Thanks for the words everyone. Just going to keep my fingers crossed and see how things play out over the next 3-4 months. I’ve kinda sorta of made a decision that if business doesn’t pick up or change, Im going to put it up for sale. I know if I do it will possibly take 1+ yrs to sell, if anything. Just will have to see how things play out and pray things change. My decision has not only been made because of slow business, but also I have been doing this for 30 yrs, and Im exhausted, I have extremely bad carpal tunnel in both hands, I have a bad back, a bone spur in my thumb joint, basically falling apart. I have to get surgery on my thumb very soon and know once I do, I will not be able to work or do much of anything for at least 3 months.
Hang in there Daisy!
I’ve been tempted to walk away from my place on more than a few occasions and I am glad that I was able to hang on through the toughest times.
Yet, with the correct monetary offer, I’d still walk away, but with royalties of course
I say a word in my evening prayers for all my clients and all fowlers of the think tank.
I a concerned with the proliferation of pizza shops nation wide.
I am specifically concerned for the under funded independents trying to go it alone.
We get many hope fulls seeking plans for hopelessly conceived projects. To little space, not enough production capacity, not enough capitol to get through the critical first few months. To much confidence in stories of the very few who made it on a shoe string.
It breaks my hart and hurts my pocket book to tell them we cannot in good conscience proceed with their plan. Many get mad at us although we tell them we are not in business to make money off those we, in our experience, believe doomed to failure.
I assume that many of those we discourage from proceeding have no problem finding companies that will take there money. Despite their dismal prospects.
I hope that all new operators succeed.
George Mills
Fantastic business ethics George.
Too many would just take their money and run.
Guess this is why you have been in business so long and are doing well.
Dave
As a SCORE counselor, I would say that 4 out of 5 people that seek counseling in advance of opening have little chance of success due to inadequate funding or a poorly conceived plan. Often the failure is that they think they can get by on a shoestring when in reality, a business needs a certain amount of scale to succeed. Sometimes the most helpful advice that can be given is that “you do not have enough money to succeed” or “you do not have the knowledge you need to move forward”.
I certainly agree with George that far too many have heard of the shoestring success stories and are willing to believe that they (even where true) are the norm rather than the exception.
Or some that spend a “small fortune” on fittings & fixtures and then leave only few hundred a month for marketing with a belief that “word of mouth” will be all they need…
I do agree with you George Mills. My father started this business 30 yrs ago, BUT 30 yrs ago things were soooo different, the county my shop is located in was a booming county for yrs because of the BIG 3 automakers here. Since we lost the first plant back in the early 90’s which employed well over 7k people, it was a trickle effect of the BIG 3. We slowly kept losing people, moving out of state, then when the collapse hit in 09 it was like doomsday for the county. After relocating the shop in 07 we were doing well, then when the collapse hit, I fought tooth & nail to keep going. I managed to stay afloat thru it despite the amount of people & customers who left the county.
Midniterider who responded earlier in this post can probably attest to how bad things got here in MI. If I had it to do all over again I would not have moved the original location to were I am now. But hindsight is 20/20. Like I said Im just going to see if things turn around, if not I think I’m going to hang my apron up & turn the lights out. As stated earlier I’m just worn out from the past 30 yrs and physically I’m not sure how much more my body can take
The last place i worked at for two years did exxactly that: the owner picked up his store after the person he sold it to run it to the ground within a year and closed the door. He mailed some menus as he got the store back and for three years the store was getting busier and busier just by the word of mouth. No coupons no discounts or promotions.from $0 a week the store went on doing mid to upper 20s been open six days a week.
I wish you the best Daisy, I just opened my first store over a month ago and it’s definitely been a roller coaster ride. Very challenging opening during the holidays to say the least. On the plus side, I did soft opening with no marketing so I got my feet wet without too much pressure. Unfortunately, that’s not sustainable long term. I’m planning on spending some money on mailers and ads to get word out. It’s painful to be paying without being profitable yet. People keep telling me it takes a year or two. I believe in my product and service so I’m going to keep plugging away!
Hey Daisy, Sales here have been horrendous as well. It started in October and just kept going down. We have had a great week (well a normal week from way back in October). Ironically the same time you had mentioned a decline. I have noticed this trend for a while now and kind of prepare for it! I am going to start the new year off right, I signed back up with Mail shark, so wish me luck!
Well now that the new yr is here, I have been doing some thinking. Possibly looking at changing business hrs, closing on mondays, tues-thursdays 3-9, fri-sat noon-9, sun noon-8, we really dont get much of any lunch business, all my main business is at nite and from thursday thru sundays & over the last 6-7 yrs I keep wondering why I am open during those dead hrs, letting everyone go, working all hrs myself, dropping a few menu items like pastas & not sure what else to drop, we sell pizzas, bread sticks, salads, subs, and fryer items like boneless wings, fries, chicken strips, I really cant drop fryer items, because I am leasing the greaseless fryer. Going to think this plan of changing hrs & letting help go over the next 30-60 days, I have to really think this thru, because this means more work for myself and my hands are not getting any better. this step will possibly be my last resort before thinking of either closing or selling.
We cut our lunch hours last year and went from losing money to breaking even with just that move alone. We used to be open 10-10 every day. Now we’re open 4-10 Mon-Thur (we have actually done well on Monday nights as we’re the only restaurant open within a 20 min drive) and 10-10 Fri-Sun. If we weren’t working it ourselves, I would probably cut back Friday to 4 as well, but it occasionally gets busy and if not, it allows us to prep or do paperwork to get ready for the weekend.
