ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - August 27, 2004

I am back from Hawaii after a very interesting week of playing "detective." It seems a lot of my consulting work revolves around the musical question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" In this case, it was an upscale restaurant that had been modestly successful for four years, but was really too big for the market demand. After scoping out the market, I recommended they evolve to a dual concept (mid-scale cafe plus the upscale restaurant) to fill a hole in the market and allow the upper end operation to raise its check average.

This weekend I am off to Chicago for the Chicago Pizza Expo. If you plan to attend, please sit in on my seminar ... and then look me up in the Pizza Insight booth.

Accept No Excuses
Last week I beat you up a bit about playing victim. I am sure some of you passed right over that, feeling that I could not possibly be talking about you. Here is one more reality check:

I just read an article where a national restaurant chain (which will go unnamed ... but you know who you are) blamed the Olympics, Hurricane Charley and a few other factors for their recent decline in sales. The problem with good excuses is that they all have a foundation of truth in them ... but I suspect we could find restaurants whose sales increased during the same period in spite of these factors.

It is not easy -- and certainly no fun -- to hold yourself accountable and refuse to let yourself off the hook ... but you don't wind up anywhere in life by accident. Every point of arrival is the result of a lot of choices, tough or otherwise, made during the journey. It is ironic that the more successful you get, the less likely you are to have anyone else calling you on your BS, so you have got to do it yourself.

Excuses are just reasons we give ourselves to make us feel successful when we are failing. Your lot will only improve when you recognize them for what they are, grit your teeth and push past them. When you can do that, you will own the market. When you can do that nothing will keep you from getting what you want. So what excuses have you accepted for why things are not perfect in your business ... or your life? What do you plan to do about them?

Get Your URL
Here is one more item where excuses will not be tolerated -- you MUST get your URL ... and you must do it today. For the technically challenged, a URL is your website name. In my case, it is restaurantdoctor.com. I also have about 40 others for various current and future projects. I have some of them for the sole reason that I do not want anyone else to get them ... but at $9 a year, it is cheap seats.

Do you think that your name (business or personal) is ever going to be more available than it is today? Think about it. In other areas of business, there can be Bill's Deli, Bill's Auto Body and Bill's Whatever. Different people can own a business called Bill's Deli in different states. But on the Internet there is only one Bill's Deli. Get the picture? If you do not buy your company name -- even if you are not ready to put up a website -- it is economic negligence at this point. The web is too important to ignore. I have a subscriber who let her URL lapse and has put off renewing it. I'm sure she had a good excuse, but it won't be there when she tries to get it back again. I know, because I just bought it! (So Deborah, when you want to get the Keeler Keg website put up ... or want to use keelerkeg.com for your e-mail address again ... call me!)

E-mail is yet another reason to get your URL. If you want to be taken seriously in the business community, your e-mail address needs to be (yourname)@(your URL), not (yourname)@aol.com or (yourname)@hotmail.com or any of the other services targeted to individual consumers. The good news is that (yourname)@(your URL) can be forwarded to any e-mail address you want. Keep your AOL account if you must, but when your e-mail address refers to your URL, it will never change, no matter where it is forwarded or who provides your e-mail service. If you already have your URL and are not using it for e-mail, what is your excuse?

There are lots of places to get URLs these days, but I have found www.godaddy.com to be very easy to work with. You can check availability of your name for free and claim it for $8.95 a year or less. They can also host your website when you are ready to do that. You can't be in business without a telephone ... and it is quickly coming to the point where you can't be in business without a website. Get your URL today. No excuses.

The Perpetual Question
What did you learn from your staff today?

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