Let's brainstorm about the menu desk

Well, Donny's got me hypnotized by one of his ideas again. Darn him for presenting such simple marketing ideas! Darn him!

Ok, so the menu desk. All I'll say about it is that I have a nice stand alone lectern sitting in my living room as we speak. How it got there is anybody's guess. The last few days have been a daze. All I can think of is menu desks.

Here are my questions for anyone who wants to help me ponder them:

1. Every restaurant seems to have a menu with different dimensions. I want them all to generally fit in a 10 x 12 leather 3 ring binder. How in the hell am I going to manage that? Do I just stress that I will be chopping them to bits? Offer to put in a million hours of my own time typesetting them all over again?

2. Price points. I've never sold to restaurants before. My ideas in no particular order. $495 for the year. $95. $195. $30/month. $20/month. Who has dealt with restaurants before? Who hasn't but has an opinion anyway? Basically what I want to get it done asap, so I can't have some restaurant thinking it over for months. I want the sale fast. I think I can get an appointment and the owners attention easy. But what price points will float his boat? I'm leaning towards $30/month for 5-10 motels. What do you guys and gals think? If I do it per month, even with a one year contract in place, I'm figuring I'd be lucky to get paid by half for the entire year. Probably less than that. But half paying $30 a month would be enough to make it work like gangbusters for me (but don't tell the other half who don't pay that, I'll still be one tough nosed SOB when it comes time).

3. How hard of a sale do you think it will be? Seems like I'd want it if I had a restaurant, but maybe that's just what I'm hoping the owners want.

All I can offer in return is my brainpower in finding answers together when you present us with your business problems. Hope that's enough.

Success,

Erik Lukas

P.S. Anyone who isn't already should check out Mike Rodman's board. There's some sort of unofficial business idea brainstorming contest going on over there with a lot of smarts going into it. Anyone who isn't reading it is missing out.

P.P.S. Anyone interested in joining together with a few other like minded people to chip in and go to the Gary Halbert seminar in Phoenix December 13,14, and 15th? I'm guessing it will be a blast. Guru gary's ploy is that any full paying seminar ticket holder can bring up to 8 people with him for free. There was this chap Gerard on ebay trying to auction off a few tickets, find some people to pool with, but he says it was unsuccessful. By the ferocity of bidding on Gary Halbert items (oh take away my wit and wisdom of gary halbert at the last minute, will you, you bas...) there, you'd think there would have been more takers.

Hi:

> 1. Every restaurant seems to have a menu
> with different dimensions. I want them all
> to generally fit in a 10 x 12 leather 3 ring
> binder. How in the hell am I going to manage
> that? Do I just stress that I will be
> chopping them to bits? Offer to put in a
> million hours of my own time typesetting
> them all over again?

Don't chop them....take them to Kinko's or some other place that offers laser color copying. Have the oversized ones reduced by whatever to meet your dimensions....the copier reduction should hold the resolution. If need be have them plastic laminated and then insert in the binder in the proper order, or insert them in page protectors.

You will find that you will need a security measure to prohibit over zealous people from removing the whole binder or sheets from them...generally the most difficult for them to beat is the binding system the telephone companies use for phone books in the phone booths.

Cornell

> Don't chop them....take them to Kinko's or
> some other place that offers laser color
> copying. Have the oversized ones reduced by
> whatever to meet your dimensions....the
> copier reduction should hold the resolution.
> If need be have them plastic laminated and
> then insert in the binder in the proper
> order, or insert them in page protectors.

Great ideas, Cornell!

> You will find that you will need a security
> measure to prohibit over zealous people from
> removing the whole binder or sheets from
> them...generally the most difficult for them
> to beat is the binding system the telephone
> companies use for phone books in the phone
> booths.

Everyone keeps warning me of this... why is this such a problem? :) Wackos.

Thanks again, Cornell.

Success,

Erik Lukas

EriK
> Everyone keeps warning me of this... why is
> this such a problem? :) Wackos.

I would guess that you've got 2 areas here that might cause difficulties; as a coffee shop owner, I'd be unhappy :o) if my menu/details weren't on display according to my advertising contract with you - and also, if you have to replace my menu every day for several months, it stops looking like a profitable venture! So carving menu details on stone looks like a good option for me :))))) ROFL - less useful for you!

So Cornell and others are right; you need to make it difficult/impossible to remove the details from the binder.....!

Margaret




Coffee, anyone?!

Don Alm or another had a post about *MiniMenus* or *MiniCards*...Biz card size but bi or tri-folded, done with nice graphics. A graphics fee for the art work and then a fee for printing (say 1,000)of the MiniMenus. Then guests CAN take them with them. A nice wood display with 24 slots or so to place the cards.This may eliminate the need for a binder of the menus. Charge a fee for the service of YOU going to refill them monthly. Reorder fee after the original 1,000.
Not my idea, just repeating what I read elsewhere.

I found the link here it is.




marketing forum

Hi

I dropped into a local hotel yesterday and saw one of these fancy stands with the mini-cards gig.. Interestingly enough there were only 2 restaurants out of about 40 that I could see (others were hang-gliding, wildlife tours etc), and NEITHER of them gave any hint as to menu. It was just the name adress and some comment about how good their food was.Certainly wouldn't have got ME there! And one of them is a spectacularly good restaurant too. Well known to locals but not to visitors.

