Menu board Fish N Chips shop.

[Giulio Taranto]

Hey all, the wife and I were having a chat about the menu in this future shop. I feel that the menu is a pretty important part of the business and was leaning towards having a lit up picture type menu like you would see in Mc Donalds ect.

I havent really looked into the costing of it all, id imagine that it will cost a lot more than your traditional menu in a fish and chips shop. What i wanted to ask is.....

1/ Do you think that a good menu board will turn into extra sales ?
2/ How important is a menu board to the business?
3/ When walking into a Fish N' Chips shop do you have a pre established idea of what your going to order ?
4/ Should i g to the extra expense of branding my packaging ? Do customers really care ?

[Webpreneur]

I can create you a menu for £5. Pm me for more details and my email address

[akula]

Hey all, the wife and I were having a chat about the menu in this future shop. I feel that the menu is a pretty important part of the business and was leaning towards having a lit up picture type menu like you would see in Mc Donalds ect.

I havent really looked into the costing of it all, id imagine that it will cost a lot more than your traditional menu in a fish and chips shop. What i wanted to ask is.....

1/ Do you think that a good menu board will turn into extra sales ?
2/ How important is a menu board to the business?
3/ When walking into a Fish N' Chips shop do you have a pre established idea of what your going to order ?
4/ Should i g to the extra expense of branding my packaging ? Do customers really care ?

no, no, no, and no

stay away from retail businesses

create a very limited line of snap frozen seafood meals and build a distribution network to sell them through the country's fish and chip shops/major retailers

be a supplier of industry; it's easier and you'll get better returns

the problem: fish and chips shops have a hard time retaining customers
the solution: you offer take home, frozen packages with the stores branding, which users can take home and come back to refill for half the price of something. call it the "variety basket". every fish'n'chip shop should have one if they want to retain customers.

do you get it? you customers should be the fish and chips shops. do jobs for them which they don't get around to doing.

get 10 customers like this and you'll be sitting on a 1million bucks in revenues

another example: design a good set of seafood recipe books to sell to fish'n'chips shops. if people read the books - they buy more fish.

customer tastes are becoming a lot more sophisticated. a piece of fried cod just won't do. people want snapper marinated in a thai chilly jam, and served on a bed of some Italian thing.

a lot of shop keepers know this, but they can't break the inertia and update their menu. you selection of freshly deliver, gourmet seafood dishes is a great way for old school fish'n'chips shops to upgrade to new consumer tastes.

the point? be a supplier of industry

or something even easier....create a line of gourmet tartare sauce and make sure every take away shop has a box of it.

you're gonna be like that company that invented the fish shaped soy sauce dispensers available in almost every sushi shop in the world. I don't know how many millions they're sitting on.

that would be a good business: a fine selection of condiments supplied to fish and chip retailers, so the retailers can focus on jobs other than making sauce.

[Giulio Taranto]

no, no, no, and no

stay away from retail businesses

create a very limited line of snap frozen seafood meals and build a distribution network to sell them through the country's fish and chip shops/major retailers
and compete with all the other snap frozen seafood meals you can but in the supermarkets today ? Gourmet and frozen dont go together.

be a supplier of industry; it's easier and you'll get better returns
yep i agree, just need to find the right way of doing it

the problem: fish and chips shops have a hard time retaining customers
some do some dont
the solution: you offer take home, frozen packages with the stores branding, which users can take home and come back to refill for half the price of something. call it the "variety basket". every fish'n'chip shop should have one if they want to retain customers.

do you get it? you customers should be the fish and chips shops. do jobs for them which they don't get around to doing.This is a good point, i need to find something they need. Im thinkingold school potato cakes, because they are time consuming and they are a must in a good F&C shop

get 10 customers like this and you'll be sitting on a 1million bucks in revenues

another example: design a good set of seafood recipe books to sell to fish'n'chips shops. if people read the books - they buy more fish.
good in theory but which fish and chips stors are going to buy these books ? most places are owned by oldies that dont like change. Maybe fresh seafood stores?

customer tastes are becoming a lot more sophisticated. a piece of fried cod just won't do. people want snapper marinated in a thai chilly jam, and served on a bed of some Italian thing.
i relise this, thats why i will be making goumet salads in my new store

a lot of shop keepers know this, but they can't break the inertia and update their menu. you selection of freshly deliver, gourmet seafood dishes is a great way for old school fish'n'chips shops to upgrade to new consumer tastes.

