F&B software

“Delicious food alone is not enough”

Just the other day I was reading an article about F&B owners in Singapore

And that was the headline

The article talked about the struggles of the F&B industry in Singapore.

High overheads, scarce manpower, rising cost, supplies, location, finances, marketing

There’s so much to worry about!

It seems like everything needs to be PERFECT to have the restaurant/cafe you’ve envisioned in the beginning

Let’s not forget the long hours and labour you've put in

Blood, sweat, and tears shed

Only to climb another larger hill

It’s no surprise that 80% of F&B owners shut down their operations in the first 5 years

Indeed, it really is one of the toughest journeys anyone can take

What’s worse

This article was written in 2016!!

Before the pandemic, circuit breaker, social distancing measures

I can only imagine the amount of battles you’ve been through the past few years

And I want to congratulate you for making it through–staying true to your vision

Continuing to bring great food, experiences, and service to your guest

Continuing to lead your team and staff through these tough times

And I’m just glad that things are recently picking up again

With that said

When I was reading the article, it reminded me partly of the reason I started company

I knew the truth

The truth that delicious food alone is not enough if you want to survive–yet alone thrive

It’s just one piece of the puzzle

And my mission is to help solve that one piece so you can focus on the other pieces that you love doing most in your biz

You see unless your place is packed every day

Unless you’ve maximised the revenue per square foot of your place

If nothing changes for you

You might end up as another one of the other 80% that went bankrupt

I’ve seen restaurants with mediocre food, but are filled with guest

I’ve also seen restaurants with superb food and are struggling to survive

This begs the question then

“What’s the biggest difference between a struggling and a thriving restaurant?”

Let’s just say

If you already have great food but are still frustrated over hitting your revenue targets

You don’t have a food problem

What you have is an attention problem

More specifically, not enough people know you exist

So how do you overcome this?

Simple..

Marketing

Marketing can save you even if you have a bad location

Heck, it can even save you with mediocre food

You need people to be curious about your restaurant’s concept, food, and experience

Such that they’ll come by for the first time

And stay for the second, third, and many other times because of your delicious food

The big players in this industry know this

That's what they focus on–getting as much attention and eyeballs as possible on their establishments

Now I know this is not a revolutionary concept

But the more I grow as an entrepreneur

The more I realise these bigger players don’t have a secret

The best businesses are simply those who do the boring stuff well

To conclude, the biggest take away from this email is to start thinking of marketing NOT as an expense

But an investment

An expense is cash out

An investment is cash out in exchange for

2x, 3x, 10x MORE $$$ IN

Btw, my team made a short video awhile ago explaining how to do marketing like the big players

>>>You can check out the video right here<<<

Hope this helps {{firstName}}

Have a great wednesday,

name

Signature:

Whenever you’re ready, you can find out how to make more money and save time in your F&B business WITHOUT paying high commissions to services like Grabfood, Food Panda, and Deliveroo! Click here to learn more

[FIRSTNAME], this may sound strange

But there are hidden wisdoms in this world the common man (or woman) doesn’t see

And these wisdoms when used, can get you what you want 10x faster than you thought possible

One of these wisdoms is called the 80/20 rule

You see, everything in the world is subject to the 80/20 rule

Including your business

Let me explain…

A few years ago I learned about Vilfredo Pareto.

He was an Italian economist who discovered that generally, 80% of a nation’s wealth was controlled by 20% of the population.

And turns out, this principle applies to everything in life…

80% of health care resources are used by 20% of patients

80% of your time spent on your phone comes from 20% of the apps you have

And likewise in your biz

80% of your sales comes from 20% of the items on your menu

80% of your sales comes from 20% of your customers (your regulars)

Of course this is just a ballpark percentage

Sometimes its 80/20, sometimes its 70/30, even 90/10 at times

But you get the point

So this begs the question,

How can I use this “strange” principle to grow my F&B business?

The key is knowing what are the 20% actions that drives 80% of growth for F&B businesses

And then focusing all your energy on that 20%

Over my 5 years working with F&B owners I’ve uncovered 4 key components that comprises the 20%

And that’s what I’m going to share with you today

Starting with the first

1. Know your customer

If you’re trying to sell to everyone, then you’re selling to no one.

Successful restaurateurs know this

That’s why they tailor their restaurant/cafe to serve that specific customer that they know will come back for more.

Ik your food serves ALL kinds of customers BUT…

Who are your most frequent customers?

Are they families? Students? Biz people?

What are their lifestyles like and how does your restaurant/cafe fit into that?

A quick challenge you can do this week is to observe your customers and I assure you, you’ll start to see a pattern

2. Gather feedback and adapt to changes.

Whether it is from your customers or your own staff, gathering feedback is essential if you want to stay on the right track.

Restaurants and cafes that do well don’t just listen to praise, but are open to criticism...

And they make changes based on the feedback they receive.

Have a culture for asking for feedback and be humble enough to take it–this will make you more money and sales in the long run

3. Hire the right people

Every employee has an important role to play.

