The Ultimate Guide to Catering Investment

Abstract: She analyzed: "I was really short of money at the time and wanted a factory to expand production. Because the big boss gave small vendors opportunities, this It was not easy in itself, but I thought that I was just a hawker with no registered brand and no patented technology. Once I started a joint venture and handed over the formula and sales channels to others, wouldn’t it be difficult to protect my rights and interests? Of course, whenever I encountered resistance in starting my business, I would think about how much less hardship I would suffer if I left the business to the Japanese! But when my business finally became successful! , I realized that this was one of the best choices I made. More importantly, I found confidence and understood that I can do big business independently as a hawker. ”

Keywords. : Traditional business; stuffing making

A friend who had never dealt with food suddenly had the idea to send 10 tons of beef from a famous brand of a certain country to a provincial capital city in the northwest. The population of this provincial capital city is 1 million. This friend thought that with 1 million people and less than 1 tael per capita for 10 tons of beef, the sales should be no problem. However, a year later, less than 1 ton was sold, and finally he had to sell it. The remaining beef is shipped back to Xi'an.

A business friend opened a restaurant on the third floor of a well-known brand's home furnishing plaza. When designing the private rooms, he calculated the calculation like this: There are more than 1,000 merchants in the plaza. Even if there are only 1/20 of the 30 private rooms every day, Merchants also have to queue up to treat customers. After the ambitious opening with great fanfare, less than 1/3 of the private rooms are occupied every day.

In the decision-making process of catering business, it is correct to first target target customers, that is, to clarify market positioning. The question is how true the perception of the target market is. In the catering industry, the process of setting goals has become inevitable for many operators. But how to determine goals is more guided by feeling. Once the target group is misjudged, the subsequent business links will not be able to lead to the final benefit target. It can be said that the skin is gone and the hair will not be attached. The aforementioned case used an imaginary customer base as the starting point for decision-making, and carried out business activities on the premise that our store is the only choice for customers. It is obvious that there is a lack of deep understanding and rational grasp of the market and customers. In today's increasingly prosperous catering industry, the details of the catering market The restaurant has provided diners with a variety of choices. The old single-family Zhuoran restaurant is only the beautiful vision in the minds of the operators. In addition, the entry threshold for catering is low and it is highly replicable. The amount of similar catering is increasing. Therefore, the volume Prosperity and qualitative embarrassment are the basic conditions of today's catering industry. Therefore, passively adhering to the idea that customers must come, obviously ignores the current situation of the catering market.

In addition, from the customer's point of view, factors such as taste fatigue, feeling fatigue, etc. make it impossible to be satisfied with a certain restaurant. Maintaining absolute loyalty, "changing when you see strange smells" has become the pursuit of many diners. The so-called good wine is not afraid of deep alleys, which means that after years of cultivation and brand promotion, customers' dining goals can be satisfied. Instead of quantifying customers based on expectations from the beginning, as in the above case.

Based on this, the selection of target customers should be based on the grasp of relative goals, rather than vague and conceptual drawings. Of course, identifying target customers is only the first step in catering operations. How to retain customers and encourage customer loyalty is a task that should be deepened with great efforts.

For small and medium-sized investors, there is probably no industry more attractive than the catering industry. First, the investment can be large or small, and it can be operated independently, or jointly or franchised; secondly, the investment cycle is short and the results are quick. Once the business is on the road, the entire development process from a single store to a chain can be completed in just a few years. , to achieve rapid appreciation of funds; the third is that the threshold is not high, and you can advance and retreat freely. Therefore, catering has become the best choice for many entrepreneurs to start their first business.

However, any industry is a science. As the saying goes, "every industry is like a mountain." The catering industry is not as simple as imagined. After many "laymen" flock to the catering industry, they may be able to quickly capture consumers with unique dishes and creativity, but then it will be difficult to continue to expand their influence and follow the principle of large-scale development. Not only lamented that the catering industry is too deep.

