Electronic House Call - April 25, 2003

ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - April 25, 2003

While most of the week has been devoted to digging out, sending out books, tapes and other orders accumulated in three weeks of travel, it has certainly been nice to get some home time. I have one more trip this weekend -- to Albany for a distributor food show. Hopefully I won't get caught in an ice storm there like I did a few weeks ago!

When I get back, it is home time until we leave for Italy on May 12th. I will have a few more things to say about that trip in the weeks ahead ... and you will be able to follow along with the daily diary if you are so inclined. For now, happy springtime!

DOIN' THE WORK
I got off on a bit of a rant last week. Felt good. I haven't done that for awhile. I only lost two subscribers (that I know of) over it, usually a good sign that I am hitting a nerve that needs to be strummed.

Much of the mail I received was of the eye-rolling kind where folks said, "Yeah, that has been bothering me too." Not to be unkind, but if it has been bothering you, why don't you do something about it?

Assuming that it is your present operation that is in need of being pulled up by the bootstraps, Option A is to express your feelings, get some agreement and then help your management do what needs to be done to do it right. If you don't get a sympathetic audience from the present management, Option B is to leave and find a place that does it the way you know it needs to be done.

Either way, you are doing something to improve your company, the hospitality industry, not to mention your own peace of mind. To just sit back and accept the unacceptable is, well, unacceptable. If you say you have standards, but occasionally accept less or do not live up to them all the time ... you do not have standards. Do the work!

WHO IS RUNNING YOUR BUSINESS?
While I am at it, I am sick and tired of hearing operators whine about why their business isn't as good as they want it to be. It's the war, the economy, the stock market, local layoffs, bad weather, the phases of the moon ... I have lost patience with all this sniveling! Who is running your business?

Now I will acknowledge that there are events outside your immediate control that have an impact on your sales, but my question stands -- who is running your business? The events in your life are only the events in your life. Your real character is determined by what you do when faced with those events.

If your daughter's life was in danger, you would want to get her to the emergency room as fast as possible. But if your car wouldn't start or you got caught in traffic, would you just throw up your hands and quit? I think not. I hope you would run, walk, steal a bicycle, call a cab or hijack a police car -- whatever it took. In short, I doubt if anything would stop you until you got your child the care she needed.

So why do you let the economy ... or anything else ... stop you from doing what you need to do to prosper? If you can't do it the way you planned, find another route, take another tack, try another plan ... until you get the results you need. You will only be truly prosperous when you grasp the fact that YOU are the only one that is responsible for your success. Get busy.

YEAR OF THE GUEST
Speaking of tools to help you fight the battle more effectively, I have received a TON of great ideas from Year of the Guest subscribers. Check out next week's issue of US News & World Report -- several of you will be mentioned in it.

For those who didn't open the e-mail, I asked for ideas of what you were doing to keep sales up in the present economy and the ideas I received back were terrific! Times are not tough for everyone. Many of you reported significant sales increases from applying some of the ideas we have been talking about in the series.

Joel and I will be compiling the responses and will send them out to everyone who contributed an idea. If you did not send anything in, it is too late for the article but not too late to add your wisdom to the growing volume of sales-building ideas. Send me what you have and I will put you on the list for the collected list.

If you are not already subscribed to the Year of the Guest, shame on you. The cost is minimal and 100% of the money goes to support the work of Share Our Strength. For more information on this program, go to www.YearOfTheGuest.com.

THE PERPETUAL QUESTION
What did you learn from your staff today?

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