“Success is not built on success. It’s built on failure. It’s built on frustration. Sometimes its built on catastrophe.”
"ideas? easy. remembering them? harder. doing them? still harder. more than once? grueling. and world-changing."
Jon Swanson, via Twitter
The sun peeks over Rice Hill shining into the bank of windows in my home office in Waterford, Maine (pop. 1450). My cats wander by and birds flit past the windows on their way to the bounty in the birdfeeders. The only sound is the tap-tap-tap of my keyboard as I write an article or a blog post. Later on today I’ll teach a class, work on a new product, and consult with a client by phone. Tomorrow may find me two hours away in Augusta, our state capitol, working on cash flow and startup issues with a client. 
In winter, I see wild turkeys at my birdfeeders, consuming mass quantities of seeds and corn. They leave wandering tracks through the snow and startle easily when they see a face in the window. Deer, moose, coyotes and bears share the encircling forest. Living in the woods means that sometimes a grown woman can throw herself down in the snow to make snow angels without any human neighbors to see. And if they did see, well, I’ve decided they can chalk it up to the following explanation, “She writes.” That provides a great cover for a multitude of oddities. And here in Maine, we value our characters, those who don’t quite fit the mold. Those who wander a bit from the beaten path. And those who are “a little tetched in the head.”
At the very top:
I live in Clarendon, Arkansas, population 1,700 or so (yes, seventeen hundred, lol). It's in eastern rural Arkansas, commonly referred to as the Delta. The vast majority of people here are farmers and 'old school' where the fast food from McDonalds, Subway, etc just doesn't appeal to them and they aren't willing to drive 40 miles roundtrip to get any fast food. So, they're used to the home cooking such as grilled burgers, plate lunches, mashed potatoes, etc. Consuming healthy food is like asking them to sacrifice their first born.
Anyway, we have two very small sit down restaurants here that seat about 25-30 each. Both offering the small town food that is cooked on the grill like burgers, fried fish from the local river, chef salads, chicken fried steak, etc. There is also a small Tastee Freeze as many people have known them over the years. You just go up to the window and order, wait five minutes and you have it. There are no places to sit down or anything of the sort. It's named The Lions Den (after the local high school mascot) and been in existence since 1968. My grandfather originally built it and my father ran it for a few years before selling it. So that's where my interest in seeing it succeed comes from.
December 1st, it was bought by a couple my age (early 30's) and, just this week, they completely replaced the entire kitchen - a FIRST since it was built. Yes, it was waaay past time to do so. With the local rumor of a Subway coming to town, I want to get them to change some things and enhance their offerings so they don't panic and make some wrong decisions when Subway does open. The problem is, I'm just not sure which direction to go in and I'm just not sure how locals will be willing to change. So with that said, here are a few of my ideas that I'd like you to look over and see if any of them might work, in your opinion.
1) The Lions Den has been successful for 40 years now. Why change anything at all? Well, with all small towns in the Delta, population is dwindling and the economy is really affecting everyone. So what changes can be made?
2) Offer some healthy offerings. Since all sodas have a huge profit margin, perhaps offer various fruit Smoothies? The local teenagers and semi-heath conscience young adults would like this, I feel. Anything fruity seems to always sell.
3) Local advertising is a waste of money, in my opinion. Everyone knows of The Lions Den and it's in a prime location so any advertising would be pointless. The Chamber of Commerce is nothing but a political circle so those membership fees are pointless, as well.
4) There are no posted specials whatsoever. Like Sonic, perhaps offer a Brown Bag Special. Two cheeseburger, two fries and two sodas for 'x' bucks. There is a large wall next to one of the ordering windows where a large piece of plexiglass can be installed with a large menu of sorts behind it advertising just the specials. They can offer variations where they an offer 1 burger/fries and 1 chicken basket or something of the sort. Having 'numbered' specials works at every other fast food place in the world, so why wouldn't it work here?
5) Happy Hour. Back to Sonic, I know. They offer Happy Hour every day from 3pm-5pm where drinks are half off. Your cost of a drink from the soda fountain is about 8-10 cents so you're still making a huge profit even at half price.
6) Offering local flavor I'm not sure is possible other than continuing to offer the greasy burgers they've done for years, lol. This area is known for it's fish from the White River and the two cafes have that covered.
7) I'd love to see them give some sort of reward system for kids who make the honor roll or something of the sort. Maybe, if they bring their report card there, they get one free meal?
8) Gift cards. I think a great advertisement of "Don't let your child/grandchild go hungry this summer," would be fairly effective since the area kids are always roaming the streets during the summer. They'll head over to Grandmas for a free sandwich or something. By buying them a gift card, this is a gift that will last and not be thrown out in 30 days like the latest CD/DVD. The drawback to this is, without an electronic scanning system like McDonalds has, how do you regulate this? Do you have a special stamp or the owners signature to make them legit each time a kid redeems it? I'm just not sure how to go about doing this.
I think there are two main areas to look at here:
1) Can you get small-town, simple-minded, people to change the way they look at food and actually make healthy choices?
2) If so, what are some low-cost, high-profit items that can be offered on the menu?
Thanks for any help you can provide,
Benjamin M Martin
I drink a lot of coffee. So when we saw the sign that said, "World's best coffee" at the Coldwater, Michigan exit from I-69, I decided that we had to stop later in the day. Nancy and I were going to her folks to return a computer that I had been working on. It's a 75-minute drive from our house. On the way home, I knew I would need coffee, it being the day after New Year's.
Many new residents will be of the gentleman-farmer type. They may only have half an acre, but to them it’s a spacious ranchette. They need all the farming and country accessories that go with a rural lifestyle. You can be the one who provides them.
Success and failure is like the hero and the sidekick, they are companions. @TiaParker via Twitter
@GlobalPatriot added, "And like the sidekick, failure is there to inspire success!"
He does the work. He's nearby. He's friendly. But almost every time there is work to be done...I have to go back. Something is missed. A bill is incorrect, one direction or the other. There is a drip of fluid from not wiping off the frame after an oil change.
Back in the early 1900's, Charles Schwab was the head of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation. Consultant Ivy Lee offered to increase the productivity of Schwab's people, and he would let Schwab decide what the results were worth. Schwab agreed.Lessons:
Lee taught each executive to sit down at the end of each day, and create a list. The list must contain only the six most important things to be completed the next day. Each morning, they should start the day by working on the first item on that list, and not move on until it is completed.
After a few months of seeing results, Schwab sent a check to Lee for $25,000. That's about $500,000 in today's dollars.
Did you set some new goals this year? Maybe you picked out three words. How are you tracking your progress?
"Focus on helping each other grow our biz by providing honest and open feedback and advice."We didn't try to polish this up too much; just to set down our thoughts. Our bullet list of our purpose was:
Melyn Johnson, Oklahoma Tourism Department, said this of women travelers:What do women always remember? Whether the bathroom was clean, and whether the food was good.