1. The Current Situation of the Catering Industry

It is difficult to start a business, and even harder to keep a business, and it is even more difficult to make a business bigger and stronger. Entrepreneurs can rely on unique product advantages to fight their way through the cracks in the market. However, often within a few years of establishing a foothold, they are overwhelmed by imitation, competition, and counterfeiting, or they fall into the wrong investment, It is no longer possible to escape from the blindly expanding sludge.

Traditional business: make big money in the same way

Baozi, noodles, steamed buns, dumplings, these traditional foods that people take for granted are often considered to be low-profit items with little profit margin, and few people Be willing to get involved and do big things. Through investigation, we found that some people have identified this field and used modern means to make traditional business develop rapidly.

Liu Huiping: Earn 1 yuan per minute by steaming steamed buns

In 1998, Liu Huiping, a young man from rural Anhui Province, heard from his sister who was doing business in Shanghai that business in Shanghai was easy, so he borrowed 4,000 yuan to prepare Open a steamed bun shop in Shanghai. Before this, Liu Huiping had opened steamed bun shops in Guiyang, Nanning and other cities based on the skills of making steamed buns he learned in his hometown, so he had some experience. He rented a small storefront of 10 square meters on Zunyi Road in Changning District and opened a steamed bun shop. However, the store was forced to close after only half a month of operation because the products did not meet local tastes. With the help of his sister, Liu Huiping reopened a shop on Fujian North Road. This time, he learned the lesson from last time and asked a good friend to hire a Yangzhou chef in a famous pancake shop. I have been doing it in Shanghai for many years and my craftsmanship is very good. The chef was familiar with the tastes of Shanghainese and could make many kinds of dishes. It didn't take long for Liu Huiping's shop to become popular.

By 2000, more and more such fried buns and steamed bun shops were opened. For health reasons, fewer and fewer Shanghainese people ate fried food, and they were already familiar with the Shanghainese diet. Liu Huiping, who is used to it and has accumulated more than 100,000 yuan in capital, has a new plan.

In search of new tastes, Liu Huiping tried all kinds of Shanghai specialty snacks in the Chenghuang Temple. Although there is a steamed bun shop within three to five steps of Hankou Road, Liu Huiping analyzed their shortcomings in operation and production. Although small stalls are cheap, their hygiene is very poor; while large companies, for the sake of efficiency, use machines to mix the stuffing, which does not taste crisp enough.

Taking advantage of the respective shortcomings of large companies and small stalls, Liu Huiping opened two steamed bun shops in prosperous areas of Huangpu District, named Master Liu Dabao. Due to its particularly good taste, his shop was recognized by Shanghainese who pay attention to taste. For a time, business was unexpectedly booming, and Shanghainese who claimed to be picky and fastidious in taste queued up to buy Liu Huiping's steamed buns and steamed buns.

Liu Huiping’s secret to making steamed buns lies in the filling process. He found that because pigs in the countryside eat natural feed, their pork tastes particularly pure. Therefore, the pork he uses for stuffing is specially purchased from his hometown in Anhui and shipped to Shanghai. Not only that, he also uses manual chopping when making vegetable fillings. Although these methods greatly increase the cost, they are his uniqueness. Hand-cut greens have a very good texture and are very crispy, while machine-cut greens have a more "mushy" texture and are not refreshing.

Liu Huiping only sold the buns made at such a huge cost for 7 cents each. Even so, in just one year, Liu Huiping earned 600,000 yuan. Although the profit of a single product is very low, the net profit of a steamed bun is only 10 cents, but his steamed buns can be made in a cage of 25, and he can make two cages in 5 minutes, that is, 50, and the net profit is 5 yuan. In other words In other words, his net profit per minute is 1 yuan. After this calculation, who can say that there is no profit in making traditional food?

Chen Shirong: Selling soup dumplings, making 500,000 yuan in sales in 7 days

Like Liu Huiping, Chen Shirong, who is also interested in traditional business, specializes in crab roe soup dumplings. Crab roe soup dumplings have a history of more than 200 years in Jingjiang, Jiangsu Province. Chen Shirong has only been making soup dumplings for 6 years, but he has become one of the leading figures in the Jingjiang soup dumplings industry. Lao Chen's steamed buns come in a basket of 6, with a maximum price of 50 yuan per basket, and there is an endless stream of people coming to eat from morning to night.

