ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - September 10, 2004

Travel is wonderful, but it is SO nice to have some home time. Not that is particularly relaxing -- there are massive piles of accumulated mail to clear away and projects galore. Still, it is easier to deal with when I am not dashing on and off airplanes.

Aside from trying to finish my taxes before my last extension runs out (!) the focus of the moment is on a really exciting conference that Joel Cohen and I have planned for this November ... and getting the first information out on the Super Summit in New Orleans next March.

Las Vegas Birthday Bash
All birthdays are special ... but some are more special than others. This November, both Joel Cohen and I celebrate significant birthdays -- I will turn 60 on November 1st (yikes!) and Joel will be 57 on November 20th. I will grant you that 57 may not be quite as big a milestone as 60, but Joel thought he was turning 54 this year! Talk about a rude surprise ... and a poor memory!

In any event, we wanted to mark the occasion with something truly spectacular, so we decided to give YOU a present -- we call it our Las Vegas Birthday Bash and it happens on November 15-16. (If you have to ask where we are holding it, you are officially too naive to attend!)

Joel and I have teamed up for several Odd Couple and Year of the Guest Workshops in the past. To celebrate our birthdays (Scorpios Rule!), we are joining forces again to share some of our most powerful ideas -- tools that will help you prosper in today's challenging economy, raise your level of service and set yourself apart from the competition. We promise a fast-paced program crammed full of politically incorrect, no-nonsense, proven ways to increase sales, bring your operation up a notch or two and generally get out of your own way!

What will really surprise you is the price we decided to put on this one-time event ... but for that, you will have to click on the link below to get the full story. Suffice it to say that seats are very limited and you will want to act sooner rather than later or risk getting closed out of what may be the hospitality deal of the year!

Click here to get the full story on the Birthday Bash.

Cool Idea of the Week
This is undoubtedly several months late, but if I don't get it out now, I will probably lose the note by next summer. It has to do with iced tea and my belief that you have to be willing to do the extra work it takes to stand out from your competitors.

In the south, of course, you just ask for "sweet tea" and it comes already sugared. But in the rest of the country, many people add sugar to sweeten their iced tea. It is difficult to dissolve sugar in a cold liquid, with the result often being a layer of half-dissolved sugar at the bottom of the glass. Yuck!

Since iced tea drinkers will order it everywhere, why not have your tea stand out from the same-old/same-old? You can make a point of difference by offering a small pitcher of simple syrup instead of the typical sugar packets. This way the sugar is already dissolved and the experience is quite different from stirring granules into the drink.

Noted San Francisco restaurateur, Dennis Berkowitz, goes one step farther and serves a pot of hot tea with a glass full of ice. Guests brew the tea to the strength they want, then pour the hot tea over the ice. The tea is obviously fresher, the guests are more involved and you have given iced tea drinkers a reason to think of you anytime they order tea in some other restaurant.

While We Are At It ...
People who like iced tea ... like iced tea. Their tastes do not automatically change on Labor Day. I remember going into a restaurant in the east sometime in November and asking for a glass of iced tea. They looked at me like I was nuts! "We won't have that again until next June," they announced self-righteously. I left.

Sure, demand is probably lower in the fall than in the summer, but if everyone else in your market takes it off the menu in the off season, that is reason enough in my book to keep it available!

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

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