Janet Nash’s Post

I never paid for my own drink until COVID started. I ran my own catering business for over 11 years & at every event, the host would always ensure that I was well-fed & received whatever drinks I wanted throughout the entire event. It wasn’t until the pandemic started when I bought a couple drinks & was shocked to see that the drinks alone were over half my grocery bill. At the same time, I realized my current job was extremely unfulfilling & I no longer wanted to work in that particular industry. Instead, I wanted to turn my catering & food blog into a full time business. One weekend, I listed everything I needed to do before quitting my job & gave myself 2 years to achieve these goals. To accomplish them, I needed to somehow find extra time in my schedule. I created a second list of my daily habits, categorizing each as: 1. Benefiting me, 2. Keeping me stagnant, or 3. Indirectly hurting me. I quickly saw that drinking was not benefiting me or actively hurting me, but instead was keeping me “in the same place” & was eating away at precious time I could otherwise spend accomplishing my goals. So I quit drinking that day. Less than 8 months later, I had saved up enough money to quit my job & run my business full time! Are there any unconscious habits that are preventing you from achieving your goals? _______________ Hi, I’m Medha! I’m a former chef now becoming an entertainment attorney. This is day 22/100 of the 100 post challenge I (willingly) imposed on myself. I was inspired after seeing Danielle Alvarez start this challenge. I enjoy writing & decided to share more here instead of continuously writing in my journal. Because why not?

I was stood up in the weirdest way!!! I was asked many times to go to a business lunch with 2 guys from a company. I finally scheduled, I’m super busy and can’t really waste my time with small things. The day comes and I go to meet at the restaurant. The “other” guy is running late. The guy at the restaurant goes into a sales conversation. 30 mins go by with light pitch chat, no food or drink. We would need to get up and order to get food. It was an order at the counter restaurant. I assumed he wanted to wait for the other guy. I didn’t want to be rude. Other guy comes. I’m hungry now. He introduces himself and rolls straight into a pitch. Their product integrates with the restaurant we were at! I thought they would show me how it worked and my craving for food would be fulfilled since it did integrate AND we met there for lunch. More pitch, and now it’s getting closer to my next meeting so I decide to not bring up food and leave to go eat without being sold. 1.5 hours later my next meeting shows up at this restaurant because it went 30 min over (and we didn’t eat!) Then to top it all off, “other guy” says “I have to go” and the “guy” I met with runs after him and LEFT! He didn’t say goodbye. He didn’t eat. He didn’t do much except sell his product to me. Think about the time of the people you meet with. It has a cost. Exchange value and don’t waste each others time. And FYI,  if you invite a person to lunch  OR  the person at lunch is helping you  in your life or business for free,  you should pay for lunch. ❤ My next meeting witnessed what happened and took me to lunch with him because he felt bad!!! (He didn’t have to do that but it was cool) This is the difference between a desperate seller and a successful person with big picture vision. And fyi the second guy and I are doing projects together… How do you help your clients in meetings?

The Case of the Vanishing Coffee Mug The Mystery Begins Monday morning. Walk into the office, and boom—my favorite coffee mug is gone. Vanished. Sounds minor, right? But that little mystery was about to teach me a HUGE lesson in business. Ready for the ride? You’re gonna want to stick around for this... Ever had a small problem turn into something much bigger? . . . . . . #MysteryMonday #OfficeMystery #CoffeeMugGone #BusinessLessons #SmallProblemsBigLessons #MondayMotivation #MysteryInTheOffice #BusinessGrowth #UnexpectedLessons #WorkplaceStories

It's all in the Math! Ever wonder how some restaurants make it and some don't regardless of how popular they are? Knowing the right way to organize your costs is the way to success!! Want more details? Schedule a complimentary meeting at Navigator-Consultants.com

The tricky part to concepts like Prime Cost and other industry benchmarks is: what works for you may or may not work for your particular circumstance. In order to know what the best prime cost for your business is, you need to know the relationship of YOUR bottom line to YOUR prime cost. For example; everyone has a different lease, rent, property payment, etc.. and therefore a different baseline presents itself. Navigator Consulting can help you uncover your unique benchmarks.