A steamed bun costs eight or nine yuan. In our opinion, it is a bit too expensive, but in the local area, no one thinks it is expensive at all. The reason is that this is no ordinary steamed bun. Crab roe soup dumplings are one of the six famous dumplings in the country. Different from other dumplings, they have thin skin and juicy soup filling. Other steamed buns are solid and can be eaten as soon as you get them. For this kind of steamed buns, you need to drink up the soup before eating the skin.

Chen Shirong’s steamed buns sell better than Liu Huiping’s steamed buns. Here, five or six hundred cages a day is definitely not enough to sell. One year during the National Day, which lasted seven days, more than 1,000 cages were purchased every day at 50 yuan per cage. The sales during the seven days amounted to more than 500,000 yuan. Why does he sell such a small bun so well?

Before 1998, crab roe soup dumplings sold for 80-150 yuan a basket in Jingjiang, which was beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Chen Shirong became a monk halfway. He found that a cage of crab roe soup dumplings cost only 25-30 yuan at most, and the general price in the market was more than 100 yuan, so the profit was too great. So after his first basket of steamed buns came out, he put up a sign and marked the price of 50 yuan per basket. The crab roe soup buns were so much cheaper at once, which immediately attracted the attention of the locals. As soon as the restaurant opened, it attracted a lot of attention. A good start.

But then many colleagues ostracized him in various ways. Some said his raw materials were not good, some directly threatened him, and some maliciously framed him. After all the confusion, there were fewer and fewer customers. So Chen Shirong took the initiative to find the Price Bureau and asked the government to lower the price. He showed his cost information to the price department, which proved that the profit margins were indeed large. With the intervention of the Price Bureau, colleagues had nothing to say, and the price of soup dumplings in the city dropped accordingly. This incident caused a lot of publicity in the local area, and it happened to become a living advertisement for Chen Shirong. From then on, his crab roe soup dumplings became even more popular.

Modern consumption drives traditional business

For traditional catering products, the maintenance of taste is as important as innovation. Many people say that today's steamed buns are not as delicious as before, largely because the pork is not fresh enough. Modern urbanites are pursuing healthy and hygienic consumption standards, so Liu Huiping caters to people's requirements and does not hesitate to increase costs, using fresh "local pig" meat as fillings and artificially processed vegetables. Are dishes cut by hand necessarily more delicious than those cut by machines? It doesn't matter how many people can taste the difference between the two. The key is that people who are bored by mechanized assembly line products are eager to get the feeling of following tradition and pursuing original and fresh taste. Regardless of whether these are gimmicks or not, Liu Huiping succeeded after all. What people get is the message conveyed: this product is of high quality and good "quality". This is especially important for the catering industry that operates "imported" products.

Another key factor in Liu Huiping's success is that business must be done in a local style, especially the "import" business, which must conform to local tastes and improve on the "original taste" to find a suitable Only products with local tastes can open up the market. Here is a negative example. A year ago, Mr. Wang rented a store with an area of ??about 300 square meters in Nanjing at an annual rent of 100,000 yuan and opened a specialty restaurant. Business was really good when the hotel first opened, but it soon fell into a downturn. As several restaurants opened in this area, Mr. Wang's business also came to an end.

2. Targeted Adaptation Exploration

According to the analysis of "Scientific Investment" magazine by industry insiders, Nanjing people are more face-conscious. If they are socializing or discussing business, they will definitely go to big hotels. To set off one's own identity. But in normal times, these people usually go to the food stalls in alleys to eat, because they want to save a little and save as much as possible from the last extravagance. Mr. Wang's restaurant has naturally lost popularity due to its positioning of being neither high nor low.