Another interesting thing was that many of the minicards were "dog-eared", leading me to think that people look but don't take. They were all full too, so either they had just been topped up (so why not take away the "dog-eared" ones?) or nobody's interested.

The stand was labelled "Tourist Information" and maybe in trying to cater to every interest, it actually catered to none.

Re menus on a stand vs minicards, how about a combination? Some sort of lectern for the menus as well as a card holder for the restaurant's ordinary business cards. That way they won't nick the actual menus.

Just some thoughts

Philip

> Don Alm or another had a post about
> *MiniMenus* or *MiniCards*...Biz card size
> but bi or tri-folded, done with nice
> graphics. A graphics fee for the art work
> and then a fee for printing (say 1,000)of
> the MiniMenus. Then guests CAN take them
> with them. A nice wood display with 24 slots
> or so to place the cards.This may eliminate
> the need for a binder of the menus. Charge a
> fee for the service of YOU going to refill
> them monthly. Reorder fee after the original
> 1,000.
> Not my idea, just repeating what I read
> elsewhere.

...people (like ME) CHARGE for our "information"!

You folks can keep "guessing" on "how" to create this product...how to market it....price to charge...etc

but...until ONE of you actually goes out and DOES IT....you WON'T KNOW!

In January I will have created the product AND successfully sold it...and then I "may" offer it up in my arsenal of programs for sale.

Then again, I might not.

Don Alm

> Well, Donny's got me hypnotized by one of
> his ideas again. Darn him for presenting
> such simple marketing ideas! Darn him!

> Ok, so the menu desk. All I'll say about it
> is that I have a nice stand alone lectern
> sitting in my living room as we speak. How
> it got there is anybody's guess. The last
> few days have been a daze. All I can think
> of is menu desks.

> Here are my questions for anyone who wants
> to help me ponder them:

> 1. Every restaurant seems to have a menu
> with different dimensions. I want them all
> to generally fit in a 10 x 12 leather 3 ring
> binder. How in the hell am I going to manage
> that? Do I just stress that I will be
> chopping them to bits? Offer to put in a
> million hours of my own time typesetting
> them all over again?

> 2. Price points. I've never sold to
> restaurants before. My ideas in no
> particular order. $495 for the year. $95.
> $195. $30/month. $20/month. Who has dealt
> with restaurants before? Who hasn't but has
> an opinion anyway? Basically what I want to
> get it done asap, so I can't have some
> restaurant thinking it over for months. I
> want the sale fast. I think I can get an
> appointment and the owners attention easy.
> But what price points will float his boat?
> I'm leaning towards $30/month for 5-10
> motels. What do you guys and gals think? If
> I do it per month, even with a one year
> contract in place, I'm figuring I'd be lucky
> to get paid by half for the entire year.
> Probably less than that. But half paying $30
> a month would be enough to make it work like
> gangbusters for me (but don't tell the other
> half who don't pay that, I'll still be one
> tough nosed SOB when it comes time).

> 3. How hard of a sale do you think it will
> be? Seems like I'd want it if I had a
> restaurant, but maybe that's just what I'm
> hoping the owners want.

> All I can offer in return is my brainpower
> in finding answers together when you present
> us with your business problems. Hope that's
> enough.

> Success,

> Erik Lukas

> P.S. Anyone who isn't already should check
> out Mike Rodman's board. There's some sort
> of unofficial business idea brainstorming
> contest going on over there with a lot of
> smarts going into it. Anyone who isn't
> reading it is missing out.

> P.P.S. Anyone interested in joining together
> with a few other like minded people to chip
> in and go to the Gary Halbert seminar in
> Phoenix December 13,14, and 15th? I'm
> guessing it will be a blast. Guru gary's
> ploy is that any full paying seminar ticket
> holder can bring up to 8 people with him for
> free. There was this chap Gerard on ebay
> trying to auction off a few tickets, find
> some people to pool with, but he says it was
> unsuccessful. By the ferocity of bidding on
> Gary Halbert items (oh take away my wit and
> wisdom of gary halbert at the last minute,
> will you, you bas...) there, you'd think
> there would have been more takers.

> ...people (like ME) CHARGE for our
> "information"!

And that's why people like me are willing to pay for good information. I would pay you right now for the answers I'm looking for, if I thought they would mean the difference between failure and success. If you come up with a system, tell us and I'll check it out.

> You folks can keep "guessing" on
> "how" to create this product...how
> to market it....price to charge...etc

I'd more call it educated guessing. At least by the likes of Cornell and others, maybe less educated on my part.

> but...until ONE of you actually goes out and
> DOES IT....you WON'T KNOW!

That's a good point. And that's what I'm going to do.

Success,

Erik Lukas

My idea of good information in this case would be "by approaching restaurant owners with a proposal via federal express and following up with a phone call, I was able to get 4 commitments for $30 a month for a year from 10 letters in the town of muncie, indiana. I choose these restaurants at random from the phone book." For that, I would pay.

I doubt that sort of information will be offered anytime soon, so I've decided to test a few things on my own. And I'd like to thank everyone who pitched in an idea in this thread.

Success,

Erik Lukas