Awesome enhancement of a Don Alm idea?
 

I love the posts Don makes and they should serve as reference material for anyone in business.

Now, here is variation of Don Daily Specials Board I was considering...

To begin, you place a Daily Specials Board into a good restaurant that is need of more buisness (don't they all?)

Go out and sell the advertising with a twist...

Have the advertisers place the same or a variation (for cost reasons) of the Daily Specials board in their own business (assuming they were not in the food business of course). Every body eats, so the market appeal of lunch or dinner is board based.

Then, have the advertiser and their business hand out a special coupon good for a 2 for 1 appetizer or Free Desert at the restaurant. For each redemption, the restaurant would then credit back a certain amount (say $1) back to the referring business (the advertiser themselves). Generally, this would be done on the honor system, so make sure you trust the restaurant.

This would be a win/win/win opportunity - the restaurant would generate more business, the advertiser can earn back of the advertising bucks they spent, and you as the operator of the triangular joint venture would have a solid business venture that could be syndicated into other markets.

I would love to hear feedback, both positive and negative on this idea.

Paul

Re: Awesome enhancement of a Don Alm idea?
 

That sounds too complicated, for me. I like to "set it and forget it!"

However....some yrs ago I did start a "Daily Special FAX" biz!

I was at a Chamber of Comm luncheon and the speaker asked for a show of hands of everyone who was using "Faxes" in their biz.

This was when Faxing was coming into play around 1995.

Almost EVERY hand went up....including those of 2 restaurant owners sitting at my table. I got one of my "HOT Flashes" and thought;
"Hey! Why not send a "Daily Fax", to the biz owners who have fax machines, where restaurants show their Specials for that day!

I turned to the 2 restauranteurs at my table and asked; "Hey! Why don't YOU guys send faxes to these biz people....showing your Daily Specials?"

They BOTH agreed that would bring them MORE Lunch Biz and.....they said; "Hey Don! Why don't YOU set this up! We'll be your first clients!"

So...I went home to my "Man-Cave"......found a Fax program that could send Faxes and made up some Samples.....went to the 2 restaurants....told them I'd send their "Daily Specials" to 50 local biz offices for $10 a day (20cents a fax)......$50 a week......13 weeks in advance ($650)

They bought and I was able to get 2 more restaurants for a total of $200/wk

I then proceeded to phone office managers to get their AGREEMENT TO LET ME SEND THEM MY "DAILY FAX" at NO charge!

Notice....I PHONED to get Approval to send my faxes. "Da Gummit" came up with a Law about "Scam Faxes" and.....everytime I've mentioned my "Fax" biz in Forums like this.....someone says; "Dere's a Law Against sending Faxes!"

Yup....but NOT against sending Faxes WITH PERMISSION!

So.....I went about setting this up in 7 more areas. In fact, there's STILL 2 people I taught how to do this, STILL operating a "Fax" program.

And.....even though we're now in the "Digital-Age".....I could start up a "Daily Fax" biz TODAY (11-18-14)......and profit from it!"

I also sent faxes from biz other than restaurants.

Don Alm

Re: Awesome enhancement of a Don Alm idea?
 

Hi Paul,

Interesting idea... Thanks for sharing it...!

My first question would be - what do you get out of it? Would you make more money from it somehow? Is it a way to try to make the advertising sales easier? From what I can tell, you don't make more profit per advertiser (at least if you do, I don't see it specified...)

My primary worry would be this part...

"Generally, this would be done on the honor system, so make sure you trust the restaurant."

That means there is extra work for the restaurant... They have to track the coupons, and set up a payment system to pay all the people who make referrals, and do it on a regular basis.

Now, some might do this. However, based on the restaurant owner I know quite well, many restaurants are already flat out and extremely busy. They often work from early in the morning, till late at night.

I once knew a guy who ran a food court restaurant inside a shopping mall. He complained to me that he never got to see the sun (especially in the winter), since he started before sunrise, and ended after dark, 7 days a week - and all those hours, he was stuck in the shopping mall! (He no longer runs that place... I don't know what he's doing now, as I've lost touch...)

Anyway, this requires the restaurant to do more work. That could be a "red flag" in the eyes of many restaurant managers and owners, who are probably already working long, tiring hours... I'm guessing that they don't really want more work to do.

In the way Don Alm structures his deals, there is virtually zero extra work for the restaurant. They just get the benefits! I think that's quite important if you want the restaurants on board with the idea...

However, it's great to try to think up improvements. Everything can be improved. :)

Of course, the best idea is to go out and try it. You never really know until you test, and all my comments could be wrong. :)

Best wishes,

Dien

Re: Awesome enhancement of a Don Alm idea?
 

Hi Dien,

In having the ability to earn back their advertising investment, it would make closing the sale a lot easier. It serves as a great incentive for the advertising client to become pro-active in promoting the restaurant as the more business they generate for the restaurant, the less their net advertising costs would be. To me, this makes it a true win/win/win relationship.

Some people may worry that the restaurant and advertiser may attempt to work out their own deal behind your back eventually. As Don and many others would say - that is doubtful. Restaurant owners rarely focus on any out-of-box marketing ideas - they are too busy struggling with their day to day operations.

Re: Awesome enhancement of a Don Alm idea?
 

I remember reading about your Fax Bux idea in an issue of Income Opportunities back in 1994 I believe it was.

Loved the idea then and I still like the concept. With everyone having moved to more high tech methods of delivering their message, classic and old school methods are much less saturated in many markets (which is why direct mail, lumpy mail, and permission based offline contact can still be very viable). The old school methods can give you an opportunity to stand out from the crowd.

With the success of Groupon and their like, there is no reason why a local fax based concept of their method can not be viable in this day and age.

I think I may have find my next opportunity...