Squeeze In: A growing business in ‘this economy’

Presented by Squeeze In President and co-owner: Shila Morris

Tell ‘em what your gonna tell ‘em

• Brief History• Our growth• How we’ve done it• Our secret weapon• Numbers to back it up• The best music video of your life

Squeeze In History• Breakfast and lunch 7-2pm “best omelettes on the planet”

• Opened in Truckee California 1974

• Gary and Misty Young bought in 2004

• Brought on Chad and Shila as partners in 2007

• Opened Squeeze In Reno 2008

• Food Network Throwdown with Bobby Flay 2010

• Opened South Reno Squeeze In 2011

• Opened Sparks Squeeze In 2012

The original Squeeze In

It’s literally a hallway with tables

In 6 years, during the great recession, we've expanded tremendously

2007• 1 location• 1,350 square feet • 42 seats • 12 associates• serving 50,000 guests a

year

2013• 4 locations• 9,229 square feet• 414 seats• 91 associates• serving 320,000 guests a

year

That’s a 650% increase in just 6 years!!

Social Media presence

• The Squeeze In has 8,047 “likes” on Facebook

• 1,434 followers on Twitter

• Have our own custom smartphone app, been downloaded over 3,000 times

• more than 60,000 views of our YouTube videos

• We’ve had 3,834 check in’s on foursquare

So how did we do it?

• We learned we had to GPS. Get Positioned socially!– Mass Media is dead, Micro Media is king!– We’ve got accounts at Facebook; Twitter; YouTube; Flickr;

Yelp; Google+; Instagram; Pinterest; Klout; Urbanspoon; TripAdvisor; FourSquare and many others

– We don’t just have them, we are actively engaged! No post and ghost! (yelp example, Facebook example)

• Importance of PR and old media outlets, in a new media world (2,4,8,RGJ, HARO)

But wait there’s more• We focused on and engaged in company culture

(terms, values, community involvement)• We built and use SYSTEMS! (little hinges)– Inventory, training, checklists, scheduling, recipes,

portioning etc..• We track and measure everything– Prime cost, guest frequency, menu analysis, labor targets:

Motto: Anything measured, improves. KNOW YOUR NUMBERS!

• We don’t get emotional about it– Relax, the numbers don’t lie. It’s all in the numbers baby!

• Eggs benny example, expanding to Reno example

But we also have a secret weapon…

• We have a loyalty club: the proverbial marketing ‘list’– Comprehensive program that rewards guests for

dining– Birthday and anniversary gifts– Newsletter– Access to exclusive parties and sales

Isn’t it just bacon and eggs?• Lifetime value of a guest:

• Average Sale Per Person: $12

• Number of Visits Per Year: 24

• Sales Per Happy Guest Per Year: $288

• Average Number Of People Per Table: 2.3

• Gross Sales Per Year: $662

• Gross Sales Over Life Of guest: $3310

• Number of Referrals Per Guest: 1

• Gross Sales For Total Referrals: $3310 • Total Value Of A Satisfied guest: $6620

Get me more of those happy guests!

• Two ways to generate more revenue:1. Acquire new customers2. Get existing customers to come back/spend

more

The rub? To acquire a new guest via marketing costs up to FIVE times as much as it does to get an existing customer to come back

So you have to build your list

• Get existing customers to opt in to your program

• Which will turn them into loyal raving fans• Which gives you more security• And you know who your best customers are– 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your

customers. Don’t you want to know who they are?

Word of warning about ‘the list’• The money is not in the list itself, but in THE VALUE you

provide to your list– Being relevant to your customers (Harlem Shake: 2,416

views)– Being engaged in their lives/causes/events. ($20,000 a

year back to local causes)– Being authentic and personal (hand written thank you

cards)– Not always selling, give them lots of useful free content

(advice for brides, party planning, recipes etc)

Remember: Facts tell, stories sell

Does all of this pay off?

• Smartphone app cost $2500 to create. It has been downloaded more than 3,000 times and the offer has been redeemed 2,000 times generating more than $21,000 in sales.

• In March we spent $4,732 on marketing to our list, generating $132, 291 in sales

Does it pay off?• When we opened our 3rd location we ‘crowd sourced’

$36,000 through our Kitchen Cabinet program

• When we opened our fourth location we did it again with our Founders Club generating $42,000 to help us open our restaurants

• That’s $78,000 dollars made from the trusting relationship we built with our EggHeads (Recent RGJ write up and resulting Golden Egg program)

Does it pay off?

• Having our list gave us the credibility and legitimacy to approach a local builder about helping us finance restaurants three and four.

• In the last 5 years, we’ve signed up 30,598 households, who have visited us 126,851 times resulting in $4,126,704.73 in sales.

Does it pay off?

• McDonalds is considering a loyalty club, what does that tell you?

• Yeah. It does pay off. • If you miss this boat, your business might not

survive, and if you are a marketing professional, you need to be on top of this.

Our recipe for success:

• Get serious about your numbers• Implement as many systems as possible• Monitor and dictate your company culture

and voice • GPS! Get positioned socially• Build your list (fence your herd)• Do awesome stuff and have fun

Squeeze In music video

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1vzs2mj1CY

The video

• Cost us $2,000 to make• Has received 5,736 views in three months• Got lots of attention for release (intended,

calculated)• Had 28% increase in sales for the three weeks

following the debut• So much more fun than a TV commercial!

What is owning a restaurant like?

• I like to cook, and I love to go out, I should own a restaurant! No you shouldn’t, you should become a chef.

• It’s NOT a special place that everyone loves and is always busy and naturally becomes successful (fancy pants)

• It IS a business and MUST be run as one

• P&L’s, Prime cost, vendor relations, complaints, Yelp reviews, budgets, and so much more

• Sacrifices, no days off, sometimes no paychecks, tough decisions

Yeah but look at all that money!

• 4 million a year goes through our registers– $1.5 million to payroll– $1.5 million to product– $400,000 to leases, utilities, repairs and equipment– $300,000 in taxes– $70,000 for health insurance– $20,000 in donations and charitable giving– $110,000 to four owners. Good thing we get to eat for

free!

Tell ‘em what you told ‘em

• History of the Squeeze• An under-the-hood look at what we do• All kinds of numbers to impress you• Best video ever• Scared you away from ever opening a

restaurant• A’s to your Q’s