the point? be a supplier of industry

or something even easier....create a line of gourmet tartare sauce and make sure every take away shop has a box of it.This is an idea that has crossed my mind a while back, i kept stumbling when i came to the thought of competing with the people that are already doing this on a huge scale (companies that are already supplying me) They deliver a great product and very low prices.

you're gonna be like that company that invented the fish shaped soy sauce dispensers available in almost every sushi shop in the world. I don't know how many millions they're sitting on.

that would be a good business: a fine selection of condiments supplied to fish and chip retailers, so the retailers can focus on jobs other than making sauce.

id be a rich man if i could put this theory into reality. I guess this is part of the reason i have settled with opening the best F&C shop i can

[akula]

ok....just think about it though

the set up costs will be a lot lower

open yellow pages, call up 100 odd fish and chips shops, tell them you can supply them with a great range of signature condiments, at lower prices than it costs the shop to make it them selves

out of 100 prospects, you'll get some initial commitments, set up a small production line in your kitchen, ship the product out and you're done

it's lower risk than taking out a loan, opening a shop and hoping you get enough customers to come in, and buy in high enough volmes, consistently enough for you to cover killer fixed and variable costs.

I see what you're saying though

All entrepreneurs have their hearts set on a dream, which then they try to validate

You're here looking for new ideas, I'm telling you that you might be wrong in focusing on business-to-consumer transactions

Have a rational think through on the advantages of doing business-to-business transactions and make the correct decision based on rationality as opposed to emotion

Really, I'd love to validate what you've got your heart set on, but I can't because you're proposing to start a capital intensive business with no apparent competitive advantage.

try to think of investing your self in high upside and low downside ventures, your shareholders (your wife) will thank you for it. A local retail shop is not a high upside, low downside business. it's really expensive to set up, maintain, it's vulnerable to retailing giats, and your profit margins are almost non-existent

Try to get her to look at this post and see what she thinks

after all, it's both of you guys who are gonna be going through this journey

but hey...what do I know :-)

[Deejay]

1/ Do you think that a good menu board will turn into extra sales ?
2/ How important is a menu board to the business?
3/ When walking into a Fish N' Chips shop do you have a pre established idea of what your going to order ?
4/ Should i g to the extra expense of branding my packaging ? Do customers really care ?

1 - Yes, when I see an appealing item on the menu I just might be tempted to add it to my order.

3 - Yes, I always know exactly what im going to get when walking in. (although extra items might temp me if I spot them on the menu or I see see them and the smell/look nice)

[Nigami Enterprise]

I have to agree with what Akula is saying. It's like people who start up a clothing label and think the easiest way to get started is selling in small quantities at market stalls ect, when it would be no harder to sell in large quantities to medium to large sized retail stores. You have to create yourself a niche or it will just be like any other business.

[Giulio Taranto]

im just confused at the moment, i have had all sorts of ideas with in my industry, i just havent made them happen. Either though fear of failure, or other hurdles along the way.

[Deejay]

im just confused at the moment, i have had all sorts of ideas with in my industry, i just havent made them happen. Either though fear of failure, or other hurdles along the way.

Failure sucks, doesnt it?

Read this, it should help


If you wish to be rich, however, you must grow a carapace. A mental armour. Not so thick as to blind you to well-constructed criticism and advice, especially from those you trust. Nor so thick as to cut you off from friends and family. But thick enough to shrug off the inevitable sniggering and malicious mockery that will follow your inevitable failures. Not to mention the poorly hidden envy that will accompany your eventual success.

Consider carefully this shortlist:

# If you are unwilling to fail, sometimes publicly, and even catastrophically, you stand little chance of ever getting rich.

# If you care what the neighbours think, you will never get rich.

# If you cannot bear the thought of causing worry to your family, spouse or lover while you plough a lonely, dangerous road rather than taking the safe option of a regular job, you will never get rich.

# If you have artistic inclinations and fear that the search for wealth will coarsen such talents, you will never get rich. (Because your fear, in this instance, is well justified.)

# If you are not prepared to work longer hours than almost anyone you know, despite the jibes of colleagues and friends, you are unlikely to get rich.

# If you cannot convince yourself that you are “good enough” to be rich, you will never get rich.

# If you cannot treat your quest to get rich as a game, you will never be rich.

# If you cannot face up to your fear of failure, you will never be rich.