When the going gets tough,
small businesses spring into survival mode (Part 4)

Making business personal again

Courtesy of U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Charles Massie is the first to admit that he and business partner Stan Yagi had become lazy owing to the success of their Italian restaurant, Antonio’s Cucine Italiana, in Klamath Falls, Oregon. They stopped reviewing their bills, approved invoices without a second glance, and relied on their regulars to keep their restaurant going. But by early 2008, they knew they couldn’t afford to be complacent any longer.

At first, Massie and Yagi notices dwindling numbers at lunch. Then, they noticed that while they had the same number of patrons at dinner, the sales per ticket numbers were down. Customers were ordering a glass of wine instead of a bottle and were drinking water instead of tea. Massie says that business is down 30% on a month-to-month basis compared with the previous year.

So Massie and Yagi came up with a game plan. They began with community marketing, putting in face time at local networking events and getting involved with their local chamber. “We didn’t get more business just by passing out our cards, but rather by talking to people and letting them know we’re open on Sundays and until 10 p.m. most nights,” says Massie.

Massie and Yagi rebuilt their catering business and made sure that hotel desk staff and visiting businesspeople – such as medical equipment sales reps – knew that food delivery was an option. They also paid more attention to customers who came into the restaurant, and if they didn’t know them, wait-staff asked how they found out about the restaurant. “Restaurants are a one-on-one business, and customers like to be invited,” Massie explains.

On the cost-cutting side, the partners switched their checking account and saved $50 a month. “That’s not a lot, but that’s an extra shift for one of our employees,” says Massie. They raised their insurance deductible to lower the premium and scaled back their liquor liability policy because they had a larger policy than what the state required. “We hadn’t reviewed our policy in two to three years,” Massie notes.

Yagi also reviewed food costs and switched to local and regional vendors rather than national vendors for some items, bringing down costs by 10%. “We had been paying incremental increases and fuel surcharges without realizing it,” says Massie. For now, the decline in business had stopped, and Antonio’s Cucine Italiana is slowly coming back.