Professional Appearance Outside = More Customers Inside

Years ago, a mentor of mine relayed the following story to me.

"A friend of my mine was the owner of a failing restaurant. He asked for advice, mentioning that he was down to his last $10,000. I told him; "Take your last $10,000 and first go out and buy an expensive Italian suit and then use the balance to purchase a Cadillac. Then, park that Cadillac in front of your restaurant and wear the suit to work every day.” That was all the advice given.

Months later we met again, and I asked how things were going. The response was that business was fabulous and the advice had worked wonders!"

The moral of this story is that Customers will Flock to Success, but will Avoid Failure.

Restaurant patrons will pass by a perfectly good restaurant that is not busy to stand in a long line at an obviously (at least in your eyes) inferior restaurant. Why? Because they want to be “where it’s at” or in other words, to be associated with or be a part of a successful establishment.

How does this affect you? Spend the next week observing the differences between busy establishments and ones that are obviously not busy. Is there something the busy ones are doing that you can implement at your business? Conversely, are there things about the non-busy establishments that remind you of your location? Can you change that? If you glean just one idea that you can implement at your location, it is worth your week’s effort.