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Designing Advertisements for Your Bar and Restaurant (Part 2)

Apr 14
Posted by Daniel in bar tips and advice, restaurant seating, restaurant tips and advice

In the previous post, I went over the basics of creating a simple ad in a graphics program. Because there are so many design programs available, and you will have to spend time learning them in order to become an effective designer, it can be time consuming and frustrating. You have another option though. You can choose to hire a graphic designer to take care of the ads for you. He or she might also be able to develop your menus and even restructure your logo if you wish.

One of the great things about the Internet age is that you can hire someone from a thousand miles away to do the work for you. No longer are you limited by your geographic location. That means you have countless thousands of graphic designers from which you can choose.

When you are choosing a designer, you need to check out their portfolio to make sure that he or she has done similar work in the past. They do not have to have a lot of experience, but you do want to see what their work looks like. Most of the designers have online portfolios now, so you can view their work before you even contact them. (more…)

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Designing Advertisements for Your Bar and Restaurant (Part 1)

Apr 11
Posted by Daniel in bar tips and advice, Commercial Seating, Restaurant Furniture, restaurant tips and advice

When it came to designing the elements that went into your bar or restaurant, you probably had a large hand in everything. You chose the flooring, the décor, and you probably spent hours trying to decide on the perfect restaurant furniture, knowing just how important it was. You’ve had your hands in every part of the establishment, and it shows. It is truly your place.

If you are really hands on with your bar or restaurant, you might want to take part in designing the ads as well. Your involvement can be as large or as small as you like. If you only want to come up with the different specials and coupons that you are going to offer on the ads, that is fine. However, you might want to get your hands dirty with digital ink and create the ads from the ground up. In this post, I will discuss the basics of getting your advertisements ready on your own. In part two, I will discuss how to choose the right graphic designer for all of your bar or restaurant’s needs. (more…)

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Elements of a Good Restaurant Website

Apr 07
Posted by Daniel in bar tips and advice, Restaurant Furniture, restaurant seating, restaurant tips and advice

One of the last things you probably thought about when you were coming up with your ideas for your new restaurant was the website that would go along with it. You spent your time looking over the location, the décor, the restaurant chairs and tables that you would buy, and the menu. All of those are very important things, and you need to make sure that you have the best in all of those areas. However, on the technical side of things, many restaurant owners falter.

In today’s world, you need to make sure that you have a great website if you want to be able to compete with other restaurants in your area. More and more people are using the web to find places to dine, whether they are at work or looking on their smart phone.

It is important that you have the right elements on your site, and it must be easy for customers to navigate.

One of the most important things to have on your site is your restaurant’s menu. If you have specials, have a place on the site that is easy to update so that visitors will know what specials are available for any given day. One of the things that many restaurants do, but which is frustrating to their site’s visitors, is offer their menu only in PDF form. Not everyone wants to open up a PDF just to know what is on the menu. Even if you do have downloadable PDFs, make sure that they are just an option. You want your menu to be available right on your site. (more…)

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Sporting Events Should be the Lifeblood of Your Sports Bar

Apr 04
Posted by Daniel in bar stools, bar tips and advice, Restaurant Barstools, Restaurant Furniture, restaurant tips and advice

Swivel bar stools

If you are the owner of a sports bar, you have plenty of chances throughout the year to really capitalize on the major sporting events that are happening. While you might always have the games on at your bar, it really isn’t enough to drum up the excitement you need to pack your bar. There are plenty of other sports bars in town, and you need to make sure that you are constantly doing something special that is going to draw in larger crowds.

As a sports bar owner you have an advantage over many other types of bar owners. People are already coming to your bar because they love sports. How you handle the big events is going to determine how well you do in the long run though. Consider the largest events in the world of sports: the Super Bowl, the World Series, the World Cup, the NBA finals, collegiate sports . . .  the list goes on and on.

Whenever there is an event such as those discussed above coming up, you need to make sure that you advertise your bar and what you offer. Have game day specials, appetizers for half price, discounts for people who come in wearing jerseys, etc. There are dozens of different things that you can do to get people excited about your bar. Something that you might want to try if the hometown favorite loses is to offer “drown your sorrows” discounted drinks. Make sure that you don’t just focus on the “Big Game” though. There are plenty of playoff games that can get people just as excited.

What are some of the other things that you have to do to make sure that you have repeat customers coming back to your bar time and again? You need to make sure that you have an adequate number of TVs, and that they are spaced throughout the bar so everyone will be able to see, and so that you can have more than one game going at a time. You also need to make sure that you have adequate bar seating that is comfortable and that doesn’t make your place feel too crowded. If your seating is old and shabby, consider buying new as soon as you can. Ever little bit you do is going to help your sports bar become memorable in the minds of your customers.

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Celebrate or Commiserate the Home Team at Your Sports Bar

Mar 30
Posted by Daniel in bar tips and advice, Restaurant, restaurant tips and advice

bar stools

Lately we’ve been busy furnishing some new sports bars and that gave us the idea to write a few posts with tips and ideas directed specifically at sport bar owners. This doesn’t mean that if you don’t have a sports bar you can’t get anything out of reading these ideas. Actually, if you use your imagination and change the theme so as to match your own venue you will be able to use the tips here to your advantage as well.

So, let’s start:

Your hometown team won the big game, now what are you going to do?

As a bar owner, you need to capitalize on the success of your team right away. Chances are that a large number of your regulars and some new blood came into the bar to watch the game. They came, they watched, they drank, and they celebrated. Does that mean that the next day it’s back to business as usual? No it does not. In fact, you can capitalize of your team’s win for quite a while, and here’s how you can do it.

You know how they have the t-shirts and hats printed that say “Super Bowl Champions” for both teams prior to the game even being played, just so they can hand the shirts to the winners the minute they walk off the field? You should do the same thing with your promotions. Have a few flyers and online ads ready to post. (more…)

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Managing Your Restaurant Blog (part 2)

Mar 24
Posted by Daniel in bar tips and advice, fun, restaurant layout, restaurant tips and advice

Now that you know why you need to set up your blog (see our previous post), and you know that it is easy to do, you are probably trying to figure out what you could possibly write about to keep people interested – and to make them want to come into your establishment. Fortunately, it is quite easy to find topics about which you can write.

For starters, you will want to use the blog as a form of advertising, naturally. However, you don’t want it to come off as simply being an ad for your restaurant or bar. For every post that you write about the specials and dishes offered at your place, you need to have other types of posts to keep readers coming back. It can’t be all about your restaurant or bar. What does that mean? The following suggestions can make some great blog topics.

Consider all of the different events that happen in your town. Is there a big high school football game coming up? Is there a concert in town? Where are some good places to visit for those who are new to town? There are plenty of other ideas as well. Consider adding a gallery of images to your blog. You can have images that show the outside of your establishment, images of the inside and of the restaurant seating layout and design, pictures of your staff, and pictures of your town. You might also want to post about things such as special events that you are hosting, including any costume parties, wine tastings, etc. It is a subtle form of advertising that can draw people to your place. (more…)

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