| By :
Mark Etinger
It feels as though summer is slipping away, like sand through spread fingers. If you own a beachside restaurant or other summer business, it is important that you maximize your profits during the last few weeks of the summer season and start planning ways to improve your business for the following season. End-of-summer specials are an obvious way to lure in customers, but you may be creative in the deals you offer. For example, last summer a bar/seafood restaurant in my town offered its entire drink and food menu for the price they were in 1973. This strategy drew in different demographics of people, from college students interested drinking and eating a lot for very little money, to older generations who were interested in inexpensively indulging and nostalgic for summers past. Offering live music a few times a week also tends to draw in the tourist and beachgoer crowd. If you create the right ambience and assert your business as a local haunt, it will attract out-of-towners as well as residents since the former will feel like they are being included in on a secret only the latter would know. I have seen this strategy yield positive results. The previously mentioned restaurant and bar is a local haunt, with attractive, comfortable restaurant furniture and a homey vibe. A few years ago, investors in a then new amusement park bought the property next door and converted it into another seafood restaurant. The sleek commercial furniture and austere, sophisticated atmosphere are attractive but less inviting. It caters only to tourists and does not offer live music or other forms of entertainment. Since the owners have no interest appealing to local clientele, they end up actually losing business. Educated patrons head to the more low-key establishment, where they enjoy cheap, good beverages and meals, while listening to bands from the area. Visitors meandering along the boardwalk can hear the music and see the customers perched on all available bar chairs or dancing to a song. This combination frequently entices them to investigate the scene for themselves. Providing outside dining options is another great way to attract customers; they get to people watch and enjoy a scrumptious meal. If your eatery offers outdoor restaurant furniture seating options, make sure you keep the tables, chairs, and sun umbrellas clean (maintaining a vigilant stance against bird droppings may be tedious) and the citronella candles burning (no one enjoys mosquitos). Always wrap up and safely store outside restaurant furniture at the end of the season to protect it for the next year. As you pack, take an inventory of what items need to be replaced, etc. so you shop around for the best deals and get a head start on ordering replacement supplies. As a seaside restaurant owner, you depend on the business you generate during the warm months. Use the good weather to your advantage to draw in both new and returning customers.
|
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.nextlevelarticles.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