I built and ran a food business with my wife for over a decade, so I know how much work it is. I’ve watched people do it well; I’ve watched people do it poorly. I’ve seen people be wildly successful, and I’ve seen people lose everything (some more than once). An important lesson I’ve learnt is that: It takes the same amount of effort and time to figure out how to add $500/month in revenue (by building a new feature, calling some potential customers, writing a blog post, or following up with former customers) as does to cut a $50/month expense. Sure, it is harder to focus on increasing revenue than it is to focus on minimizing expenses. It’s often less comfortable, and it usually requires us to do things that are not in our list of strengths. But the results are definitely worth the pains. #restaurantindustry #recipecostcalculator

As a bar owner, ever wonder if every shot poured is making its way to your bottom line? 🤔 The uncertainty can keep you up at night. That's where we come in! Barmetrix – where transparency meets profitability. Watch these guys enjoy shots, but what if you could be sure they're being rung up correctly, every time? With our innovative bar solutions, we empower you to take control and eliminate the guesswork. 💸 No more sleepless nights, just peace of mind knowing every ounce poured contributes to your profits. Elevate your bar management game. Say goodbye to the unknown and hello to a more profitable future! 💰 Ready to boost profits and eliminate uncertainties? Let's chat! #WasteControl #BarProfits #TransparencyMatters #BottomLineSuccess #CheersToCertainty 🥂

From the corners to corporate. Check out this article from The Hustle. https://lnkd.in/dpNS35zN

Did I mistakenly land my biggest annual contract by doing this simple thing? Somewhere in the last quarter of last year, I finished learning baking and wanted to find a creative way of letting my clients know that I bake now so they can order only cakes from me as well as gift packages So I got this brilliant idea to send my loyal customers samples of the cakes I've made(Those were actually full size cakes). I sent them all a text saying that I could deliver it to them or they could request for it to be delivered to someone else as a gift. One client in specific texted me back and was really surprised-she said it was so out of the blue and she never expected such an act. Simply, she was pleasantly surprised. Little did I know that in November, her company would need someone to make hampers for 5 of their branches, I'm talking over a 100 hampers. I was also pleasantly surprised because they have worked with others in previous years but she put her foot down to make sure I got the contract. The point of all this is to tell you to stop thinking that you are the star of the business and focus more on your customers. Always think of ways to involve them in your business, people like to feel they are a part of something. Only God knows the opportunities you've missed because you don't pay enough attention to your customers. Do you have a similar story? Has a client opened a door for you before? Share on the comments #businessgrowthcoachforentrepreneurs #businesscoach #businessowners #clientretention #customerservice #smallbusinessowners

I was chatting with a founder a few days back and we came to an interesting topic about providing excellent service. This also relates somewhat to my previous post. His question, is if it is worth it anymore to maintain their level of excellence when a rival seems like they are breezing through the market with an arguable lower standard. Well, first things first, it is wrong to assume. However, just to make the conversation interesting, the situation is exactly as he says, then perhaps the answer is plenty obvious, he is not focusing on the proper problems. Let's look at it this way, stall A serves moderate chicken rice with amazing drinks and stall B serves the best chicken rice ever with barely drinkable beverages, where will you go to for chicken rice? What is your priority as a consumer looking for lunch/dinner/a meal? Looking at it objectively, most will go to stall B. I am sure many other factors will come into play, like the politeness of the stall owner or the pricing, but again, let's keep it simple. By providing 1 must have and 99 nice to haves, you will still lose to someone providing 5 must haves and 5 nice to haves. That's why it is always important to review/monitor your products and how the market is moving. Unless you hit the critical points of a problem, you are not helping the customer and definitely not convincing them to pay you money. In my previous post, if the market culture is to reduce the time and effort for requirements gathering and go straight to a proposal, then maybe I should change my approach too. Either that or I die sticking to my obsolete principles. The market does not appreciate what I am doing, as easy as that. Maybe there will be a fortunate encounter somewhere down the road but it may not be a gamble I can afford. The market is encouraging the current state of business, they are paying for something else and I need to focus on that something else. I can try moving to a different market but that takes more time and effort than just removing a step from my modus operandi. You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. What exactly is a villain nowadays?