Taste is very important in traditional food business, but taste alone is not enough. It is also necessary to break the traditional thinking and pursue advanced business concepts. For example, Chen Shirong’s price impact on the crab roe soup dumpling industry. Ordinarily, Chen Shirong, a layman, was likely to fail in investing in this industry, but he seized the opportunity to enter. Although it is difficult to achieve fame in one fell swoop by taking advantage of the price advantage, investors should seriously think about the timing of entering a certain product.

Business method: choice is a difficult problem

Once a catering business becomes famous, its profit-making effect will be amazing. But once the reputation and enterprise are established, what should we do next? Should we continue to maintain the healthy operation of the enterprise and develop cautiously, or open branches and take the road of scale, or invest in building factories and enter the field of product production, or conduct Attract investment and implement chain franchise system? Where to go? This is a question that leaves many investors confused.

However, "Scientific Investment" magazine believes that people should get some useful inspiration from the corporate development history of Zhu Tiancai and Yan Qi.

Conservatism is to blame for the defeat in Maicheng

From 1989 to 1993, Zhu Tiancai’s spicy chicken business experienced explosive growth. Zhu Tiancai built a three-story restaurant with an area of ??more than 1,000 square meters - "Lin Zhong Le" opposite the original small shop of just over 100 square meters. At the same time, he called his third son Zhu Junfeng, who was working as a corporate planner in an advertising company, back to the store to help.

Zhu Tiancai’s spicy chicken has become famous far and wide, attracting many restaurants to imitate.

Many restaurants with Chongqing Spicy Chicken as their signature dish have appeared around Linzhongle, forming the famous "Spicy Chicken Street". The rise of this new dish has even led to an overall increase in the price of local chicken in Chongqing. Live chickens that originally cost 6 yuan per catty suddenly increased to 11 yuan. The weight of native chickens has also increased from about 1 kilogram each to 4-5 kilograms, and the cost price has increased beyond the price of finished spicy chicken dishes.

How can we ensure profits without scaring away consumers? On the one hand, Zhu Junfeng began to establish a long-term distributor, and on the other hand, he changed the original price of 18 yuan/cat to 18 yuan/catty. The problem was solved easily because of people's ability to save money and save money.

In order to cope with the increasingly huge business, Zhu Tiancai brought in more relatives and friends to work together. But his son Zhu Junfeng soon discovered the hidden dangers. When business is booming, there will be at least one or two tables of customers placing orders every day. It's not that they didn't want to pay, it was just that when I asked the waiter to pay, they couldn't find anyone at all, so they simply walked away in anger.

The family-run management style was full of loopholes, so Zhu Junfeng, who had many years of corporate work experience, decided to transform Lin Zhongle into a standardized company from the inside out. At this time, there were more and more conflicts between father and son. The differences between the two are mainly reflected in economic expenses. The elderly Zhu Tiancai is relatively conservative and believes that it will cost a lot of money for his son to do your design, and if you have such a good business, it is simply a waste of money to do it. Zhu Tiancai proposed to stay in a large restaurant, but his son thought that the surrounding environment was too bad, and the decoration structure of the restaurant was not suitable for accommodation. There was no ventilation inside, and it was impossible to modify the room type.

Father and son each hold their own opinions. In desperation, Zhu Junfeng chose to leave the restaurant. Subsequently, the fierce competition in the catering industry taught the conservative Zhu Tiancai a lesson. He found that no matter how good a restaurant is, it cannot survive for a long time with just one good dish. In 1997, various specialty food streets were established in Chongqing. With the overall street environment, lighting facilities, publicity, and menu updates, Spicy Chicken Street including Lin Zhongle is in trouble.

Zhu Tiancai thought about it and finally attributed the restaurant's poor business to its remote location. After three years of hard work, he opened a branch in Wuhan without consulting anyone in his family. However, catering in Wuhan has moved towards large-scale. The area of ??a single store is often 3,000 square meters or 5,000 square meters. Zhu Tiancai’s store of several hundred square meters seems too small. He didn’t even put up a sign for the store, and the area is small for small group consumption. If you can't receive them, it will appear that you are not good enough and you are not good enough.

