Search results

Hey everyone! I have to admit this post is more of a frustrated rant than a true question, but I may be missing something blatantly obvious, so hopefully one of you can smack me upside the head with good news! 😃 I’m nearly 1/3 done paying off my contract for deed loan from the previous owner...

BCPizza: Hey BCPizza, What percentage of your cc sales are taken over the phone? I do about 20-25k a month in credit card sales as well, but about 75% of that is over the phone sales. And I’m paying about $1100 a month! PM me if you get a referall bonus! 🙂

Hey Debbie, Is the company you are talking about “First Data Global Leasing”? If yes, I STRONGLY urge you to run away as fast as you can! They are probably the most unethical company I have ever dealt with in my life! Good Luck! TCK

I feel your pain!! If any of you are seriously mulling over the idea of not taking checks anymore - go for it! I stopped taking them in January of 2009. I got so dang sick of checking my account everyday just to see how many bad ones were coming through each day. I think I peaked out averaging...

Hey, There are a bunch of similar companies that do this. I probably have about 2 per year that inquire about doing this at my restaurant. I finally signed up with one in the summer of '09. I dont remember the name of the company, but it wasnt Smart Circle. I believe he sold them for $19.99. We...

I have had a few Homer Simpson-esque “DOH!!!” moments over the last month or two. I realize this is all Business 101 stuff, but sometimes we get so caught up in the everyday hustle and bustle, we forget to look at the little things we can do cut expenses. Maybe we can come up with some cool...

I’ll play devil’s advocate here. Let me preface these ideas by saying that I do pay the non-owned insurance, but I grind my teeth everytime I write the insurance company a check for this policy which I will probably never use. I pay about $6000 a year for it, which covers from 350k-1 million in...

I have been battling the same problem for years - here are some of my “tricks”. Im not sure if you have delivery, but make the BOGO’s “carryout only”. That way you dont have your driver waiting 10 minutes on someones front step while the customer searches the house for the coupon that they may...

Quick question for you all, I have a feeling I will be in the minority on this… What do you charge for delivery and how much goes to the driver? I am currently charging $1.50/delivery and all that goes straight to the driver. I’m strongly considering raising the delivery charge to $1.99, but...

My loan is a just a hair over 10% of gross sales. I think it will be about 10.1-10.4% this year, that is about the maximum I would be able to do. In '09, my loan came out to be approx 12% of sales, that became really tough to stay above water. About the rent % of sales… I’ve always read that...

I’m pretty much on the same lines with Paul on sales up until 2008. 2009 was the worst year I’ve seen in probably 10 years. My goal was a 1% increase for this year. I’m currently at +1.5% but in order to do that, I’ve had to increase my coupon percentage, work 6 days a week, etc… Basically sell...

Congrats on being up such a considerable amount. My Sept was up 6.2% from Sept '09 and I was ecstatic. Its great to see that this is happening at your places too! I wonder if this is a sign things are getting back on track… It does seem like the big chains arent running as aggressive specials as...

Here’s another quick idea… Could you send out postcards advertising “under new ownership” to ONLY the customers who havent ordered since you took over? Give them one of the best specials you can give to win them back!

I struggled with this problem a couple years ago when I bought my place. My vote would be against advertising “new ownership”. I feel like customers prefer familiarity as opposed to even slight changes. The “new ownership” banner may scare away current customers who never knew things were being...

I might be able to help you on this a bit. I have been in the process of paying off the previous owner since we made our agreement a bit over 2 years ago. He was actually a pretty good friend of mine, so it made it 100 times easier for each of us to go into this trusting each other. Here are...

Thanks everyone for your ideas. I got a few new ones here that I never would have thought of. I think my short term plan of attack is to switch them to “buy a 16” or 18" and get a free 12" one topping". I really like the idea of adding a high profit margin item attached to the special. That is...

Hey Everyone! This has been driving me nuts for awhile - hopefully you all can help me find a solution! I bought my restaurant about 2 years ago. The previous owner (who owned the place for about 10 years) put out a ton of BOGO Free coupons. They seemed to be on most, if not all, of his mailers...

Hello all! I’ve been a long-time lurker here and finally registered. I just wanted to tell you all a little about myself since I’m a noobie to the Think Tank. I own a little pizza place that does mainly delivery with some C/O and a little dining section as well. I’m in suburban Minnesota and I...