"Every grain of sand of the times falls on everyone's head as a mountain."
The epidemic changed from black swan to gray rhinoceros, and at the end of the year, it made a comeback, and "uncertainty" became a nightmare that haunted the diners.
This year, a total of 1 million restaurants were cancelled, and in 2020, this number is 300,000, and "sadness" has become the biggest background for the catering industry in 2021.
When the spotlight hits the head restaurant companies, the thousands of small and medium-sized catering entrepreneurs who are capillaries are rarely seen, and their situation is even more difficult: some people have lost their families, some people have no choice but to close stores and change careers, and some people are still gritting their teeth and insisting...
The epidemic is "fierce", the catering industry has fallen into a dark moment, and countless catering people are anxious and sleepless.
But today, we want to share the story of two caterers from getting into trouble to getting out of the quagmire, and see the shadow of millions of "ordinary and tough" caterers from them.
From only one table on the opening day to seven years
"Don't give up, there is a card of hope!"
"It's been more than seven years since we weighed eight, and we didn't even expect to live to this day." Du Kun, the founder of Chongba Niufu, said.
1, ignorance: site selection errors, wine aroma is also afraid of deep alleys
It is said that heroes are sad about beauty, but I didn't expect that heroes were sad about "beauty street".
There is a hottest street in Beijing's Haidian District, called Women's Street, when Du Kun first came to this street, he just caught up with the students after school, and there were so many people that they couldn't walk.
The rent is cheap, but neighbors say that no shop can open a shop here for three months.
Like most people who are new to the catering industry, Du Kun has the confidence that "newborn calves are not afraid of tigers": "What is difficult to open a restaurant, my shop is definitely no problem!" ”
On April 1, 2014, April Fool's Day, on this dramatic day, Du Kun's hot pot restaurant "Shigehachi Niufu" opened.
But reality seems to be mercilessly teasing the young man.
"Three days after opening, there was a table of guests, and after eating for less than half an hour, they ran." Because the shop is at the end of the alley, there is not even a street lamp at night, and the window is dark.
There were no customers in the store for several days, and even the employees were privately discussing the need to change jobs.
Du Kun sat on the steps in front of the door, smoking one cigarette after another: Is it true that like the neighbors said, this shop really can't open?
2. Turning point: 5 months and 17 days of flyers in a row, borrowing money to make a king meal "PUBG"
"But I'm the kind of character who breaks the casserole and asks the question, and no matter what, I want to flip another card and look at it."
Because there was no business in the store, Du Kun used the most traditional way to attract customers by handing out leaflets.
Every day from 11:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., from 4:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Du Kun would stand at the intersection of Women's Street on time and start handing out leaflets.
"Every time my lover passes by this side, she will go around the women's street intersection, because she can't see me handing out leaflets on the street."
This station is five months and seventeen days, rain or shine.
"Everyone who is willing to follow the leaflet into the store is a kind of redemption for me." This flyer ushered in a turning point for the store and reshaped my dining values. ”
The turnaround also occurred in September, when Du Kun heard other people chatting on the street and learned about a product, that is, the Overlord Meal event, which had just been launched.
"So for the first time in my life, I borrowed money to cook this overlord meal, and after the first day, the store began to fill up, and from that day on, The Heavy Eight began to really wait, and waited for more than seven years now."
Because from the first store to know the customer's hard-won, this sense of crisis caused by lack of experience and advantages prompted Du Kun to pay attention to and care for each customer from the bottom of his heart.
3, feeling: "Fortunately, I did not give up the dark and narrow path"
From only one table of customers in the three days of opening, to now opening nine stores, the store is queued, and the store is equally seated for 4 hours.
Du Kun has never given up, and he firmly believes that as long as he continues to persevere, there will be a card that will be hope after all.
"For me, giving up that dark and narrow path was like giving up the food and beverage path, and I really didn't want to give up."
I don't give up on this road because I have a love of food and drink.
We don't give up giving back to our customers because we know that the source of customers is not easy to come by.
Not giving up polishing every detail is not wanting to live up to every meal of the guests.
From opening a branch to lose millions, to a single store daily income of more than 100,000
"If you don't bow your head, you can sail all the way to the lighthouse!"
3,000 kilometers away, Ying Wei was luckier than Du Kun, and he did not experience the pain of being snubbed when he opened.
However, Ying Wei fell into the expansion spell of "good stores but three", and lost nearly one million.
No seafood
How does he reverse the expansion loss?
1, expansion: blindly open a store after a night of explosion, falling into the "good store but three" curse
In 2014, Ying Wei from Hubei province opened a seafood brand in Sanya.
When it was opened, CCTV criticized Sanya seafood slaughter by name, and he felt that if he did a seafood brand in Sanya that did not slaughter customers, it would definitely succeed.
Therefore, he directly named the name of the store "BuZaike", and the harmonic pronunciation "BuzaiKe". And bought more than a dozen scales in the store, let customers weigh at will, and also put bottles of mineral water that can be used as a reference for two pounds.
His "no slaughter" really made the restaurant business explode overnight, and many customers would rather wait for an hour to eat at their home.