Whether it’s the chef, waiter, or even the dishwashers…

These people are the face of your business.

So it’s important to hire quality people and treat them like your own family.

Doing this builds a culture where good people want to work for you which grows your biz

4. Marketing

If you read my previous email, you’d already know that good food isn’t enough to keep your business running.

About 80% of F&B biz fail within the first five years of operation

But you can prevent that if you grab the attention of you target customers (linking back to point 1–know who your customers are)

To effectively grab attention, you need to allocate some budget to market your restaurant/cafe

I’ll cover this in detail in another email

To sum up,

These are the 4 components that move the needle the most

Put your attention and energy on them and you’ll get closer to scaling your business to multiple outlets while working less hours

But of course, if being in the kitchen makes you feel alive and excited, its still great to spend some time there leading your team

I would love to see your business thrive for the coming decades [FIRST_NAME]!

Talk to you soon,

name

P.S What if tedious tasks such as taking orders, typing addresses, sending out orders and other time-consuming tasks…

Can be all automated for you?

Just imagine, if all your orders can be taken and sent out on autopilot…

What would it be like for you and your business?

You don’t have to be tech-savvy because this system is simple and it’s all done for you.

If you want to learn more about it, simply click here.

[FIRSTNAME],

There are two friends John and Kevin

Both are of similar stature and physique but they’ve haven’t exercised in years

One day both of them caught up over drinks and as they were talking, they realized that they NEED to take care of their health again

So they made a bet

“Let’s see who can hit their fitness goals and improve the most by the end of three months.

Winner chooses ANY prize he wants”

And so it begins..

John being a natural hard worker and competitive person, was determined to win

He started exercising twice a day

Two hours each session doing exercises he thinks are right

He ate healthier too eating what he thinks is a good diet

Kevin on the other hand only exercises once a day for forty-five minutes

BUT unlike John he got an experienced personal coach to tell him exactly what to do

On top of that he tracked his calories, nutrition, and got supplements to help his progress–recommended by his nutritionist wife

2 months into the challenge, out of John’s competitive nature he gave Kevin a call

John asked Kevin, “how often do you workout?” … “only once a day? HAH okay…”

John was confident he was going to win

Finally, three months past and they got together to compared the results

To John’s surprise, Kevin won; he made tremondously more progress than John did

John was astonished and felt defeated…

Not by the fact that he lost

But by the fact that he worked twice as hard yet his results were no where near what Kevin achieved

Seeing this “sian” look on John’s face, Kevin went up to him and said

“Bro let’s grab a drink to celebrate–on me. Thank you for being my friend and doing this challenge with me

Afterall, we both got our health improved and that’s something to be proud of”

[FIRSTNAME], is your biz a John or a Kevin

You see, both John and Kevin started out at the same starting point and had the same goals

John’s strategy was to put in hard work and “chiong”

Kevin on the other hand, thought through his strategy

Unlike John, he focused on WHAT EXACLTLY to do and HOW EXACTLY to do it

He chose a PROVEN gameplan and it paid off

Perharps you feel the same way in your biz

Working long hours everyday but things are still not growing as fast

Income and revenue fluctuate each month

Cost are high and resources like manpower and supplies are scarce

Each day new problems arise and it feels like a never ending cycle

So why is this happening?

Same thing–you may need to relook at your strategy for scale

While I don’t doubt your current strategy may help you reach your goals–since I’m also a believer in hardwork and no shortcuts in life

But I also believe that success leaves clues

Following a proven strategy can help you work lesser while reaching your goals faster than you thought possible

So what is this strategy you may ask?

After working with over 600+ establishments in size different countries

A PROVEN strategy that can scale your F&B biz is simply to

Build your online storefront

What do I mean by that?

It means taking your current F&B model and creating a virtual version of it to sell online

Some call it E-Commerce

Now [FIRSTNAME] of course each situation varies

I’m not saying this strategy can magically solve ALL your problems

But a HUGE part of biz is profits and cashflow

And building your online storefront (in a PROVEN way using PROVEN tools) will bring in more cash allowing you to deploy it towards solving your other problems in the business

In my next few emails, I’ll share with you my PLS formula for building an online storefront that helps you get more customers, increase profits, and free up more of your time as a biz owner

That’s all for now [FIRSTNAME]

Have a amazing day ahead

I’m always rooting for ya,

name

Signature:

Whenever you’re ready, you can find out how to make more money and save time in your F&B business WITHOUT paying high commissions to services like Grabfood, Food Panda, and Deliveroo! Click here to learn more

Hey FNAME!

Did you know that over 77% of customers actually look up a restaurant/cafe/F&B establishment before deciding if they should dine with them?

Just goes to prove my point in my previous email—that to survive in this age (especially post covid), we all need an ordering online system

A digital outlet = your own website that seamlessly takes orders and pushes them to your kitchen with no fuss

But that begs the question

Other than obviously marketing your digital outlet to get more orders, what are some tactics to optimize your outlet for the most profits?