In just 5 months, the Wuhan branch lost more than 200,000 yuan. Looking at the business that had no color at all, Zhu Tiancai was in trouble. The withdrawal of the branch means that the initial investment of more than 500,000 yuan will be wasted; if it is not withdrawn, the restaurant will be unable to continue. A series of blows have made the nearly 70-year-old man feel more tired than ever before.

Finally, Zhu Tiancai decided to give the hotel to his son. Zhu Junfeng, who was ordered to do so at the critical moment, the first thing he did when he came back was to close the branch in Wuhan. Returning to Lin Zhongle, he worked hard to practice his internal skills and hired professional managers with high salaries to provide advice.

Learn the lesson: Internal strength helps to succeed

Of course, Zhu Tiancai is not the only one who suffered setbacks when opening a branch. Yan Qi, who sells snails, has also suffered losses in this regard. In 1997, Yan Qi’s spicy snails became almost a household name in Chongqing. She began to no longer be satisfied with running a small store and hoped for greater development. So, she opened franchise stores around Chongqing. However, several franchise stores closed down one after another after being prosperous for a period of time. When Yan Qi analyzed the reason, she found that the key was that she did not have a complete management system for franchising at that time. She just sent her chefs to franchise stores, but the chefs didn’t understand management, and neither did the franchisees. Moreover, franchisees and Yan Qi have different ideas of making the company bigger. They only think about making money and using this brand to create maximum profits in the shortest possible time. The existence of these differences will inevitably lead to the failure of the franchise.

The failure of the franchise store prompted Yan Qi to adjust his ideas for expansion and development: doing less franchising and choosing more joint ventures and direct operations. In 2000, she opened a directly-operated boutique store in Chongqing. Because of the reputation of the old store, many people lined up to eat as soon as it opened.

In order to solve the personnel problem required for large-scale development, Yan Qi opened a catering training school near the old store. Provide business training, rules and regulations, and corporate history education to chefs, waiters, and management personnel, and improve employees' sense of discipline through arduous military training.

With too many direct-operated stores opening, will the taste of spicy snails become less authentic? Ingredients have become another obstacle to Yan Qi's expansion. In 2000, Yan Qi set up an ingredient base in Chongqing. At this time, the apple snails cultivated by farmers in Chongqing were far from meeting the needs of restaurants. She also set up apple snail breeding bases in Guizhou's Hongfeng Lake and Beihai, which are more suitable for the growth of apple snails.

From 2001 to 2002, Yan Qi opened four more boutiques in downtown Chongqing. At this time, in addition to the spicy apple snails as the main dish, special dishes such as taro chicken and skewered rabbit were also introduced. In 2002, Yan Qi took Chongqing as its base and Chongqing boutiques as a model, and rapidly expanded to all provinces and cities across the country and achieved success.

Blind expansion is a recipe for disaster

Find the flagship product in the store and create a reason for customers to come. This is true. However, the catering industry faces a group of consumers who like the new and dislike the old. In order to cater to consumers' pursuit of new tastes, many catering companies have risen and fallen quickly. Some of them are due to complacency, but a large part of them have failed due to blind expansion.

In 2004, one of the most well-known catering companies in Wuhan, Hubei Province settled in Zhongguancun, Beijing. The decoration was large-scale and high-grade, but the business has been very sluggish. Many people who work in catering don’t understand what’s going on. Because there is no one in Wuhan who doesn’t know Prince Kang Long, why can’t he do it in Beijing? After Hujin, another well-known company, saw this situation, it immediately withdrew its capital and returned to Wuhan. Similarly, in 2003, Yanyangtian, another well-known catering company in Hubei, packed up and left within three months of arriving in Beijing. It seems that it is very dangerous to blindly expand without conducting in-depth investigation of the market and relying too much on regional advantages.

