Marketing takes up time, requires much thought, planning, and creativity. Marketing leaves you wondering if the reel you've spent four hours editing is going to get appropriate views for your business. Marketing can suck. There, I said it. However; Marketing is vital and is a necessity for your business. So, if you're like many people who do not to show your faces on camera, promoting services or goods....it's time to do some quick reflection and....GET OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE. Once you get past your stage fright, marketing is actually really fun. As business owners, you can post anything you want. You can talk about why YOUR services ranks above your local competitors. You can simply post an appetizing photo of your food with the caption: Come eat. As long as you're building traction online, you're marketing. Oftentimes, I KNOW businesses are wonderful. I KNOW their food is delicious. But.... no one else does. It's because they go radio silent online. As we all know, we are glued to our phones, laptops, and social media platforms. That's the best place to get your brand out. You no longer have to walk door-to-door to advertise your business. An online presence can reach far more than flyers can. But you have to put in the work. So, where do you begin? You've got 10 followers and no idea what to post. Simply start with an introduction. Tell your story. Share your passion through the screen. If you need help drumming up some ideas, let me know! I'm off to the kitchen this morning to work lunch rush....I'm so excited! It's been a hot minute since I've sweated or screamed in the walk-in. Haha. Have a great day!

In the realm of food, having your food considered as "authentic" immediately creates a silent expectation from your patrons. With the food market being so saturated with numerous restaurants offering the same sort of food, it's important to stand out. As a patron, if I know the local Vietnamese restaurants all offer the same o' bowl of pho, I'm not as inclined to try them out. But, if a restaurant offers a bowl of pho with exotic cuts of meat, weird garnishes that work, or anything that makes them stand out, I'd totally try them out. Oftentimes, we are pressured to carry on tradition or what the general public deems acceptable. It corners us into a cage that lacks creativity. For example, we all know a traditional banh mi offers pate (cooked liver paste), an assortment of cold cut meats or protein of choice, cucumbers, pickled daikon and carrots, jalapeños, and cilantro. I went against tradition and don't offer pate or pickled daikon (I despise the smell and taste of daikon lol). I incorporated my own twist which is pickled red onions. So, when people order from us, others who follow us or are familiar will immediately recognize our brand. Traditional? An essence of it. Authentic? Nope. Just authentically us. Don't sacrifice what you think will work best for your business because of other people's criticism. If you know it tastes good, and if it sells (your true proof that it works), then that's all it matters. Same approach is applied to any services you provide. Stay on top of modern technology. Streamline convenient options for your clients, provide better service with the advanced tools we have in today's society. But at the end of the day, make it valuable, unique, helpful, and authentically YOU.

Not quite. Good customer reviews boost our business. Bad customer reviews are detrimental and it takes a longer time to recover from it. I'd like to believe that MOST entrepreneurs strive to uphold high standards, integrity, and honesty when running their business. So when we get a bad review about the services that were provide or the product itself, we take it a bit personally. But that shows we care. However; there is a fine line when it is necessary to defend your stance. At my restaurant, if the customer is not fully satisfied with their meal and made a direct complaint, my team will fix it. If it is about the service we provide, I will fix it. But I never just take the customer's word for it. For example, a customer posted on a well known public forum recently about how one of my employees called her brother in law an "entitled f**k" after he complained about his sandwich being overcooked. She drug my business into the mud and stomped on it. And lit it on fire. I screenshotted her post and sent it to my entire team, asking for clarification....expecting a confession. But they held on to their word that they did not say anything at all nor did they treat anyone poorly. I told them I would watch footage so the truth would come out very soon. So, I replied back to speak with this customer directly so I could investigate. Her response to me became cloudy (not recalling full details anymore versus the detailed public insult) after I told her I have hidden cameras and audio. I was able to retrieve her ticket as well as her brother in law's.... I spent my evening in bed watching camera footage like a detective. Needless to say and relieving to find out, there was absolutely no proof of ANY customer complaints that night, and especially no return of this gentleman coming back to the counter to complain. I reached back out to the irate customer and explained my findings. She said she doesn't remember full details anymore and would speak to her brother in law. Until then, she agreed to take her comment down on the public forum.

Let's talk about who we choose to do business with on one of the most important categories: OUR FOOD SUPPLY I have worked with Sysco, US foods, Charlie's produce, and Shamrock. I am listing the nationally known distributors because we are all in different locations in the US but I know you'll recognize these big dawgs. Big? Absolutely. The Goliaths of the restaurant supply industry. Impressive? Not at all. What I've noticed is that these guys supply sooooo many eateries that they end up tasting the same. I could go to a random pub, order onion rings and jalapeño poppers and can immediately tell it's from Sysco. One of the most important things to consider if you ever do business with these companies is to make sure you price compare. Their prices vary and oftentimes, I spend alot of time price comparing different local stores. to get a better deal without sacrificing quality. If the quality was superb, then this wouldn't even be a topic of discussion. But this is the sole reason why I ended my relationship with most of them. I've had countless emails, text messages, and phone calls to sales reps about the chicken smelling like death, the veggies being rotten, and boxes being poorly handled and delivered (stacked on each other in violation of health code) - example: veggies on top of a case of raw chicken. So, I've been teaming up with local bakeries and mill, farmers, and butchers because I know what their quality is like. Of course, that is not to say that I never shop at Costco, Walmart, etc in a pinch. Life happens and when you run out of essentials like cilantro, you gotta do what you have to. But I still try to get organic. Why does this matter? The customer doesn't know .... BUT I KNOW. For me, it is always going to be people over profit. Of course I have a business and staff to pay, but at the end of the day, I want to go to bed knowing I uphold integrity and honesty. So in summary, a few key factors when choosing a food supplier: 1. Check the quality of their food. Ask for samples. 2. Price compare across at least three other vendors 3. Check if there's a contract term or minimum purchase obligation. Sometimes we can't drop a minimum of $800 per order or don't need to. 4. Build a work relationship with your sales rep. See how they interact with you. If all they want to do is sell, sell, sell and not come in to visit or try to understand what I actually sell, I walk away. 5. Check your farmers markets and establish a relationship with them. They oftentimes give you wholesale pricing.