That’s what I’ll be covering in my next few emails

For today, we’re going to talk about pricing tactics for your digital outlet!

Ik I’ve mentioned this before but just to restate

You must get your customers to order directly from your digital outlet instead of going through third-party apps like Grabfood because what we want is to remove the commissions and increase our profit margins

30% paid to third-party apps is HUGE

We’d all rather keep that 30% and invest it back into marketing to get more

To pay our team, rent, supplies

Or even better keeping it in our pockets

So how do we make customers choose your digital outlet over ordering from Grab, FoodPanda, or worst, your competitors?

It starts with three tweaks to your pricing

The first tactic is to create exclusive discounts, rebates, and offers only available on your website

By doing this, you’ll compel the potential customers who land on your website to place their order from there instead

Here’s an example

My friend has a guilty pleasure of eating McDonald's once every two/three weeks

Typically, as a night owl, he’ll work late into the night

And at the end, he’ll pull out the grab app, order his favorite double McSpicy

This is a consistent habit for him

One day he told me his brother asked him to download the McDonald's app because they had an offer going on

He used it once...

Then suddenly a new offer came up again

Used it twice

And once more time, another promotion

By this point he has never ordered from grab anymore and exclusively uses the app for his midnight McDonald's cravings

End result? Mcdonald’s profit margins just increased by 30% because they enticed customers to order from the app

Even if they stop giving new offers, the habit of checking the app and ordering from it is what really matters

The second tactic is increasing your prices on third-party apps

This further incentivizes your customers to order from your digital outlet

Y’know us humans love to get the best deals

Before we place an order, we’ll compare prices to see which provides us the best value

And if you have better prices on your digital outlet, 9/10 times they’ll order from you

In the unlikely event that they do order from third-party apps instead of directly from you

Higher prices will help make up for the loss in profits

The last tactic here ties in with point one

And it is to give them a reason to come back AKA customer loyalty programs

They say if an F&B customer buys from you three times, they’re almost 100% likely to come back and buy from you again

They’re a loyal customer

Thus, your goal is to get them coming back again and again and again

Statistically speaking just need them to come back three times and have a great experience

Then you’ll profit from them for life (think of the concept of customer lifetime value)

How do you do that? Well company has a customer loyalty feature that other solutions/website builders lack

And this has been one of the vital features that our clients love

But in a nutshell, having cashbacks, offers, member exclusive deals, and giving away additional free items, incentives people to come back to order from you again

And of course, your food needs to be good so you’ll win their stomachs over (very important)

To recap, here are the three points:

Create and present exclusive offers on your digital outlet

Increase your prices on third-party apps

Offer cashback and loyalty programs to get them ordering again

When you do these three things, you’ll send a clear message to potential customers to order from your digital outlet

And you’ll start to see your profits increase over time

Hope this helps FNAME

>>>If you’re looking to build your own digital outlet and need us to help you with implementing these tactics, click here!<<<

To your success,

name

Hey FNAME

Ever seen this before?

Maybe you haven’t

But I remember a long time ago they used to sell this in Singapore

And kids used to love it

Today you can still find them in Malaysia

In the US, however, they used to have this very similar snack

But instead of Twiggies, it’s called Twinkies

They were a really popular snack in the US

And you could find them everywhere

Grocery stores, petrol stations, convenience stores

Each cake I believe wouldn’t cost more than $2 or so if I’m not wrong

But back in 2012,

Everything changed

The company, Hostess, suddenly announced that they were going out of business

This means the twinkies that everyone loved, will forever be GONE

And then this happened

And it got even more absurd!

People were reselling these $2 cakes for $15,000 on eBay!

It was crazy news in America back then

So why compels people to act this way?

In Singapore, we call this “kiasu”

But what makes people feel kiasu?

One word…

“Scarcity”

When people feel like something is not as easily accessible, they treasure it more

When people sense that something is in scarce resource, they value it more

Now, what if I told you you could use this same human emotion to increase profits on your digital outlet

and sell more of your food?

How?

It’s a simple tactic of taking your best-selling items

And making it exclusive only to your digital outlet

This gives the impression of scarcity (your best items are not easily accessible)

And influences people to ONLY order from your physical outlet and your digital outlet

This helps you increase profits as you no longer have to rely on third-party apps that take 30% of your margins

However, there’s a caveat to this

Simply putting your best seller exclusively on your digital outlet will not create this “kiasu” effect

Let’s look at the twinkies example

If the news had not announced that the company shutting down; even though they were

Do you think people would still go into a buying frenzy?

Probably not

My point is:

Before you can make something scarce, people need to know that it’s scarce in the first place

You can do this through social media marketing

Shout it out on your Instagram, Facebook, and these days TikTok

To sum up

Scarcity compels people to act in a certain way, use it to your advantage

Make your best-selling items (that your establishment is known for) and make it exclusive to your physical and digital outlets

Promote it heavily online so people know

This is one of the tactics for increasing your profits so you can get more control and freedom in your business

Speak soon,

name