restaurant tips

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Everyone Loves a Themed Party and You Should Take Advantage

Themed parties aren’t just for the kiddies. Everyone loves themed parties, especially adults who want to have a fun time when they head out to your bar. If you want to pull some extra business into your bar, consider having a special theme for the bar one night. It is fun, it won’t cost much, and it can draw a huge crowd to your place.

The first thing that you have to do is come up with the theme. This is the fun and easy part since there are so many different ideas out there. You might want to have a pirate theme or a superhero theme. Everyone can come dressed as their favorite hero or villain. If you don’t want to go quite that fantastical, you can always have a Roaring Twenties theme, a Sixties theme, or even a Wild West theme. The only limit is your imagination. (more…)

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Branding Your Bar and Restaurant is Important

As a business owner, you’ve probably heard about the importance of branding. However, you might not know how important it can be when you have a single restaurant or bar. You might not realize the branding is still vital if you want to project a coherent image through all of your promotion efforts and beyond. How can you go about branding? That’s not an easy question to answer because there are so many variables. However, the following tips should help you to get on the right track. If you are still having trouble identifying, solidifying, and promoting your brand, you can always hire a specialist to help.

The first step in branding is identifying how you want your customers to see you and your establishment. Are you running a fun family friendly restaurant that caters to the kids and makes everyone feel at home? Do you have an upscale sushi restaurant? Are you running a family-owned Korean barbeque shop? Every restaurant or bar is going to fit into certain niches better than others. Find what you want to promote as a part of your restaurant and make that a part of your brand.

Of course, there is also the very literal aspect of branding. You need to have a logo, even if you are a small bar or restaurant. A logo, which you use for all of your communications and advertisements, is very important. Do you disbelieve the importance of logos? I bet if you close your eyes, you can picture the Apple logo, the McDonald’s logo, the Chili’s logo, and thousands of others. Those logos are very important, and they establish the brand. When people see those logos, they know what to expect.

In addition to putting your logo on all of your coupons, flyers, menus, and everything else, you need to make sure that the interior of your restaurant meets the expectations of your customers. You need to have good quality restaurant seating that matches with your restaurant’s theme and the brand that you are trying so hard to promote. Your décor is equally important.

Consider all of the above when you start trying to brand your bar or restaurant. If you do, and if you keep studying branding and how effective it can be, you will find that people will know your logo, your establishment’s name, and what to expect, even if they haven’t yet visited.

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Offer Early Bird Specials at Your Restaurant to Woo Seniors

So far I have discussed ways for creating family oriented and kids friendly restaurants, but one thing I have yet to mention is that some of the most loyal customers you will have are the seniors who frequent your restaurant. Many times, they will return to a place time and again when they enjoy the food and the service. If you have a nice and clean establishment and restaurant seating that is comfortable for seniors, they will return. They will usually bring their friends along with them too, and that means better business for you. It is true that the seniors often have greater demands than other restaurant goers have, and they may be more adamant in those demands. However, their loyalty can outweigh their needs. You should reward their loyalty with early bird specials and senior discounts.

When you are trying to come up with some specials that can entice the seniors to come into your place, consider the things that they already enjoy. The early bird special is popular and many restaurants have it. The reason it is so popular for restaurant owners is because it works. Offer a discount for seniors who come in and order early. Take a few days to note the habits and the times that most of the seniors come into your restaurant. For example, if you notice more seniors coming in between 3 and 5, this should be when you run the special. (more…)

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Start a Birthday or Anniversary Club at Your Restaurant

Showing appreciation for your customers is a great way to create loyal customers. Those loyal customers, as you probably already know, are going to keep coming back to your eatery and they will spread the word about how well you take care of them. How can you foster this loyalty? If you have been wracking your brain trying to come up with ways to let your customers know how much you appreciate them, consider starting a birthday or anniversary club. It’s easy to do, and it is a cost effective way of getting people to come back to your restaurant.

You can choose to have a birthday club or an anniversary club. You might even want to have both. Offer a signup sheet for people where they can add their birthday or their anniversary (or both if you chose that route). They will also need to provide their email address. Make sure that you let them know that you aren’t going to do anything with their email other than put it in your own database to send them specials. A week or two before the event, send them coupons. Make sure that the coupons are good enough to entice them to come into the restaurant and redeem them.

Some good ideas include a free meal when buying one of the same price or greater. Free dessert or free drink coupons are also nice. Let them know in the email that they don’t have to redeem the coupon on their actual birthday or anniversary. Give them up to a week or two to redeem the coupons.

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Have a Fundraiser Night at Your Restaurant

Most people like the thought of giving to a worthy charity, but they don’t always have the extra money to donate. As a restaurant owner, you can appeal to this desire in people to do good things and promote your restaurant at the same time. Consider holding a fundraiser night at your eatery. Donate a portion of your proceeds for the evening to a charity.

Choose Your Charity Wisely

There are a number of great charities out there, and many of them are very worthy of your donations. However, each person has their own idea of which charity is the most worthy, and if you talk with your employees about which charity you should choose, you will find that you are going to get quite a few different answers. Some will want you to donate to the Red Cross, while others might want to you donate to a local school.

When you are choosing your charity, you should be the one that makes the final decision, but that doesn’t mean that you should just choose the first charity that you find. Consider donating to a local charity. That way, people will feel as though they are doing something good for their community just by going out to dinner. You don’t have to choose a local charity though. Choose the one that your head and heart tells you is right.

Advertise Your Intentions (more…)

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Host a Singles Event at Your Restaurant

I already discussed the topic of bringing in more customers by hosting a singles night. This post is adding a few tips and insights into what has already been mentioned before to create a better review of the concept and to help you make the most of the idea.

The logistics of hosting a singles event might be tricky at first, but it is possible to do. Here are some tips that you can use to figure out how to start your own restaurant-styled singles night.

First, what is your slowest day of the week? You are going to want to choose that as the night that you hold your event since you have the potential to earn equal to or more money during this night than you regularly would. Once you know the day that you are going to hold your event, you will be able to continue with the rest of the preparations. (more…)

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