I have couple of friends who own restaurants in Metro Detroit. Almost all of them have seen their business go down in the recent years. Sit down with them over a glass of wine and after 30 minutes you are guaranteed to hear tales of disgust with the economy, the auto industry even Obama.
On the surface, it seems obvious. Restaurants in metro Detroit are hurting because people are spending less on going out.
I don't think that tells the whole story. I think their business is down because chain restaurants (Applebee's, Olive Garden's of the world) are simply very much better at putting their restaurant in front of hungry customers. I keep seeing chain restaurants open new locations. Pick up a copy of Entrepreneur magazine and glance through the franchise section. They are growing.
So easy to blame the economy, much harder to admit that you are being beaten in your game by a better player. All of my friends don't do anything to put their restaurants in front of hungry people who are looking to go out tonight with their families, friends or dates.
The most important words in the above paragraph: hungry and looking.
No website. No online advertising. Unless you are driving and end up glancing at their front sign, you will never know that they exist. A common sentence heard all the time from people walking in: "Hey I live only 5 minutes away from here and never knew that your restaurant was here till today."
O.K. I understand that a mom and pop place cannot compete with Olive Garden but they can spend $10 per day on online marketing. It cost a lot more than $10 to start a restaurant.
Heck even $1 invested to put your real estate investing business in front of people who might become your private investors (hungry) or somebody you will end up selling (looking) a home to whether wholesale or retail is better than zero.
A medium size cup of coffee at Starbucks is $1.87. Two donuts at Dunkin cost $1.50. But for a $1 per day, you can put your real estate investing business in front of 5,000 people every day. Think of it as renting a billboard which is being shown ONLY to a perfect group of people. The only difference being is that this billboard is in your computer instead on I-75 or I-696.
Just starting out and even $1 per looks tough? Look in your basement and your garage. You have stuff lying around there that you have not used for years. Sell them on eBay and Craig's List. I bet you will get more than $30.
The first time I ran an ad in Detroit News for $120 for a Sunday Classified looking for deal partners + private investors, I was pretty nervous, but I kept my mouth shut and did it anyway. I would put them on my credit card, every week, week after week, and pay them off with every wholesale deal that was going down. I never looked at it as 'spending money' but rather investing in my business. Two words but with a very different outcome.
Even in a slow month like December where everybody is thinking shopping or at the beginning of summer where everybody in Michigan is outside instead of in front of their computers, I never stopped 'investing' in my business.
I knew in my bone marrow that being 'invisible' was not the way a business can survive let alone grow. Microsoft, McDonalds, Burger King, Art Van, Best Buy, Ford... we all know what they make and sell yet they all spend billions 'reminding' us that they are here, what they make and sell and YES, THEY ARE OPEN FOR BUSINESS.
Flip on the OPEN SIGN in your business. You have no idea how many people are looking for you right now in your Michigan City. Be found. Invest the $1 and your business checking account will write you a very big check with your name on it very soon in return.
