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Finding a Restaurant Equipment Supplier is Crucial For New Restaurant Owners

So many people assume control of an already existing establishment assuming that they have a grasp on the fundamental aspects of proper restaurant management, when very few actually do. Of course, food distributors are a very integral piece of the puzzle that is seldom overlooked. Most new restaurant owners then move on to equally vital matters such as evaluating the current staff, streamlining or changing the menu and advertising the change of ownership locally. What they rarely consider is that at some point, one or more pieces of restaurant kitchen equipment will probably fail. Unfortunately, events like these tend to happen on a busy night with the front of the house packed full of customers. This is just one of the reasons to find a competent, reliable restaurant equipment supply dealer.

A good restaurant equipment supplies can not only give you proper maintenance tips on your existing equipment, but also give you an idea of how much use you can expect from various kitchen essentials, such as ice machines, ovens, broilers, refrigeration units and freezers. Additionally, some restaurant supply stores offer services to help streamline your kitchen for maximum efficiency and ease during food preparation. They can give you cost estimates on replacing worn or improperly functioning equipment so that you can be prepared for doing so in the event of a failure. They can even make recommendations for cost cutting measures that will help decrease your expenditures.

Successful restaurant owners know that a wholesale restaurant supplies should be more than just someone you call when something breaks. Find an equipment dealer who can offer you more. If you aren’t able to find someone who will take an active interest in helping you succeed by providing the products, service and advice you need, look elsewhere. As with all businesses, cultivating the right relationships can make all the difference.

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Destination Wedding – Why Not?

Are you considering a destination wedding? Are you planning to ask friends and family to attend or participate in your destination wedding? Are you wondering whether it’s selfish to plan a destination wedding? If your answer to any of these questions is “yes,” read on!

If you are like most couples, your wedding is the ultimate celebration and start to your future life together. You expect it to be a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ experience. For this reason, I hope you won’t settle for anything less than your ideal – including your ideal location.

Apart from the obvious lure of gorgeous destinations and the chance to travel to a locale where neither of you has been, you may have practical reasons for planning a destination wedding. First of all, it’s a Darwinian approach to paring the guest list! It may eliminate countless headaches concerning who to invite and who not to invite. Usually, only those who are especially close to a couple will travel a long distance for their wedding. But this is true even for those couples who marry in the country where the majority of their guests reside.

Guests who can’t afford the expense of traveling to a destination wedding often find other ways to participate in the big occasion. Some throw wedding showers and many attend pre and post wedding festivities. You can take special care to make sure those who can’t attend the wedding are involved in other ways. You can also throw an ‘after wedding’ party to celebrate with those who can’t make it to the wedding.

Brides and grooms some times pay for the travel and lodging expenses of those people they especially want in attendance. This might include members of your wedding party, parents, siblings and grandparents. If your wedding is small, and destination weddings often are – these travel and lodging expenses may not be much greater than the costs you would incur by having a large wedding in your hometown.

Some couples elope. In this case, a destination wedding makes complete sense. Eloping omits lengthy, expensive and often contentious wedding planning. It insures privacy and secrecy – if that’s what you want. Under these circumstances, a destination wedding is more likely to be a destination ceremony. Maybe the secrecy of elopement and the destination itself will provide you with the feeling of private celebration you desire. In this case guests aren’t wanted! You can have an ‘after party’ later – when you’re ready to announce your marriage.

There are few occasions in life as momentous as getting married, and there are few celebrations that hold as much meaning as weddings. No couple wants to look back on their wedding day with regret. If you are like most couples, your wedding is an event that you’ve anticipated for a long time. It is an occasion invested with all your hopes and dreams for the future.

Those who care about you will hopefully put their own needs and wishes on the back burner. True friends are those who support you even when it means they have to sacrifice something to make you happy. I choose to believe that those people who show up for destination weddings are true believers. They believe in romance, in marriage and in the union of the two people whose marriage they come to celebrate.

Copyright Johanna Nauraine, 2010

REPRINT RIGHTS Statement: This article is free for republishing by visitors provided the Author Bio and Copyright is retained and the author’s website link remains active.

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How a Sales Culture Affects Customer Touches

Your company interacts with your customers numerous times every day. In marketing terms, each time a customer interacts with your firm is a “touch.” There are good touches that can initiate a favorable impression of your company in your customer’s mind. And there are bad touches that create an unfavorable impression. Few touches fail to elicit some sort of reaction to your company.

Over time, these positive and negative impressions will affect how your customer perceives your company, whether they are receptive to your competitors, how willing they are to increase the depth of their relationship with you, share information, give you opportunities to develop new products jointly, or simply continue doing business with you.

In practical terms, a positive impression might come from your delivery driver bringing a smile to your customers’ receiving personnel by knowing their names and wearing a huge grin every day. A negative impression might come from someone in your accounting department undoing hard work by the sales department with an unfriendly call about an invoice, or the landscaping around your building negating the quality image you promote in your advertising and merchandising.

Remember, every touch counts, for good or bad.

Now ask yourself these questions about each of the touches you have with your customers:

• Do your customers see the same company each time they encounter you?
• Does the impression left with the customer reflect the same value system and Unique Selling Proposition on each occasion?
• Could any of these touches hurt your business?
• How can you better control each of these touches?
• Is there potential for added sales in any of these touches?

As owners and managers, you might well be concerned about controlling all these touches. The fact is you can’t closely control all these touches, all the time without becoming micro-managers and cloning yourselves to be in multiple places at once.

Instead you have to rely upon each of your employees to be responsible for their own actions at all times. I’m not talking about relying upon our employees to be honest and hard working. I’m talking about going above and beyond in everything they do, both on the job and, yes, even off the job. When a company creates a real sales culture that everyone understands and buys into, there is no need to control people in real time. They are doing their best for the company because they know it is best for them.