"Scientific Investment" magazine believes that in order to smoothly expand the catering business, it is necessary to plan properly and think carefully, just like marching to fight, how to choose sites, how to garrison troops, how to command, "plan before taking action" "In order to have a reasonable layout, balanced development and successful expansion. The main points to pay attention to are the following:

1. Carefully lay out and select the target market. For catering companies, the study of "local atmosphere", that is, the investigation of local eating habits and tastes, is a top priority. How to adapt to local tastes and introduce improved dishes is very meaningful for retaining target customers. Yan Qi set up his own ingredient base and apple snail breeding base, which first prevented possible "taste change" in the dishes and also showed respect for the target market customers. Zhu Tiancai's blind entry into the Wuhan market is a counter-evidence.

There are many examples of chain companies making mistakes in choosing their target markets. For example, Quanjude Roast Duck, the number one brand in China's catering industry, has gone south several times, but it has always been "difficult" to leave. Shenzhen, Shantou, Chengdu, Hangzhou and Nanjing have suffered "five consecutive defeats". Although there are various reasons, It has nothing to do with its blind development of strategic planning. Due to the failure to conduct good market research on the target market and ignoring local consumer groups and consumption habits, failure is understandable.

2. People-oriented and cultivate talents. Allocate talents according to market characteristics and job characteristics. Only people who suit their personality characteristics can be accepted by them, and the catering chain can avoid the symptoms of "acclimatization".

3. Adjust measures to local conditions, rather than overdo it. When a catering chain enterprise expands, it must not blindly develop places that do not meet the company's brand positioning, target market positioning, and site selection requirements for small temporary profits, nor should it "eat without food" in pursuit of "scale effects." The huge scale of McDonald's chain stores with 30,000 stores does not guarantee that it will be "unfavorable". General catering companies should be more cautious.

Marketing: a profound knowledge

As the saying goes, "Sail against the current, if you don't advance, you will retreat." When a catering company completes rapid growth and establishes its own "land", it will enter a "strategic expansion period" to further expand the company's influence, increase its visibility, and promote its brand. At this time, choosing which marketing method can maximize the expansion of the enterprise depends on the marketing talent of the operator. The principle of "the winner is the king and the loser is the bandit" is also applicable when evaluating the marketing methods of the catering industry. In other words, as long as it can achieve the best effect, it is a good method.

Zhang Huhai: Borrowing the east wind

From the end of 1999 to the beginning of 2000, Zhang Huhai, who ran a vegetarian business, felt that the time had come for him to become bigger and stronger.

After completing his initial accumulation by operating the vegetarian restaurant "Miaoxiangzhai", he discovered that Chongqing Sichuan cuisine was at an extremely weak stage at that time. Hot pot accounted for most of Chongqing's catering, while Cantonese cuisine, Hunan cuisine and other cuisines were not yet established. At this time, the competition between Sichuan cuisine in Chengdu has reached a fierce level. In terms of scale, taste, cultural content, etc., there is a big gap between Sichuan cuisine and Chongqing. Therefore, Zhang Huhai chose to open his first store on Keyuan Third Street, Nanfang Garden, Chongqing High-tech Zone. Unexpectedly, the developer of the building he selected was very aggressive and only sold it but did not rent it. At this time, Zhang Huhai did not have the strength to buy the entire floor. He had an idea and persuaded a very powerful friend to buy one of the floors. When the friend hesitated, Zhang Huhai promised to "rent at least 5 Years later, the venue issue was resolved. Zhang Huhai tasted the sweetness of "borrowing" for the first time.

In terms of the name of the restaurant, Zhang Huhai's approach seems not so authentic, because the name "Cai Genxiang" was also "borrowed" from him. Zhang Huhai knew that a "Cai Gen Xiang Kimchi Restaurant" in Chengdu had a good business and was very famous, but the restaurant had not registered a trademark. Zhang Huhai boldly named his restaurant "Cai Gen Xiang Folk Restaurant". The impressive decoration style and grand opening scene made Chongqing citizens think that "Cai Gen Xiang" from Chengdu had "killed" Chongqing, and they went there one after another to feast their eyes on it. However, a subsequent business war between Chengdu and Chongqing caused the "Caigenxiang" in Zhang Huhai to be overcrowded in the battle between "authentic" and "unauthentic". The average daily sales of 43 stalls were nearly 60,000 yuan. Yuan.