When the business was on fire, he wanted to open two more stores, so Ying Wei began to "expand": "This business is too good to do, I can open it in the first market, then I can also open it in Yalong Bay and Haitang Bay." ”
The market will teach those who despise it.
After opening a branch, because there is not much energy to care about those details, the store that makes money itself has begun not to make money, and the two stores have almost lost seven or eight hundred thousand.
2. Reflection: The gold cup and silver cup are not as good as the people's reputation, and the customers are deeply cultivated to practice internal skills
"During that time, I basically lost sleep every day, was in a hurry, and thought about how to reverse this decline every day."
After experiencing the losses of the two stores, Ying Wei reflected on one point: their ability has not yet reached the level of chain expansion.
Learning is the first step to breaking the situation, "At that time, we made a move, that is, how to open a second store, a third store, and how to do a good job in the products, services and operations of each store." ”
In order to achieve a unified high standard of operation, in order to let guests have a better experience, Ying Wei took collecting customer feedback as an important method.
At that time, the guests were on a Meituan group activity, and while giving profits to customers, they also got customer feedback more directly through the platform and made adjustments in time.
Nowadays, BuXiake has opened 7 stores in Sanya, and basically each store can achieve the top three in the region.
3, the feeling: "Only with the head held high, can you run faster, run farther"
From the loss of one million in branch operations to the turnover of a single store exceeding 100,000, the stores are among the top three in the region.
Ying Wei never bowed his head when he was confused in business, and he firmly believed that if a brand wants to be long-term, it must have a stage and long-term goal, and only when doing things can there be a sense of direction.
"Every entrepreneur is like a ship sailing in the sea, sailing in the direction of his own lighthouse. Only by raising your head can you run faster and run farther. ”
I don't bow my head because I believe in the best business philosophy of "not slaughtering customers".
I don't bow my head because I don't want to rely on low prices to attract customers.
I don't bow my head because I want to go further.
Dare to say "no" to the dilemma!
Settle down, caterers, don't get off the table, even if you win!
In the face of difficulties, Du Kun, who "does not give up", and Ying Wei, who "does not bow his head", are just the epitome of thousands of catering entrepreneurs.
Catering entrepreneurship itself is a life of nine deaths, full of thorns, and almost everyone is upgraded all the way to fight monsters.
Looking back on the past, from opening without customers, to expanding stall losses, or chefs being dug up and jumping jobs, transformation failures, etc., these difficulties may also be encountered, and these moments are almost the "darkest moments" in your entrepreneurial career.
At every juncture, you feel that you can't hold on, but every time you grit your teeth and survive.
At present, the epidemic is only the biggest pit encountered in the process of catering entrepreneurship, and countless "invincible" catering people are sticking to it:
Five times the epidemic counterattacked, the Harbin catering couple in the face of the empty restaurant hugged their headaches and cried, touching countless catering people, but they still said after wiping away their tears: do not close the store, continue to stay in the store, insist on opening, there is a single to do a single;
Zhengzhou "2021 the most miserable hot pot restaurant", 2 days after opening encountered floods, and because of the epidemic shut down 2 times, the boss talked about several degrees of choking, but still said: the operation is not easy, but I am still full of confidence in the future, and when the epidemic is over, we will reinvigorate and do a good job! ......
When the epidemic changes from the new normal, no industry can stand alone.
And the only way out of the predicament is to dare to say "no", do not yield, do not compromise, do not speak defeat, do not admit defeat, do not shrink back!
Only by daring to say "no" will we change, to find new ways out, to tap new opportunities, and only then will there be opportunities to turn against the wind!
The end of darkness is dawn, and only in the face of adversity can the viability of restaurant companies be strengthened or reconstructed, carving out new courses and maps.
Believe it or not, diving into the long river of catering history, you can clearly see that every major node of the transformation, has created new trends and trends.
During the SARS period, the innovative launch of takeaway Haidilao, "one person, one pot" of sipping and feeding to take advantage of the momentum; after the "Eight Articles of the Nation" high-end catering declined rapidly, a number of mass catering became the mainstream; the rise of the "Internet +" concept, the catering industry came to a number of cross-border robbers, people were panicked, but catalyzed the "Internetization" of the catering industry...
At present, the same is true, under the epidemic forced the emergence of new models, new channels, new opportunities, the rise of live broadcasting, the fire of prefabricated dishes, and the three-habitat composite model of "dine-in + takeaway + retail" has become a new increase in catering...
Perhaps, a new business legend in the restaurant industry is being conceived.
brief summary:
The road to catering entrepreneurship is full of hardships, and entrepreneurs have experienced countless struggles and choices.
In the face of these darkest moments, every time you do not give up, do not compromise, do not admit defeat, it is worth being recorded, witnessed, and worthy of being helped to go further.
At this moment, the epidemic is accelerating the reshuffle of the catering industry, the catering people who dare to say "no" are being reborn, and the story of turning the tables against the wind is also happening to every ordinary but persistent catering person.
The roulette wheel of the cycle does not stop, and only those who cross the cycle can get tickets for the new age of navigation.
Therefore, the catering people must be stable, and if they do not get off the table, they will win! As long as you are still alive, there is still a chance to turn the tables!
The pass is sad, the pass is passed. Come on, caterers!