I thought about mondays if I should close, we are the only pizza shop within 20 minutes around as well, but I thought if Im going to let everyone go and work all the hrs myself Im going to need a day off to recoup & get shopping done
We typically drop lunches in our “Off Season” in November, this year I did it early october and saw my typical off-season losses be cut significantly.
Being open after 8:00 PM in my area is just stupid, unless you have a full bar with cheap liquor, se during the week we run 4-8, and weekends 12-8, this lets me focus my labor on times when we actually have money coming through the door.
Sure, a few people complained at first. But theres no way feasible to open for an hour for lunch to feed a dozen or less people, then re-open again at 4:00.
Summer, we do noon until we run out of food wed-Sun
yeah being open in my area usually after 9pm, its like a ghost town, I’m sure I would not get any complaints about me closing during the lunch hrs, I typically may only get 1-3 orders from 10am-3pm anyway, some days could vary though, although I have had a few days in the week that I would do really well at lunch, I just wished I had a magic 8 ball to tell me when it was going to happen LOL… My only issue I’m struggling with is letting the employees go, I know the old saying “Don’t get personally involved with your staff” well that’s kinda hard NOT to do, I know when I get ready to tell them that I’m laying them off it will be very hard. Im also struggling with the decision because from Thursday - Saturdays we are typically busy and trying to figure out if I would be able to handle it myself, the last 3 sundays Ive worked by myself and did 400-500 in sales, all went smooth. I have talked with a family member to see if they would be able to come in during those 3 nites we are busy to help out
Maybe delay your opening time a little, how much traffic do you actually see at 10:00 AM?
We cut back to a Noon open time after analyzing our hourly sales over a period of months and comparing it to our labor costs. We caught a little flack at first, but people adjusted to it quickly enough.
Can you swing an ad campaign right now?
I’ve learned through experience, and all the wonderful think tank members here that you need to be in peoples faces all the time with advertising or they forget about you,
It seems like the attention span of people these days is similar to that of a Ferret on a double espresso.
What are you meaning by your first statement of “delay”?? I really do not see that much traffic, I am smack dab right in the middle of 2 towns 10 miles each direction, little to not really any businesses around except maybe 3, that does not include the following in my plaza, party store next to me, goodwill drop off, mexican rest. and a skate arena that gets little to no business. The party store gets alot of traffic because there is nothing else around, the mexican rest. yeah they are busy at times, BUT honestly their food sucks, taco bell has better flavor than them.
I really cant afford an ad campaign, Im already in deep with a radio station, last yr I signed a year contract for 1 yr of advertising at a cost I thought I could afford monthly, I was able to keep payments current with that for the first 6 months, until I went thru a separation with my spouse, I ended up having to get an apartment. I do a “FREE” radio campaign called “seize the deal” that sells certificates at a discounted rate to the public. Its gets my name out there to new people in the area. Other than that, I really cant afford an ad.
My major cost at the moment is labor & rent. I looked at some figures & found if I cut labor I would be saving myself around $1900 a month, thats not including payroll taxes. Thats money I could use to pay off the contract with the radio station, and some other small business expenses, my food costs per month is really not bad, since I have been going to restaurant depot, Im just mainly now looking at trying to save my late fathers business that he built 30 yrs ago.
What I meant by “Delay your opening” was to maybe not open at 10:00 AM, instead delay your opening time by an hour or two
Do you see people that early and have enough sales before noon to justify opening that early.
Figure your hourly labor cost for those hours, and multiply that by how many days per week you’re open. It may be significant. This’ll also cut your energy usage too.
I’m just trying to help, we saw significant saving by dumping midweek lunches as soon as our tourist season ends (October 1)
Maybe ask your advertiser for a break for a bit? see if they can suspend running the adds until spring? Or maybe take a bit of a break yourself until spring.
I am betting that your landlord may also allow a rent adjustment to keep you there as opposed to having a vacant building too.
I sincerely wish you the best of luck,
You can certainly push back on your ad contract. Just tell them that you need to reduce the number of spots period. Or you can sweeten it by offering to buy the same number of spots, but over a longer period which would lower your monthly obligation. If they don’t like it, tough. Pay the current balance due and tell them it is over and that how they handle it from this point will determine whether they ever do business with you again.
I know, I greatly appreciate all advice & kind words. My advertiser has allowed no payments for the last 8 months, but are now getting inpatient. My landlord is a prick, will not budge, he could careless if he has another empty .
suite.
I have looked at and figured labor during day hrs, thats why I have decided to close on Mondays & open at 3 during week days, i get maybe 0-3 lunch orders during the week days, my main business is after 3, except thursdays thru saturdays, orders start coming in around noon, sundays are back and forth somedays no orders till 3-4, somedays busy all day from noon till closing.
I was up all nite no sleep thinking, and I think the best move is to JUST DO IT… I think the more I contemplate about it I wont end up doing it & it will hurt me in the long run, I just need to put my foot down & do it. Starting this week switch hrs, change all my web info etc. Sunday nite tell my staff which is only 2 people, what my plans are & let them go, tell them that if sales pick up over the next couple months by April, if they are willing & available I will bring them back, if not I will hire someone else, there is no shortage of workers