If you have been open over a year or so, how long did it take you to get to the sales that your at now? and how slow was the increase to get to where you are.
Im guessing its not normal to hit your goal after being open 3 months, so how long did it take?
How long to hit where we are now… Or our peak which was a couple of years ago. The economy is somewhat better than it was last year, but not close to where it was 3-4 years ago.
We did similar numbers the first three years we were open then we had a steady growth rate for about 4 years. Then the economy went south and we gave back ALL of that growth. Things started picking up about 8 months ago, but nothing dramatic.
Similar to Steve outside that we took over a store doing a consistent $7.4 -$8k pw. The first year we took it to $9 - $10k, second year $10 - $11 then starting hitting $11.5 - $12.5K. Then came the GFC and we dropped down to the $10 - $11 mark and then from Oct '10 we dropped down again (reason unknown but the whole food industry was copping a hiding) to around $10 - $10.5 with the occassional low $11K week. Since Christmas it has been bleak until this week with us hitting mid $11’s.
Despite advertising, Facebooking, box topping etc we haven’t got back to our highs.
You can quickly grow a business and some go on from there year after year, but many stagnate or drop, some to the point of closing altogether. Most see a peak after opening as people try someone new and many of these customers trend back to their original or a newer place to try. A lot of stores drop sales after the “honeymoon” period.
I think you would get many variations of where they are now with every store different to the other.
A couple of years ago Steve was telling us how his sales were going up out of control and probably as a as delight to him was also a surprise. Then he got hit majorly by the GFC where people stopped going away on holidays.
One great operator, J_r0kk, was going great guns and opened a second store and next we heard he was all shut up.
To base your aspirations or plans on what others have achieved is not advisable as everyone is different. Do you own planning as per previous posts on how to project sales and use that, not someones elses experience. Don’t rely on what others have done as your yardstick as it can make you depressed and feel inadequate if you don’t achieve those levels or vunerable to poor service and quality if you go well beyond them and you are not equipped to cope.
Dave
We’ve been open exactly 1 month today, and are averaging about 45% of our breakeven point for daily sales. The first couple of weeks, we did no marketing, just the OPEN sign and an A-Frame with a special on it. Weeks 2-3 we started doorhanging, and today mailed out 1500 full color trifold menus with coupons (only .21 each!!) and will do about 1500 everyweek for the next 3 months just to get to people in our zip code.
Considering all this, what do you say, is it normal to be at about 45% of daily breakeven? Most of our customers have been repeating over and over again and we’ve got excellent reviews so far online. With continued doorhanging, boxtoppers (we’re box topping with full colored trifold menus), facebook impressions, good reviews, and direct mail menus, do you think we’ll be able to hit the daily breakeven point over the next 2 months??
Our daily breakeven point for now includes 22 labor hours & associated taxes etc (2 workers present every hour for 11 hrs), rent, & utilities.
we were pretty much the same for 2 years. Then we started marketing and have doubled over the past year. I would suggest mailers if your trying to build but you MUST be careful with how many you send and to whom. I have had a couple of ugly nights (40 deliveries in 2 hours with two drivers)
Original store on the IU Campus: 8 years.
2nd South-side mainly-residential location: 3 years.
We’ve occupied our niche with basically the same sales volume for another 8 and 7 years respectively.
We just opened a second store about 3 weeks ago. I would estimate that currently our sales are probably about only 15% of the amount we do at the other store. But the original store is also off a fair amount from the pre recession highs we saw between 02’ and 07’. We are finally doing so legitimate advertising this weekend with the store as all the homes in the town are expected to receive a coupon mailer with our add sometime between yesterday and the next couple of days. Hoping I get slammed this weekend.