"Do you want excruciatingly bad service with that, sir?"

Hi Jim,

Thanks for that great story.... Very educational ! Unless they "shape up" that restaurant won't last too long.... It reminded me of a couple of interesting examples.

The first example it reminded me of is a post we linked to in The Entrepreneur's Hotsheet....

The post was about an accountant and a food broker, who got together to run a restaurant. They did all the calculations, and on paper, the restaurant ran great! But when they did it for real.... They were losing money hand over fist.

The problem? It was customer service! That never showed up in their figures! So they ended up driving their customers away.... Here's the full post....

The second example it reminded me of is a great cafe I used to go to regularly about 10 years ago, called the Green Lantern cafe. Their drawcard was that one night every week, they had an open-mike folk music night....

It was a coffee-shop (non-alcoholic), and the talent was a mixture - some were atrocious, but others were incredibly good. Essentially, it was a great, inexpensive night out - interesting entertainment, and interesting people too....

However, the cafe changed ownership. The new owner was one of the patrons, and he wanted to "improve" it.... The cafe before had a "closed" feel about it (curtains covered the windows) - like it was a "secret" gathering only we knew about, away from the outside world. The new owner "opened" it up, with large windows facing the street.

Also, before, the furniture was rough-hewn, yet charming.... He replaced that with all brand new, sleek looking tables and chairs. It cost him a lot of money to make these changes.... And he started losing money. Big time. The whole "feel" of the place had changed - it was not the same. People stopped coming. In the end, the guy had to close it - he was losing money every week.

It was sad, because the guy was TRYING to "improve" the place, but he ended up destroying it.

Anyhow, what I wanted to get at was that, I've discovered in business, it helps to know a bit of everything.... I've managed to pick up some sales skills, some marketing skills, some accounting knowhow, some customer service skills, and a whole heap of other things.... You really need it all! (Unless you can afford to hire it - or joint-venture with someone who has the skills which you're missing.)

I believe, what these people were missing were some of those essential skills they needed, and as a result, they made some very expensive mistakes....

- Dien Rice