The overcrowded customers had to be diverted, so Zhang Huhai opened three branches one after another in less than half a year, making each one popular and occupying the most favorable terrain in Chongqing; in the first half of 2001, " "Caigenxiang" returned to Chengdu and completed its layout in the south, west and east of Chengdu.

With such a fast store opening speed, how can you ensure funds? Zhang Huhai once again said "borrow", this time borrowing money from the supplier. Today, terms such as "entry fee" and "monthly settlement" are no longer surprising to us, but in Chongqing at that time, they were Zhang Huhai's invention. When he opened his second store, he didn't spend a penny: the 600,000 yuan spent on decoration was the supplier's entry fee, the rent was paid monthly, and the payment for the goods was paid monthly. But Zhang Huhai's doing this does not mean he is exploiting his suppliers. Because he treats his suppliers like guests and never defaults on payment. When the monthly settlement day comes, the suppliers never worry about not receiving the money; the suppliers often receive banquets from "Cai Genxiang" to communicate with each other. emotion. The result of treating suppliers as God is that their prices are lower, the quality of the goods provided is better, the services are more in place, and they are more supportive of "entry fees", "monthly settlement" and other methods.

Every time a new store opens, Zhang Huhai always has some strange, clever, and weird tricks in marketing. When the second branch was still being renovated, Zhang Huhai printed a large number of promotional materials. Anyone who passed by would be invited and would enjoy a very low discount as long as they came to support the store on the opening day. Three days after the opening, Zhang Huhai published an advertisement in the news media, "Eat for free: All customers who spent money at Cai Genxiang in the first three days will receive a full refund with the checkout receipt after the opening. Those who did not retain the ticket will be refunded as long as they can report their location." You can also get a full refund based on the number of units and consumption amount.”

Two days after the advertisement was released, there was a long line of customers coming to refund, and Zhang Huhai also refunded 180,000 yuan. After being hyped by the media, "Cai Gen Xiang" became even more popular, with an average daily turnover of 80,000 yuan and a maximum of 120,000 yuan, creating a miracle in Chongqing's catering industry.

"Re-creating the First Banquet of the Founding of the People's Republic of China" can be called Zhang Huhai's classic work. On the National Day of 2001, Zhang Huhai found the recipe from the 1949 People's Republic of China's founding celebration, copied it and made it into the "First Banquet of the Founding of the People's Republic of China". He sold it at a price of 588 yuan per table, attracting orderers like There are countless clouds and diners.

"Cai Gen Xiang" has stirred up rounds of "discount" trends, from the lowest 50% off to the lowest 35% off. When other restaurants are losing money one after another, Zhang Huhai always sticks to the price. Bottom line; when other catering companies collapsed due to price wars, Zhang Huhai had the last laugh.

Zheng He: Talking about vegetables tells you all kinds of flavors

“This is stewed crab meat and lion’s head. It was once the main course of the first banquet of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and was also Premier Zhou’s favorite dish during his lifetime. ”

“This dish is braised silver carp head, one of Yangzhou’s famous three-head banquets.

"

"Who are the three heads? ”

“The three-head banquet includes the braised lion head with crab meat and meat, which is the first of Yangzhou’s famous three-head banquet. It is already on your table, followed by a braised silver carp head and a braised rare pig head. ”

“There is something special about eating fish heads. Eat the fish lips, fish eye sockets, fish gills first, and finally eat the fish brain...”

This was an ordinary banquet. A conversation between a hotel waiter and a customer.

Talk about dishes is a promotional method invented by the boss Zheng He. He asked the waiters to explain the cooking, eating and origin of each dish on the table very fluently.

