From: Gary S. Gevisser
Sent: Monday, April 26, 2004 10:58 PM
To: Brian Taylor
Cc: crest; Danna Taylor

 

Bryan – The bottom line is for the Ccrest Café to take folks on “light journeys” while bringing smiles to peoples’ faces by “making light” of what is often times pitiful situations, Marie thinking of coming up with table clothes that have some of our expressions visible to those not necessarily motivated to do their own renderings, the need to lighten “dark situations” bringing smiles, to face up so very important, from the moment they enter until the next time they feel the hunger pains, never though to be “II faced” [sic]

 

Or

 

To “turn the other cheek.”

 

Once u have been thrown just once off your game plan, “turning a blind eye” rather than confronting an issue you will find yourself constantly battling demons, the worst of the demons from within.

 

You should be only fearful of not fulfilling your destiny something only you and you alone are capable of figuring out, balancing work and play essential, the game of life constantly being played “back and forth”, the past and the future continuously meeting up in the present, again Marie’s rendering of the infinity sign within the circle quite meaningful, less said the better, unless there is the need to spell things out in “black and white”, a picture perfect situation is one where you and your partner can express yourselves as one.

 

There is a need to focus in the next month nailing down the marketing by June 1st since once the doors are open for business there will be no time to spare.

 

This is your business at least through the summer and then we will examine things going forward.

 

Remember for every pound of sales once you have covered your nut making sure that nothing is bolting out the back door, i.e. no stealing and shrinkage kept to a minimum, whatever the “gross profit” all ends up in your pocket enough to make anyone smile, not to forget that rent, the amount you pay Marie and I, is 10% of the gross; in other words if your gross profit is 75%, 65 pence [75 pence less our 10 pence] goes directly in to your pocket-s, any additional labor will naturally cause your 65 pence to wither away, word of mouth only counting once you have managed to get strangers in through the doors, making friends quite easy when focused on “adding value”, words important, action speaks loudest, paying ever so careful attention to that which is said as well as not said, the purpose of this missive is to make certain nothing gets lost in the translation.

 

That takes care of the money side of things and rest is personal growth.

 

Marie and I only wish you well in this amazing opportunity, both of us keep forgetting you are only 21, Marie now saying, “I wish I was in Bryan’s shoes when I was 21.”

 

At the present time there is just you and your sister Danna responsible for the operation and Danna knows that you will not take advantage of her, the need though for partners to like-care as well as “love” one another, such “trust and respect” along with the “take care” only coming about during the difficult times and why Marie and I refuse to make you our co-dependant, we have Pypeetoe and that is enough.

 

Again, as soon as the restaurant opens proper it will be impossible to address the marketing and sales other than in a “reactionary” way that could have you going around in circles chasing your tails, action-reaction, therefore need for very careful planning.

 

Ideally the marketing and sales should have been fully underway by now.

 

So as to not repeat ourselves lets have everything written – it goes both ways.

 

This way the once a week phone conversation will be productive.

 

  1. Hyperlinked is the Ccrest logo. U need to have business cards printed and the outside sign redone, remembering your menus act as flyers carefully handed out. You will need a professional to look at the fonts and see what works. The first C in Ccrest needs to be bigger font size, bold lettering. Choose from the four different color variations which ones you prefer, the sun is yellow, everything outlined in dark blue and a lighter blue as the main color. Marie feels that the “A” would work for a business card and “B” for the sign outside or “B” for a card depending on the cost. For business cards the address will have be under the name or to the right in a smaller font. Please let us see a final rendering before going to print and if you have questions don’t hesitate to call or email this is top priority.
  2. Look into the alcohol licensing and then to offer wine tasting along with say a barbeque as a special evening meal, not forgetting that possibly having one organic item on the menu may become the trend setter.
  3. Bed and breakfast permit, something I will help you look into.
  4. Local advertising, working with local marketing people who derive benefit by visiting often with you bringing their customers for special treatment.
  5. Other Bed And breakfasts willing to co-promote not just in Minehead but as far away as London and beyond.
  6. Go to Dunster Castle and introduce yourself to Joni who has the pottery store.
  7. Use email to selectively target new customers-clients not forgetting to invite the locals including our attorney Mr. McLusky to taste the wares.
  8. Make yourself known at the train station both in Minehead and every stop along the way, all roads, remember, lead to Rome.
  9. Don’t be afraid to offer free deserts.
  10. Each week list what has been done providing us with succinct progress reports.

 

Again as soon as the restaurant opens and u r in full swing it will be all but impossible to do proactive marketing whereas if you nail down the basics right at the start fine tuning the plan will become second nature much like mother nature not exactly leaving it up to human nature, providing sign posts along the way to get it right from the start, my book Manager Minute One all about getting mankind so hostile to his environment no surprise he is so unkind to his-her fellow man, under control from minute one instead of going around in circles, the “back and forth” maintaining a “2 way street” controlling the urge to have it “all ways”, always giving folks a whole lot more than they bargained for and they will in turn bring you endless rewards, that which goes around comes around.

 

Time to sleep.

 

Gary