want to know: Do you have to pay the bank to open up an account? or is there a way to open one up for free? If so which banks do it for free? Im not sure if you understand what I m trying to ask, but please try to understand the best you can, Thank you.

eBay owns Paypal which can be used by buyers to purchase whatever you are selling on eBay. You can open a Paypal account which will need a bank account so you can move funds from Paypal to your checking account. If you have a checking account already, that will be sufficient.You will need a credit card in order to sell on eBay. eBay charges you to list your products and complete any transaction.

Help needed setting up a music chart!? -

I want to set up a music chart. I have about 200Euro that i can put into it. Does anyone know how i would go about it?

What kind of music chart?

Questions to ask when offered an opportunity in a business? -

I received an email from an old classmate that is somewhat enticing. This is what he said: Hey there Imhotep, Hows things been? Its been a while so wanted to get in touch with ya-see what you had going on these days? Im working with a team of people expanding business right now and figured Id check in with you and see if you are looking for opportunity for extra income at this point in life? I would like to respond somewhat professionally and ask important questions, can you help me with some ideas?

First, I d find out what exactly they do. Then, get some details on what your role would be. The questions I d ask would focus on 2 areas. 1) has the business been successful 2) what is the work environment like.For #1 I d want to know why they want to hire you? Are people jumping ship or is business just picking up a lot? What client base do they have and what client base are they working on? These types of questions can help you get a feel for the type of job security you may or may not have and whether or not the people running the show have a good idea of what they are about.For #2 How many people work there and how do they get along? What would your work schedule be like? What sort of benefits do they offer? Try to find out if this is something you would be comfortable doing, and if they have what you are looking for on the personal side of things.After that, you ll need some time to digest things and maybe do some research on the business. So, just be open and say before you make your decision you d like some more information and you have lots of questions. Tell them ahead of time you d like the opportunity to work with them but you d also like a little time to make an informed decision.

Dear, I suggest u see http://ebiznus.com/ for this.I hope this will be resolving your problem you can also browse more for this on answers.yahoo.com but i think you better look at what i suggested instead of wasting ur time.Best of luck.

On it sites are good top links for decisions of your problem http://webfin3.notlong.com/2AAVR9p

I got a new job amp; need to find info on the industry i.e. profitability, market research, etc. Any suggestions? -

I am looking for financial data for other privately owned companies in our area to see what kind of business model works best, data on marketing strategies that have been successful at obtaining a larger customer base so we know where to spend our money, profitability statements for the products we retail, info on competitive wages to pay the specialized employees, etc. Any idea where to start?Thanks in advance!

As you can imagine that kind of data you are looking for will be closely guarded by any company. This is the kind of information that has build a company and made it successful so they are very unlikely to share that with others. I presume that your employer would not do that either if they would be very successful in their field.Especially if you are interested in privately owned companies it will be difficult to find any data from them as they have no obligation to publish their annual review.For the salaries, do some research online on job searches for the people you are looking for (for example use Monsterboard). In there you can often see what is offered.As for increasing your own customer based and best strategies, I would advise in investing in Market Research reports. There are numerous agencies out there who might be able to supply you with reports.