"Not tonight I'm afraid"
|
My mum was visiting this weekend, so I took her to a restaurant just down the road from us. Crazy thing is, I had to book the table for this over a month in advance. It's crazy cause most people don't know this little gem exists. It's a small, local, independent restaurant with nothing really nearby. No good foot traffic like you'd see on a busy high street, and no real online presence. We sat down and got comfy. Started looking at the menu, then heard the little bell on the door. A fella cam ein with his family and asked if there was any chance they could seat the 3 of them sometime, anytime, that evening. The owner didn't even check, she just looked at him apologetically and shook her head. "Not tonight I'm afriad". This little place has been there going on 20 years, and it is always full. But it's not because there's a lack of restaurants - I mean, it's in West London. And their success becomes even more unusual when you compare it with other places that are maybe a 10-15 minute walk away. There's a street nearby which has around 7 different restaurants on it. All appealing to a different audience, one's a family friendly cafe, one's a pizza place, another is a mediterranean joint. All are completely different. But they keep on closing down. On that street we had a chain across London open a place. It closed within a year. Another independent place has open and closed at least 3 ties with 3 changes of ownership and 2 changes of name. It;s weird, cause on paper, these places have every advantage. Thousands of people walk that street every day, and it's in a pretty affluent area so these people ahve the cash to eat there. but they keep on struggling despite trying everything to stay open. I've seen some of them try all sorts of things like... … opening more hours All that jazz. But it ain't working. The chain's already gone, and the other one's still trying but it'll disappear soon. They're working more, but getting less for it, because they never really locked in on what works for them. Meanwhile, the place I took my mum is just doing their thing. … the menu's small They've found how to be different, and built the whole business around it. And because they've locked in what works for them, they can simply focus on doing good food (which, by no accident, plays into their model). That's what good positioning and a focused model do. They help you win even if you're going up agaionst the people who have more money and all of the advantages you don't. Growth comes from focus. Specifically doing less, but doing it better. I see so many businesses in our industry struggling because they're trying everything under the sun. Adding more, testing more, and hoping something sticks. When what they need to do is less, but better. And the only way to do that is to have a model that actually works for you. I explain the best model for digital-first businesses in this video. It's about 35 minutes. Speak soon, Pete "table for two" Boyle P.S. I'm taking on 4 more businesses in the Growth Models Accelerator for October. Applications close on Friday 9 October and we start on Monday the 12th. If you'd like one of the places, the details are here. |