When it comes to "talking about dishes", the boss Zheng He is second to none. He not only speaks vividly and interestingly, but also can tell the allusions and legends related to each dish: " This dish is Jingou Braised Pucai, one of the four famous dishes in Huai'an. It comes from Shaohu Lake and Yuehu Lake in Huai'an. There are cattail sprouts all over the country, but only the cattail sprouts from Huai'an are the best and appear to be very valuable. There is a poem that says: There are no spring vegetables as good as those in my county. It doesn't matter the weight of the sprouts. . That is, it is sold one by one. It is said that when Liang Hongyu was fighting against gold in the Song Dynasty, when she ran out of ammunition and food, she accidentally pulled out the root of this Pu stick, boiled it in water and ate it. She found it delicious, crisp, white and delicate. Later, it gradually evolved into It was steamed with chicken soup and became one of the four famous dishes in Huaiyang. ”

After more than ten years of hard work in the business world, Zheng He’s hotel has assets of more than 40 million. When he started his business, he started a food truck business. By 1996, Zheng He had already He owns 55 food trucks and makes annual profits of more than 3 million yuan. However, in 1996, in order to control the urban environment, all open-air business venues in cities across the country had to implement "escape and enter the store." After the incident, Zheng He calculated. After a while, his loss was about 4 million yuan, which was a disaster.

Zheng He's hometown, Huai'an, is an ancient cultural city famous at home and abroad. It is Huaiyang, the leader of China's four major cuisines. The main birthplace of Huaiyang cuisine. Zheng He thought that Huaiyang cuisine was famous throughout the country and had great development prospects in big cities, so he decided to make a comeback. In order to make authentic Huaiyang cuisine, Zheng He invited people from his hometown of Huai'an and Yangzhou. A chef who specializes in Huaiyang cuisine.

However, after the Huaiyang Cuisine Hotel opened in Beijing, except for some guests who came to congratulate it on the opening day, there were very few guests visiting the hotel for several days. I spent 160,000 to 70,000 yuan for three months.

One night, there was only one guest in Zhenghe’s hotel. In the restaurant of more than 100 square meters, this guest seemed a little a little bit. Lonely. Zheng He then sat across from the guest with a glass of beer. Unexpectedly, one chat caused Zheng He's hotel to undergo a fundamental change.

Because he was not familiar with the guest and could not talk to him. In addition, Zheng He realized that he didn't know much about Huaiyang cuisine, so he told him about Huaiyang cuisine. As a result, Zheng He's introduction to Huaiyang cuisine aroused the guest's interest. I brought a group of friends to Huaiyang Village for dinner and invited Zheng He to talk about Huaiyang cuisine.

This incident gave Zheng He a lot of inspiration to "talk about dishes" to the hotel. It brought unexpected results, and the hotel's business began to turn around. In order to make Huaiyang cuisine more authentic, Zheng He conducted more careful research on the history and cooking methods of Huaiyang cuisine.

As the number of guests increased, Zheng He alone could no longer handle it. He taught all the waiters in the hotel to "talk about food" and used "talking about food" as an assessment indicator for waiters and vigorously promoted it. .

In the process of "talking about dishes", Zheng He found that some guests were interested in the origin and allusions of Huaiyang cuisine, and some guests were curious and interested in the cooking and eating of Huaiyang cuisine. Fresh. There are also some customers who come here to talk about business while eating, and they don't want to be disturbed. In response to these situations, Zheng He made further adjustments to the way of "talking about dishes". You must take advantage of every opportunity, act according to the situation, and accept the situation according to the actual situation of the guests, otherwise there will be no meaning in talking about dishes.

By talking about dishes, Zheng He’s Huaiyang Cuisine Hotel finally got rid of everything. Difficulty, now, he has opened 15 branches in Beijing, Shenyang, Huai'an and other cities, and the business is very prosperous.

Miss Zang: Take a long-term view

“Queen of Dumplings” Zang Jianhe’s “Wanchai Pier” dumplings are no longer the products of street vendors. As a big winner in the traditional food business, Zang Jianhe has deep feelings about the cooperation and expansion on the road of enterprise development. After her dumplings became famous, she realized that just having a famous name was not enough. She had to enter the stage of entrepreneurial expansion - opening a factory and selling in supermarkets. in