Hey, Kyle here.
Every 2 weeks I share the best of what I’ve learned growing small local businesses and restaurants.
In today’s edition, I’m going to cover:
⚙️ A new training model any local business can adopt
🎯 2022 goals, habits, and themes
❤️ A few of my favourite recent discoveries
(Not interested? Feel free to unsubscribe here).
⚙️ A new training model
Lately I’ve been geeking out on business models.
I thought we’d struck gold when I realized we had built our bartending course once… And could sell it again and again.
But our set up of IRL (In Real Life) classes—held at someone else’s bar—was missing two vital ingredients:
- Scale 👉🏼 With only 11 seats available every 6 weeks in Victoria, BC, we were extremely limited in how many people we could impact.
- Magnitude 👉🏼 While the impact on some was ‘life changing,’ for most, it was a fun experience.
So with limited scale and magnitude, we may have had a model, but it wasn’t going to get very far.
(Sure we could go online and/or license the training… But something about the ‘model’ still wasn’t quite right)
As 2022 approached, I decided to put some work in and figure out a model that would make sense.
The criteria I was after:
- Simple
- Easy-to-Understand
- Solves BIG Problems (magnitude)
- Impacts an entire industry or dies trying (scale)
After a call with friend and mentor Peter LeSar (author, Restaurant Strong), I hurriedly sketched out this model for a 3-tiered training model:
Each tier has the following goal:
- High-Performance Bartender —> Maximize EXPERIENCE
- Revenue Engine + Business Builder —> Maximize REVENUE
- Bar Service Provider —> Maximize PROFIT
And do so by enrolling and upskilling the team bars already have.
No outside vendors, no consultants, no agencies.
Here are some of the problems solved:
- Bar staff are hungry for new skills and development, but have no path — this results in high-turnover and low employee satisfaction
- Bar owners feel alone in the building of the business and expanding revenue — this results in revenue left on the table and low employee engagement
- With so many hats to wear, bar owners haven’t streamlined bottom-line processes such as inventory control + management, sales training, and menu development.
We’ve built and clarified more of this model, and I’d love your feedback. If you’d like to see the expanded version of the model, hit “Reply” with ‘model’ in the subject line.
🎯 2022 Goals, Habits, and Themes
I love seeing other people’s goals and how they structure them, so I’m sharing mine with you:
Most are self-explanatory… But if you had told me a year ago that I’d be developing the habit of ‘prayer and affirmations,’ I would not have believed you.
❤️ My Favourite Discoveries
⚙️ Notion – Commonly described as “Google Docs on steroids,” Notion is a productivity nerd’s dream. I’ve started migrating small projects over (e.g. my journal), but the tool is robust enough to run your entire life and business on… It’s very cool.
🎧 2 Podcasts about belief – Most people adopt beliefs from primary caretakers at a young age (0-7 years old)… And those beliefs run the show their entire life. I’ve been going deep down the rabbit hole of reprogramming my beliefs. Joe Dispenza describes the practice: “Can I teach my body emotionally what my future is going to feel like before it’s made manifest?” Highly recommend The Biology of Belief and We literally have to become somebody else.
📒 Show Your Work – A book about creativity and getting out of your own way. I recently wrote about my favourite concept: The Enthusiastic Amateur.
📘 Predictable Revenue – One of my favourite things to do is learn how big companies (e.g. Salesforce) were built and apply those lessons to small local businesses. Aaron Ross shares his journey from sales being a slow, painful process to a well-oiled machine.
📗 No B.S. Grassroots Marketing: The Ultimate No Holds Barred Take No Prisoner Guide to Growing Sales and Profits of Local Small Businesses – The title sums it up pretty well. Dan Kennedy is the Godfather of local marketing, so when I spotted this book in Russell Bookstore, I snagged it right away.
If you enjoyed this, please consider sharing with a friend (they can subscribe here).
Cheers,
Kyle Guilfoyle
